The Economist

The Economist is a global weekly magazine written for those who share an uncommon interest in being well and broadly informed. Each issue explores domestic and international issues, business, finance, current affairs, science, technology and the arts.

The world this week • To 6am GMT December 2nd 2021

Danger ahead • Omicron amplifies three dangers that stalk the global economy

SALT in the wounds • The Democrats’ fiscal policy makes a mockery of their progressive pledges

Local heroes • For vibrant, competitive internet businesses, look to emerging markets

Bad medicine • Britain’s planned ban on conversion therapy is not what it seems

Who will police Interpol? • The election of a worrying new president is just the latest thing to go wrong

Letters

Watchful waiting • LONDON, MAINZ AND SAN FRANCISCO

A tax plan for the upper, upper class • WASHINGTON, DC

Message in a bottle • BENTON HARBOR

Shot spotty • CHICAGO

Roe’s last stand • NEW YORK

All at sea • NEWPORT NEWS, VIRGINIA

Beep beep, bang bang • CHICAGO

Son of a slave • Lessons in racial history from Daniel Smith, perhaps the last direct link to slavery

Missing links • TIJUANA

A leftward turn • Xiomara Castro will be Central America’s first female president

Pictures at two exhibitions • The culture war over Latin America’s colonial past

The patter of fewer tiny feet • DELHI

Ready for take-off? • BISHKEK

A stop in the ocean • The UN promotes floating cities

At the sharp end • TOKYO

A familiar script • China’s influence in the Solomon Islands is one factor in an explosion of violence

Against the tide • SHANGHAI

Ballsy • Women’s tennis takes a stand against China. Will other sports dare follow?

Why China says it is a democracy • Dysfunction in the West tempts the party to make risky boasts

Omicro-aggressions • CAPE TOWN

Seeding the cloud • KAMPALA

Pomp and circumspection • DAKAR

In need of water, not uranium • DUBAI

Drinking and driving • Will a car race mark the end of the kingdom’s ban on alcohol?

The tests of tolerance • MADRID

Accenting the negative • MADRID

Waiting for the freeze • KYIV

High-pressure umbrage • BERLIN

Guess who? • ROME

On bullshit: Brussels edition • Why bullshit rules in the EU

Missing the mark • A proposed bill banning conversion therapy could do more harm than good

Open book • China looms ever larger for British spies, says mi6’s chief

Jordan Peterson and the lobster • Anatomy of a cancellation

Interpolitics • ISTANBUL, MOSCOW AND ROME

Hot tropics • HONG KONG

Exiting the Twittersphere • SAN FRANCISCO

The office of the future • Cubicles are out. Bars, neighbourhoods and sensors are in

Ghosts of Christmas past • Mariah Carey’s seasonal ubiquity illustrates the new economics of streaming

Cancel culture, Beijing-style • HONG KONG

Billion-dollar blueprints • NEW YORK

No more tears • Can Johnson & Johnson put the taint of scandal behind it?

Omicronomics • HONG KONG

Hazards ahead • WASHINGTON, DC

Squeezing the balloon • NEW YORK

Over flows • HONG KONG

After the flood • The frenzy for spacs has waxed and waned. Has that changed how they work?

Point of low returns? • OSLO

Taming wildcats • The explosion in stablecoins revives a debate around “free banking”

Flipping heck! • How to generate better,...