The Arab spring, a decade on Finance’s quantum promise The wisdom of Scrooge Our country of the year DECEMBER19TH2020–JANUARY1ST2021 Holiday double issue An escape to Mars In praise of Erasmus The allure of pebbles Military deception Hiking in South Korea Isolation in rural France The legacy of Reconstruction Shaolin monastery Malaria’s world impact An essay on girlhood A permafrost prophet and much more… DOWNLOAD CSS Notes, Books, MCQs, Magazines www.thecsspoint.com  Download CSS Notes  Download CSS Books  Download CSS Magazines  Download CSS MCQs  Download CSS Past Papers The CSS Point, Pakistan’s The Best Online FREE Web source for All CSS Aspirants. Email: [email protected] BUY CSS / PMS / NTS & GENERAL KNOWLEDGE BOOKS ONLINE CASH ON DELIVERY ALL OVER PAKISTAN Visit Now: WWW.CSSBOOKS.NET For Oder & Inquiry Call/SMS/WhatsApp 0333 6042057 – 0726 540141 FPSC Model Papers 50th Edition (Latest & Updated) By Imtiaz Shahid Advanced Publishers For Order Call/WhatsApp 03336042057 - 0726540141 Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power & Peace By Hans Morgenthau Contents The EconomistDecember19th2020 7 The world this year United States 10 Asummary of political 47 Georgia’s Senate races and business events 48 New York’s covid-19 shop 48 The SolarWinds hack 49 Covid-19 in schools Leaders 50 LexingtonGood 15 Covid-19 in 2020 neighbours The plague year 16 Targeting big tech The Americas Credibility gap 51 Brazil’s spending choices 16 Children Getting girlhood right 52 Cuba’s currency reform 17 The Arab world Ten years after the spring Holiday specials 18 Country of the year 27 End-of-year newsletters Admirationnation 31 Solitude in France Asia Letters 34 How malaria 53 Expatriates quit Asia shaped history 22 On farming, books, aerial combat, Latin, 54 Preserving Yangon 36 An East London siege Machiavelli, diversity, 55 BanyanIndia’s farmers 39 Digital humanities Ireland, the turkey 42 An economics heroine 44 The allure of pebbles 56 Essay: Girlhood China 62 In praise of Erasmus 75 #MeToo in court 65 Hiking in South Korea 76 AUN proxy battle 67 Crossword and cheer 69 Leo Abse’s legacy 72 Travels in Zululand 101 Atrip to Mars Middle East & Africa 105 The history of 77 The Arab spring at ten home-working 107 Tales of a ceomonk 78 Iran hangs a dissident 79 Clashes in Western Sahara 109 The legacy of Reconstruction 79 Nigeria’s lost boys 113 Military deception 80 Congo’s gold-rush towns 115 Prophet of permafrost BagehotDickens is not just for Christmas, but for life, page 90 We are working hard to ensure that there is no dis- ruption to print copies of The Economistas a result of the coronavirus. 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To do so, visit economist.com/activate 1 Contents continues overleaf 8 Contents The EconomistDecember19th2020 Europe Finance & economics 81 The Vatican’s finances 97 Quantum computing and Wall Street 82 EU graft 83 Balkan doctors 98 Frothy markets 83 Azerbaijan’s ghost towns 99 The gold standard 86 CharlemagneTories and 100 Free exchangeReshoring supplychains ChristianDemocrats Science & technology Britain 87 Negotiations with the EU 118 The highest fidelity 88 Brexit-related disruption 119 Wheat and desert dust 89 Heathrow expansion 120 Tape’s promising future 89 Animal-welfare arms race 90 BagehotScrooge Books & arts International 91 Waste-picking in 121 Poetry on the Tube the pandemic 122 Ahistory of snow Economic & financial indicators Business 93 Big oil’s diverging bets 124 Statisticson42economies 94 Streaming v cinemas Graphic detail 95 Bartleby Memo, minus 125 Covid-19’sshareofthenews the faff 96 Schumpeter The parable Obituary of Ryanair 126 John le Carré, master of the spy novel Volume437 Number9225 PublishedsinceSeptember1843 Subscriptionservice totakepartin“aseverecontestbetween Forourfullrangeofsubscriptionoffers,including ThebestwaytocontactourCustomerService Please intelligence,whichpressesforward, digitalonlyorprintanddigitalbundled,visit: teamisviaphoneorlivechat.Youcancontactus andanunworthy,timidignorance Economist.com/offers onthebelownumbers;pleasecheckourwebsite obstructingourprogress.” foruptodateopeninghours. 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There are titles ATEMMiniPro US$595* ....... for presenter names, wipe effects for transitioning between sources and a ATEMSoftwareControl Free green screen keyer for replacing backgrounds with graphics. ....... Learn more at www.blackmagicdesign.com *Price subject to change. 10 The world this year The EconomistDecember19th2020 BylateMarchChinawas thatsomehadforecast.Britain The outbreak of civil war in recordingfewerdomestic guaranteed80%ofwagesto Ethiopiawas one of 2020’s cases.ThelockdowninWuhan workerswhohadbeenfur- great disappointments. Abiy endedinearlyApril.China loughed,andevensubsidised Ahmed, the prime minister closeditsbordertoforeigners restaurantmealsinAugust. and winner of a Nobel peace asthediseasespreadrapidlyin prize, launched an attack on Europe,mostmenacinglyin the Tigray region when sepa- Britain,France,ItalyandSpain. Spirits in the material world ratist forces attacked the army. Chineseand Indiantroops Don’t stand so close to me clashed along their Himalayan Americawas hit almost as border, the first deadly en- Anovelcoronavirus,possibly