A few bright spots: our country of the year
Each year The Economist selects its country of the year: a place that has improved the most. Improvement, though, was damnably rare in 2021. We run through our nominations and the shortlist, and take a close look at why the winner won. And we examine what has gone on in South and South-East Asia, which offered no contenders whatsoever.For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
29 Dec 202120min
You bet your dollar-bottomed: Erdogan’s next gambit
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s idea for saving the lira by backing deposits with dollars means the Turkish taxpayer will end up bailing out the Turkish depositor. Our correspondent finds striking insights in 40 years’-worth of humdrum submissions to a unique sociology project. And Saudi Arabia’s multi-billion-dollar push into the cinema industry it outlawed for decades.For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
28 Dec 202123min
Beginning of the endemic? Omicron’s spread
The lightning-fast spread of a seemingly milder coronavirus variant may represent a shift from pandemic to endemic; we ask how that would change global responses. Concern about video-game addictiveness is as old as video games themselves—but the business models of modern gaming may be magnifying the problem. And newly publicised photographs shed light on Bangladesh’s brutal war for independence.For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
27 Dec 202122min
No safety in numbers: security in Haiti
The security situation is hopeless, following violent unrest and a presidential assassination—as one family’s epic and ultimately failed attempt to leave reveals. The sum total of the missing banknotes in the world is staggering, but what is worrying is that no one seems interested in finding it all. And meeting the man who unwittingly became Sherlock Holmes’s secretary.For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
23 Dec 202124min
Relocation, relocation, relocation: America’s internal migration
The flood of people out of cities is unlike anything since the suburbanisation of the 1950s; we examine the inevitable economic and political consequences. After years of reporting our correspondent concludes that the mutual disdain of a country’s northern and southern halves is a curious human universal. And a sojourn to fact-check Julius Caesar’s accounts of his triumphs in France.For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
22 Dec 202124min
All about that base: Japan’s security policy
In recent years the country has found itself in a sharply different geopolitical environment, responding by building bases and security-partner ties as never before. Our correspondent meets perhaps the last living offspring of an American slave, whose stories paint a picture of the civil-rights movement right up to today. And Thailand’s changing cannabis policy, best seen through its restaurants’ menus.For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
21 Dec 202124min
Back to the USSR: Russia and Ukraine
As border tensions continue to build, our Russia editor looks back to the fall of the Soviet Union to explain why Russia has never accepted Ukraine’s independence. Eating out has only become more expensive through the decades, yet the diners keep coming; we examine the long history and economics of restaurants. And our staff picks for 2021’s best books.For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
20 Dec 202123min
Centre of no attention: Chile’s presidential election
As the vote’s second round has neared, the candidates have shifted, a bit, from their positions at opposite ends of the political spectrum. Which radical vision for the country will win out? The transition to electric vehicles may well stall, unless the chicken-and-egg problem of public chargers can be cracked. And a soaring history of “birdmen”, successful and otherwise.For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
17 Dec 202123min
