The Economist paints itself as classically liberal, but this is something of a farce. They criticized Mises, sometimes called the last knight of liberalism, for his liberalism. And they have been consistently pro-war for the last decade. What is classically liberal about that? Not to mention they favour all kinds of economic interventionism - boosting demand by "stimulus" for instance, is one of their go-to suggestions for an economy in depression. Classical liberals of the 19th century would recoil in horror at the Economist's current "classical liberalism"
Mises once got angry at a meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society and called Friedman, Hayek, et al. "a bunch of socialists". It is hard to imagine him describing the editorial board of "The Economist" as 'classically liberal'.
I got the anecdote from the documentary "Commanding Heights: the Battle for the World Economy", where Friedman himself relates the story. Below is a link to the video clip.[1] There is also a Reason interview transcript where the same story is retold by Friedman.[2] In addition, it is mentioned on Mises' Wikipedia page.[3]
