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They're so synchronized. I wish

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we could be like that at work. Well, then you should

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try Monday.com. It's a work management

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platform. Yeah, it might ruffle some feathers to

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change the way we work. That's the thing. Monday.com

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lets you choose how to manage your own work. But

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at the same time, it keeps you and everyone

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else aligned on projects, big

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picture workflows, and company goals.

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bird inn. Get it? Because-

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Yeah, I get it. Go to Monday.com

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to get started for free.

0:37

It's Monday, the 5th of June, 2023. I'm

0:40

Fiammetta Rocco, a senior editor

0:43

at The Economist. Welcome

0:45

to Editor's Picks, where you can

0:47

hear three highlights from the weekly edition

0:49

of The Economist, read aloud. In

0:53

the 250-odd years since the Industrial

0:55

Revolution, the world's population,

0:58

like its wealth, has exploded. Before

1:02

the end of this century, however, the

1:04

number of people on the planet could

1:06

shrink for the first time since the Black

1:09

Death. The root cause

1:11

is not a surge in deaths, but

1:13

a slump in births. Our

1:16

cover story in Most of the World this week

1:19

considers what the baby bust means

1:21

for the future of the world economy. Will

1:24

ageing societies still

1:26

innovate? In

1:29

Britain, though, our cover story

1:32

focuses on Scotland. The

1:34

country was the first part of Britain

1:37

to get high on populist referendums.

1:40

But since Nicola Sturgeon's abrupt

1:42

exit from the political stage, the

1:45

independence-focused Scottish National

1:47

Party has been caught in

1:49

a downward spiral. After

1:52

a 10-year break from reality, Scottish

1:55

politics is suddenly, dramatically

1:57

in flux.

1:59

And finally, we look

2:02

at Latin America's stream of soft

2:04

power. How good is

2:06

the business of Bad

2:07

Bunny, a superstar rapper?

2:11

The stories you're about to hear are

2:13

just a sample of what's on offer in

2:16

the weekly edition of The Economist. With

2:18

a subscription, you can read

2:21

or listen to all of what we do. To

2:24

try a month of our digital content

2:26

for free, go to economist.com

2:29

slash podcast offer. The

2:31

link is in the show notes.

2:38

First up, the baby bust

2:40

economy. How declining

2:42

birth rates will change the world.

2:46

In the roughly 250 years

2:48

since the Industrial Revolution, the

2:50

world's population, like its wealth,

2:53

has exploded. Before

2:55

the end of this century, however, the number of

2:57

people on the planet could shrink for the

2:59

first time since the Black Death.

3:01

The root cause is not a surge in deaths,

3:04

but a slump in births.

3:06

Across much of the world, the fertility

3:08

rate, the average number of births

3:11

per woman, is collapsing.

3:13

Although the trend may be familiar, its

3:15

extent and its consequences are

3:18

not. Even as artificial

3:20

intelligence, or AI, leads

3:23

to surging optimism in some quarters,

3:25

the baby bust hangs over the future

3:28

of the world economy. In 2000,

3:31

the world's fertility rate

3:33

was 2.7 births per

3:35

woman, comfortably above the replacement

3:38

rate of 2.1, at which

3:40

a population is stable.

3:42

Today, it is 2.3 and falling.

3:46

The largest 15 countries by

3:48

GDP all have a fertility rate

3:51

below the replacement rate. That

3:53

includes America and much of the

3:55

rich world, but also China and India,

3:57

neither of which is rich, but which does have a fertility rate below 2.3.

3:59

together account for more than a third

4:02

of the global population.

4:05

The result is that in much of the world the

4:07

patter of tiny feet is being drowned

4:09

out by the clatter of walking sticks.

4:12

The prime examples of aging countries

4:14

are no longer just Japan and Italy,

4:17

but also include Brazil, Mexico

4:20

and Thailand.

4:21

By 2030, more than

4:24

half the inhabitants of East and Southeast

4:26

Asia will be over 40.

4:29

As the old die and are not fully

4:31

replaced,

4:32

populations are likely to shrink.

4:35

Outside Africa, the world's population

4:37

is forecast to peak in the 2050s and end

4:39

the century

4:41

smaller than it is today.

4:43

Even in Africa, the

4:45

fertility rate is falling fast.

4:49

Whatever some environmentalists say,

4:51

a shrinking population creates

4:53

problems.

4:54

The world is not close to full and

4:57

the economic difficulties resulting from fewer

4:59

young people are many.

