2021: THE ECONOMIST (330)

JANUARY

Laws to catch human-rights abusers are growing teeth

For all Donald Trump’s efforts, Joe Biden’s victory will stand

America’s former defence secretaries sound the alarm over Trump

Europe has fallen behind on covid-19 vaccination

Trump’s supporters storm the Capitol to block the transfer of power

Trump’s legacy – the shame and the opportunity

Why Donald Trump will serve out his remaining term in office

Who should get the jab?

The expulsion of Donald Trump marks a watershed for Facebook and Twitter

For the first time, a career diplomat is to lead the CIA

Commodity prices are surging

Donald Trump is impeached for inciting an attack on the Capitol

Donald Trump’s reckoning

Why a dawn of technological optimism is breaking

Germany’s Christian Democrats choose Armin Laschet as their leader

Donald Trump faces an array of legal trouble when he leaves office

Alexei Navalny returns to meet arrest and imprisonment in Russia

Will Joe Biden’s fiscal stimulus overheat the American economy?

The outlook for America looks grim, but that could change quickly

The struggle over chips enters a new phase

Messaging services are providing a more private internet

How fast can vaccination against covid-19 make a difference?

Can China’s long property boom hold?

India’s protesting farmers breach the walls of Delhi’s Red Fort

The gig economy challenges China’s state-run labour unions

The world is facing an upsurge of nuclear proliferation

The wind-power boom set off a scramble for balsa wood in Ecuador

Buy American is an economic-policy mistake

Shades of Minsk, as Russians again protest against Putin

FEBRUARY

Aung San Suu Kyi is arrested as Myanmar’s generals seize power

Colombia’s peace tribunal issues a crushing judgment against the FARC

Can Amazon’s next boss fill Jeff Bezos’s supersized boots?

The real revolution on Wall Street

The pandemic could undercut Africa’s precarious progress

Myanmar’s coup turns the clock back a decade

Joe Biden prepares to leave his mark on the federal judiciary

Donald Trump will probably be acquitted of inciting an insurrection

America Inc has survived the oddest year in modern times. What next?

How well will vaccines work?

“Genocide” is the wrong word for the horrors of Xinjiang

Donald Trump’s second impeachment ends in a second acquittal

Britain has reduced its carbon emissions more than any rich country

Why China’s Didi can succeed where Uber has struggled

Why SPACs are Wall Street’s latest craze

The freeze in Texas exposes America’s infrastructural failings

How America can rid itself of both carbon and blackouts

The pandemic made the world realise the importance of human contact

Little is known about the effects of puberty blockers

Duty-free retail is finding new ways to grow

America’s ICBMs are ageing. Does it still need them?

Vladimir Putn and Recep Tayyip Erdogan have formed a brotherhood of hard power

Prices in Europe’s carbon market, the world’s biggest, are soaring

The rules of the tech game are changing

The CIA blames MBS for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi

The rivalry between America and China will hinge on South-East Asia

China is mulling changes to Hong Kong’s electoral system

MARCH

Get ready for more bond-market scares

A billion-plus covid-19 shots in 2021. Can Serum Institute do it?

Can Joe Biden get America out of the Middle East?

How to make a safety net for the post-covid world

After the tsunami: What happened to the girl from Fukushima?

Rupert Murdoch prepares to hand over his media empire

Only America can break the deadlock between Canada and China

Oil markets prepare for lofty prices and restrained supply

The world’s consumers are sitting on a pile of cash. Will they spend it?

Joe Biden’s stimulus is a high-stakes gamble for America and the world

How to renew America’s democracy

Are vaccine passports a good idea?

