Oct 7th 2023

Are free markets history? The rise of homeland economics

The world this week

Leaders

The size of the state

Are free markets history?

Governments are jettisoning the principles that made the world rich

Sub-Saharan suffrage

Why Africans are losing faith in democracy

The alternatives will undoubtedly be worse

The conservative Jacobins

The ousting of Kevin McCarthy: bad for America, worse for Ukraine

His successor should seek cross-party support to keep funding the war

Reality beckons

Rising bond yields are exposing fiscal fantasy in Europe

Italy’s budget plans look irresponsible

A Nobel cause

In an ugly world, vaccines are a beautiful gift worth honouring

According to the WHO, they have saved more lives than any other medical invention

HSscrewed

Rishi Sunak is wrong to amputate Britain’s high-speed rail line

The HS2 decision will make it harder to build infrastructure

Letters

On Ukraine, India and separatists, British politics, AI and science, Europe’s hard right, Elon Musk

Letters to the editor

By Invitation

Women and the workforce

Melinda French Gates on how leaders can boost women’s economic power

British competitiveness

Sharon Todd on turning Britain into a science superpower

Briefing

Ripple effect

The war in Ukraine is threatening to wash across the Black Sea

And to roil grain and oil markets again

Asia

The Cricket World Cup

Narendra Modi has seized and politicised Indian cricket

Even better than the real thing

Virtual influencers are burning up South Koreans’ Instagram feeds

Left behind

New Zealand tires of its cuddly liberal government

Decentralising Japan

Japanese firms are leaving Tokyo for the sticks

Banyan

M.S. Swaminathan, the man who fed India

China

The young and the nationalist

Communist rappers are luring young disgruntled Chinese

The favoured GI

An unusual museum in China is dedicated to Vinegar Joe

Viral slurs

Many of the world’s new mpox cases are in China

United States

We need to talk without Kevin

Kevin McCarthy’s sacking deepens the chaos in American government

Patience, passengers

Travelling to and from America has become a waiting game

The other Republican meltdown

Republican parties in important swing states are falling behind

Border disorder

The post-Title-42 lull in border crossings is over

By George!

Detroit wants to be the first big American city to tax land value

Lexington

What America should really learn from Dianne Feinstein

Middle East & Africa

Sudan’s civil war

Genocide returns to Darfur

Mission unaccomplished

The drawdown of African peacekeepers from Somalia has stalled

Deaf on the Nile

Egypt’s rushed election shows Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi is nervous

Give us this day

Egypt’s bread subsidies are unsustainable

The Americas

In the crosshairs

The Caribbean is awash with illegal American guns

The Mexican model?

Mexico’s government is suing American gun manufacturers

Fishy business

South American governments are trying to curb illegal fishing

Europe

Prelude to a brawl

After a brutal campaign, Poland gets ready to vote

Guess who’s back!

Slovakia gives pro-Russian populist nationalism another win

Winter is coming, once more

Ukraine prepares for winter again as Russia targets its power grid

Deadlock or blackmail?

Spain’s Socialists are struggling to recover power

Beware of leprechauns

What should Ireland’s government do with a huge budget surplus?

Charlemagne

Europe is stuck in a need-hate relationship with migrants

Britain

Tory story

A glimpse of the Conservative Party after Rishi Sunak

Political fashions

Impressions of a first-time visitor to the Tory conference

The war on the war on motorists

Rishi Sunak’s misguided attempt to woo irritated British drivers

Post-pandemic Britain

How Britain lives with covid-19 today

Our survey says

Britain’s labour-market figures are less reliable than they were

Crime and public safety

Britain’s probation service is in deep trouble

Bagehot

Is Britain’s Labour Party a bunch of Tories, naifs or liars?

International

Afropopulism approaches

Africa’s coups are part of a far bigger crisis

Special report

Redividing the world

Governments across the world are discovering “homeland economics”

Demand for supplies

Attempts to make supply chains “resilient” are likely to fail

State v market

“Homeland economics” will make the world poorer

Missing the point

New industrial policies will make the world more unequal

Second-best

Green protectionism comes with big risks

In search of a problem

New industrial policies will not help economic stability

Insight

Video: Busting globalisation myths

The world economy

Sources and acknowledgments

Business

Unity on diversity

America’s bosses grapple with threats to diversity policies

The world on a string

Inside the secretive business of geopolitical advice

Explosive growth

The Indian business of blowing things up is booming

Make SPARCs fly

Bill Ackman wants another shot at shaking up IPOs

Bartleby

How to make hot-desking work

Head out of the clouds

Why companies still want in-house data centres

Schumpeter

So long iPhone. Generative AI needs a new device

Finance & economics

All at once

A surge in global bond yields threatens trouble

Drill thrill

Oil prices fall, defying suggestions of a $100 barrel

Buttonwood

Why investors cannot escape China exposure

A $24bn decision

Why India hopes to make it into more big financial indices

Red letter pay

China’s greying population is refusing to save for retirement

Green light

How carbon prices are taking over the world

Free exchange

To understand America’s job market, look beyond unemployed workers

Science & technology

Scientific gong season

The 2023 Nobel prizes honour work that touched millions of lives

What’s yours is mine

How plundered Gaulish silver ended up in Roman coins

Don’t you see, it all makes sense!

Did bitcoin leak from an American spy lab?

Culture

Crypto cryptography

Decoding Sam Bankman-Fried, alleged titan of crypto conmen

Back Story

“Cat Person”, an internet-breaking short story, is back as a film

Home Entertainment

“Bluey” captures the joys of childhood and parenting

Spelling glee

The stories behind the Oxford English Dictionary

Life in the West Bank

A new book revisits a bus crash that killed Palestinian children

Going great guns

The AR-15 is a symbol of liberty or loss, depending on whom you ask

The Economist reads

What to read to understand journalism

Economic & financial indicators

Indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

Graphic detail

All work and no play

Productivity has grown faster in western Europe than in America

Obituary

Beauty been