> He investigates it and reports back, as a proxy for the reader.
And that's enormously valuable.
People are often dismissive of The Economist, since many of the writers in its anonymous collective are young Philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) graduates from Oxford, and what do they know. But they're smart, and by virtue of their association with The Economist and its network have access to world class experts, and they can talk to them on and off the record, and synthesise the gist of some development or controversy in an excellent short article.
And that's enormously valuable.
People are often dismissive of The Economist, since many of the writers in its anonymous collective are young Philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) graduates from Oxford, and what do they know. But they're smart, and by virtue of their association with The Economist and its network have access to world class experts, and they can talk to them on and off the record, and synthesise the gist of some development or controversy in an excellent short article.