Fact Checking The Infamous 1988 Economist Cover: "Get ready for a world currency"

in economist •  7 years ago  (edited)

By now you've probably seen this cover from The Economist.

ECON-1988-0109-0001-F.jpeg

It almost seems too good to be true. 30 years ago they predicted something akin to the cryptocurrency which we now use today.

This has led some to question the article's legitimacy. After not being able to find it on Economist.com or any other reputable source, I had my doubts as well.

But now I can safely say that both the cover and corresponding article are 100% real.

ECON-1988-0109-0009-F (1).jpeg

ECON-1988-0109-0010-F.jpeg

How can I be so sure? Well if there's something I learned in school, it's that Google isn't always to best place to find information, at least not yet.

So I decided to check a good old database and sure enough there it was in The Economist Historical Archive by Gale!

Screen Shot 2017-12-22 at 5.53.56 PM.png

Unfortunately you'll need a subscription to sign in. However if you happen to be a student in high school or college (uni), there's a good chance your school offers this database to you already at no additional charge. If its available to you, go ahead and search for the article yourself and comment below when you find it to vouch for this.

In the meantime I wish you all the best in 2018. It looks like it's shaping up to be an interesting year in crypto and currency in general.

Source Citation:
"The Economist." Economist [London, England] 9 Jan. 1988: 1. The Economist Historical Archive, 1843-2013. Web. 22 Dec. 2017.

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Thanks! So it's confirmed. Putting on my tinfoil, I might say information has been manipulated since they're not stored on something like the blockchain and behind closed databases, although that's probably too much of a stretch..

edit: I dunno, I can't check the site so for all I know you might be trolling as well. upvoted anyway ;)

I promise you I'm not trolling (yes, I know that is what a troll would say); your questioning is definitely needed and I was only trying to find an answer. I was hoping there would be more students who'd check the database for themselves and respond to verify this finding.

If you know a student personally, maybe you could ask him or her to sign into The Economist Historical Archive through school and pull the article up. I hope you can see it for yourself.

New world order rising

Why didn't you screen shot the cover while you were in the archive?

Good question.