"Economist" on America

by Alistair Burnett

"The Economist" was fascinated by America from its first issue in 1943. It believed it had a commercial purpose to interpret one country to another, and use its experience to write with authority for both. It foresaw, early in the 1850s, that the United States would be the most powerful country in the world. There have been occasions, such as the Civil War and the Cuban missile crisis, when the paper got it wrong but, for the most part, it has been adept at getting it right. This study of Anglo-American affairs over the last 150 years is written as seen by "The Economist"'s journalist writing from its own idiosyncratic point of view, consistently in favour of free governments and free markets, and critical of most participants in both.