Conservatives are working hard to reconcile their beliefs with the next president's agenda A true politician is someone who, upon spying a torch-wielding mob marching on his legislature, declares: "Oh good, a parade - I must lead it." A striking number of conservatives are taking that approach ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20th. The president-elect's followers include many who ..
Soaring share prices suggest the end of the tunnel for big banks In the bible, seven years of feast were followed by seven years of famine. For banks there have been ten lean years. Subprime-loan defaults started to rise in February 2007, causing a near-collapse of the industry in America and Europe. Next came bail-outs from governments, then years of grovelling before regulators, mass firings o..
The governments of poor countries are right to complain about the West's restrictive immigration policies. But they are often guilty of the same A political brain teaser: which party in which country has promised "punitive measures" against illegal immigration, has threatened to disenfranchise people who arrived half a century ago and has told migrants to "be prepared with their bags packed"? Th..
In 1942 Joseph Schumpeter warned that capitalism might not survive. A surge of populism means it is once more in danger It was in 1942 that Joseph Schumpeter published his only bestseller, "Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy". The book was popular for good reason. It was a tour de force of economics, history and sociology. It coined memorable phrases such as "creative destruction". But it was a..
Barack Obama's presidency lurched between idealism and acrimony but some of his accomplishments will endure I "A skinny kid with a funny name" Watch it again. He is unusually stilted at the beginning, as you might expect of a debutant on the autocue and the national stage. But soon he finds his rhythm, those crescendos alternating with electric pauses, ecclesiastical notes chiming with his schol..
Liberals lost most of the arguments this year. They should not feel defeated so much as invigorated For a certain kind of liberal, 2016 stands as a rebuke. If you believe, as The Economist does, in open economies and open societies, where the free exchange of goods, capital, people and ideas is encouraged and where universal freedoms are protected from state abuse by the rule of law, then this h..
What Marin Luther did to the Catholic church needs to be done to business gurus Next year marks the 500th anniversary of the event which, more than any other, gave birth to the modern world: Martin Luther promulgated his 95 theses and called the Catholic church to account for its numerous theological errors and institutional sins. Revisionist historians have inevitably complicated the story (inc..
Since the country's democratic transition in the late 1980s, every former South Korean president has been ensnared by corruption scandals. But in their unpopularity none has plumbed the depth of Park Geun-Hye: for the past fortnight her approval rating has stood at 4%, down from a high of over 63% in mid-2013, six months into her term. Her reliance on an erstwhile confidante and friend, Choi Soo..
It doesn't take long to walk from Siemen's old headquarters in Munich to its new one, inaugurated in June: the German industrial conglomerate has built it right next door. The design is cutting-edge, as are the building's environmental features. It is packed with energy-saving sensors; channeled rainwater is used to flush the toilets. General Electric, Siemens's big American rival, will soon hav..
The rise of the greenback looks something to welcome. That is to ignore the central role the dollar plays in global finance The world's most important currency is flexing its muscles. In the three weeks following Donald Trump's victory in America's presidential elections, the dollar had one of its sharpest rises ever against a basket of rich-country peers. It is now 40% above its lows in 2011. I..
Research shows that firms ignore passionate consumers at their peril The hero of Nick Hornby's novel, "High Fidelity", cannot get enough of vinyl records. By day Rob Fleming runs a record shop where he spends his time sampling the stock and constructing fantasy compilations with his equally obsessive assistants. By night he moons over his favorite songs. "Is it so wrong, wanting to be at home wi..
With his call to put "America First", Donald Trump is the latest recruit to a dangerous nationalism When Donald Trump vowed to "Make America Great Again!" he was echoing the campaign of Ronald Reagan in 1980. Back then voters sought renewal after the failures of the Carter presidency. This month they elected Mr Trump because he, too, promised them a "historic once-in-a-lifetime" change. But ther..
Fortune-tellers are harmless, until politicians start listening to them At a time of political crisis in South Korea, spare a thought for all the upstanding shamans, sorcerers, soothsayers, diviners, astrologers, numerologists, necromancers and fortune-tellers around Asia who risk being tarred by events. For years the president, Park Geun-hye, appears to have been in thrall to a family friend an..
Helped by high-end immigration from the mainland, the Chinese community is coming out of its shell In many ways, Alan Mak was a classic child of immigrants. His parents came from what was then the British colony of Hong Kong to run a takeaway in York in the late 1970s. He shared a room with them until he was in secondary school, in a flat above the shop with no inside bathroom. But he worked har..
Expect it to come up in federal election next year The refugee crisis is not the only issue that could decide next autumn's election of the Bundestag. If Germany's three left-wing parties get their wish, social justice may become just as contentious. The Social Democrats (who currently govern as junior partners under the chancellor, Angela Merkel), along with the Greens and The Left, which desce..