Blue-collar bonanza: Why conventional wisdom on inequality is wrong

The world this week

Politics
Business
KAL’s cartoon
This week’s covers
The World Ahead


The World Ahead
The World Ahead 2024

Leaders


War in Ukraine
Putin seems to be winning the war in Ukraine—for now
His biggest asset is Europe’s lack of strategic vision

Blue-collar bonanza
A new age of the worker will overturn conventional thinking
Around the rich world, wage gaps are shrinking

Israel and Hamas
How America should manage the next stage of the Gaza war
For the sake of Israel and a two-state solution, America has to get tougher with its ally

A planet-cooking gas
What the world must do to tame methane
The world needs a deal during COP28 to limit a nasty source of emissions

Superpower politics
What does Henry Kissinger’s diplomacy have to teach the world?
A grasp of the subtle interplay between interests, values and the use of force is still useful

Debt break
Germany is in a bizarre fiscal mess of its own making
Three steps to resolve the fiscal panic
Letters

On cars in America, Spain, Indian whisky, “King Lear”, Belgium, dinner etiquette
Letters to the editor
By Invitation


Geopolitics
Why the West needs to stop the global rise of revisionism
COP28: host of questions
Rhys Davies and Ben Keith argue that the UAE is a tainted COP host
Briefing


For the fatherland
How Putin is reshaping Russia to keep his war-machine running
He is creating a class of wealthy bureaucrats, who are the war’s biggest supporters
Asia


Asian defence
Narendra Modi is remaking India’s 1.4m strong military
What’s yours is mine
The insidious campaign to demolish mosques in India
Plain stupa
Sri Lankans are squabbling over monuments
Ground zero
Taiwan’s presidential election will be a three-way race after all
Baby-making
Japan needs more sperm donors
China


The big climate question
Will China save the planet or destroy it?
Going fission (and fusion)
China is building nuclear reactors faster than any other country
Not again
China is struggling with a surge of respiratory ailments
Chaguan
China’s economy is suffering from long covid

United States


Trumpier than thou
A MAGA court in New Orleans is shaping the Supreme Court’s agenda
An affordable dare act
A key part of Obamacare is in jeopardy
Chasing the American dream
Is it cheaper to rent or buy property?
The prisoner dilemma
What to do about an uptick in Americans unjustly held abroad
A full-fat fiasco
A national milk-carton shortage sours America’s dairy industry
The opioid-maker controversy
The Supreme Court may toss out Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy settlement
Super K
Henry Kissinger never quite belonged where he wanted to be
Middle East & Africa


The war in Gaza
Does Hamas want to keep fighting Israel or start talking peace?
All quiet on the Gaza front
Israel’s truce with Hamas is drawing to a close
Climate finance (1)
Could carbon credits be Africa’s next big export?
Climate finance (2)
African leaders want debt relief for climate action
The Americas


Dirty deeds
To save the Amazon, Lula must work out who owns it
Europe


Bulldogs of war
Russia is poised to take advantage of political splits in Ukraine
More blood, less treasure
Ukraine’s new enemy: war fatigue in the West
Where there’s a Wil Ders a way
Geert Wilders struggles towards power in the Netherlands
Brake failure
Germany’s ruling coalition grapples with a wrecked budget
Stop killing women
Outrage against femicide is spreading in Italy
Charlemagne
How a sombre mood gripped Europe
Britain


Policing by consent
How to restore Britons’ confidence in the police
Ode to an avenue
The Dark Hedges are dying
The Brutish museum?
Why is the British Museum always in trouble?
Spend drift
Post-Brexit Britain is splurging more on state aid
Heat pumps
Why Britain’s homes will need different types of heat pump
The agony and the Cleggstasy
The curious case of Nick Clegg
Bagehot
How to change the policy of the British government
International


Islamism on the edge
A religious revolution is under way in the Middle East
Business


Blurred vision
Xi Jinping’s grip on Chinese enterprise gets uncomfortably tight
An outside chance
How to succeed—and fail—as a foreign business in India
Bartleby
Generative AI generates tricky choices for managers
Electric curmudgeons
Is America’s EV revolution stalling?
Swedish strikes
Elon Musk v labour unions: Sweden edition
Baby Berkshire
How a Canadian company became the world’s best acquirer of tech firms
Schumpeter
Charlie Munger was a lot more than Warren Buffett’s sidekick
Finance & economics


Labour markets
Welcome to a golden age for workers
The pay picture
Real wages have risen in America and are rebounding in Europe
Property pain
China edges towards a big bail-out
Fissures
An unruly OPEC is causing problems for Russia and Saudi Arabia
Pipe dreams
How to get African oil out of the ground without Western lenders
Buttonwood
Short-sellers are endangered. That is bad news for markets
Free exchange
Why economists are at war over inequality
Science & technology


The other greenhouse gas
Politics and technology are pushing oil firms to cut methane
Termination shock?
Do rising methane levels herald a climate feedback loop?
Crystal balls
A Google AI has discovered 2.2m materials unknown to science
Forty thousand winks near the sea
Why chinstrap penguins sleep thousands of times a day
Culture


Film-making in China
Two film awards reveal the battle for the future of Chinese cinema
Pressing up
Small publishers are sweeping the Booker and Nobel prizes
Plains writing
Willa Cather and Larry McMurtry shared subjects and sensibilities
World in a dish
In Russia’s arsenal the knife and fork have been powerful weapons
Digital art
Museums are learning to love NFTs
A sound grasp
These are The Economist’s favourite podcasts of 2023
Economic & financial indicators

Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
The Economist explains


The Economist explains
What does it take to expel an American congressman?
The Economist explains
Who are the Palestinians in Israel’s prisons?
Obituary


Adapt or die
Saleemul Huq lobbied ceaselessly to make poor countries heard