Old colonial powers are bidding for influence in Lebanon
AS CELEBRATIONS GO, it was sombre. A century earlier French officials stood in Beirut’s imposing Résidence des Pins (the French ambassador’s villa) and carved Lebanon out of their mandate in Syria. On September 1st Emmanuel Macron travelled there to mark the event—and to lecture the politicians who have helped turn Lebanon into a failed state.Lebanon…
Burkina Faso says its poll will be valid, whatever the turnout
Sep 3rd 2020WHAT MAKES a national election national? One answer is that everyone is able to vote. But politicians in Burkina Faso disagree. With little consultation, the main political parties have voted to change the electoral code so that presidential and legislative elections to be held in November will be deemed valid even if people…
Which is the best market model?
Sep 12th 2020Editor’s note: Some of our covid-19 coverage is free for readers of The Economist Today, our daily newsletter. For more stories and our pandemic tracker, see our hubPOLITICAL ECONOMY is a discipline in which rigorous empirical testing is difficult. Scholars are rarely presented with the kind of naturally occurring experiments which crop up…
What can be learnt from Chinese futures trading?
Sep 12th 2020“SO LONG AS you think about what others are thinking about, and stick to your trading strategy, you can always be successful.” This encouraging, if dubious, sliver of market wisdom was proffered on September 3rd by Zhou Chengji, a Chinese investment adviser, during a two-hour online tutorial. China is hardly alone in having…