American monetary policy: The unwinding - 趙永祥的數位歷程檔

Yesterday America’s Federal Reserve said that it will soon begin reversing the asset purchases it made during and after the financial crisis. From October, it will stop reinvesting all of the money it receives when its assets start to mature. As a result, its $4.5trn balance-sheet will gradually shrink. The Fed did not say by how much it should shrink. It might be best to keep it very large, writes our American economics editor

Sweden to NATO: Bear with me

Sweden’s Aurora-17 drill, which continues until the end of September, is the biggest war game the supposedly neutral country has carried out for 23 years. As well as about half of Sweden’s armed forces, it involves troops from Finland and several NATO states. Swedes are worried by Russia’s increasingly frequent military drills, prompting many to ponder ending 200 years of neutrality by joining NATO, writes our defence editor

Planemakers at war: Aerial bombardment

Boeing has accused a smaller rival, Bombardier, of using Canadian government subsidies to sell cut-price aircraft. Its behaviour is riling not only airlines, which want competition among planemakers, but also the governments of Canada and Britain, which worry about thousands of jobs at Bombardier plants. The case, on which a preliminary ruling is due next week, could cost Boeing more than it gains, writes our aviation correspondent

Slavery: Still with us

In 1981 Mauritania became the last country in the world to abolish slavery. It now is banned everywhere, but a new report finds that many forms of forced labour remain widespread. Last year 25m people around the world were in some type of imposed servitude. Even after excluding involuntary prostitution, almost three-fifths of those in forced labour in private enterprises are women, writes our data team

6.50pm London/21-September-2017

The Economist explains economics:
Every day this week The Economist explains a seminal economics idea. Today we look at Arthur Pigou’s externalities, and how taxes can align the interests of individuals and society