hard by the coronavirus. counter between the two sides transmittedbyanimalssoldat Donald Trump didn’t take it in decades. Fighting also amarketintheChinesecityof seriously at first; he tried to lift erupted between Armeniaand Wuhan,spreadtocreateoneof federal restrictions in April, Azerbaijanover the long- theworstglobalcrisessince promising a return to nor- disputed enclave of Nagorno- thesecondworldwar.Covid-19 mality by Easter. Wearing a Karabakh. Their truce is shaky. hassofarcausedover73m face maskbecame a badge of recordedinfectionsandmore political allegiance. Mr Trump Abe Shinzo, Japan’slongest- than1.6mrecordeddeaths.On rowed with the who, accusing The pandemic was a boon for serving prime minister, stood January23rdtheChineseau- it of being in China’s pocket, some. Once the shock of lock- down from office because of ill thoritiesimposedaquarantine and said that America would downs faded, stockmarkets health. He was replaced by inWuhan,soonextendingitto leave it in 2021. Brazilwas also climbed towards new records, Suga Yoshihide, who is deter- therestofHubeiprovinceand led by a sceptic. Jair Bolsonaro in part because of the soaring mined that the Tokyo Olym- beyond.Variantsofthis“lock- said the disease was just a case share prices of tech firms. picswill go ahead in July 2021. down”policywereadoptedby of the “sniffles”. Zoommeetings became a othercountriesastheystrug- feature for office employees gledtocontaintheoutbreak. The extent of the market crash sent home to work remotely in mid-March (the s&p 500lost (Zoom fatigue was soon a a quarter of its value over three common gripe). As online Every breath you take weeks) sparked fears of a de- shopping flourished, Amazon By late January cases were pression. The Federal Reserve recruited hundreds of thou- widely reported in Germany, and other central banks made sands of extra staff. Jeff Bezos, Japan, Taiwan and Vietnam. emergency cuts to interest Amazon’s boss, saw his wealth Markets were rattled, fearing rates. The Fed also propped up increase from $111bn in March disruption to global supply the corporate-bond market, to $185bn in December. The chains that run through China. action it had shied away from combined wealth of the world’s By late February the World during the financial crisis a ten richest people grew by 57%, Health Organisationsaid that decade earlier. to $1.14trn. China imposed a draconian most infections were occur- national-security law on Hong ring outside China. Italywas Oil marketstook a hammer- Among industries, aviation Kongto crush anti-govern- the first country to be hit hard. ing. As if the pandemic were andtourism were the biggest ment unrest. It came into force After hospitals were over- not enough of a problem, in losers from the pandemic. just before the 23rd anniversa- whelmed, the country went March Saudi Arabia instigated Even with huge government ry of the city’s handover to into lockdown in early March. a price war with Russia, as their bail-outs, airlines are reckoned China from British rule. Elec- deal over production levels to have lost $510bn in revenue, tions to the Legislative Council The sudden imposition of broke down. Prices plunged in according to their internation- were postponed; pro-democra- lockdownsled to panic buying the steepest one-day decline al association. The unreported cy candidates had been expect- in some places, notably in since 1991. They eventually that international tourism ed to do well. Opposition legis- America and Britain, where recovered somewhat. By the declined by 70% in January- lators resigned en masse in supermarket shelves were end of the year opecand Russia August, causing a loss of protest against the disbarring stripped bare. Shopping moved had struck a tentative agree- $730bn in export revenues. of colleagues. online. Internet searches ment to increase supply. rocketed for goods such as Scientists had what many toilet paper, fitness equipment Politicians in many countries thought to be a Herculean task De do do do, de da da da and breadmakers. In poorer pulled out their fiscal bazookas developing a vaccinefor co- America’s presidential countries, such as India, the to defend their economies. vid-19, but drug firms made electionwas a rowdy affair. human cost was higher. Left America’s Congress passed a great strides and by the end of The Democratic primaries suddenly without work, many $2.2trn stimulusbill (the the year several jabs were produced a surprise when Pete migrant labourers tried to caresact), which directed ready. Britain started the first Buttigieg was declared the return to their family homes; it cash payments to households inoculation programme using winner in Iowa;a delay in the was the country’s greatest and topped up unemployment a fully tested vaccine, followed count because of a technical movement of people since benefits. Some 21m people lost soon after by America. Even glitch raised more questions partition in 1947. India’s econ- their jobs in April alone; with the vaccine, officials about America’s election ma- omy shrank by around 25% in unemploymentsoared to warn, the world will be battling chinery. Joe Bidencleaned up April-June. 14.7%, but it never hit the 20% the virus for another year. on Super Tuesday, and went on