Press Release

July 31, 2015 For Immediate Release The World If, a new supplement from The Economist that looks at future scenarios, is now available on newsstands inside the August 1st edition of The Economist, with more content and graphics online, and in The World in 2015 app (London) - The World If, a brand-new supplement from The Economist, offers a compilation of potential scenarios on possible world events in politics, business and technology. It looks at how possible events could shape the near future if they were to actually happen.

The special report looks at such potential scenarios as:

• Hillary Clinton’s first 100 days, were she to be elected President. The scenario depicts Clinton defeating her Republican opponent, Marco Rubio, thanks to a hard-edged response to a Cuban refugee crisis and by promising a “Contract with the Middle Class” that includes a minimum wage of $15 an hour and two months’ paid parental leave.

• If autonomous vehicles ruled the road. It may still sound impossible, but coming generations will consider the era of car ownership to have been stranger. On average, cars currently sit idle 96 percent of the time. Urban vehicle numbers could be cut by as much as 90 percent. Cars will perhaps be made by tech newcomers rather than traditional carmakers, and better use of time thanks to “driverless” cars could yield productivity gains worldwide worth $5.6 trillion.

• If an asteroid headed for the Earth. A simulation in 2015 showed that trying to alter its course can be risky: in that exercise, a disaster that might have been weathered, if at huge expense, was traded for one in which a megacity was destroyed. So, in some circumstances it may make more sense to just “take the hit”.

• If Russia were to break up. Russia is much more fragile than it looks—by breaking the post-Soviet borders, Putin opened a Pandora’s Box. Despite Russia’s deep paranoia that America is trying to break it up, such a scenario is one of the West’s worst nightmares, opening the question of control over Russia’s nuclear arms.

Additional scenarios that The World If explores include: If every woman had a mobile phone (the article, a guest contribution by Melinda Gates, appears in the digital editions of the supplement); If the world introduced a “Piketty tax” on wealth; If the rich world aimed for minimal growth; If the yuan challenged the dollar as a reserve currency; If Chiang Kai-shek had defeated Mao Zedong; If the Panama Canal gets a Nicaraguan rival; If India’s monsoon fails; If a NATO member comes under attack; If Africa banks its “demographic dividend” (in digital edtions only). More content and graphics are available at economist.com/theworldin and on The World In 2015 app

-ENDS-

For details on this press release or to arrange an interview with Daniel Franklin, Executive Editor of The Economist, please contact: Michelle Hayden The Economist, New York michellehayden@economist.com Tel: +1 212 641 9827 Holly Donahue The Economist, London hollydonahue@economist.com Tel: +44 (0) 20 7576 8379 About The Economist (www.economist.com) With a growing global circulation (more than 1.5 million including both print* and digital) and a reputation for insightful analysis and perspective on every aspect of world events, The Economist is one of the most widely recognised and well-read current-affairs publications. The paper covers politics, business, science and technology, and books and arts, concluding each week with the obituary. In addition to the web-only content such as blogs, debates and audio/video programmes available on the website, The Economist is available to download for reading on Android, Blackberry PlayBook, iPhone or iPad devices. The Economist Espresso, our daily briefing smartphone app, is also available for download via iTunes App Store or Google Play. *Audit Bureau of Circulations Worldwide, Jul-Dec 2014