5:01

The obvious one is that it is

5:03

getting harder to support the world's

5:06

pensioners. Retired folk

5:08

draw on the output of the working

5:10

age, either through the state which levies

5:13

taxes on workers to pay public

5:15

pensions, or by cashing in savings

5:17

to buy goods and services, or

5:20

because relatives provide care unpaid.

5:23

But whereas the rich world currently

5:26

has around three people between 20 and 64

5:28

years old for everyone

5:30

over 65, by 2050 it will have less than two. The

5:35

implications are higher taxes,

5:38

later retirements, lower real

5:40

returns for savers, and possibly

5:43

government budget crises. Low

5:46

ratios of workers to pensioners

5:48

are only one problem stemming from collapsing

5:50

fertility. As we explain this week,

5:53

younger people have more of what psychologists

5:56

call fluid intelligence, the

5:58

ability to think creatively. creatively so as to

6:01

solve problems in entirely new ways.

6:04

The youthful dynamism complements

6:07

the accumulated knowledge of older workers.

6:09

It also brings change.

6:12

Patents, filed by the youngest

6:14

inventors, are much more likely to cover

6:16

breakthrough innovations.

6:19

Older countries, and it turns out their young

6:21

people, are less enterprising

6:23

and less comfortable taking risks.

6:26

Elderly electorates ossify

6:29

politics too. Because the

6:31

old benefit less than the young

6:33

when economies grow, they have proved

6:35

less keen on pro-growth policies,

6:38

especially house building. Creative

6:41

destruction is likely to be rarer

6:43

in ageing societies, suppressing

6:46

productivity growth in ways that compound

6:48

into an enormous missed opportunity.

6:52

All things considered, it is tempting

6:54

to cast low fertility rates as

6:56

a crisis to be solved.

6:59

Many of its underlying causes, though,

7:01

are in themselves welcome. As

7:03

people have become richer, they have tended to have

7:06

fewer children. Today, they face different

7:08

trade-offs between work and family, and

7:11

these are mostly better ones. The

7:13

populist conservatives who claim

7:15

low fertility as a sign of society's

7:18

failure and call for a return

7:20

to traditional family values are

7:23

wrong. More choice is a good

7:25

thing, and no one owes it to others

7:27

to bring up children. Liberals'

7:30

impulse to encourage more immigration

7:33

is more noble, but it too is

7:35

a misdiagnosis. Immigration

7:38

in the rich world today is at a record high, helping

7:41

individual countries tackle worker

7:43

shortages. But the global

7:45

nature of the fertility slump means that,

7:47

by the middle of the century, the world is likely

7:50

to face a dearth of young, educated

7:52

workers, unless something changes.

7:56

What might that be? People

7:58

often tell pollsters

7:59

they want more children than they

8:02

have.

8:03

This gap between aspiration and

8:05

reality could be in part because

8:08

would-be parents, who in effect subsidize

8:10

future childless pensioners, cannot

8:13

afford to have more children or because

8:15

of other policy failures, such as housing

8:18

shortages or inadequate fertility

8:20

treatment.

8:21

Yet even if these are fixed,

8:23

economic development is still likely

8:26

to lead to a fall in fertility below

8:28

the replacement rate. Pro-family

8:31

policies have a disappointing record. Singapore

8:34

offers lavish grants, tax rebates

8:36

and childcare subsidies, but has

8:38

a fertility rate of 1.0. Unleashing

8:43

the potential of the world's poor would

8:45

ease the shortage of educated young workers

8:48

without more births. Two-thirds

8:50

of Chinese children live in the countryside

8:53

and attend mostly dreadful schools,

8:56

the same fraction of 25-34

8:58

year olds in India have not completed

9:00

up a secondary education. Africa's

9:03

pool of young people will continue to

9:05

grow for decades. Boosting

9:08

their skills is desirable

9:10

in itself and might also cast more

9:12

young migrants as innovators in otherwise

9:15

stagnant economies. Yet encouraging

9:18

development is hard and the sooner

9:20

places get rich, the sooner they get old.

9:24

Eventually therefore, the world will

9:26

have to make do with fewer youngsters

9:29

and perhaps with a shrinking population.

9:32

With that in mind, recent advances

9:34

in AI could not have come at a

9:36

better time.

9:38

An uber-productive, AI-infused

9:41

economy might find it easy

9:43

to support a greater number of retired

9:45

people. Eventually, AI

9:48

may be able to generate ideas by

9:50

itself, reducing the need for

9:52

human intelligence.

