The FTSE is defying the Brexit doom mongers

The banks would all flee. International investors would take fright. And the pound would turn into the Great British peso. We heard a lot over the last four years about how leaving the European Union would be catastrophic for the UK economy. But here is something odd. With the transitional arrangement coming to an end with the close of the old year, and with the UK now out of the Single Market and the Customs Union, and with just a loose trade arrangement with the rest of the continent that doesn’t even cover financial services, so far the FTSE is loving Brexit.

True, it is only the first week of trading, and even that is not over yet, but so far the benchmark FTSE-100 index has risen from 6,500 on Monday to 6,850 on Thursday. It is off to one of the best starts of any major market. So far this week, the index is up by 5.9