Brad DeLong wrote a couple of weeks back:
For a surprisingly large part of the time over the past six years, the Economist has been like Austin Powers without his mojo—has spent far too much time on its belly making craven and pathetic excuses for the incompetent, inept, mendacious, and malevolent George W. Bush administration. Now it looks like it may have its snark back.
Perhaps not for long: The Guardian tells us that
The editor of the Economist stepped down yesterday … The board hopes to appoint a new editor by the end of March. Contenders for the role include Emma Duncan, the former UK editor, who has been deputy editor since May, and US editor John Micklethwait.
I know nothing about Duncan, but devoted Timberites will remember that Micklethwait is co-author of the execrable Right Nation. He’s also, at the very least signed off on the increasingly hackish Lexington columns of the last year or two, and there’s strong reason to believe that he’s their actual author. No better man for making “craven and pathetic excuses for the incompetent, inept, mendacious, and malevolent George W. Bush administration,” and if he gets the job, I suspect that we’ll be seeing a lot more of it in the editorial pages of the Economist.
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I’ve canceled my subscription of the NeoConomist a long time back and I’m happier for it.
Wow-
I had no idea. I’ll have to start reading the Economist.
Steve
Time to start an anti-Mickelwaith campaign. Memo to Pearson: You don’t promote Lexington, you fire Lexington. Give the column to Matt Yglesias or Josh Marshall. Or, if you must, Tyler Brule. It couldn’t be worse.
It’s Tyler Brûlé, my dear chap.
Is Tyler Brûlé a pseudonym or a real name? I’ve always wondered whether he was one of the FT’s pseudo-columnists.
“Tyler Brûlé” is a pseudonym of Nathan Barley.
The fact that Emmott is demob-happy presumably explains his recent appearance in the “Savage Love” advice column.
Tyler Brule does actually exist (I’ve met him). He’s what Nathan Barley wants to grow up to become.
I say that Henry should be offered the job! He can write legibly and regularly. All that Bill Emmott managed to do in his 13 year at the helm was double the weekly circulation to well over a million copies a week and make the Economist one of the world’s most influential newspapers. Henry, with his preference for quoting Brad DeLong and the Guardian, would soon have those figures down to Crooked Timber readership levels in a matter of weeks.
Corporate socialism requires an unceasing stream of propaganda to maintain the appearance of viability.
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Eamonn: As few people who care what Henry thinks, even fewer care what you think.
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