Chart of the Day: It’s a Small, Small World

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.

Politico reports that the Obama administration, in the person of Jan Eberly, Treasury’s new assistant secretary for economic policy, is pushing back on the Republican notion that “regulatory uncertainty” is damaging the economy. It’s sort of sad that she has to waste valuable neurons on this, when she could instead be doing actual useful work, but I guess that’s politics for you.

Anyway, her case is here. And part of her case is that the American economy isn’t actually suffering from any more uncertainty than the rest of the world, which suggests that American regulations can’t really be having much of an impact. The chart below shows two measures of stock market volatility, one for the U.S. and one for Europe, and as you can see, they’ve moved pretty much in lockstep during the Obama era.

Which, to make a separate point, is an impressive demonstration of the fact that we live in a global economy, not just an American one. When stuff happens, it affects us all. Keep that in mind when American bankers and Treasury officials keep telling us that “we aren’t very exposed” to a possible eurozone disaster. My guess is that we’re pretty exposed after all, which is a good reason for all of us to hope that Europe gets its act together soon.

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate