Good reads & charts - March 2, 2024

In this edition: Bipartisan support for Ukraine and Granola. Plus, pandemic-era learning loss, food emissions and the popularity of world leaders!

Good reads & charts provides an assortment of interesting articles and data that I have come across recently that do not warrant a full article and might not be related to something I have previously discussed, but I feel are worth larger consumption.

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The economic impact of Russia’s invasion

While the Russian economy took a temporary hit, the IMF projects it will almost return to its pre-invasion path by 2025 (albeit, replete with inflation and much of the spending concentrated on military rather than social spending and public goods).

Ukraine on the other hand is a different story.

Source: FT

Source: Visual analysis: Ukraine’s war of survival enters third year (FT)

If only some countries could provide aid to Ukraine, military or otherwise…

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Follow the leader…to a point.

A Pew survey conducted in January asked Americans how they view three key geopolitical conflicts from the perspective of the 1) US national interest and 2) their personal import. Interestingly, Democrats and Republicans were in virtual lock-step on the Israel/Hamas conflict and China/Taiwan situation.

Where did they diverge? Russia/Ukraine - though almost 70% of Republicans do still view the conflict as important to US national interests, so it isn’t that far off from their view of other conflicts.

Source: Pew

Source: How Americans view the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Hamas, and China and Taiwan (Pew)

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The Magnificent Seven is so 2023.

2024 is all about granola.