ABSTRACT
The vision of an infinite Coasean market connecting all potential assets and actors was critical to generating the view that increased, commodification of the environment was the key to defending the planet as a site of habitation. The abnegation of difficult choices between habitation and improvement often proved to be the best strategy rather than explicit choices between them. The Brexit and Donald Trump campaigns appealed, in different ways, to an imaginary of habitation and livelihood. Trump and Brexit played on a different vision of the economy which did speak to these factors directly within an imaginary of economy as livelihood. Many viewed the case for Brexit and various aspects of Trump's manifesto as economically illiterate and, in terms of the likelihood of generating growth and productivity. The Brexit campaign was fought primarily on the issue of immigration, but evidence of a correlation between support for leaving the European Union and local influx of migrants was at best mixed.
