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You can learn a lot about politicians from their attitude to journalists. I interviewed Sweden’s prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, when he was the leader of the opposition. He showed up at a cafe without an entourage or bodyguards, answered all my questions in flawless English, then politely excused himself after an hour to go to his next appointment. Contrast that with, say, a Sudanese minister who shouted and jabbed his finger in my face, refused me permission to visit Darfur and ordered me to write that his government was committing no human-rights abuses there whatsoever. (Of course, I wrote the truth instead.)
When those in power have something to hide, they try to stifle the press. And
as we argue
this week in a cover package for our European and Asian editions, when the news media are gagged, our rulers find it easier to steal. Using 80 years of data from roughly 180 countries, our data team show that a constriction of press freedom is a
strong predictor of a future increase in graft.
So it truly matters that, as we also report, countries that claim to be democracies are increasingly using techniques you might associate with autocracies: harassing journalists, hacking their phones, subjecting them to tax audits and looking the other way when pro-government thugs beat them up. Journalists are often flawed, and many people distrust them. But if they cannot do their jobs, the world will be worse-governed.
Our
other cover package argues
that investors must get used to a weaker and more volatile dollar. Most asset markets in America have been buoyant in the past year. But the greenback has lost a tenth of its value since a peak in January 2025. And brief spasms of panic, when investors flee from bonds, stocks and the dollar around the same time, have occurred in seven of the past 52 weeks. Typically these spasms follow some shocking announcement from Donald Trump’s administration, such as the unveiling of his “Liberation Day” tariffs. When Mr Trump retreats from his maddest ideas, normality returns. But with the
greenback to the wall,
how far can America push its luck?
Kevin Warsh,
Mr Trump’s pick to chair the Federal Reserve, will have to pull off the balancing-act of a lifetime.
This week’s Insider episode, hosted by The Economist’s editor-in-chief, Zanny Minton Beddoes, takes a close look at America’s economy. Zanny was joined by Edward Carr, deputy editor, and a panel of our economics editors as they analysed the challenges facing the dollar and whether AI can save the day. You can
watch it now on our Insider hub.
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