Long before the Simpsons did it, my brother started quoting ideas from the Economistjust to sound smart. I’ll be damned if quoting from them doesn’tmake him sound smarter!
If you don’t read the Economist, you should. It’s notan economics journal. Just get over the name. It’s a world newspaper. But a magazine. And British. Like Timeand Newsweek. But for smart folk.
The Economistis generally a bit too economically conservative for my tastes, but that’s OK. It’s still good. The Economistis good news reporting. It’s what educated people read. And its got great high-brow fluff sections! Plus a killer obit.
I mention this not because I have a stake, but because the Economisthas a bunch of stories this week about the war on drugs. They’re against it.
To be honest, I haven’t actually read yet the articles yet. I just got the issue in the mail today and a helpful heads-up in a comment.
But without having read it, I can pretty much guarantee that it’s informative, interesting, and, more often than not, right. That’s because it’s the Economist.
I’ve been thinking of subscribing for awhile now. And as my views have moved a bit more towards the classical liberal category (but still a tad left-of-center, economically speaking) I have become even more interested.
I’m so glad to see the Economist is taking this stance. And these stories are becoming more common in national publications (ie. Ethan Nadelman’s “Legalize It?” piece in Foreign Policy last year)
and local newspapers. I think a real, serious, conversation is starting. Maybe one of these days more people in government will start to catch on. Good post, Peter.
The Economist describes themselves as classically liberal, by the way (ideal conservative by the standards of today).
They’ve also been on the drug legalization tip for 20 years now, they point out in the story.
So nobody has listened to them yet. But maybe there is a critical mass developing.
“ideal conservative by the standards of today”
Perhaps. Or moderate libertarian. Say, don’t you wish there were more Barry Goldwaters and fewer Rush Limbaughs in the current conservative movement? I sure do! My favorite Goldwater line pertained to his desire to give Jerry Falwell a “kick in the ass.” Right on, Barry!!!
Better yet, subscribe to The Economist blog feeds. They have the main feed that is called “Free Exchange” and they have several other good feeds. The main feed is
economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/