The magazine you are reading was founded 160 years ago this summer by a Scottish businessman named James Wilson. From the start the chief purpose of the enterprise was to press the case for liberty―and especially for economic liberty, an essential and inseparable, though chronically neglected, part of the broader kind. Writing in 1843, Wilson might have been depressed to know that the cause he advanced would still need defending at the dawn of the 21st century. And he might have been not just depressed by this but also astonished, had he known what the intervening 20th century would show the world about freedom and its enemies. Yet here we are. Surprisingly, The Economist is still in business. Unfortunately, it still has its work cut out.
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