What Leonardo Del Vecchio wants to do in his late 80s

EU countries pause AstraZeneca’s covid-19 jab over safety fears

Joe Biden faces a humanitarian crisis at the southern border

China’s markets are shaking off their casino reputation

How to deal with China

Economic pressure is unlikely to force Myanmar’s junta to retreat

The pandemic has changed the shape of global happiness

America used to be behind on digital payments. Not any more

UN peacekeeping is hamstrung by national rules for its troops

American officials question AstraZeneca’s vaccine results

Bright side of the moonshots

Covid-19 vaccines have alerted the world to the power of RNA therapies

China boycotts Western clothes brands over Xinjiang cotton

Myanmar’s army kills more than 100 protesters in a single day

Why Joe Biden isn’t afraid of debt any more

Message in a bottleneck

APRIL

How Europe has mishandled the pandemic

China wants to make its Christians more Chinese

India is recording more cases of covid-19 than any other country

House prices in the rich world are booming

Janet Yellen calls for a global minimum tax on companies. Could it happen?

Riding high in a workers’ world

America’s boom has begun. Can it last?

New means of getting from A to B are disrupting carmaking

The war against money-laundering is being lost

Joe Biden gives up on the war in Afghanistan, leaving a weak ally

CEO activism in America is risky business

The political CEO

From United Kingdom to Untied Kingdom

How spooks are turning to superforecasting in the Cosmic Bazaar

Oil supermajors’ mega-bet on natural gas

Europe’s top football clubs plan a Super League of their own

Derek Chauvin is found guilty of murdering George Floyd

Europe’s Super League scores a spectacular own goal

India’s giant second wave is a disaster for it and the world

India is struggling with a catastrophic second wave

And the winner is… who cares?

What history tells you about post-pandemic booms

How TSMC has mastered the geopolitics of chipmaking

The magical realism of Tesla

China’s population appears to be shrinking

The most dangerous place on Earth

India’s second wave of covid-19 feels nothing like its first

MAY

Health care and workplaces must adjust for long covid

Berkshire Hathaway’s questionable performance and governance

Will going digital transform the yuan’s status at home and abroad?

New technology has enabled cybercrime on an industrial scale

Facebook’s oversight board says Donald Trump can be kept off – for now

India’s national government looks increasingly hapless

The digital currencies that will transform finance

Nicola Sturgeon’s nationalists retain power in Scotland

SpaceX, a Tesla for the skys

The Republican Party prepares to oust Liz Cheney from a top job

China’s census shows its population is nearing its peak

Only negotiations can bring lasting peace to Israel and Palestine

The pandemic’s global death toll far exceeds official estimates

Ten million reasons to vaccinate the world

A worrying new wave of covid-19 is hitting South-East Asia

How to thrive in the shadow of giants

Joe Biden wants to Europeanise the American welfare state

The Warner-Discovery deal and the future of streaming

The Tokyo Olympics are “safe and secure”, insist Japanese politicians

Even with a ceasefire, Israel and Hamas will not stop fighting each other

What to do about a labour crunch

How the pandemic has upended  the lives of working parents

Race in America

An investment bonanza is coming

Joe Biden orders his intelligence agencies to investigate the origins of covid-19

Voters should curb Mexico’s power-hungry president

Israel and Palestine: Two states or one?

Israel’s opposition has finally mustered a majority to dislodge Binyamin Netanyahu

China allows its citizen to have a third child

JUNE

Twilight of the tax haven

How to be the next Tesla

The new geopolitics of global business

Jair Bolsonaro is not the only reason his country is in a ditch

A backlash against gender ideology is starting in universities

How America Inc is coping with rising inflation

America’s wary approval of an Alzheimer’s drug offers hope to millions

Foreign asset managers are eyeing China’s vast pool of savings

Soaring factory prices in China add to global inflation fears

How green bottlenecks threaten the clean energy business

The bottlenecks which could constrain emission cuts

The G7 sketches a development-finance initiative to counter China’s 

Uneven vaccination rates are creating a new economic divide 

China’s climate sincerity is being put to the test

Hard truths about SoftBank

America and Russia return to traditional great-power diplomacy

To stop the ransomware pandemic, start with the basics

Few things are harder than building a state in Iraq

Economically, covid-19 has hit hard-up urbanites hardest

Covid-19 has stymied governments’ efforts to collect data

At 54, China’s average retirement age is too low

Russian and British forces square off in the Black Sea

China’s Communist Party at 100: the secret of its longevity

The race to build a commercial fusion reactor hots up

Big miners’ capital discipline is good news for investors

As lockdowns lift, media firms brace for an “attention recession”

Office re-entry is proving trickier than last year’s abrupt exit

How to assess the costs and benefits of lockdowns

Does America’s hot housing market still need propping up?

