2025-02-27
22 分钟The Economist Hello and welcome to The Intelligence from The Economist.
I'm your host, Jason Palmer.
Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.
It's time for our annual Democracy Index,
a ranking of which countries best protect democratic rights and institutions.
On the whole, the news isn't great,
but we look at one pattern in the data that counter-intuitively suggests a route to democratic health.
And you may have heard that ice-cold showers or dunks in freezing water are supposed to be good for you.
Personally, you couldn't pay me enough.
But in the interests of science, our correspondent gives it a go.
First up, though.
In some ways, Jane Austen's pride and prejudice depicts a bygone time,
when the surest route to riches was not by working hard,
but by marrying heirs to great fortunes.
Act is Mr. Darcy.
He looks miserable, poor soul.
Miserable he may be, but poor he most certainly is not.
But nowadays, as people in their 30s and 40s are well aware,
it turns out that inheritance is back.
Callum Williams is a senior economics writer for The Economist.