In praise of: The Economist

I would like to take a moment to extol the virtues of my favorite news magazine. Every Friday morning I lie in bed waiting with baited breath for the sound of the postman opening my gate. My heart skips a beat as I hear the sound of my two magazines (Economist, and New Statesman - more on NS later) drop heavily from the mail slot onto the carpet.

Now let me tell you why the Economist is great. It offers excellent no BS coverage of world events. And it covers everything. Every issue follows the exact same format, and you always no where to turn to find the news item you are looking for. The magazine starts with a summary (1 page each) dedicated respectively to politics and business. If you only have 5 minutes to catch up on everything that has happened in the world that week than this summary is your answer. After that there is about 5 pages of half page leaders that look more in depth at the most important events of that week, starting with a full page comment on the cover story. Then follows the reader letters, which are always quite good and often antagonistic. After that the news is divided up by country and continent, everything that has happened, in every country, is reported in detail with excellent commentary.

This should be more than enough one might think, but no friends, there is more. After exhaustively covering the news of the entire world (for the period of the preceding week), there is then a huge section on financial markets and business etc. (which I admittedly don't understand) and then a large section of the magazine is dedicated to book reviews, science and technology, art and whatever else you want.

My subscription to the Economist is my most cherished possession today (my wife being in London ['how chauvinistic' you rightly say, 'he considers his wife a possession'.]) I recommend that next time you are perusing the magazine rack at the train station (or for my North American comrades - the station where you fill your vehicle with petroleum distillate) instead of buying some heinous tabloid or 'lads' magazine, you buy the Economist, and treat yourself to a view of the world.

I am such a loser.

Bye!