JULY

The long goodbye to covid-19

The real risk to America’s democracy

The unvaccinated are at risk as evolution accelerates the covid-19 pandemic

Central banks face up to the daunting task of quitting QE

Didi’s removal from China’s app stores marks a growing crackdown

Which airlines will soar after the pandemic

America leaves Afghanistan on the brink of collapse

America’s war in Afghanistan is ending in crushing defeat

AI is transforming the coding of computer programs

Will Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic jaunt boost space tourism?

Investment in fintech booms as upstarts go mainstream

The Cuban government cracks down on protesters

Biden’s new China Doctrine

Devastating floods in Germany warn Europe of the dangers of warming

China Inc’s new inconspicuous expansion

Will the economic recovery survive the end of emergency stimulus?

Jeffrey Bezos goes into space

Sport is still rife with doping

A 3C world has no safe place

Boris Johnson marks his second anniversary in Number 10

As moratoriums lift, will America face a wave of foreclosures and evictions?

As food prices soar, big agriculture is having a field day

Robinhood takes its IPO to the masses

Lexington: Republican delusion about the Capitol riot hits a dangerous new low

Unrest and economic underperformance haunt the emerging world

The prospects for developing countries are not what they once were

The pandemic has exacerbated existing political discontent

AUGUST

The pandemic has made homelessness more visible in many American cities

What if bitcoin went to zero?

A year after the Beirut blast: still no bottom to Lebanon’s crisis

At 70, the global convention on refugees is needed more than ever

The promise of open-source intelligence

Open-source intelligence challenges state monopolies on information

Vaccine mandates are spreading

The IPCC delivers its starkest warning about the world’s climate

The technology China wants

Angela Merkel’s successor could be left, right or Green

Xi Jinping’s assault on tech will change China’s trajectory

Afghanistan is disintegrating as the Taliban gain momentum

Britain’s courts are in a mess

America may pay dearly for defeat in Afghanistan

A refugee crisis looms after the Taliban take power in Afghanistan

Afghanistan under the Taliban will be less isolated than the West had hoped

The debacle in Afghanistan is a grave blow to America’s standing

From Saigon to Kabul: what America’s Afghan fiasco means for the world

The world needs a proper investigation into how covid-19 started

Apple has had a successful decade. The next one looks tougher

Time is running out for America and its allies to evacuate Kabul

Blasts at Kabul airport make the Afghan evacuation grimmer still

Suicide bombings hit Kabul as America scrambles to leave

The mess in Afghanistan exposes Britain’s foolish security policy

America bombs Islamic State. Once it quits Afghanistan, can it still?

The economy that covid-19 could not stop

SEPTEMBER

Will Joe Biden pay a political cost for America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan?

The Supreme Court green-lights a near-total abortion ban in Texas

Covid-19 may have killed 15m people

Is a self-driving car smarter than a seven-month-old?

The new economics of global cities

The Taliban storm Afghanistan’s last bastion

Intel’s turnaround and the future of chipmaking

Boris Johnson deserves credit for reforming Britain’s social care

Why nations that fail women fail

The real lessons from 9/11

America and the world – The real lessons from 9/11

A perfect storm for container shipping

Is America Inc getting less dynamic, less global and more monopolistic?

America is substantially reducing poverty among children

Why America needs vaccine mandates

The beguiling promise of decentralised finance

French fury over the American-Australian sub deal

Two new shocks for American shopping

China throws a wrench into a transpacific trade pact

Justin Trudeau keeps his job, but loses some lustre

What are the systemic risks of an Evergrande collapse?

