Leaders
The way things were
The new normal is already here. Get used to it
The era of predictable unpredictability is not going away
Midterm blues
Something has broken in Boris Johnson’s government
This week’s rebellion in Parliament is just the start of his difficulties
From Moscow with menaces
How to deter Vladimir Putin from invading Ukraine
The West, and Ukrainians, should raise the cost of Russian aggression
Asset prices
How American stocks could continue to climb
What doesn’t kill the bull market only makes it stranger
Triumphal honours
Which is The Economist’s country of the year for 2021?
In a gloomy year, a few stars shone
Letters
On Brexit, satellite pollution, local taxes, cheese, Fairphone, art, Stephen Sondheim, the Beatles
Letters to the editor
Europe
No room at the inn
Why have Danes turned against immigration?
The Lolland exception
A Baltic island bucks a Danish anti-immigrant trend
Here come the Harvards
A reformist prime minister takes over in Bulgaria
Charlemagne
Emmanuel Macron’s tricky Christmas present
Britain
Saving Ulster
Anti-gay attitudes in Northern Ireland are changing
The Marble Arch mound
How to lure shoppers off their computers?
Middle East & Africa
On your marks, get set, now what?
Libya’s presidential election was meant to unite the country
The bitter taste of sanctions
Iranian saffron dealers are struggling
Back to the mountains
Ethiopian forces have recaptured key towns on the road to Tigray
United States
Movers and shakers
Why Americans are rethinking where they want to live
The long road back
The tornado damage in Kentucky could take decades to repair
Lexington
America’s Christmas wars
The Americas
The final stretch
Chile’s presidential front-runners edge towards the centre
China
Frigid farewells
Lithuania evacuates its embassy in China
International
Seeing the need for speed
The Omicron variant advances at an incredible rate
Christmas Specials
Interactive archaeology
A Zimbabwean archaeologist retells the story of a civilisation
Teach your children well
Does good parenting in Hong Kong mean submitting to the Party?
The pleasures of the table
An economic history of restaurants
Gimme shelter
The rise and rise of corrugated iron
Quadratic voting
The mathematical method that could offer a fairer way to vote
Fighting fit
How to prevent conflict on the way to Mars
It takes a village
Scenes from an almost vanished Singapore
He came, he saw, he lied
Retracing Julius Caesar’s path through France
Pocock’s pen pals
The virtues of an unrepresentative sample
A forced brotherhood
Why Russia has never accepted Ukrainian independence
The Kalergi plan
Sons of Tokyo, dreams of Europe
A bloodless revolution
Meatless meat is nothing new
Murder of the Orient Express
Railway lines once connected the Middle East
One woman’s trash
Fashion as an asset class
A world of two halves
North-south antipathies endure around the globe
Under the hoodies
The most powerful people in crypto
On the wings of song
Of birds and men
Business
Finance & economics
Spinning around
The private-markets party reaches fever pitch
SWIFT thinking
The hidden costs of cutting Russia off from SWIFT
Follow the money
After a shocker in 2021, where might inflation go in 2022?
Science & technology
Marine propulsion
Nature does not use propellers. So why do people?
Geomagnetic archaeology
Earth’s magnetic field illuminates Biblical history
Culture
Economic & financial indicators
Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Graphic detail
If it spreads, it’s read
2021’s biggest stories were covid-19 and America’s presidential transition
Obituary
How little Ant became big Ant