Why Brahmins lead Western firms but rarely Indian ones
Dec 29th 2021WHAT DO THE chief executives of Adobe, Alphabet, IBM, Match Group (which owns Tinder), Microsoft, OnlyFans (a subscription service featuring content creators in various stages of undress) and Twitter have in common? All seven happen to be of Indian origin. That is not surprising considering the abundance of subcontinental talent drifting into Western…
Arab autocrats love writing, and ignoring, constitutions
KAIS SAIED’S birthday is not until February, but his speech on December 13th contained an early gift to himself. Tunisia has been in crisis since July, when Mr Saied, the president, suspended parliament and much of the constitution. He told his constituents that Tunisia’s democracy was broken (many of them agreed) and portrayed himself as…
Middlemen are the invisible links in African agriculture
AS A CHILD Sowedi Lwanga used to collect and sell the loose coffee that had fallen outside the hulling factory where he lived in Mityana, central Uganda. He started a trading business when he was still in secondary school. Coffee is a “common man’s charter”, he says. “You jump out from your bed, you [pick…
Why capital will become scarcer in the 2020s
Dec 28th 2021THE TROUBLE with the 12-month outlook, an obligation at this time of year, is that the forecasts will be wrong. Of course they will. In financial markets there are so many ways to err—on direction, timing or speed of change. A year is both too long and too short. Too long, because the…
Which economies have done best and worst during the pandemic?
Dec 26th 2021by SAN FRANCISCOTHE SPEED of the economic bounce-back from the enormous recession of 2020 has taken many forecasters by surprise. Output across the 38 mostly rich OECD countries combined probably surpassed its pre-crisis level a few months ago. The average unemployment rate across the club, at 5.7%, is in line with the post-war…
Archbishop Desmond Tutu was the best kind of troublemaker
Dec 26th 2021THERE WERE many times, Desmond Tutu recalled, “when the apartheid rulers were strutting arrogantly, as if they were invincible cocks of the walk, and our people were being treated as if they were rubbish.” He wanted to whisper in God’s ear, “God, we know that you are in charge. Why don’t you make…
Omicron latest: cases of the new variant are less severe than Delta, new studies say
Dec 16th 2021IF THERE IS one lesson the covid-19 pandemic has taught the world, it is that acting early pays off. So when news emerged on November 25th in South Africa of a worrying new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, countries immediately began scrambling to tighten the rules on international travel. By November 29th suspected…
Omicron covid cases are less severe than Delta, new studies say
Dec 22nd 2021AS THE OMICRON wave of covid-19 washes over Europe and America, it is only a matter of time before the variant breaks over the rest of the world. First spied in South Africa, Omicron had been detected in 106 countries, and counting, by December 22nd. The world has been here before, with new…
Five financial surprises in 2021
EVERY YEAR comes with its own unexpected twists for financial markets, but 2021 has been jam-packed with them. Here are some of the developments that took investors, companies and analysts most by surprise this year, and what they mean for 2022. Supply-chain disruptionsPaul Samuelson, a Nobel-prizewinning economist, once joked that the stockmarket had predicted nine…
Afghanistan’s health-care system is crumbling
ABDUL QASIM SANGIN’S medical career began with the fall of the Taliban government in 2001. He is not sure it can survive their return. Dr Sangin was a final-year student in Kabul when America ousted the Islamists from power two decades ago. He has since risen to become the director of a provincial hospital. Yet…