>I'm convinced that much of the allure of the economist comes from that it is frank contrarian news source.
Contrarian to what? It follows the Washington Consensus pretty much religiously.
It also came out in favor of George Bush and the Iraq war in the beginning (when everybody else was) and against them after (when everybody else was also).
Sticking to the theme of US elections, it also came out for Barack Obama in 2012. That's pretty contrarian considering The Economists history and Mitt Romney's policies on Wall Street.
The vast majority of economist articles can be summed up as "you thought it was that way, but it's actually this way."
Contrarian to what? It follows the Washington Consensus pretty much religiously.
It also came out in favor of George Bush and the Iraq war in the beginning (when everybody else was) and against them after (when everybody else was also).