Marketplace®

Daily business news and economic stories
Episode 134Oct 8, 2019

Brexit is really, maybe happening this time, probably.

Boris Johnson says it’s happening, deal or no deal. Here’s what you need to know.

Download
There's a lot to wrangle.
There's a lot to wrangle.
Andrew Milligan/AFP/Getty Image

Subscribe:

The Brexit vote happened three years ago, the deadline’s approaching, there’s a new prime minister with no deal yet … is this last March? Is it 2016? Is it any day in between?

Improbably, things have become even more complicated since we last had BBC host Ros Atkins on the show to talk Brexit with us. The new PM, Boris Johnson, said there won’t be any more delays: Deal or no deal, the United Kingdom is leaving the European Union by Halloween.

That’s a scary prospect for the European economy, and the British Parliament has said Johnson must ask for an extension if they can’t reach a deal by mid-October. With one agreement already failed, Johnson’s scrambling to pull together something new.

So, yeah. We’ve been here before. Is this time for real? Will the U.K. kick the can again? And what does it all mean for the rest of us? Atkins is back to help us sort it all out.

By the way, don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter for more “Make Me Smart” in your inbox every Friday. Here’s last week’s issue.

Finally, we’re still looking for questions for next week’s Explainathon! Submit them via our contact form or email makemesmart@marketplace.org

The Team