The Economist Media Bias

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What America's protectionist turn means for the world - The Economist

finance

Step for a moment into the ancient past. The year is 2016. Michael Froman, the United States Trade Representative, is making a stirring call to arms. American workers and businesses are competing against firms that get subsidies and other favours from their governments. “The question”, he says, “is what do we do about it? Do we accept this status quo, or do we actively work to change it?” Mr Froman’s choice, in line with decades of his country’s trade policies, is the latter: try to tear down the subsidies hurting American exporters and gumming up global trade.
The Economist     Jan 10, 2023

How China's reopening will disrupt the world economy - The Economist

For the better part of three years—1,016 days to be exact—China will have been closed to the world. Most foreign students left the country at the start of the pandemic. Tourists have stopped visiting. Chinese scientists have stopped attending foreign conferences. Expat executives were barred from returning to their businesses in China. So when the country opens its borders on January 8th, abandoning the last remnants of its “zero-covid” policy, the renewal of commercial, intellectual and cultural contact will have huge consequences, mostly benign.
The Economist     Jan 06, 2023

Eric Adams and Kathy Hochul have grand plans for New York City

By 2023, NEW YORK’s leaders had hoped, America’s biggest city would be as strong as ever, the pandemic’s impact as fleeting as clouds over its skyline. If only. As of mid-September only half of Manhattan office workers actually go to work in Manhattan. Spending at restaurants and bars in the city’s big business districts is 23% below its pre-pandemic levels. As fewer commuters ride trains, the subway system is cutting its service on Mondays and Fridays. It looks unlikely that New York will return to its old version of normal. The question now is how the city might advance to a better one.
The Economist     Jan 06, 2023

A realistic path to a better relationship between Britain and the EU

Ten years ago this month, David Cameron, Britain’s prime minister at the time, gave a speech at the London headquarters of Bloomberg, a news organisation. In it Mr Cameron outlined his cunning plan to cement Britain’s place in the European Union, by triggering a fundamental reform of the bloc and then offering Britons an in-out referendum on membership. That went well. The 2016 vote to leave the bloc has exacerbated Britain’s economic malaise, gumming up trade and muting investment. It has soured Britain’s relationship with many of its natural allies and weakened the bonds of its own union.
The Economist     Jan 06, 2023

Why the gusty North Sea could give Europe an industrial edge

Fears about the fate of European industry abound. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing gas crunch have dealt it a cruel blow. basf, the world’s largest chemicals-maker, is shifting production away from its headquarters in Ludwigshafen in Germany. Nearly a quarter of the country’s revered Mittelstand firms are reported to be considering moving part of their operations abroad. And even as energy prices have fallen back, America’s protectionist and subsidy-laden Inflation Reduction Act is feeding fresh worries that industry might be lured away from the old continent.
The Economist     Jan 06, 2023

The great mystery of American politics

politics

Titillated if not surprised, America’s political obsessives saw some justice in Kevin McCarthy’s struggle to amass enough support to become speaker of the House of Representatives. Mr McCarthy has evaded the encumbrance of principle for so long that, to at least some politicians, it seemed fitting that conservatives would torture him by withholding a few votes, all but making faces while dangling the job just beyond his reach.
The Economist     Jan 06, 2023

Pay-transparency laws do not work as advertised

THE SALARY negotiation has long been one of the trickiest parts of hiring or being hired. Ask for too little and you may leave money on the table; ask for too much and you may not be offered the job at all. In America, this delicate balancing act is becoming less perilous. On January 1st California and Washington became the latest states in the country to require employers to include minimum and maximum pay ranges in all job advertisements. Similar laws aimed at levelling the playing field in salary negotiations and reducing gender and racial pay gaps have been passed in Colorado, New York and a handful of cities.
The Economist     Jan 06, 2023

Republicans struggle to elect a speaker of the House

politics

AMERICAN AND British conservatives are distinct species. But in one respect—a cannibalistic impulse to kill and consume their leaders—they are similar. On January 3rd Kevin McCarthy, the Republican congressman who for the better part of a decade has yearned to be elected speaker of the House of Representatives, found himself on the receiving end. Though Republicans secured a narrow majority in midterm elections in November, a contingent of hardline congressmen have banded together to deny their party leader the absolute majority he needs to obtain the speakership.
The Economist     Jan 05, 2023

Pope Benedict XVI was an iron fist in a white glove

Pattering in the forceful, tumultuous wake of John Paul II, Benedict XVI had a hard act to follow. In 2005 there were few expectations. Or rather, there were expectations of the wrong kind: that the man who from 1981 had been prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (cdf) would rule the Roman Catholic church like an elderly headmaster, waspish and intolerant, with the fires of a new Inquisition gleaming in those pale blue eyes.
The Economist     Jan 05, 2023

The death of Pope Benedict removes a problem for liberal Catholics - The Economist

THE DEATH OF a pope has far-reaching consequences, even when the pontiff in question has not led the Roman Catholic church for ten years. Such was the case with Benedict XVI, who died on December 31st. The firmly conservative pope stepped down in 2013, but remained an important figure in the struggle over the church’s future⁠—to the occasional consternation of Pope Francis, his more liberal successor.
The Economist     Jan 04, 2023

Politics will move further to the left in 2023 - The Economist

politics

Some years have a way of giving countries, even continents, a shove in a new direction. In 1945 Europeans decided that the state had to take the lead in establishing a modern economy, a broader welfare state and a more peaceful continent. In 1979 a doubling of oil prices, which followed a decade of stagflation, brought about a swing away from cosy co-operation between the state and business towards a bigger role for markets and private enterprise. Might 2023 be another such year? It comes as a decade of low interest rates is ending, as high energy prices and inflation return to the world economy, and as war stalks Europe.
The Economist     Jan 02, 2023

Who is Andrew Tate, the misogynist hero to millions of young men? - The Economist

“THIS IS WHAT happens when you don’t recycle your pizza boxes,” tweeted Greta Thunberg on December 30th, following the arrest of Andrew Tate on suspicion of human trafficking, forming an organised crime group and rape. Three days before, Mr Tate had trolled the teenage environmentalist on Twitter about how many cars he owned. After Ms Thunberg asked him to email her at “[email protected]” Mr Tate released a bizarre video response, in which he goaded her with non-recycled takeaway containers. Rumours that prosecutors in Romania—where he was sheltering—had tracked him down via those pizza boxes, appear to be misplaced.
The Economist     Jan 02, 2023