r/theeconomist

I got a yearly digital+print subscription to The Economist from Discount Mags for $120. Has anyone else used it? It still hasn't been activated, but the price seems very good, given that The Economist is $180 for a digital+print subscription. Is there a catch?

Why is The Economist so in love with Kamala or so in hate with Trump? This week’s leader says KH is slightly left of center. AYFKM? Harris is further left than Bernie! While Trump is a major AH, if we elect Harris & Walz, we could be in trouble. Has The Economist noticed what a mess the Biden administration has been? Or does the Biden administration’s climate change fetish overshadow The Economist’s judgement on all the policy gaffes: Unchecked borders

Inflation

Deficit spending

Defund law enforcement

Identity politics

Racial division

Concealment of Biden’s incapacitation

Appeasement of Iran

Appeasement of Putin

Appeasement of China

Weak military

Packing Supreme Court

Ignoring Supreme Court edicts

EV forced changes

Out of control spending

Lawfare

Political coup

Not answering who the real President is for last 3.5 years

…ad nauseum!

Disappearance of a fair and balanced media?

How about a reality check, Economists?

Economist writes about Tim Walz “He is the first non-lawyer to be on the Democratic ticket since 1980.” Al Gore attended law school for a time, but didn’t graduate, that hardly makes him a lawyer.

I’m a long-time subscriber and love the depth of the articles, but one thing that I find really lacking is the 'save article' feature. I'm trying to get into a consistent reading habit (e.g., reading an article a day) and want a way to keep track of what I have read.

Is it just me, or do others also feel that the feature is lacking?

If this is a shared pain, I am thinking of building some kind of tool or extension that would allow a better experience of saving + retrieving articles I've read + some sort of a streak meter.

Feels like it would help maximise the ever increasing cost of my yearly subscription.

Had a tab open in my browser for the past week to the educator subscription deal area. Was going to pull the trigger today, but I noticed that the tab refreshed and the discount now shows up as 50% instead of 75%. Looks like the same with student subs as well? That's awfully disappointing.

Anyone here interested in the economist magazine from 1995-998?

Wondering if I can get all three throughout the day sent to my inbox.

I'm in awe how poor my experience is. I've must have come back to the economist 9 times by now, only to stop because the app is so unbelievably frustratingly unresponsive.

I want to see text and some audio. This is basic functionality that was perfected a decade ago.

Either get better developers, or more likely, they need to be able to tell the marketing department to shove all their bullshit UX trackers somewhere unpleasant.

Trying to diagnose why people think the app is bad, might be the cause for bad app.

I received the previous edition July 27- August 9th "Summer reading 1843: can she win." I can view the "Chinese business goes global" digital edition only but did not receive a print version.

I opened up the espresso app on my iPhone 14 today and all I see is the video section. There's no roundup or articles to read. I tried everything on their tech support page--restarted the app, restarted my phone, deleted and reinstalled the app...nothing worked. Anyone else having this issue?

I'm trying to download the most recent audio edition and the audio edition's webpage () is showing this week's issue as "January 1, 1970" (UNIX epoch beginning?) Is everyone else seeing this? If I click on the "Download" button, it just takes me back to the homepage.

The webpage also says the following:

We'll soon be retiring this page and discontinuing access to our audio edition through MP3 downloads and RSS feeds. To continue listening to the audio edition, please download our app for iOS or Android. If you have any further questions or comments, please contact us.

Is the audio edition gone for good? If so, is there any way to extract the audio files from the app? I have a subscription but every time I tried to use their app I had problems with it. It's much easier to just download the mp3's to my phone and use my audio player of choice.

EDIT: The Audio Edition page seems to have been restored.

This series has been great. And, episode 5, Dick Army's, opinions on Obama so perfectly encapsulate so many Boomer attitudes towards Obama, but also POC in general. "I just think [Obama} hates America, was raised to hate".., "Soros (antisemitism)" "history will show..." No examples of why "Obama hates America", "or set America race relations back" just "I just think..." "he's not good, he's evil" "not a good person". Fuck this bigot to hell. But, Army's "I just think" does help me understand the backlash and rise of Trump. Jeebus.

As someone who knew nothing about the Druze community, I was very interested in finding out more about them after listening to the Economist podcast "Warpath: Israel vows revenge on Hizbullah". I listened to the Guardian podcast "How two assassinations left the Middle East on the edge" right after and I was slightly surprised by the jarring discrepancies in the two outlets' characterisation of the Druze community's stance on the recent attacks.

