Biden’s stimulus: what size is right? Amazon enters the Jassy era Beyond Myanmar’s coup Why Africa faces a long covid FEBRUARY 6TH–12TH 2021 The real revolution on Wall Street 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. 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Adam Kinzinger 10 Despots v democrats The Americas Myanmar’s coup 25 Judging the FARC 11 Brexit and the City The price is wrong 26 A busy election year On the cover 12 Development 27 Bello A new social High tech meets high finance, Africa’s long covid contract a promising, but volatile, combination: leader, page 9. Letters A new epoch for retail investors, On Ethiopia, vaccine page 56. The rise of high-speed 14 passports, space debris, Asia marketmakers and payment for Wikipedia 29 Defending South Korea order flow, page 59. Why the WallStreetBets crowd are able 30 Insular young Japanese to profit from predatory Briefing 31 Business cards v covid-19 trading: Buttonwood, page 61. 15 Myanmar’s coup 31 Censorship in India Redditors and call options: Reversion to type 32 Banyan Vietnam’s graphic detail, page 73 surprising leader • Biden’s stimulus: what size is right? Targeted relief would be China better than indiscriminate 33 Online Maoists spending: leader, page 10. Republicans test the precise 34 Toughening up the young meaning of Joe Biden’s unity 35 Chaguan Migrants’ woes agenda, page 22 as a big holiday looms • Amazon enters the Jassy era The online giant’s larger-than-life founder is a tough act to follow. Does Andy Jassy have the chops? Middle East & Africa Page 50 36 Covid-19 in Africa • Beyond Myanmar’s coup 39 Bibi’s difficult friends Attempts to dress up 39 A car shortage in Algeria authoritarian regimes as 40 No end to honour killings democracies are unlikely to succeed: leader, page 10. A general’s thirst for power has shut down democratic rule: briefing, page 15 Bartleby Executives, not investors, may be to We are working hard to blame for short-termism, ensure that there is no dis- page 54 ruption to print copies of The Economist as a result of the coronavirus. 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To do so, visit economist.com/activate 1 Contents continues overleaf 4 Contents The Economist February 6th 2021 Europe Finance & economics 41 Italy’s next prime minister 56 Retail investing 42 Alexei Navalny 59 High-frequency traders 43 Nord Stream 2 limps on 59 WallStreetBets 43 Sweden’s lonely film 60 China’s capital outflows festival 60 German regulation 44 Charlemagne The 61 Buttonwood Predatory vaccine blame game trading 62 Free exchange The Britain economics of biodiversity 45 The City and Brexit 46 Captain Sir Tom Moore Science & technology 47 Bagehot Boris rides high 63 Manufacturing vaccines 64 Variants and vaccines 65 Daughters and divorce 65 Deep-sea plastic oases International 66 How fish grew legs 48 The future of nightclubs Books & arts 67 Abuse in France 68 Chaos in Karachi 69 Climate-change fiction 69 The death of age Business 70 Proust and the people 50 Amazon after Bezos 51 Daimler and Benz part Economic & financial indicators ways 72 Statistics on 42 economies 52 China Inc retreats home 53 Cook v Zuck Graphic detail 53 Football’s TV drought 73 The favourite stocks of WallStreetBets 54 Bartleby Executive short-termism Obituary 55 Schumpeter ExxonMobil 74 Nikolai Antoshkin, hero of Chernobyl Volume 438 Number 9231 Published since September 1843 Subscription service to take part in “a severe contest between For our full range of subscription offers, including The best way to contact our Customer Service Please intelligence, which presses forward, digital only or print and digital bundled, visit: team is via phone or live chat. 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Printed by Quad/Graphics, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 The world this week Politics The Economist February 6th 2021 7 used them. This triggered a Colombia’s “special juris- furious row with Britain, diction for peace”, which in- Coronavirus briefs which intensified after the eu vestigates and judges crimes To 6am GMT February 4th 2021 threatened to invoke Article 16 committed during the 52-year Weekly confirmed deaths by area, ’000 of the Brexit agreement, which conflict between the state and would create a hard border the farc guerrilla group, is- 30 Western Other between Northern Ireland and sued a damning indictment of Europe 20 the Republic of Ireland. After the group’s leader, Rodrigo US across-the-board criticism, Londoño, and seven other 10 including from the Republic, commanders. It held them Latin the commission backed down. responsible for the mistreat- America 0 ment of hostages, which it said 2020 21 The army seized power in a A court sent Alexei Navalny, amounted to war crimes and Vaccination doses coup in Myanmar and arrested Russia’s main opposition crimes against humanity. Total Per 100 Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of leader, to prison for two and a This week, ’000 ’000 people the ruling party, the National half years. It said he had violat- Brazil’s “Lava Jato” anti-cor- Israel 1,148 5,092 58.83 League for Democracy. It ed the conditions under which ruption task-force, which has UAE 701 3,441 34.79 claimed that elections the nld a sentence for embezzlement convicted dozens of busi- Seychelles 12 31 31.38 won by a landslide in Novem- had been suspended. He says nessmen and politicians since Britain 2,620 10,144 14.94 Bahrain 16 174 10.23 ber were fraudulent, and that it the original case was fabricat- 2014, was unceremoniously United States 8,942 32,781 9.80 had to intervene to ensure a ed; and that he could not at- disbanded. Politicians had Serbia 265 496 7.29 fair poll could be conducted. tend the parole hearings as he turned against it and were Malta 8 29 6.57 The army said it would return was in Germany in a coma after joined by the populist presi- Denmark 49 283 4.88 power to civilians within a being poisoned by Russian dent, Jair Bolsonaro, whose Ireland 47 200 4.05 year. The military authorities agents. More than a thousand son, a senator, is being investi- Sources: Johns Hopkins University CSSE; indicted Ms Suu Kyi with the protesters were arrested. gated for money-laundering. Our World in Data; United Nations bizarre charge of importing some walkie-talkies without Police in Istanbul arrested 159 Rebels opposed to the re- A non-peer-reviewed study the proper paperwork, and the students at Bogazici University election of President Faustin- suggested that the Astra- president, Win Myint, also who were protesting against Archange Touadéra closed in Zeneca-Oxford vaccine can from the nld, with violating the detention of four gay activ- on Bangui, the capital of the reduce transmissions by social-distancing rules. ists for depicting Islam’s most Central African Republic.