The Economist: Great Stories, Great Quotes

A News Magazine that Delivers News

If you had to restrict yourself to just one magazine the choice would be easy.  Every week The Economist provides concise, correct and accurate reporting of news not just in the United States, but in the rest of the world as well.  It’s writing is crisp, informative and to the point.

The current edition, with this great cover is just another example.  Here are some salient quotes from key articles.

Describing the deficit reduction/debt ceiling agreement the magazine said this

In Washington, DC, meanwhile, the squabbling politicians averted a default over the debt ceiling with a deal that is flawed on two counts: it enshrines short-term fiscal contraction when the economy needs a boost, and it fails to reduce the medium-term deficit.

thus putting in a few words what many pundits were unable to explain in many paragraphs.

In explaining the riots in Britain they said

Near-American levels of inequality may have combined with laxer European attitudes to criminal justice to create an incendiary mix of rage and boldness.

This recognizes that U. S. income and wealth inequality is becoming a standard,  a standard of malignancy, not a standard of excellence.

On the efforts of Democrats to recall Wisconsin Republican state senators, they observed

One thing seems certain, however: the Democratic fantasy of an irresistible leftward swing among voters outraged by Republican extremism is just that.

Which should have brought a needed dose of reality to the Dems.

The Economist columnist “Lexington” compares the American electoral system with the British and finds

Compared with the total war that is American politics, the British version is sport (amateur sport at that: the $1 billion that Mr Obama is said to be seeking for his re-election campaign would pay for an entire British general election 20 times over).

and thanks to a misguided Supreme Court that wants unlimited money in election campaigns this will not change.

It turns out China is getting an aircraft carrier, for “prestige”. 

It's Big and It Floats and It's a Used Aircraft Carrier
They Saved the New Carrier Depreciation

Ok, it is a used one that they bought at a "scratch and dent" sale and one they was a "fixer upper". 

It was bought in 1998 from Ukraine, where it had been rusting half-finished since its first launch a decade earlier. The Ukrainians were told it would be used as a floating casino (they sold it without weapons or engines).

The Chinese media hailed the vessel as a sign of China’s emergence as a sea power, one they insist has only peaceful intent

Exactly how an aircraft carrier can have a “peaceful intent” was not explained by the Chinese.

Well, you get the picture.  So if you really need to be informed, there’s the source, and yes you can skip the American “so-called” news magazines that have cover stories on men doing chores, or controversies about an unflattering picture of a politician.  They won’t be around for long anyway.