The Economist

The Economist is a British weekly print magazine and daily digital publication covering news and current affairs. Though widely regarded as a magazine, it calls itself a newspaper. Its content spans economics, business, geopolitics, technology, and culture. Most writing and editing takes place in London, with additional editorial offices in the United States and major cities across continental Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The publication is known for its heavy use of data journalism and its emphasis on interpretive analysis rather than original reporting—a focus that has drawn both praise and criticism.

Scottish economist James Wilson founded the paper in 1843, initially to build support for repealing the British Corn Laws, a set of import tariffs. Over time, its coverage broadened into political economy and eventually included current events, finance, commerce, and British politics. During the mid-to-late 20th century, the newspaper expanded its layout and format significantly, adding opinion columns, special reports, political cartoons, letters from readers, cover stories, art criticism, book reviews, and technology features. It is instantly recognizable by its fire engine red masthead and illustrated, topical covers. All articles are published anonymously, without bylines, so the paper speaks with a single collective voice. The Economist is supplemented by its sister lifestyle magazine, 1843, as well as podcasts, films, and books. In the UK, it is considered a newspaper of record.

The editorial stance of The Economist is rooted in classical, social, and especially economic liberalism. It has supported radical centrism, favoring centrist policies and governments. It consistently champions economic liberalism, including free markets, free trade, free immigration, deregulation, and globalization. The paper’s extensive use of wordplay and its high subscription price have linked it to a high-income, elite readership—a connection that carries both positive and negative connotations. It claims to have an influential audience of prominent business leaders and policymakers.

**History**

James Wilson, a British businessman and banker, founded The Economist in 1843 to advocate for the repeal of the Corn Laws. A prospectus published on 5 August 1843 listed thirteen areas the editors intended to cover: original leading articles applying free-trade principles to important questions; articles on practical commercial, agricultural, or foreign topics; an article on the elementary principles of political economy applied to practical experience; parliamentary reports focused on commerce, agriculture, and free trade; reports on popular movements advocating free trade; general news from the Court of St James’s, the Metropolis, the Provinces, Scotland, and Ireland; commercial topics such as fiscal changes, market conditions, imports and exports, shipping, railways, and public companies; agricultural topics including geology, chemistry, new implements, and crop conditions; colonial and foreign topics covering trade, political changes, and the evils of protection; law reports limited to areas important to commerce, manufacturing, and agriculture; book reviews confined to commerce, manufacturing, agriculture, political economy, finance, or taxation; a commercial gazette with prices and weekly statistics; and correspondence and inquiries from readers. Wilson described the publication as taking part in “a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress”—a phrase that still appears on its imprint as the publication’s mission. It has long been respected as “one of the most competent and subtle Western periodicals on public affairs.” Karl Marx cited it in formulating socialist theory, believing it epitomized the interests of the bourgeoisie. He wrote that “the London Economist, the European organ of the aristocracy of finance, described most strikingly the attitude of this class.” In 1915, revolutionary Vladimir Lenin called it “a journal that speaks for British millionaires” and said it held a “bourgeois-pacifist” position, supporting peace out of fear of revolution. During the currency disputes of the mid-19th century, the journal sided with the Banking School against the Currency School. It criticized the Bank Charter Act 1844, which restricted the amount of bank notes the Bank of England could issue, a policy encouraged by Lord Overstone that eventually developed into monetarism. It blamed the 1857 financial crisis in Britain on “a certain class of doctrinaires” who “refer every commercial crisis and its disastrous consequences to ‘excessive issues of bank notes’,” identifying the crisis’s causes as variations in interest rates and a buildup of excess financial capital.