9:54

Combined with robotics, AI

9:57

may also make caring for the elderly

9:59

less laid-back.

9:59

were intensive.

10:01

Such innovations will certainly be

10:03

in high demand. If

10:05

technology does allow humanity

10:07

to overcome the baby bust, it will

10:10

fit the historical pattern.

10:12

Unexpected productivity advances

10:14

meant that demographic time bombs,

10:17

such as the mass starvation predicted

10:19

by Thomas Malthus in the 18th century,

10:22

failed to detonate.

10:23

Fewer babies means less human

10:26

genius. But that might be a

10:28

problem human genius can fix.

10:53

Next, the SMP and Scotland's holiday from reality.

11:25

Scotland was the first part of Britain to get

11:27

high on populist referendums. In 2014,

11:31

two years before the Brexit vote, the

11:34

Scottish independence campaign exhorted people

11:36

to ignore the experts and revel

11:38

in a glorious national renewal.

11:41

The Scottish National Party, or SMP,

11:44

lost that battle. But it won

11:46

the peace.

11:47

Since then, the SMP has triumphed

11:50

in election after election. It

11:52

has made the intoxicating cause of independence

11:55

the principal dividing line among

11:57

Scottish voters.

11:59

The party's leader, until her resignation

12:02

in February, managed to make liberals

12:04

giddy too, by being not just

12:06

populist, but progressive.

12:09

The wheels have come off the camper van

12:12

in spectacular fashion.

12:14

Mousturgeon's abrupt exit, amid

12:16

a police investigation into her party's finances,

12:19

has shattered the SNP's credibility.

12:23

The inability of the Scottish government to call

12:25

another referendum unilaterally means

12:27

that the path to independence is blocked.

12:31

Under Hamza Yousaf, the party's new leader,

12:34

the SNP is projected to suffer heavy losses

12:36

to labour in the next Westminster election, making

12:39

it more likely that Sakhir Stama will win

12:41

the keys to 10 Downing Street. The

12:44

SNP's grip on Holyrood, where

12:46

it has held power continuously since 2007, will

12:50

be in serious doubt at the election to the

12:52

Scottish Parliament in 2026. Scottish

12:56

politics is suddenly,

12:58

dramatically in flux.

13:02

And yet, Scotland is also stuck.

13:05

The country remains split down the middle on

13:07

independence. Even

13:09

if the chances of another referendum in the foreseeable

13:11

future are very slim,

13:13

the simplest electoral strategy for both

13:15

the SNP and the Scottish Tories,

13:18

the strongest unionist voice,

13:20

will be to whip up the prospect

13:23

for years to come. The

13:25

SNP itself has become incapable of thinking

13:28

beyond the next strategic gambit

13:30

for divorce.

13:31

Elementary tasks, procuring ferries,

13:33

conducting a census, confound

13:36

an administration that once claimed

13:38

it could build an independent state in just 18 months.

13:42

Genuine problems

13:43

have been left to fester. Scotland

13:47

is a parable with lessons that both encourage

13:50

and dismay, that a populist

13:52

movement can suddenly unravel, and

13:55

that the damage it causes can still endure.

13:59

Scotland's... problem is slow growth.

14:02

Productivity has been stuck since 2014

14:05

and parts of the country remain shockingly

14:07

poor.

14:09

Business investment as a share of GDP

14:12

has been flat since 1998. Where

14:15

Scotland an independent country, it

14:17

would have been third from bottom in the

14:19

OECD.

14:22

In 2018, Scots launched 46 companies

14:25

for every 10,000 of the population, versus 71

14:28

in the rest of Britain. North

14:32

Sea oil is in long-term decline.

14:35

Scotland's banking industry has become more dependent

14:38

on London since the financial crisis.

14:41

Good universities are constrained

14:44

from admitting as many Scots as they should

14:46

by a policy of free education.

14:50

Low growth is a problem that Scotland shares

14:53

with the rest of the United Kingdom, but

14:55

its predicament is worse,

14:57

for two reasons.

14:59

One is demography.

15:01

The Scottish population is expected to peak sometime

15:04

this decade and then fall back

15:06

over the next 50 years.

15:08

It will age more rapidly than England's.

15:11

The over 65s will rise

15:13

from a fifth to a third of the

15:16

population by 2072.

15:18

All this will knock half a percentage

15:21

point off annual economic growth.

