2022-01-15-Economist Graphs

1. The world this week

1.1 Politics

1.2 Business

1.3 KAL’s cartoon

2. Leaders

2.1 Business and government: Welcome to the era of the bossy state

Countries around the world want to bend companies to their will

2.2 Party animal: Boris Johnson has always been unfit to be prime minister

With him in office, Britain can expect a rough ride

2.3 Poor students: America has failed to learn from the safe opening of classrooms abroad

Its children have lost more school days than peers in most rich countries

2.4 Standemonium: Central Asia will remain unstable, however many troops Russia sends

Events in Kazakhstan are not what they seem

2.5 Indiacitement: Hindu bigots are openly urging Indians to murder Muslims

And the ruling party does nothing to stop them

2.6 Financial risk: The worry about cross-border capital flows

They are growing fast and they pose a threat to stability

3. Letters

3.1 On the Republicans, Ukraine, gaming, running with bulls, corrugated iron, doors: Letters to the editor

A selection of correspondence

4. Briefing

4.1 Steppe in the dark: Kazakhstan’s bloody turbulence will affect all of Central Asia

Russian troops are no guarantee of stability

5. Europe

5.1 Teetering at the summit: Russia and the West meet for a crucial week of diplomacy

Even as they talk, both sides are preparing for war

5.2 Unfashionably gauche: The French left faces disaster in April’s presidential election

The once mighty Socialists are now barely a blip

5.3 The geopolitics of December 25th: Ukraine’s Orthodox Church may change the date of its Christmas

Switching to the Western date is a snub to Russia

5.4 Removing the clogs: A new Dutch government with a taste for Europe

The Netherlands has long resisted collective EU spending, but that is changing

5.5 Charlemagne: Europe’s energy crisis will trigger its worst neuroses

A surge in gas prices is the stuff of nightmares

6. Britain

6.1 Breaking bad: Boris Johnson’s career of rule-breaking runs into crisis

From smashing the political status quo to partying during lockdown

6.2 Britain’s energy crisis: Expensive energy is baked into Britain’s future

It’s not cheap being green

6.3 Choosing to look away: Britain’s government plans to stop sending free tests to homes

Deciding when is tricky

6.4 Match and dispatch: Non-religious celebrants are leading more of England’s funerals

They could soon get the right to marry people, too

6.5 Trees and history: Britain still has a few patches of rainforest, which need help

Rewilding is not the solution

6.6 Automatic for the people: Vanguard’s big push into financial advice

Asset management’s great disrupter has picked a new target

6.7 Bagehot: What did you expect from Boris Johnson?

The prime minister, in his own way, is Britain’s most honest politician

7. Middle East & Africa

7.1 An EU-funded horror story: Europe is bankrolling a force that routinely abuses African migrants

Libya’s coastguard is not known for its professionalism

7.2 Make way: Why more Arabs are embracing pedal power

Cars still dominate, but cycling is growing more popular

7.3 Happy Christmas, war is over?: Ethiopia promises peace but keeps bombing rebels and civilians

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s actions belie his words

7.4 Wagner, worse than it sounds: Small bands of mercenaries extend Russia’s reach in Africa

Local despots seek unsqueamish hired guns

8. United States

8.1 Refunding the police: As violent crime leaps, liberal cities rethink cutting police budgets

The tricky politics of criminal-justice reform at a time of rising fears

8.2 America’s missing diplomats: Can Joe Biden’s relentless diplomacy work without diplomats?

More than one-third of America’s ambassadors are missing from the action

8.3 Biden’s judges: More diverse appointments are set to reshape America’s judiciary

Democrats race to fill the courts

8.4 Schools out: America resorts to remote learning, against pupils’ interests

Why have so many schools been cancelling classes?

8.5 Fires: Deadly blazes reflect America’s failure to adequately house its poor

The real cause of recent deadly fires was poverty

8.6 An American boom town: As Austin thrives as a tech hub, will it avoid San Francisco’s problems?

The capital of Texas will have to grapple with the downsides of growth

8.7 Lexington: Joe Biden was set up to fail

The Democratic president is a flawed politician in an impossible job

9. The Americas

9.1 Silicon linings: The pandemic has accelerated Latin America’s startup boom

Many businesses are ripe for disruption

9.2 Poor figures: Jair Bolsonaro’s scorn for data leaves Brazil in the dark

The president often prefers inaccurate statistics, or none at all

9.3 A puck in the teeth: Canada’s best ice-hockey players cannot go to the Olympics

The National Hockey League may be betting on anti-China sentiment

10. Asia

10.1 Playing with fire: India’s government is ignoring, and sometimes even encouraging, hatred of minorities

Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party is determined to preserve its power

10.2 Some like it otter: Demand for pet otters is driving a harmful trade

The creatures are cute but make lousy pets

10.3 Thanks, but no thanks: Sri Lanka is flirting with default

Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government is reluctant to go to the IMF

