Which is best for macroeconomic news for students pursuing an MS in finance and planning to work in North America - The Economist or The Financial Times?

The best news source for you would likely be the Economist. First, it focuses almost exclusively on macroeconomic if not industry level news. The Financial Times though tends to focus more on financial markets and individual firms. The only thing that the FT has it iys advantage it that it focuses much more on the US than the Economist.

The economist though, is hands down the best mainstream macroeconomic news source out there. The writers may have gotten worse over the years, but they are still far ahead the competition. Overall, since macroeconomics is your goal, the Economist is better than the Financial Times.