Time now for another edition of What You Need to Know About Basic Economics – In today’s edition we will tell you what you need to know about the Brexit.   Brexit is the smash-up term for British and exit. It refers to a referendum which will be held this Thursday, asking voters: “Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?”   The European Union – often known as the EU – is an economic and political partnership involving 28 European countries. It began after World War Two to foster economic co-operation, with the idea that countries which trade together are more likely to avoid going to war with each other. It has since grown to become a “single market” allowing goods and people to move around, basically as if the member states were one country. It has its own parliament and it now sets rules in a wide range of areas – including on the environment, transport, consumer rights and even things like mobile phone charges. It has its own currency, the euro, which is used by 19 of the member countries; the United Kingdom still uses its own currency, the pound sterling.   The single market is seen by its advocates as the EU’s biggest achievement and one of the main reasons it was set up in the first place. Britain was a member of a free trade area in Europe before it joined what was then known as the ...