This is a refreshing essay.

Britain and Continental Europe traded goods before the UK’s 1975 entrance to the European Union. Back then, some people with British passports worked on the Continent. People with European passports worked in the UK. History shows that it’s possible for nearby countries to figure out reasonable working relations whether or not they are officially in something as vast as the EU.

It’s possible that separation negotiations could go quite badly, month after month. I guess that’s why markets sold off so drastically in the first 30 minutes of European trading on Friday. It’s also possible that business leaders, politicians and ordinary citizens will figure out how to create a bit more separation between the UK and the EU without ruining everything. I guess that’s why UK markets recovered about two-thirds of the early losses in the rest of Friday’s trading.

Looking around Europe, the case for taking a deep breath and letting everything settle strikes me as pretty good. After all, countries like Switzerland and Norway do not belong to the EU but still participate relatively well in the flow of goods, ideas and money in that part of the world.

For full-strength globalists, the Brexit vote is unsettling. It’s a step back from a one-world, borderless ideal. But I’m betting with James Altucher on this one. The pessimists are assuming a series of escalating collapses that don’t need to follow from a 52/48 advisory vote at all.