I personally endorse reading this Reuters article to find out more about the Druze. I also encourage comparing the Economist and Guardian podcasts (and also articles) below to see how framing can really affect your takeaways from a story. I'm not trying to bash the Economist here, I'm just saying that it's important to diversify your sources to balance out the bias, which is just a fact of life.

Economist podcast in question:

Guardian podcast in question:

Reuters article: or if you face a paywall

Economist articles: and

Guardian articles for reference: and

Has The Economist added ads to Espresso again? Or is it just a glitch… again?

I just (re) subscribed but apparently there's no print issue this week- I'd like to find last week's print issue at a shop somewhere, but where? The COOP no longer had it last I checked, lots of other places that carry magazines never have it, Out of Town News is gone...

I’ve noticed on a few recent episodes of “the intelligence” that dead Israelis under the age of 18 are being referred to as “young people” but dead Palestinians under the age of 18 are often referred to as “children.” Is this intentional?

The fourth paragraph of the article states, "It takes a reduction of only about a third of a percentage point in interest rates to save $100bn (0.4% of gdp) annually. In any case, it is wrong to dismiss the benefits of low consumer prices, which boost workers’ real incomes. A common rule of thumb suggests that closing the current-account deficit by weakening the dollar would require roughly a 30% depreciation, which would boost inflation by 1-2 percentage points."

Can someone please help to explain what exactly this is saying?

Specifically, for the first sentence, what is this $100bn being saved by? Saved through less interest payments to lenders because as the economy is infused with cash, value of the dollar goes down and interest rates also go down?

For the third sentence, what account deficit is being referenced here? The country's annual deficit spending or the deficit of what producers are currently losing out in exports as a result of a strong dollar?

Please let me know if any clarification is needed. I appreciate any and all attempts at helping to make sense of this.

Does anybody know what happened to the video section in the Espresso app on Android? They were included for a couple of days but now I can't find them anywhere.

OK so I missed the Checks and Balances folks too much and bought Podcasts+.

I'm trying to listen to but only Episode 1 is listed there to play even though 3 episodes exist. How do I listen to the current one? Or revisit previous episodes of podcasts? Or is that simply not possible on the website such that I have to download some app or another. I'd prefer to just have it play on their website in the browser while I work, if possible.

edit: I tried instructions to add to Youtube since that's something I already have an account for, but there's no option to "Add Podcast" in browser. Is that literally an app-only thing? I'm so sick of having apps :/

edit 2: OK I downloaded the stupid Youtube Music app and did the RSS stuff. Now I can finally see all the episodes in the browser's Youtube Music (not Podcasts which is misleading AF, I don't understand the difference). Fuck do I miss being able to ask Google Home to just play this shit for free.

I subscribed to the Economist when I was in the grips of too much doomscrolling and searching for a news source I could trust. I found the Economist presented information in a clear way without sensationalism. What I've noticed over time is that you are not above throwing Trump on the cover repeatedly to drive sales. I was disappointed that you advocated for Biden to step aside but you did so prior to the debate so at least you were consistent. I was furious when you responded to recent SCOTUS rulings that threaten the rule of law and the ability of the US government to regulate industry by putting a walker on the cover. Now Dems have made the move you called for and I find "Harris lacks charisma and time" on your site. One could characterize this as contradictory or downright disingenuous. Either way I no longer trust your publication and will be canceling my subscription.

I’m curious how much percent of the content in any given issue some of you read. I only use the printed version (even though access to the digital version is provided by default for those opting for the printed version).

I always go through the first articles before the different regional blocks start, of which I cover most of “United States”, “Europe” and “Britain”. Occasionally, I’ll pick one or two articles from Asia and Middle East or Americas. And then, I’d cover roughly 25-30% of the Business, Finance & Economics and Culture, depending on what interests me.

My biggest frustration is that a lot of information that I read does not seem to stick with me and I often find myself in a situation that when I re-read an article I end up saying “Wow, I did read this and found it fascinating, but I never would have remembered it if I hadn’t revisited the article.

I guess I need to find a better strategy to retain what I read. How do you guys retain what you read? Am I the only one struggling with this?

<rant>

I noticed when they launched their new podcast series "Boom!" it included an ad at the beginning and another half way through. At least the one that drops on Thursdays does. They appear to re-issue it at the weekend; maybe that one is ad-free. I don't listen twice.

Now today I see that their Checks and Balance email is sponsored by The Ford Foundation. They get a nice banner just beneath the header and a good-sized ad placed in the middle of the content.

Times are certainly tough in the journalism biz these days, but I kinda wish they'd treat their paid subscribers better. Especially at the prices they charge for subscriptions.

</rant>

Edit: the second weekly drop of "Boom!" on Friday/Saturday does not contain ads.