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The year in review – The Economist’s editors pick the ten covers that define 2018 | International

Ειδήσεις Ελλάδα

Dec 25th 2018

IT MAY NOT always be appropriate to judge a book by its cover, but that advice does not extend to weekly newspapers. Every week, the editors of The Economist debate, sometimes argue and eventually agree on what is, for us, the most important story of the week. That story earns the most prized spot in the paper: the cover.

There is one cheat: in particularly newsy weeks, or when a story is at the top of the agenda in one part of the world but not in others, we “split” our covers, dedicating the most valuable real estate of the week to different things in different places. The articles on the inside remain exactly the same no matter where you buy your copy. In 2018 we published 51 issues (our editorial offices are closed during the week of Christmas, and there is no edition) with 63 covers.

As in past years, President Donald made several appearances. His face showed up on the cover seven times, the same as in 2017. China too found its way onto seven covers this year, on to ranging from surveillance and its global investments to battles for digital supremacy and its relationship with the West. Brexit remained top of mind, appearing on the cover of our British edition six times this year—not counting broader British political stories. The other subject that occupied our reporters’ and editors’ thoughts this year was digital technology, with six covers related to big tech firms.

We did not neglect the rest of the world. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico’s new president, and Jair Bolsonaro, who assumes office as Brazil’s president on January 1st 2019, both earned a spot on the cover this year, both for worrying reasons. Hungary’s Viktor Orban, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte and Russia’s Vladimir Putin put in a joint appearance in a cover story about how strongmen subvert democracy.

News did not always dominate. We used the power of the cover to shine a light on countries, events and themes that are too easily buried beneath the avalanche of news emerging from America and Europe. In 2018 we worried about Congo “heading back to hell” (February 17th), we recommended ways to cut the murder rate in the emerging world’s most dangerous cities (April 7th), argued that Israel must answer for the deaths in Gaza (May 19th) and said that India was failing its women (July 7th). But it was also a year in which more cheerful trends pushed their way to the top: we showed how universal health care, worldwide, is within reach (April 28th), considered a revolution in personalised medicine (February 3rd) and explored the decline in the suicide rate (November 24th).

As readers might expect from a newspaper called The Economist, we also dedicated several covers to business, finance and economics. We fretted about the extraordinary economic gamble of America’s fiscal policy (February 10th), profiled Masayoshi Son, the man behind a $100bn investment fund for tech companies (May 12th), went in search of India’s missing middle class (January 13th) and argued that, ten years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the world had not learned the lessons of the financial crisis (September 8th). We asked how bad the next recession would be (October 13th) and laid out a blueprint for the next capitalist revolution (November 17th).

Below are ten covers that sum up the year, and an 11th one that is particularly close to our hearts: the issue of September 15th marked the completion of 175 years since this newspaper was first published. We celebrated the occasion with a simple, Economist-red cover advertising “a manifesto for renewing liberalism”.

Click on any title or image to see the issue contents.

February 24th: The meddler

As certainty grew over Russian interference in elections, we looked at how Vladimir Putin meddles in Western democracies, and why the West’s response is inadequate

March 10th: The threat to world trade

We argued that the rules-based system was in grave danger and that Donald’s tariffs on steel and aluminium would be just the start

March 24th: Epic fail

As Facebook faced a reputational meltdown, we described how it, and the wider tech industry, should respond

June 2nd: The surveillance state

The state can gather more information, more easily, than ever before. Do not underestimate the risks, we warned

June 9th: America’s foreign policy

Donald’s demolition theory would harm America and the world, we said in June

June 16th: How strongmen subvert democracy

The greatest risk to pluralism, we wrote, is in young democracies where checks and balances are not yet robust

July 14th: Just another week in British politics

The worst is yet to come, we predicted in July. As the year draws to a close, this cover remains as fresh as the day it was printed

July 28th: Planet China

We welcomed aspects of China’s belt-and-road plans, while also advising caution

August 4th: In the line of fire

As wildfires raged across the world, we reminded readers that the world is losing the war against climate change

September 29th: Sex and power

We examined the effects of #MeToo one year on, declaring its potential to be the most powerful force for equality since women’s suffrage

And, lastly, our anniversary edition: A manifesto for renewing liberalism

Success turned liberals into a complacent elite, we said, arguing that they need to rekindle their desire for radicalism

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