15:24

The second reason is that the flow of money

15:27

from Westminster is becoming

15:29

less lavish. The

15:31

SNP has been able to recreate the trappings

15:33

of a Nordic-style social democracy – free

15:36

university tuition, free eye tests,

15:38

free prescriptions – in part

15:41

because of a generous supply of cash from the British

15:43

government. An arrangement

15:45

known as the Barnet Formula determines

15:48

by how much the biggest grant changes each

15:50

year. This formula

15:53

is going to become a squeeze in coming decades.

15:56

The premium of per-person public spending in

15:58

Scotland is now at the end of the year.

16:00

will fall from 124% of English levels in 2027 to 115% in 2057.

16:09

Improving Scotland's economic prospects

16:11

and reversing its demographic decline ought

16:14

to be the SNP's focus,

16:17

not just for the sake of the country, but

16:19

also as a route to the party's revival.

16:22

However, manufacturing outrage

16:25

is electorally easier and more instantly

16:27

rewarding than the long haul

16:29

of fixing real problems.

16:32

As with all populism, weaning activists

16:35

and voters off a habit of constitutional

16:37

confrontation will require a

16:39

cultural shift. Every

16:42

issue is seen through the lens of social outcomes

16:44

first, and implications for growth

16:47

last.

16:48

The SNP has grown chilly to businesses

16:51

and made the fuzzy idea of a well-being

16:54

economy the centrepiece of its

16:56

agenda. Its green

16:58

coalition partners repudiate the measure

17:00

of GDP growth. The party

17:03

has hoarded power centrally in Edinburgh,

17:05

when cities such as Glasgow ought to have been able

17:07

to try out their own growth-enhancing policies.

17:11

In a country where devotion to the cause counts

17:13

for more than competence,

17:15

scrutiny has been sorely lacking.

17:18

Holyrood lacks a vibrant backbench

17:21

culture.

17:22

The poison of polarisation has

17:24

made think tanks and academics hesitant

17:27

to criticise the SNP. Mr

17:30

Yousuf still seems wedded to a mix

17:32

of giveaways, tax rises and constitutional

17:35

fights. It will take a new party

17:37

leader, perhaps Kate Forbes, the runner-up

17:40

in the race to succeed Mr Durgin, to

17:42

put growth first. Giving

17:46

populists what they want sometimes

17:48

makes things worse. Westminster's

17:51

tactic of heaping powers on Holyrood

17:53

in an attempt to quell separatism

17:56

has failed.

17:58

Instead, the British police

18:00

the boundaries of devolution. It

18:02

was within its rights to reject Scottish demands

18:05

for another referendum and to strike down

18:07

proposed gender recognition reforms.

18:10

Westminster needs a stronger role in overseeing

18:13

strategic infrastructure in energy

18:15

and transport.

18:17

Mr Sturgeon refused to take questioning from

18:19

parliamentary committees in Westminster.

18:22

That should change.

18:24

The Public Accounts Committee should take more

18:26

interest in how the Scottish Government spends

18:28

its money. This

18:29

more business-like

18:32

approach will inevitably prompt nationalists

18:34

to say that the English are recolonising

18:37

Scotland. Mr Yousuf

18:39

is unpopular, which makes

18:41

it all the more likely that he will seek to win over

18:44

SNP activists with one

18:46

last heave for independence.

18:49

Politics is about vision and emotion.

18:53

But the parable of Scotland

18:55

shows that even populists must eventually

18:58

demonstrate that they can solve

19:00

genuine problems. The

19:02

country's political class has been on

19:04

a long holiday from reality. Scotland

19:08

cannot afford another wasted

19:11

decade.

19:16

And finally, Spanish

19:19

seems to be taking over the world on

19:21

Spotify and Netflix. On

19:24

one day last month, Spotify's

19:26

four most streamed songs were

19:29

Ella Bia Sola, an upbeat tune

19:31

with a prominent trombone, Where

19:33

She Goes, mixing R&B

19:35

and rap, Un siento,

19:38

medium tempo and heavy on acoustic guitar

19:40

and accordion, and La Bebe, a

19:43

slow, mostly electronic bit

19:45

of reggaeton, a style from Puerto

19:47

Rico, with a beat adapted from Jamaican

19:50

dancehall.

19:51

On the surface, these songs have little

19:53

in common, but the world's top four

19:56

tunes, streamed over 20 million

19:58

times that day, do

19:59

share one feature.

20:01

They are all sung in Spanish.

