Big Macs, strawberry jam and the wealth of nations
Alan Heston, a pioneer in comparing economies, died on October 25th
WHEN CHINA entered the Korean war in 1950, America was keen to take the measure of its new adversary. The government asked William Hollister to estimate the size of its GDP, relative to America’s own. Economists are often accused of giving two answers to any question. Hollister gave three.
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This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “The master of comparison”
Finance & economics November 9th 2024
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- Big Macs, strawberry jam and the wealth of nations
From the November 9th 2024 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
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Canada and Mexico look likely to suffer
How Trump, Starmer and Macron can avoid a debt crunch
With deficits soaring, their finance ministers will have to be smart
What Scott Bessent’s appointment means for the Trump administration
The president-elect’s nominee for treasury secretary faces a gruelling job
What Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders get wrong about credit cards
Forget interest rates. Rewards are the real problem
Computers unleashed economic growth. Will artificial intelligence?
Two years after ChatGPT-3.5 arrived, progress has been slower than expected
Should investors just give up on stocks outside America?
No, but it is getting a lot harder to keep the faith