‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (May 22 , 2023) – A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, Henry Kissinger on the new world order, how the fight for digital payments is going global (10:50) and why the Taliban is going big on animal welfare (17:10).
Category Archives: Economics
Previews: The Economist Magazine – May 20, 2023
Joe Biden’s global vision is too timid and pessimistic
The president underestimates America’s strengths and misunderstands how it acquired them
In the 1940s and early 1950s America built a new world order out of the chaos of war. For all its shortcomings, it kept the peace between superpowers and underpinned decades of growth that lifted billions out of poverty. Today that order, based on global rules, free markets and an American promise to uphold both, is fraying. Toxic partisanship at home has corroded confidence in America’s government.
China and the West take a step to ease Africa’s debt crisis
A deal for Ghana is the first test case for a new approach
Ghana made history when it led the wave of sub-Saharan African countries that won independence more than six decades ago. It may now be making history again, as the first test case for a new approach to debt relief. China and Western governments may have overcome one barrier to restructuring the billions of dollars owed by countries with unsustainable debts.
Financial Technology: Is There A Crypto Future?
Video timeline: 00:00 – The crypto party is over 01:06 – The history 03:30 – What is crypto? 04:38 – Uses around the world 06:07 – Layer 2 solutions 07:12 – Web3 08:51 – Data and privacy 10:04 – What is the future of crypto?
Opinion: China’s Power Is Peaking, Jobs Safe From A.I., Mexico Criminal Gangs
The Economist ‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (May 15 , 2023) – Is Chinese power about to peak? Why your job is (probably) safe from artificial intelligence (11:00) and how Mexico’s gangs are becoming criminal conglomerates (35:00).
Previews: The Economist Magazine – May 13, 2023
Is Chinese power about to peak?
The country’s historic ascent is levelling off. That need not make it more dangerous
The rise of China has been a defining feature of the world for the past four decades. Since the country began to open up and reform its economy in 1978, its gdp has grown by a dizzying 9% a year, on average. That has allowed a staggering 800m Chinese citizens to escape from poverty. Today China accounts for almost a fifth of global output. The sheer size of its market and manufacturing base has reshaped the global economy. Xi Jinping, who has ruled China for the past decade, hopes to use his country’s increasing heft to reshape the geopolitical order, too.
Small, sensible steps could help ease America’s border woes
The art of the practical in dealing with migrants, drugs and gangs
The rehabilitation of Syria’s dictator raises awkward questions for the West
Clearer principles about how and when to ease sanctions are needed
Politics: Why America Faces Debt Catastrophe
Opinion: A World In Fiscal Fantasy, Can Turkey Sack Erdogan, King Charles III
The Economist ‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (May8 , 2023) – Three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, governments are living in a fiscal fantasyland, why Turkey is holding the most important election this year (11:02) and the coronation of King Charles III (17:30).
Previews: The Economist Magazine – May 6, 2023
Governments are living in a fiscal fantasyland
The world over, they are failing to confront the dire state of their finances
If Turkey sacks its strongman, democrats everywhere should take heart
After 20 years of increasingly autocratic rule, Recep Tayyip Erdogan risks eviction by voters
Time to engage (very carefully) with the Taliban
Isolating the mullahs is not working. The West needs a more constructive approach
Previews: The Economist Magazine – April 29, 2023
As Israel turns 75, its biggest threats now come from within
The country needs a new political settlement that diminishes the power of extremists
As israel marks its 75th anniversary, take a moment to admire how it has triumphed against the odds. Before it declared independence in 1948 its own generals warned that it had only a fifty-fifty chance of survival. Today Israel is hugely rich, safer than it has been for most of its history, and democratic—if, that is, you are prepared to exclude the territories it occupies. It has overcome wars, droughts and poverty with few natural endowments other than human grit. It is an outlier in the Middle East, a hub of innovation and a winner from globalisation.
The West should supply Ukraine with F-16s
Or Russian fighter jets may win control of Ukrainian skies
As Ukraine prepares its forces for a crucial counter-offensive, the argument among its Western allies about what equipment to provide chunters on. Having finally received the tanks it had been pleading for since last year, Ukraine has increased the intensity of its demands for fighter jets. Yet its pleas are falling on largely deaf ears.
Previews: The Economist Magazine – April 22, 2023
Large, creative AI models will transform lives and labour markets
They bring enormous promise and peril. But how do they work?
Is the worst now over for America’s banks?
In order to assess the damage, we look at three financial institutions
In Sudan and beyond, the trend towards global peace has been reversed
Conflicts are growing longer. Blame complexity, criminality and climate change
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