oh man, how exciting!
Each Christmas The Economist names a country of the year. Not the happiest: that would nearly always be Scandinavian, making for a dull, predictable contest. Nor the most influential: that would always be a superpower. Rather, we try to identify the country that has improved the most, whether economically, politically or in any other way that matters.
fighting words calling Scandinavia dull... only we get to call our shithole countries DULL!
The two strongest contenders this year are very different: Argentina and Syria. Argentina’s improvement has been economic. Its president, Javier Milei, began far-reaching free-market reforms in 2023, hoping to jolt his country out of more than a century of statism and stagnation. Such reforms—abolishing price controls, curbing spending and ditching distorting subsidies—are exceptionally hard because they are exceptionally painful; many previous reformers have failed. Yet Mr Milei stuck to his chainsaw in 2025, and voters stuck with him.
Argentina could still fail. The Peronists who misruled it for generations are itching to return, should Mr Milei stumble. And the president has many flaws: he is intolerant of critics and beset by corruption scandals. But if his reforms are sustained, they could permanently alter Argentina’s trajectory—and give hope to economic reformers everywhere.
Syria
eeeh, what...?!
Yeah, I mean, I don't know shit about Syria so can't really comment. Aren't too many other interesting candidates around -- everywhere, you know, suck in their own ways.
"Syria in 2025 is far happier and more peaceful than it was in 2024. Fear is no longer universal. Life is not easy, but it is more or less normal for most people.""Syria in 2025 is far happier and more peaceful than it was in 2024. Fear is no longer universal. Life is not easy, but it is more or less normal for most people."
Syria’s improvement, by contrast, has been political. Little more than a year ago it was ruled by Bashar al-Assad, an odious dictator backed by Iran and Russia. His jails were stuffed with political prisoners, and dissent was punished with torture or death. Thirteen years of civil war had claimed more than half a million lives. Mr Assad’s forces had used chemical weapons and barrel bombs indiscriminately on civilians. More than 6m people had fled from the country.
Oka, if you say so.
archive: https://archive.md/BFyOU
Is this a joke?
Are they going to make ukraine country of the year once the war stops, because life improved the most, YoY?
probably.
Haven’t Turkey and Israel both been fighting in Syria?
It would be more like if Ukraine were named country of the year after Zelenskyy died but before the invasion stopped.
You and Den can't take over the Economist soon enough
I know... I'm dying to run (= right!) that ship
who owns the ecnomist magazine...answer that and you understand it all.
you don't, really, since editorial decisions aren't made by owners... but whatever, believe what you want
How did Canada not make the cut after we elected a new supreme leader that was a two time central bank head?
yous received an honorably mention in the article, though
Of course we did.
how can you not be happy with ketchup chips and poutine
Have you tried ketchup flavoured peanuts? My kids love them. Personally I am partial to the honey mustard ones.
Um, ok, that almost made me spit my coffee out.
this comment made me spit out my water
:)
Good government is a significant factor in the wealth of nations.
Then why do you always glaze the worst government in the history of this planet?
Which government taken more of its citizens out of poverty than any other government in the history of mankind?
Go on - answer the question troll.
Silence.
Post WWII Japan. That's the best government on earth.
Close, geographically, but numerically and factually wrong. In fact Japan is monetarily and militarily a subservient tribute state to the USA and has been ever since USA dropped nukes on them in 1945.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbXcKpxhXZE
Fact- China is the only reserve currency issuer on the IMF board that is not militarily subservient to the USA. The IMF/USA now need Chinas economic strength to prop up their crumbling petrodollar hegemony.
So the answer is China.
'Since Deng Xiaoping began instituting market reforms in the late 1970s, China has been among the most rapidly growing economies in the world, regularly exceeding 10 percent GDP growth annually from 1978 through 2010.[23] This growth has led to a substantial increase in real living standards and a marked decline in poverty. Between 1981 and 2008, the proportion of China's population living on less than $1.25/day is estimated to have fallen from 85% to 13.1%, meaning that roughly 600 million people were taken out of extreme poverty.'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_China https://www.globalissues.org/article/4/poverty-around-the-world#WorldBanksPovertyEste https://web.archive.org/web/20110716071749/http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/indicators/103.html
Since the communist-sympathizing Truman regime dropped nukes on them.
It is true that the brutal US nuking of the Japanese enabled CCP to seize power across Mainland China as Japanese occupying forces were swiftly evacuated leaving a power vacuum that the CCP filled. Then the US taking over from the brutal Japanese occupying forces in Korea and their advance north toward Mainland China helped China unite against the threat of US invasion. But that is all beside the point- that since De, China has freed 600 Million Chinese from poverty and today Chinese enjoy steadily improving security and continuing economic growth. China now controls the rare earths essential to the US Imperialist military and so China now stands in a strong position to reverse the 500 years of western imperialism that has blighted most nations and cultures since the 15th century. US militarism and imperialism faces paralysis. A new world order is evolving....shaped by Chinese economic strength and dominance over strategic supply chains and commodities. The Chinese mixed economy with state direction of capital toward strategic infrastructure, skills, technology, logistics and energy supply has beaten the wests neoliberal financialised crony capitalism. Now China increasingly decides the direction of global capital, institutions and protocols while US imperialism is in retreat and the petrodollar exceptional privilege looks increasingly unstable, nonviable and insolvent. Trump is belatedly and desperately implementing state capitalism in response to and copying Chinas success but it is probably be too little too late. The jaws of insolvency increasingly close upon the decadent US empire and its decaying power projection capacity. Good government is a major factor in the wealth of nations.
Oh yeah, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, they all look very blighted. North Korea is the future the world wants.
The Economist’s choice criteria make sense. They are not looking for stable comfort but for meaningful change. That difference matters because it shifts focus from the easy winners toward those who actually claw their way out of decline. The fact that Argentina and Syria are the finalists tells you a lot about the state of the world right now. Argentina’s story is an economic gamble with high stakes. Milei’s willingness to push through painful reforms is rare but economic pain can quickly turn into political backlash and history shows that in Argentina such reversals are common.
Syria’s case is harder to judge partly because after so many years of war and authoritarianism almost any reduction in violence or oppression feels dramatic. If Assad is gone and political prisoners are being freed this represents a different kind of improvement one grounded in the basic ability to live without constant fear. That is not the same as genuine democracy but peace and security form the base for any potential rebuilding.