20:05

In November, Spotify crowned Bad

20:07

Bunny, a rapper from Puerto Rico,

20:10

its most streamed artist for the

20:12

third year in a row. That

20:14

is the first time in the streaming service's

20:16

history that anyone has dominated its

20:18

charts for so long. On

20:21

YouTube, Peso Pluma, a

20:24

singer from Mexico is out-charting even

20:26

Bad Bunny, performing on three of

20:28

its top 20 songs.

20:30

In fact, of the top 20 songs

20:32

in the week of May 18, nine

20:35

were in Spanish.

20:36

In the United States last year, Latin

20:39

music generated $1 billion

20:41

in recorded music revenues, a 24% annual

20:45

increase, according to the Recording

20:47

Industry Association of America. That

20:50

is, 7% of all American

20:52

music revenues,

20:53

an all-time high.

20:56

Spanish music is having a moment. This

20:58

success is crossing not just musical genres

21:01

but different media too. Two

21:04

seasons of The Marked Heart,

21:06

a Colombian thriller about organ

21:08

trafficking, are in Netflix's top 10

21:11

of non-English speaking shows. Money

21:14

Heist, a Spanish TV series,

21:16

is Netflix's most viewed of

21:19

all time by hours spent

21:21

watching in the non-English charts. According

21:24

to a new paper by Will Page, a

21:26

visiting fellow at the London School of

21:28

Economics, and Chris Dieriva,

21:31

a musician, Money Heist is

21:33

the most viewed program in Argentina,

21:35

Brazil, Chile, France, Italy,

21:37

and Portugal. It is also popular

21:40

in North Africa, the Middle East, and

21:42

Turkey.

21:43

Three Spanish-language films

21:45

rank in its top 10 of all time

21:48

in the non-English charts.

21:51

English-speaking culture is not going to lose

21:53

its global prominence anytime

21:55

soon, but the inexorable rise

21:58

of Spanish-language music,

21:59

Film and TV reflects

22:02

several interconnected trends.

22:04

For us to heart it shows the increasing importance

22:07

of streaming services such as Spotify

22:09

and Netflix. It hints at

22:12

how Latin Americans, particularly the

22:14

young, are hungry to spend their cash

22:16

on culture.

22:17

It also demonstrates how Latin American

22:20

migrants are moving abroad and bringing

22:22

their cultures with them.

22:24

In doing so, they are shaping tastes

22:27

worldwide.

22:28

Spanish media is not new on

22:30

the world stage. Beginning

22:32

in the 1960s, the fiction of Gabriel

22:35

Garcia Marquez and Mario Vargas Losa

22:38

captivated readers and prized juries.

22:41

Film has long been a strength from

22:44

Spain's Luis Púnuel and

22:46

Pedro Almodóvar to Mexico's three

22:48

amigos, Guillermo del Toro, Alejandro

22:51

Injarito and Alfonso Cuaron.

22:54

Telly novellas are a long-standing export.

22:57

Egyptians as well as Ecuadorians

22:59

can relate to these universal dramas.

23:03

Several things are aiding the new boom.

23:06

The first is the internet-savvy nature

23:08

of Latin America. Around half

23:10

a billion people in the region own a

23:13

mobile phone. They are also likely

23:15

to spend more of their time on social media.

23:18

Argentines, Brazilians, Colombians

23:20

and Mexicans are estimated to spend

23:22

a combined average of three and a half

23:25

hours a day on social media. One

23:27

hour more than the global average.

23:30

A second reason for this boom is

23:33

that these musicians operate across national

23:35

boundaries.

23:36

This collaborative nature of the music

23:39

means that the big hitters appeal far

23:41

more widely than just in their home

23:43

countries. Fans appear

23:46

to be dedicated to, according to

23:48

the Economist's analysis of five

23:50

years of data from Spotify, in

23:52

Spanish language countries, the share of streams

23:55

in Spanish increased from 74 percent

23:57

in 2017 to. 86% in 2021,

24:02

while the share of English-language streams

24:05

fell from 25% to 14%. This

24:09

may surprise many in the region.

24:12

The world's Hispanophones have not

24:14

always acted as though they shared a culture.

24:17

Boundaries between both genres and

24:20

countries have often got in the way. Puerto

24:22

Rican salsa musicians went

24:24

on strike in protest at Dominican

24:27

musicians bringing merengue to their island

24:29

in the 1970s. Today,

24:32

more often than not, hit songs feature

24:34

a guest star alongside the main

24:37

attraction.

24:38

Take the example of Despacito,

24:40

a song from 2017 by Luis Fonsi,

24:43

a Puerto Rican singer, featuring Daddy

24:45

Yankee, a rapper also from Puerto

24:48

Rico.

