Those Stubborn Facts: Is the European Union Really Standing with Ukraine?

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energy, European Union, military aid, natural gas, oil, Russia, Those Stiubborn Facts, Ukraine invasion, Ukraine-Russia war

Amount of European Union payments to Russia for

energy supplies since it invaded Ukraine: $38

billion

 

Amount of European Union aid to Ukraine to help

it resist the Russian invasion: $1.09 billion

 

(Source: “The EU is paying 35 times as much for Russian fuel as it’s given Ukraine for defense, chief diplomat says,” by Sinead Baker, Business Insider India, April 6, 2022, https://www.businessinsider.in/politics/world/news/the-eu-is-paying-35-times-as-much-for-russian-fuel-as-its-given-ukraine-for-defense-chief-diplomat-says/articleshow/90686530.cms)

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Those Stubborn Facts: Where Progressives Defunded the Police…& More

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"Defund the Police", African Americans, crime, law enforcement, murder, New York City, policing, shootings, Those Stiubborn Facts

African American share of N.Y City population, 2020: c. 24%

African American share of N.Y. City murder victms, 2020:  65%

African American share of N.Y. City shooting victims, 2020:  74%

 

(Source: “These Policies Were Supposed to Help Black People. They’re Backfiring,” by Jim Quinn and Hannah E. Meyers, The New York Times, February 15, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/15/opinion/nyc-black-victims-crime.html)

Those Stubborn Facts: How Badly Economists Whiffed on Inflation

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economists, Federal Open Market Committee, Federal Reserve, FOMC, inflation, Jason Furman, Project Syndicate, Those Stiubborn Facts

Number of Federal Reserve policy-making Open Market Committee

members* who expected 2021 U.S. inflation to top 2.5 percent: None

 

Median 2021 U.S. inflation forecast of private sector

economists surveyed in May of last year: 2.3 percent

 

Likely final 2021 U.S. inflation rate: 4.5 percent

 

* who number 18

(Source: “Why Did Almost Nobody See Inflation Coming?” by Jason Furman, Project Syndicate, January 17, 2022, Why Did Almost Nobody See Inflation Coming? by Jason Furman – Project Syndicate (project-syndicate.org) )

Those Stubborn Facts: Behind Biden’s Lousy Polls on the Economy

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Biden administration, inflation, inflation-adjusted wages, real wages, Those Stiubborn Facts, Trump administration, wages, workers

After-inflation wages for all private sector workers, Feb.-Oct., 2020: (last Trump year):  +2.81 percent 

After-inflation wages for all private sector workers, Feb.-Oct., 2021 (first Biden year):  -1.84 percent  

After-inflation wages for private non-managerial workers, Feb.-Oct., 2020: +2.84 percent 

After-inflation wages for private non-managerial workers, Feb.-Oct., 2021: -1.53 percent  

 

(Sources: “Average hourly earnings of all employees, 1982-1984 dollars, total private, seasonally adjusted,” Employment, Hours, and Earnings from the Current Employment Statistics survey (National), Databases, Tables & Calculators by Subject, Data Tools, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Labor Statistics Data (bls.gov) and “Average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory employees, 1982-84 dollars, total private, seasonally adjusted,” Ibid.)

Those Stubborn Facts: A Strange Definition of a Broken Trump Promise

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Associated Press, CCP Virus, coronavirus, COVID 19, health security, Mainstream Media, manufacturing, masks, medical supplies, PPE, supply chain, textiles, Those Stiubborn Facts, Trump, Wuhan virus

“Shortages of meltblown textiles, key to N95 mask-making, illustrate ‘the failure of this administration to take necessary steps to fulfill’ its promise of restoring critical manufacturing capacity lost to China.”

– Associated Press, September 10, 2020

“Pre-pandemic, five U.S. producers were making about 42 million N95 masks a month. By October, that is projected to have increased to 11 U.S. producers making 168 million a month, which could amount to 2 billion a year….”

–Associated Press, September 10, 2020

“Also pre-pandemic, 24 U.S. companies were making meltblown, with 79 machine lines in operation….But only a fraction of that was going into medical respirators….By the end of 2021… there will be 28 new lines in the U.S., representing a 35% increase, with almost all of the newly produced textile going into medical supplies.”

–Associated Press, September 10, 2020

(Source: “Scarcity of key material squeezes medical mask manufacturing, by Martha Mendoza, Juliet Linderman, Thomas Peipert, and Irena Hwang,” Associated Press, September 10, 2020, https://apnews.com/02a0542e8a05176bd5d79757134bc277)

Those Stubborn Facts: A High Cost of Easy Money?

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bailouts, capitalism, corporate finance, debt, interest rates, monetary policy, Ruchir Sharma, stimulus, The Wall Street Journal, Those Stiubborn Facts, zombie companies

Share of publicly traded companies in the U.S. that were zombie companies*, 1980s: 2 percent

Share of publicly traded companies in the U.S. that were zombie companies, “by the eve of the pandemic”: 19 percent

*”[C]ompanies that, over the previous three years, had not earned enough profit to make even the interest payments on their debt.”

(Source: “The Rescues Ruining Capitalism,” by Ruchir Sharma, The Wall Street Journal, July 24, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-rescues-ruining-capitalism-11595603720 )

 

Those Stubborn Facts: Congress Members Failing the Voters on U.S.-China Trade

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China, Congress, Jobs, Those Stiubborn Facts, Trade, WTO

Number of U.S. House Districts: 436

Number of House Districts in which U.S.-China trade has created net new jobs since China’s 2001 WTO entry: 1

Number of U.S. Senators: 100

Number of U.S. Senators whose states have seen net new jobs from U.S.-China trade since China’s 2001 WTO entry: 0

(Source: “U.S.-China Trade Deficits Cost Millions of Jobs, with Losses in Every State and in All but One Congressional District,” by Robert E. Scott, Trade and Globalization, Economic Snapshot, Economic Policy Institute, December 18, 2014, http://www.epi.org/publication/u-s-china-trade-deficits-cost-millions-of-jobs-with-losses-in-every-state-and-in-all-but-one-congressional-district/0)