At the heart of this week’s cover package is a special report in which, across seven chapters, my colleagues Simon Rabinovitch and Henry Curr look at how the American economy has left other rich countries in the dust. They argue that a relentless dynamism is the essential characteristic of the American economy and the ultimate force propelling it forward—one that was on full display last weekend as SpaceX sent a giant booster rocket towards space (and back again). The company wants to make spaceflight as cheap as possible. That could revolutionise the economics of space, as our briefing explains.

Yet, if the launch was a testimony to American enterprise, so Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder, captures all that is going wrong with its politics. In his support for Donald Trump, Mr Musk has spread misinformation about voter fraud and hurricane relief and derided his opponents as ill-intentioned idiots. As Republicans and Democrats prepare to go to the polls in fewer than 20 days’ time, the two sides have never mistrusted each other more. Against that gloomy backdrop, our cover leader asks: can America’s breathtaking economy stay aloft?