3 Misconceptions That Need to Die (WMT, X)
Morgan Housel takes on three popular economic beliefs with government data: that most American spending goes to Chinese-made goods (only about 2.7% does, with 88.5% going to American-made goods and services), that China is our main creditor (it holds 7.8% of U.S. government debt, less than Japan and the U.K. combined, with much of the rest held by U.S. trust funds and the Fed), and that most of our oil comes from the Middle East (just 9.2%, versus roughly half produced domestically and more than twice as much imported from Canada and Mexico). He also explains why the myths persist, noting for instance that U.S. manufacturing output is near a record high even though manufacturing jobs have collapsed, and he opens with a Wharton professor's warning about misinformation undermining rational debate.