Editor’s Picks: December 6th 2021

A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week: what the Omicron variant means for the world economy, what experiments with “free banking” in the 18th and 19th centuries reveal about the future of stablecoins (10:53) and how the legacy of Stalin’s gulag continues to shape Russian fortunes (18:16)  Please fill in our listener survey at www.economist.com/epsurvey  Subscribe to The Economist for full access to print, digital and audio editions:www.economist.com/podcastoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.