Numbers are everywhere in Washington. Budgets, deficits, statistical studies, probability analysis, trade figures, and so on. Sometimes, numbers are being used opaquely, to obscure what’s really going on. It’s an occupational hazard if you work in public policy in Washington, D.C.

Other times, however, the numbers tell a story that is so obvious it’s downright funny. Take the sales of semiconductors from the United States to Kazakhstan: Between 2021 and 2022, it went up nearly 100,000 times, according to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

That’s not a typo.