Are free markets history? The rise of homeland economics

The world this week

Politics
Business
KAL’s cartoon
This week’s covers
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


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
The Sycamore Gap tree held a particularly deep place in people’s hearts