Warconomy's 93 page-specific FAQ answers, regrouped into 9 caveat themes: real-time, coverage, sample-vs-live, source limits, legal/compliance, causality, provenance/versioning, and the static API. Each answer is the same one shown on its source page — read here to see how every recurring honesty question is handled.
- 93 FAQ answers grouped into 9 caveat themes.
- Each item links back to its source page.
- Machine-readable at /faq/caveats/data.json.
Not real-time
Whether figures are a live feed.
Are these figures real-time?
No. They are annual SIPRI/NATO estimates, manually transcribed as source-linked static values with an as-of and review date, and may be revised in future SIPRI releases.
From /defense/comparison
What is Warconomy?
A data-first economic-impact reference: source-linked indicators for the economic impact of wars, sanctions, chokepoints, defense spending, and reconstruction. It is not a news site, not real-time, and not legal or compliance advice.
From /
Is Warconomy real-time?
No. Every value is a manually maintained, source-linked static figure with an as-of date and a review date. Coverage is partial; sample rows are clearly labeled.
From /
Is the data real-time?
No. Every value is a manually maintained, source-linked static figure with an as-of date and a review date. Coverage is partial.
From /economic-impact
What does live / static mean?
A live/static value is genuinely sourced and manually transcribed from a cited public source, with an as-of and a last-reviewed date. It is citeable as a source-reported value, but it is not real-time or automatically updated.
From /economic-impact
Is coverage complete?
No — coverage is partial and not real-time. Quantitative values are source-linked, and sample rows are clearly labeled and must not be cited as current data.
From /topics
Are dashboards source-linked?
Yes. Dashboards are derived roll-ups; every figure resolves to a source-linked topic or source page. They are partial, manually maintained, and not real-time.
From /dashboards
Is this a live shipping tracker?
No — it is not real-time and not a live vessel tracker. The Red Sea figures are dated historical snapshots that read stale by design.
Are reconstruction figures final?
No — reconstruction and macro estimates are decade-horizon figures that institutions periodically revise. They are not real-time.
From /conflicts/dashboard
What is out of scope?
Scraping, scheduled jobs, runtime APIs, paid data, real-time tracking, legal/compliance advice, and causal-attribution modeling.
From /methodology
Is coverage complete?
No. Coverage is partial and not real-time; this page shows exactly how much is source-linked live data versus labeled sample rows.
From /data-coverage
What is the data review queue?
A deterministic list of which source-linked values to re-check next, with recommended-review-by dates derived from each source's cadence. It is review status, not real-time monitoring.
From /data-review
Are values fetched live from these sources?
No. Values are manually transcribed static fixtures from the publishers' own pages — not real-time and not automatically updated.
From /sources
Is the export real-time?
No. It is a static, manually maintained JSON file with a version and an as-of reference date; it is regenerated by hand when values are refreshed.
Is the data real-time?
No — values are manually maintained, source-linked static figures with as-of and review dates.
Is this a live vessel tracker?
No — it is not real-time and not maritime intelligence. Vessel counts are dated as of specific sanctions packages or actions.
From /sanctions/shadow-fleet-shipping-insurance/economic-impact
Is the Brent price real-time?
No — it is a manually maintained monthly average from the EIA, not a live quote.
Are the Red Sea figures current?
No — they are dated historical snapshots from the acute disruption phase (UNCTAD/IMF, 2024). They remain source-linked but read stale; they are not real-time.
Is this a live shipping tracker?
No. Warconomy is not a live vessel or freight tracker; shipping metrics (transits, container transits, trade volume, revenue) are not interchangeable.
Is the canal data real-time?
No. The transit and revenue figures are official Panama Canal Authority FY2024 annuals, and the oil-transit figures are EIA quarterly snapshots (1Q–2Q 2025). They are manually maintained and not a live tracker.
Is this a live shipping tracker?
No. The figures are dated EIA quarterly snapshots, not real-time, and oil-transit volume is only one of several ways to measure the strait.
Why have flows through Bab el-Mandeb dropped?