24:48

It spent 11 weeks in

24:51

the top spot in 36 countries, partly

24:53

because of a remix featuring Justin Bieber,

24:56

a Canadian pop superstar. Sales

24:59

and streams of the song exceeded 13 million

25:02

in the United States. Until Baby

25:05

Shark, a children's video, surpassed

25:07

it in 2020, the original song

25:09

was the most watched YouTube video

25:12

of all time. It has so

25:14

far attracted over 8 billion

25:16

views. Similarly,

25:18

Rosalia, a Spanish megastar,

25:20

sings not only with Bad Bunny, but with her

25:23

fiancé, Rao Aljandro from

25:25

Puerto Rico. She has been streamed

25:27

over 8 billion times on Spotify

25:30

and packs out huge venues. In

25:32

May, she drew 160,000 fans

25:36

in Mexico City.

25:38

Likewise, Becky G from California

25:40

sings with Peso Pluma and Fade

25:43

Columbia with Young Miko, Puerto

25:45

Rico.

25:46

Bisa Rap, an Argentine

25:48

producer, has made collaboration his

25:51

brand churning out hits with a parade

25:53

of others from around Latin America. His

25:56

song with Shakira, Columbia,

25:58

venting at her ex-husband.

25:59

Husband Gerard Piquet, a Spanish

26:02

former footballer, quickly smashed streaming

26:05

records by becoming the most streamed

26:07

track in Latin music on Spotify

26:09

in 24 hours and the fastest

26:12

Latin track to reach 100 million

26:14

views on YouTube, taking just over

26:16

two days. But

26:18

the biggest factor is the role

26:20

of the United States.

26:22

Though Spanish music and television

26:25

are popular elsewhere, Latin America's

26:27

northern neighbor is crucial.

26:30

The Hispanic population in the United States

26:32

reached 62.5 million, or 19% of the total, in 2021.

26:39

Hispanics account for 52% of the country's

26:41

population growth since 2010. This

26:44

means there is a huge audience for Spanish-speaking

26:47

media. It also seems that

26:49

the children of Latin American immigrants

26:52

still share the identity of their parents'

26:54

home. Fully 72% of

26:56

Hispanics are Spanish-dominant or

26:58

bilingual. Even in

27:01

the third generation, about a quarter

27:03

remain bilingual.

27:05

As a result, Spanish may

27:07

be getting a boost.

27:09

The language has about half a billion native

27:12

speakers, more than any other but

27:14

Mandarin and perhaps Hindi. The

27:17

coolness of Bad Bunny et al.

27:19

may spur new learners. The

27:21

Squid Game, a Netflix mega-hit,

27:24

Duolingo, a language-learning app,

27:27

saw sudden spikes in sign-ups to learn

27:29

Korean. Customer interest

27:31

in Spanish is broader and more sustained.

27:35

After English, it engages by far

27:37

the most active users on the app, according

27:39

to Cindy Blanco, an executive.

27:43

Likewise, Babbel, a paid

27:45

language app, saw 42% growth

27:47

in Spanish learners between the first

27:50

quarters of 2022 and 2023, most were in the United States.

27:55

This is influencing other parts of the

27:57

Spanish-speaking world.

27:59

Miro Villapatiana, head

28:02

of Madrid's Office of Spanish,

28:04

notes that there is little local snobbery

28:07

about the Latin American accents and expressions

28:09

making their way into Spanish children's speech.

28:13

The government is even trying to ride the Latin

28:15

wave by boosting film and music

28:17

production in Madrid. By contrast,

28:20

the media in Portugal is having

28:22

a minor moral panic about Brazilianisms

28:25

among the country's YouTube-watching youth.

28:28

One recent newspaper headline warned,

28:30

children are addicted to Portuguese from

28:32

Brazil.

28:34

Another result of the increasing clout of

28:36

Hispanophone culture is more subtle.

28:39

The signature three-beat Tracio

28:41

rhythm of reggaeton can now be heard

28:44

all over the English language music

28:46

of singers such as Ed Sheeran, Dio

28:48

Olipa and Drake.

28:50

Even if listeners do not know it,

28:53

they are hearing a

28:54

Latin beat.

28:59

Thank you for listening to Editor's Picks.

29:02

For more from The Economist, subscribe

29:04

at economist.com slash podcastoffer.

29:09

I'm Tiameta Rocho, and in London,

29:11

this is The Economist.