2021-12-30-Economist Graphs

1. The world this week

1.1 The world this week

1.2 KAL’s cartoon

2. Leaders

2.1 Erdogan v economics: Turkey’s president cannot defy reality for long

Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s scheme to save Turkey’s currency only heightens the risks

2.2 Walking away: How to think about the threat to American democracy

The Republican Party’s continued Trump infatuation is alarming. It should not lead to fatalism

2.3 Don’t panic: Video game makers must address worries about addictiveness

By sharing their data, they may pre-empt tougher regulation

2.4 Time to choose: Brexit’s many contradictions are coming to a head

It is time for Boris Johnson to abandon “cakeism”

2.5 The virus is already here: Why travel bans are usually the wrong way to curb Omicron

Most such restrictions are disruptive and ineffectual

3. United States

3.1 Scientific suspicion: The Charles Lieber case reveals America’s scientific rivalry with China

Prosecuting scientists who have broken the law without slipping into McCarthyism is hard

3.2 Adams eve: What to expect from Eric Adams

Police reform, nightclubs and pro-business veganism are on the menu

3.3 The charity-industrial complex: Bridgespan Group: the most powerful consultants you’ve never heard of

They direct philanthropic billions around the world

3.4 Male loneliness: Why men are lonelier in America than elsewhere

Marrying later, working harder and being better parents have diminished male friendships

3.5 Lexington: What Chicago’s ward map fight says about racial politics in America

Ethnic-minority caucuses serve their communities less and less well

4. The Americas

4.1 A new narconomics: Latin America’s drug gangs have had a good pandemic

A resilient industry shrugs off supply-chain problems

4.2 Boric acid or placid?: How radical will Gabriel Boric, Chile’s new president, turn out to be?

The former student leader has promised to end “neoliberalism”

5. China

5.1 The price of zero: A cluster of covid-19 cases in China prompts a citywide lockdown

Measures in Xi’an are China’s toughest on such a scale since early in the pandemic

5.2 Xi’s secret speeches: Even in secret, China’s leaders speak in code

Chinese bureaucrats have to learn to read between the lines

6. Business

6.1 Soliciting success: Why big law will keep getting bigger in the 2020s

Record profits—and a management revolution

6.2 Metaverse landlords: Virtual-property prices are going through the roof

Investors are paying hard currency for software real estate

6.3 The quiet Americans: Can American firms rid their supply chains of Xinjiang goods?

Possibly. Just don’t tell China

6.4 Bartleby: A memo from the boss on apology inflation

The sources of sorry

6.5 Schumpeter: Glencore’s message to the planet

Sorry, folks. Coal will remain alive and kicking

7. Finance & economics

7.1 Winners and losers: Which economies have done best and worst during the pandemic?

We rank 23 rich countries along five measures

7.2 Buttonwood: Why capital will become scarcer in the 2020s

Populism, climate change and supply-chain fixes will raise the long-term cost of capital

7.3 Omicron omens: What real-time indicators suggest about Omicron’s economic impact

People have been quicker to desert offices than shops

7.4 Build block better: Is a greener, faster and more decentralised alternative to Bitcoin possible?

Building better blockchains is surprisingly hard

7.5 Free exchange: New research counts the costs of the Sino-American trade war

It has been a lose-lose ordeal

8. Letters

8.1 On antitrust, Chinese birds, confidence tricks, Singapore, the EU, Latin America, random numbers: Letters to the editor

A selection of correspondence

9. Briefing

9.1 The nasty new GOP: The Republicans are still Donald Trump’s party, and they can still win

Asymmetric polarisation is a powerful thing

10. Europe

10.1 Smoke, mirrors and lira: Turkey’s currency woes are likely to get worse

President Erdogan’s voodoo economics have put taxpayers on the hook for billions

10.2 Memory hole: Russia bans Memorial, a seminal human-rights group

Putin intensifies his campaign to repress the memory of totalitarian crimes

10.3 A bad bet: Spain’s reforms in 2021 were only tiny steps

The country’s changes to pensions and labour-market rules are too timid

10.4 Privatised gains, socialised losses: Turkey’s public-private partnerships are pricier than promised

The lira’s woes raise the bill for Erdogan’s big projects

10.5 Charlemagne: How Europe’s politicians started to think of themselves as European

Our departing columnist offers some valedictory views

11. Britain

11.1 Happy now?: How a year outside the EU’s legal and trading arrangements has changed Britain

Exiting the bloc has left Britain poorer, but also in some ways less polarised

11.2 Unfair cop: A legal ruling has big implications for free speech in England

There will be less need to bite your tongue on controversial issues

11.3 Eating and covid-19: The pandemic has changed British diets in enduring ways

Good news for makers of cheese, sausages and canned fish

11.4 Poxy reasoning: Syphilis rates are rising relentlessly in Britain

Some of the reasons are positive

12. Middle East & Africa

12.1 Charter fights: Arab autocrats love writing, and ignoring, constitutions

Like rigged elections, they serve a purpose

12.2 There to stay: Israel tightens its grip on the Golan Heights

A quiet annexation is encountering little resistance

12.3 Bean counters: Middlemen are the invisible links in African agriculture

In Uganda they are traders, tricksters, moneylenders and marketmakers

13. Asia

13.1 The view from Tokyo: How Japan sees China

Mighty, but also dangerously overconfident

13.2 Pot cuisine: Thai restaurants are cooking with cannabis

THC is the new MSG

13.3 Prayin’ won’t do you no good: Extreme weather in South-East Asia is a harbinger of worse to come

A typhoon tears through the Philippines and epic floods submerge Malaysia

13.4 Merciful Moon: A presidential pardon catches South Korea by surprise

Moon Jae-in will release Park Geun-hye, his disgraced predecessor

13.5 Banyan: Why Brahmins lead Western firms but rarely Indian ones

India’s big businesses are dominated by traditional merchant and trader castes

14. International

14.1 Hooked: Are video games really addictive?

A revolution in games-makers’ business models has bolstered the case

15. Science & technology

15.1 Everyone’s going to the Moon: In 2022 a Moonrush will begin in earnest

Countries are racing to explore Earth’s closest neighbour

15.2 The new covid variant: Omicron causes a less severe illness than earlier variants

But it is spreading fast, and options for treating it are more limited

16. Books & arts

16.1 Bathhouse culture: Covid-19 has imperilled the hammams of north Africa and the Levant

To survive, the communal bathhouses must draw deep on a venerable past

16.2 Johnson: What is The Economist’s word of the year for 2021?

Our choice honours scientific ingenuity and edges out financial jargon and political buzzwords

17. Economic & financial indicators

17.1 Economic data, commodities and markets: Indicators

18. Graphic detail

18.1 Well-priced probabilities: What prediction markets suggest will happen in 2022

The wisdom of crowds trumps a crystal ball

19. Obituary

19.1 Troublemaker in a cassock: Desmond Tutu believed that truth was the best weapon

The campaigning Archbishop of Cape Town died on December 26th, aged 90