Thoughts on the economist?

[0roo0roo]

better than crap like time magazine

 

[JJChicken]

Left-wing propaganda. Everyone knows this.

So true

 

[HamburgerBoy]

You have to be pretty fucking stupid to think that the Economist, and economically libertarian publication, is left wing. Like, close to retardation stupid.

I wasn't serious in my response, but wot? My grandmother gave me a free year's subscription and from what I read of it (not very much admittedly) I don't remember anything economically libertarian about it. Doing a quick read through the US sections of several issues, they do bring up libertarian sides to arguments on occasion but the author's opinions are generally neutral at such times. I wouldn't call the 2009 stimulus or cap-and-trade economically libertarian ideas either, and the opinions are in favor of those. Overall it seems approximately moderate, not communist socialist hippie leftist, but libertarian?

 

[JJChicken]

Just read NYT. Apart from being pro-Apple, it is a very unbiased paper. And you have to LOVE the Georgia 10pt font...droooooolsss....

 

[preslove]

I wouldn't call the 2009 stimulus or cap-and-trade economically libertarian ideas either, and the opinions are in favor of those.

Cap and trade is a market based approach to emissions control that was first proposed and supported by Republican appointed officials in the late 80's and early 90's. Libertarianism calls for the use of market based solutions to modern problems because they believe markets are more efficient than direct government action.

Non-crazy, informed people who weren't out to score political points all supported both the 2009 stimulus signed by Obama, and the 2008 stimulus signed by Bush (yes, Bush signed a major part of of "the stimulus"). This is because informed, non-crazy people knew that not passing stimulus legislation would have led to the implosion of not only the American economy, but to that of much of the world. While Economist is libertarian leaning, but it is not insane.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Cap and trade is a market based approach to emissions control that was first proposed and supported by Republican appointed officials in the late 80's and early 90's. Libertarianism calls for the use of market based solutions to modern problems because they believe markets are more efficient than direct government action.

Non-crazy, informed people who weren't out to score political points all supported both the 2009 stimulus signed by Obama, and the 2008 stimulus signed by Bush (yes, Bush signed a major part of of "the stimulus"). This is because informed, non-crazy people knew that not passing stimulus legislation would have led to the implosion of not only the American economy, but to that of much of the world. While Economist is libertarian leaning, but it is not insane.

Regardless of how necessary the stimulus was to the economy's survival, it's not a libertarian approach. I did find one article regarding the GM bailout that did show a libertarian viewpoint, blaming pensions and the government-backed union's demands in part for the company's demise, but that was just one article. They probably have more (maybe they have a token libertarian author alongside others of varying political views) but I don't see how the paper as a whole is economically libertarian.

 

[Doggiedog]

True story.

I got a free six month subscription to the Economist so I signed up. One month later I get a bill saying its not free and I had to pay. I told them to cancel it so they did. Afterwards I kept getting junk mail from Greenpeace and Amnesty Int'l.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

True story.

I got a free six month subscription to the Economist so I signed up. One month later I get a bill saying its not free and I had to pay. I told them to cancel it so they did. Afterwards I kept getting junk mail from Greenpeace and Amnesty Int'l.

How did you get the subscription? If you got it from a crazy hard-left grandmother like I did, maybe she just signed you up for a lot of other stuff. I never got any political spam after my subscription ended.

EDIT: True story.

My dad gave his email to some conservative paper/magazine/something-or-other and shortly later he started getting pornographic spam. He was already a disenfranchised ex-Republican conservative at the time and now I don't think he trusts anything political.

 

[WildHorse]

``http://www.economist.com/

 

[KeithTalent]

I'm a big fan. I don't subscribe anymore as I just could not get around to reading it in a timely manner, but I always enjoyed the content when I did. Now I'll just buy one-off issues from time to time when I see something specific I want to read about.

KT

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

The Economist? I used to get that as a free subscription. It is good if you have time to read it.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Great mag, highly recommended for everyone.

 

[Aluvus]

Regardless of how necessary the stimulus was to the economy's survival, it's not a libertarian approach. I did find one article regarding the GM bailout that did show a libertarian viewpoint, blaming pensions and the government-backed union's demands in part for the company's demise, but that was just one article. They probably have more (maybe they have a token libertarian author alongside others of varying political views) but I don't see how the paper as a whole is economically libertarian.

The Economist is well known for having a pro-markets bias; indeed, they routinely begin some bit of commentary (in particular commentary running contrary to that trend) with a statement to that effect. But it's not a Fox News-style bias, where ideology trumps all. And being British, their take on being pro-market is a bit different than an American's might be.

All that said, I would not describe them as "libertarian"; both because of the US-centric connotations that has to me, and because they often advocate things (socialized health care, reasonable government regulation) that pragmatically make sense but violate libertarian dogma.

It would be difficult to have any token authors when they essentially never use the real names of any of their writers. News items have no bylines; opinion pieces are written under pseudonyms that are used by multiple people. Their blogs do at least note the author's initials. It's a bit like watching the Stig drive, really.

 

[sjwaste]

Thanks for the tip. I just used 2100 miles I had sitting around for 26 issues...you just saved me some $$ man! /beer

Glad I could help. It's sometimes not on the promos that they mail you, nor immediately obvious when you go to the website to redeem. But it's often buried a few pages in, or through googling for a specific link. Great use of stranded miles.