Biden’s first-year report card is in

This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, an all-you-can-eat buffet of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. Sign up here.Today’s Agenda Biden’s progress rep [Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, an all-you-can-eat buffet of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - Biden’s [progress report]( is in. - [Ukraine]( is on everyone’s brain. - The [energy transition]( is rough. - [Buying crypto mid-war]( is a red flag. The Data of the Union I’m about to admit something embarrassing. When I was in the sixth grade, we got progress reports in manila envelopes to take home to our parents. But all the kids would open them on the school bus before they got home. Once I saw mine, I realized I was headed for a scathing indictment. Under no circumstances did I want my mother to read about how my “class behavior is sometimes distracting to others,” nor could I have my father learn my “current grade is in the low 60s range.” So I did what any normal 11-year-old would do: I hid it deep inside the drawer of my American Girl Doll chest. At first, that sheet of paper haunted my dreams. But eventually I forgot about it. It lay there for years, tucked alongside a dead Tamagotchi and some coagulated Gelly Roll pens, only to resurface in March 2013 when I was cleaning out my room: The great news is that this behavior did not make me a total failure. I’m putting all of this in a Bloomberg newsletter (!!!), after all. But somebody else far more important has some grades about to be released this very evening: President Joe Biden. In a way, his State of the Union address is a quasi-progress report, and I’d argue he might want to crumple it up and shove it in his American Girl Doll chest if he could. But this is America, not the sixth grade. Biden needs to face the facts of his first year in office, which is why Elaine He worked with 14 Bloomberg Opinion columnists to put together an [all-you-can-eat buffet of metrics]( on his presidency. From gas prices to health-care coverage, our writers tracked the numbers — the good, the bad and the ugly — of the 46th president’s administration. Here are a few of my favorites: [This approval-rating chart]( from Jonathan Bernstein gives off major “finds subject difficult” vibes, if the subject is “being president.” But really, who wouldn’t find that subject difficult? Obama was a star pupil here, but it’s not like everyone can pop [seven magical almonds]( in their mouth and show up to work day in and day out with a smile on their face. Which brings me to … This chart would probably merit a comment along the lines of “unmotivated to learn.” Allison Schrager writes prime-working-age men are just [not returning to work after the pandemic](. Their labor force participation rate recently hit a historic low of 86.4%. As a woman, I find this rude! The ladies are out here hustling, and you’re … what? Watching Matt Damon movies and buying NFTs? At the very least, Biden needs to give these men a new hobby. Maybe a [primo electric car](would suit their fancy … Last year, [435,000 EVs were sold in the U.S.](, which sounds like a lot, but it’s actually only 3% of the auto market. Conor Sen writes electric vehicles could command 10% of the market by the end of Biden’s term. If that happens, then his final report card will surely say “excellent quality of work.” Bonus State of the Union Listening: What are Biden’s biggest [economic successes and failures]( to date? — Brooke Sutherland, Allison Schrager and Conor Sen This is Your Brain on Ukraine We’re now on the sixth day of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, and the internet users of the world are getting testy, to say the least. You wake up to images of bomb shelters. You go to bed watching videos with graphic violence warnings. Your list of Twitter notifications is longer than ​​the 40-mile Russian military convoy creeping toward Kyiv this morning. There’s no escaping this depressing war, and knowing countless Ukrainians are displaced without access to shelter, food or water is sickening. Some reactions to this are understandable manifestations of helplessness, while others are more problematic. For example, some people and institutions have begun to shame Russian performers, musicians, artists and athletes. Tyler Cowen writes [this is no time for that sort of cancel culture](, with its notes of McCarthyism. Other people have been more pragmatic, shutting their digital mouths and opening their wallets. Donations to Ukraine’s cause are soaring, some of it going to [high-yield Ukrainian war-bonds](, which Mark Gongloff notes are “a storied method of government fund-raising in times of conflict.” But Matt Levine writes [the settlement system is far from perfect](, partly because it’s antiquated and confusing, and partly because “it’s not clear anyone quite knows how they’re supposed to respond to a war.” But there’s an obvious caveat to Matt’s “anyone,” and that is autocrats, who most definitely know how to respond to a war that threatens to splinter the global order. Pankaj Mishra writes [the main coping mechanism of such l​​eaders]( — whether they preside over China, Iran or Turkey — is to try to restore the glories of imperialism. Luckily, Lionel Laurent points to a bright spot within all this madness, in the form of an unlikely hero: [an assertive new European Union](. Bonus Ukraine Reading: - [The U.S. petroleum reserve]( was made for moments like this. — Bloomberg’s editorial board - [Cutting Russia off from platforms like Facebook]( will worsen its information vacuum. — Parmy Olson - Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is creating a window for the world to [clean up dirty money](. — Paul J. Davies - Understanding [the Russian oil shock]( in six bullet points. — Javier Blas - Negotiations still have the power to [stop this war](. — Therese Raphael Telltale Charts In an ideal world, all our roads would be paved to perfection. Instead, we have cringe-inducing [roads like this](.  Liam Denning writes our [transition to clean energy won’t be smooth at all](. Though humanity is making progress on EVs, we still need vast amounts of money, patience and coordination to survive this bumpy ride. People from Ukraine and Russia are buying [an eyebrow-raising amount of cypto lately](, which is a red flag that digital coins are being used to skirt sanctions. “There’s no way that activity is good for assets like Bitcoin,” writes Jonathan Levin. Further Reading [Porsche’s IPO]( is a chaotic family affair. — Chris Bryant Nike would be wise to go [full glam](. — Andrea Felsted By removing SAT requirements, [colleges create even sketchier admissions standards]( that favor legacy students.  — Naomi Schaefer Riley and James Piereson Fix the Fed’s trading scandal with one weird trick (or [these five not-weird questions](). — Kaleb Nygaard [Unions aren’t working]( for us anymore. — Allison Schrager ICYMI [The sad demise of that ship]( with all the Porsches and Lamborghinis. [Teen who tracked Elon Musk's jet]( is now tracking some oligarchs. [Deer-to-human Covid-19 transmission]( might be a thing now. Kickers Of course there’s a [Tinder Swindler lawsuit](. Physicists are doubting everything about [the structure of reality](. [Fruit flies have more going on]( upstairs than we realize. (h/t Mark Gongloff for the last two kickers) Ryan from “The O.C.” is now a [crypto anti-influencer influencer](. Notes:  Please send feedback, not fruit flies, to Jessica Karl at jkarl9@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Instagram](, [TikTok](, [Twitter]( and [Facebook](. Like Bloomberg Opinion Today? [Subscribe to Bloomberg All Access and get much, much more](. You’ll receive our unmatched global news coverage and two in-depth daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Bloomberg Opinion Today newsletter. 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