B\u00e0i n\u00e0y c\u00f3 k\u1ec3 m\u1ed9t chuy\u1ec7n ch\u1ebf gi\u1ec5u Brexit:<\/p>\n
Politico reported the other day that the French European affairs minister, Nathalie Loiseau, had named her cat \u201cBrexit.\u201d Loiseau told the Journal du Dimanche that she chose the name because \u201che wakes me up every morning meowing to death because he wants to go out, and then when I open the door he stays in the middle, undecided, and then gives me evil looks when I put him out.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
v\u00e0 m\u1ed9t nh\u1eadn \u0111\u1ecbnh l\u00e0 s\u1ef1 th\u1ecbnh v\u01b0\u1ee3ng ng\u00e0y nay \u0111\u1ebfn t\u1eeb s\u1ef1 l\u01b0u chuy\u1ec3n tri th\u1ee9c h\u01a1n l\u00e0 t\u00edch tr\u1eef n\u00f3:<\/p>\n
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In this world, growth increasingly depends on the ability of yourself, your community, your town, your factory, your school and your country to be connected to more and more of the <\/span>flows <\/span><\/em>of knowledge and investment \u2014 and not just rely on <\/span>stocks<\/em>of stuff.<\/p>\n
Over centuries, notes John Hagel, who currently co-heads Deloitte\u2019s Center for the Edge, business has \u201cbeen organized around stocks of knowledge as the basis for value creation. The key to creating economic value has been to acquire some proprietary knowledge stocks, aggressively protect those knowledge stocks and then efficiently extract the economic value from those knowledge stocks and deliver them to the market. The challenge in a more rapidly changing world is that knowledge stocks depreciate at an accelerating rate. In this kind of world, the key source of economic value shifts from stocks to flows.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe companies that will create the most economic value in the future,\u201d Hagel says, \u201cwill be the ones that find ways to participate more effectively in a broader range of more diverse knowledge flows that can refresh knowledge stocks at an accelerating rate.\u201d<\/p>\n
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And yet Britain is ruled today by a party that wants to disconnect from a connected world. The notion that the U.K. will suddenly get a great free-trade deal from Trump as soon as it quits the E.U. is ludicrous. Trump believes in competitive nationalism, and the very reason he is promoting the breakup of the E.U. is that he believes America can dominate the E.U.\u2019s individual economies much better than when they negotiate together as the single biggest market in the world.<\/p>\n
The second thing the best leaders understand is that in a world of simultaneous accelerations in technology and globalization, keeping your country as open as possible to as many flows as possible is advantageous for two reasons: You get all the change signals first and have to respond to them and you attract the most high-I.Q. risk-takers, who tend to be the people who start or advance new companies.<\/p>\n
In the U.S., who is the C.E.O. of Microsoft? Satya Nadella. Who is the C.E.O. of Google? Sundar Pichai. Who is the C.E.O. of Adobe? Shantanu Narayen. Who is the C.E.O. of Workday? Aneel Bhusri. Hello London? The best talent wants to go to the most open systems \u2014 open both to immigrants and trade \u2014 because that is where the most opportunities are. Britain is about to put up a big sign: GO AWAY.<\/p>\n
The wisest leaders also understand that all the big problems today are global problems, and they have only global solutions. I am talking about climate change, trade rules, technology standards and preventing excesses and contagion in financial markets. If your country wants to have a say in how those problems are solved \u2014 and your country\u2019s name is not America, Russia, China or India \u2014 you need to be part of a wider coalition like the European Union. The U.K. membership in the E.U. has given it an outsize voice in world affairs.<\/p>\n
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And there\u2019s just one more thing the best leaders know: a little history. Trump is fine with a world of competitive European nationalisms, not a strong European Union. So is Vladimir Putin. So, it seems, are the Brexiteers. How quickly they\u2019ve all forgotten that the E.U. and NATO were built to prevent the very competitive nationalism that ran riot in Europe in the 20th century and brought us two world wars.<\/p>\n
Sorry to be so despondent, but I went to graduate school here on a Marshall scholarship from the British government, was married here and started as a journalist on Fleet Street in London. <\/span><\/span>I like the place. But this is not the reasonably competent British government I grew up with.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s being led by a ship of fools \u2014 a Conservative Party bloc that is now radical in its obsession with leaving Europe and a Labour Party that has gone Marxist. If the people here can\u2019t force their politicians to compromise with one another and with reality (there\u2019s still a glimmer of hope that this might happen), there is going to be a crackup of the British political system and some serious economic pain. This is scary.<\/p>\n
The Times is committed to publishing <\/span><\/em>a diversity of letters<\/em><\/a> <\/span>to the editor. We\u2019d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some <\/span><\/em>tips<\/em><\/a>. And here\u2019s our email:<\/em>letters@nytimes.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n
Follow The New York Times Opinion section on<\/em>Facebook<\/em><\/a>, <\/span><\/em>Twitter (@NYTopinion)<\/em><\/a> <\/span>and <\/span><\/em>Instagram<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/section>\n
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Thomas L. Friedman is the foreign affairs Op-Ed columnist. He joined the paper in 1981, and has won three Pulitzer Prizes. He is the author of seven books, including \u201cFrom Beirut to Jerusalem,\u201d which won the National Book Award. <\/span>@<\/span>tomfriedman<\/a> <\/span>\u2022<\/span> <\/span>Facebook<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
A version of this article appears in print on <\/span>