Washington must remain alert to Brexit risks

Washington

IT is tempting for Washington and for markets to dismiss the UK's exit from the European Union as a problem affecting a former imperial power with little relevance to the US and global economies. That would be a grave mistake.

Brexit is casting a dark cloud over the UK, the world's fifth-largest economy, at the same time as other major European economies face meaningful difficulties. A deepening of the Brexit crisis has the potential to spill over from the UK to the rest of Europe, and even to reach the US.