September 1st 2022

The Economist this week

Highlights from the latest issue

We have two covers this week. In most of the world we look at how American states have turned from laboratories of democracy into Petri dishes of polarisation. The 50 states are supposed to be where policies are tested to see what works. But this constructive form of federalism is not what state politicians are pursuing today. Instead, they are fighting a national culture war, stoking outrage among partisan voters on everything from guns to abortion and transgender issues. Moderates might prefer them to concentrate on fixing roads and refining tax policy. But in many states politicians can safely ignore them, because their seats are ultra-safe and they fear only primary voters. Dysfunction in the states breeds national disunity and rancour. Only electoral reform can mend it. 
 
In Britain we lament the country’s bonkers planning rules. A single wizened tree can scupper plans for hundreds of flats. A colony of terns can stall the development of a nuclear-power station. Politicians bow to BANANAs (voters who would “Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything”). Small wonder homes are unaffordable, and Britain has not built a reservoir since 1991. Radical change is politically inconceivable. But workarounds—call them bypasses—are possible.

Zanny Minton Beddoes
Editor-in-chief

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The world this week

Exceptionally heavy monsoon rains over two months have caused devastating floods in Pakistan, killing more than 1,100 people and leaving a third of the country under water. Shehbaz Sharif, the prime minister, said that a million homes have been wrecked and thousands of miles of roads destroyed. The climate minister described it as a “catastrophe”, blaming countries that have become “rich on the back of fossil fuels”.

More from Politics this week

Central-bank officials attending the annual Jackson Hole symposium conveyed a clear, hawkish message on interest rates. Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve, said he expected the Fed would raise rates throughout next year. Officials from the European Central Bank talked of “sacrifice”, and said that the lessons of the 1970s showed there should be no easing of monetary tightening at the first signs of a dip in inflation. The ECB is expected to lift rates at its next meeting on September 8th. The central bankers warned that higher rates were necessary to tame inflation, even if they lead to recession.

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