nauseus

The examples you give apply to non EU third countries doing whatever deals they could with the EU. The UK was a member throughout the negotiations and was certainly treated differently.

Being in a dominant position does not have to mean "better negotiators" but in this case the UK started so badly and carried on in similar fashion, so I would agree. It was up to the government of the day to define what Brexit meant and how to deal with it.

There is no clear vision or advance warning of what leaving is or what it might be because there is no detail in Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union (or Article 218 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union). From Article 50, it all sounds so simple, until a member tries to quit. The only thing clear is that all procedures concerning leaving are set and dominated by the EU, that is plainly obvious now. The leaving state has little influence, as it remains within the EU until a WA is reached. Because the EU has evolved into a cross-national political and economic web, then no deal at all would be disastrous, especially for peoples. But it's not a reasonable way to end a partnership and those words "good faith" were rarely applied. But hey! Who'd have thought it?!!

Laying the blame does not help. Does it?

That is not an intelligent thing to say.

They have become too used to freebies and (not) working from home. So has everyone else.

Because it gets more difficult and serious every time this happens, plus whatever happens in the US usually has a knock-on effect nearly everywhere else.

Clinton's tax increases had an easily visible effect and produced some surpluses but these were also enabled by Social Security taxes and a booming economy pre the dot-com crash. The economy is far different now and the debt is so great that the effect of tax cuts would have much smaller overall sway, that is what I said. Yes, raising taxes always brings in extra revenue but doing this right now could crash the economy completely at the same time.

Even with what you imply, there is still no simple cure this time.

Puppet to the string section.

Yes, everyone loves their benefits now, eh?

After mentioning the pandemic, you now jump back 40 years to Reagan? Nonsense as ever. I think everyone knows that Covid emergency spending was massive. People now look at the necessity and benefit of this (in hindsight) but at the time of covid I don't think anyone knew what the best course was. I'm sure Biden would have spent more.

Very little less, actually.

There is no simple cure this time.

NYT propaganda - picked 3 names out of 500. Putin is mad after the F16 news and the trouble on his side of the border.

See above. And if Biden is allowed free rein now inflation will go back up again.

You conveniently omit the complete story as well as the costliest pandemic ever.

Manufactured by successive administrations. You seem to think that the Democrats are free from blame, even as they try to inflate the already grossly inflated. I do think that this is a major concern for the American electorate - it certainly should be.

And who is that then???

The Fed says interest rates are up to try to curb inflation. Higher interest rates are also making the debt harder and more expensive to pay off. The Republicans want a compromise and less spending to help lower inflation. Biden wants to spend trillions more, which will push inflation even higher and cannot be good at this time. They will compromise and have time to get some kind of deal. Biden can't win the WH again with a default round his neck.

Luxury. Sheer luxury!

I love Mozzers - those doughnuts are better than Lewis Hamilton's.

Two supermarkets? Fresh food? You were lucky! In my day we had half a corner shop t'ween twenty villages. There'd be a lottery but even after that they'd put shop at bottom of pit of winning village!

No straws. The comparison started as a UK/G7 comparison and that's it. No need to expand and confuse this with an additional non G7 (Eurozone) reference.

Why mention the Eurozone at all?