10.4 Djebacle: Australia ties itself in knots over No-vax Djokovic

The tennis star won in court but may yet be unable to play on court

10.5 Banyan: China does not have it all its way in the South China Sea

South-East Asian countries are increasingly wary of their giant neighbour

11. China

11.1 All change, bar one: Xi Jinping’s job is safe but China’s leadership is being shaken up

A five-yearly churn is affecting decisions on everything from the economy to covid-19

11.2 Chaguan: America and China are one military accident away from disaster

Lessons from a Chinese jet’s fatal collision with a US spy plane, 21 years ago

12. International

12.1 The point of tipping: Do tips make for better service?

The evidence is mixed—and the practice varies widely across the world

13. Special report

13.1 Business and the state: Governments’ widespread new fondness for interventionism

After a long liberalising era, the state has bounced back. That is not a good thing, argues Jan Piotrowski

13.2 The new industrial policy: Many countries are seeing a revival of industrial policy

A previously discredited approach has found new believers

13.3 Competition policy: The growing demand for more vigorous antitrust action

Greater concentration of market power is leading to a trustbusting revival

13.4 Government regulation: Enthusiasm for regulation, often in areas like the climate, shows no sign of flagging

Red tape continues to spread inexorably

13.5 Corporate taxes: The long trend of falling corporate taxes is being reversed

After falling for decades, taxes on companies are rising again

13.6 The future: However justified, more government intervention risks being counterproductive

It is time to reassert the case for less state intrusion

13.7 Sources and acknowledgments

14. Business

14.1 Move fast and heal things: How health care is turning into a consumer product

A new tech boom is changing the business of medicine

14.2 Medium-sized expectations: What the Mittelstand wants

Germany’s manufacturing bosses size up the new government

14.3 The new great game: Can big oil’s bounce-back last?

Why American oil companies are different

14.4 Bartleby: Remote work and the importance of writing

The written word will flourish in the post-pandemic workplace

14.5 Schumpeter: TikTok isn’t silly. It’s serious

It is disrupting America’s social-media landscape

15. Finance & economics

15.1 Super savers: The $28trn global reach of Asian finance

As private savings have built up in East and South-East Asia, the region’s financiers now wield heft in far-flung asset markets

15.2 Atom and abroad: The Kazakh crisis is only one threat hanging over the uranium market

A global crunch in nuclear fuel is no longer impossible

15.3 Life after stimmy: Will Americans’ pandemic savings stash keep the economy rolling?

The “stimmy” boost may linger even as policymakers wind down support

15.4 Aversion therapy: The new government hopes to cure Germans’ distaste the stockmarket

Plans include funding a small part of the public-pension scheme through stock investment

15.5 Buttonwood: The faster metabolism of finance, as seen by a veteran broker

Prices are set at the margin. And the marginal trader is a hedge-fund manager

15.6 Taming tigers: A corruption probe is only the latest of Chinese insurers’ woes

About 30% of salespeople have left the industry since 2019

15.7 Free exchange: Will remote work stick after the pandemic?

Speakers at the American Economics Association’s annual pow-wow take a shot at the question

16. Science & technology

16.1 Seismology: Predicting earthquakes is not possible. Yet

But an intriguing new approach shows promise

16.2 Climate change: A lot of Arctic infrastructure is threatened by rising temperatures

Russia will be particularly badly hit

16.3 Xenotransplantation: The science behind the first successful pig-to-human heart transplant

It may lead to a new approach to organ transplantation

16.4 Marine biology: The world’s biggest fish hatchery

The ocean depths still hold many surprises

16.5 Omicron and immunity: The case for updating covid-19 vaccines for the Omicron variant

A new study puts the variant in a group apart from its predecessors

17. Books & arts

17.1 The purpose of art: In Japan, festivals are boldly taking art into the countryside

The trend represents a reappraisal of what art can do—and whom it is for

17.2 Hollywood legends: It was hard for any viewer to look away from Sidney Poitier

Or down on him

17.3 Out of the abyss: “Aftermath” is a piercing study of Germany after 1945

The road from the Third Reich to modern Germany began in a field of rubble

17.4 Dystopian fiction: Jessamine Chan’s gripping debut novel sends up modern parenting

“The School for Good Mothers” also sounds the alarm about surveillance

17.5 Johnson: Dominant languages can spread even without coercion

Whether and how to resist them is a tough question

18. Economic & financial indicators

18.1 Economic data, commodities and markets: Indicators

19. Graphic detail

19.1 Wages and places: Why North Dakota, not New York, may be the land of opportunity

Economists try to understand the determinants of higher wages

20. Obituary

20.1 Homo impatiens: Richard Leakey established Kenya as a prime source of hominid fossils

The palaeoanthropologist and conservationist died on January 2nd, aged 76