The mess Merkel leaves behind

Measures to prevent the spread of covid-19 have also fended off flu

Tight election leaves German politics on knife edge

Are investors becoming warier of Chinese assets?

Japan readies itself for an unpredictable ballot

Boris Johnson dodges the blame for Britain’s petrol-pump nightmare

China’s new reality is rife with danger

OCTOBER

The military draft is making a comeback

Shein exemplifies a new style of Chinese multinational

The age of fossile-fuel abundance is dead

Facebook flounders in the court of public opinion

Facebook is nearing a reputational point of no return

Hydrogen’s moment is here at last

Iraq’s election could be worthless if few turn out to vote

Governments fall as the EU battles corruption

Credit-card firms are becoming reluctant regulators of the web

The booming business of knitting together the world’s electricity grids

One policy accounts for a lot of the decarbonisation in Joe Biden’s climate plans

The first big energy shock of the green era

How long can China’s zero-covid policy last?

Governments are finding new ways to squash free expression online

Samsung Electronics wants to dominate cutting-edge chipmaking

How kidnappers, zealots and rebels are making Nigeria ungovernable

A real-time revolution will end-up the practice of macroeconomics

Enter third-wave economics

Servicing and repairing electric cars requires new skills

The market for non-fungible tokens is evolving

America’s firms and the shortage economy

Why vaccine passports are causing chaos

Why the COP26 climate summit will be both crucial and disappointing

How the pandemic has changed the weather in the technology industry

The agenda for the COP 26 summit

Joe Biden’s big, difficult week

NOVEMBER

Even after a weak patch, America’s economy is still in high gear

The bond markets v central banks

Ethiopia’s capital is under threat

The calamity facing Joe Biden and the Democrats

Pricing power is highly prized on Wall Street

The Democrats’ social-spending package cannot repair the American Dream

Congress passes Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill

China attempts to clean up its sleaziest regional banks

Repression in Putin’s Russia is making young activists more defiant

Russia’s new era of repression

The welcome spread of assisted dying

Russia is stoking tension with Ukraine and the EU

China seeks to extend its clout in commodity markets

Talks between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden do not herald a thaw

MacKenzie Scott is shaking up the world of giving

The world is entering a new era of big government

The acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse shows America’s divide over guns

Far-right ideas are gaining a renewed respectability in France

Governments are not going to stop getting bigger

American inflation: global phenomenon or homegrown headache?

The bright new age of venture capital

Germany’s new government holds great promise

Adventure capitalism

`How Europe should deal with covid-19

Countries are scrambling to stop a new covid-19 variant

Three threats to the global economic recovery

Jack Dorsey goes Square – leaving Twitter at a time of his choosing

DECEMBER

BioNTech’s boss, Ugur Sahin, remains sanguine about Omicron

What the Omicron variant means for the world economy

Omicron looks ominous. How bad is it likely to be?

The buried boon to the wealthy in the Democrats’ tax plan

Evidence for the “great resignation” is thin on the ground

Why America’s Omicron response is so weak

A lack of chargers could stall the electric-vehicle revolution

Behind the chaos and scandal of Boris Johnson’s government lies stasis

Early data on Omicron show surging cases but milder symptoms

Why high inflation will persist in America well into the new year

Politicians are sending mixed signals about private car ownership

The battle of the computing clouds is intensifying

Something has broken in Boris Johnson’s government

Which is the Economist’s country of the year for 2021?

How we chose this week’s cover image

What the spread of Omicron means for the world

Joe Manchin kills the Build Back Better Act, Joe Biden’s ambitious legislative package

1843 magazine – I live in a zero-covid world

Turkey’s president launches a plan to shore up his plummeting currency

Bridgespan Group: the most powerful consultants you’ve never heard of

Retracing Julius Caesar’s path through France

North-south antipathies endure around the globe

Archbishop Desmond Tutu was the best kind of troublemaker

Which economies have done best and worst during the pandemic?

Big law will keep getting bigger in the 2020s

How to think about the threat to American democracy

What to expect from Eric Adams

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