Red Sea security disruption since late 2023 has diverted many tankers around the Cape of Good Hope. The EIA estimates oil transit fell to about 3.7 million b/d (1Q2025) and 4.3 million b/d (2Q2025). These are dated snapshots, not real-time.
Is this a live vessel tracker?
No. The figures are dated EIA quarterly snapshots, not real-time, and this is an economic-impact reference, not legal or compliance advice on sanctions.
Is this real-time or legal advice?
Neither. The figures are dated EIA quarterly snapshots, not real-time, and this is an economic-impact reference, not legal or compliance advice.
Is this the same as the Strait of Hormuz Brent figure?
Related but distinct: this page uses an EIA daily spot value, while the Strait of Hormuz page tracks a monthly Brent average. A daily spot differs from a monthly average; neither is real-time.
Is this real-time?
No. The values are manually maintained monthly EIA snapshots. Gas prices reflect weather, storage, and LNG flows as well as geopolitics, so they are tracked as benchmarks, not causal attributions.
Is this real-time?
No. The values are manually maintained monthly FAO snapshots and may be revised. The same index also appears on the Russia–Ukraine page in its food-channel context.
What does the commodities dashboard cover?
A cross-topic overview of oil benchmarks (Brent & WTI), natural gas (Henry Hub), and food prices (FAO Food Price Index and sub-indices), with source-linked indicators, coverage, and review status. Partial coverage, not real-time.
Sample vs live
Which values are illustrative and which are sourced.
Where should I start?
See /topics for every canonical page, /dashboards for cross-topic overviews, or jump to the sanctions, chokepoints, or conflicts dashboards. /data-coverage shows what is live versus sample.
From /
What does sample mean?
A sample row is an illustrative placeholder used to demonstrate structure. It is always labeled in the UI and must never be cited as current or measured.
From /economic-impact
What is the difference between live and sample rows?
Live/static rows are genuinely sourced, manually maintained values with an as-of and review date. Sample rows are clearly labeled placeholders and must not be cited as current or measured data.
From /data-coverage
Partial coverage
What is and isn't covered.
Is this a complete ranking of military spending?
No. Warconomy source-links only the top three spenders and the world total; the full top-10 and regional totals are listed as data needs because they are not directly text-verifiable from the accessible SIPRI fact sheet. Coverage is partial.
From /defense/comparison
Is Warconomy a news site?
No. Warconomy is a data-first, source-linked economic-impact reference designed to be cited — not a news feed and not narrative coverage.
From /economic-impact
How is Warconomy's coverage organized?
Into canonical topic pages (conflicts, chokepoints, sanctions), category dashboards that roll those up, data dashboards, and a machine-readable dataset. This index lists every canonical page by category.
From /topics
What is the dashboards hub?
A single index of Warconomy's overview surfaces: category dashboards (sanctions, chokepoints, conflicts), data dashboards, trust surfaces (coverage, review), the source registry, and the dataset.
From /dashboards
What is the economic impact of sanctions on Russia?
Warconomy tracks it through source-linked indicators across energy-trade price caps, the oil shadow fleet, frozen assets / Ukraine financing, and secondary-sanctions enforcement. Coverage is partial and source-linked.
From /sanctions/dashboard
Is this legal or compliance advice?
No. This is an economic-impact reference, not legal or compliance advice, and not a complete map of any sanctions regime.
From /sanctions/dashboard
What is the economic impact of the Russia–Ukraine war?
Warconomy tracks source-linked indicators for reconstruction needs and food/commodity prices, alongside the energy and sanctions channels covered elsewhere. Coverage is partial.
From /conflicts/dashboard
What is in the dataset export?
Enriched observations, sources, source-linked facts, policy thresholds, the sanctions block, dashboardHub, topicIndex, per-category review, and coverage/review summaries — plus a citation graph at graph.json.
Is this legal or compliance advice?
No. It is an economic-impact reference, not legal or compliance advice, and not a complete enforcement database.
From /sanctions/secondary-sanctions-circumvention/economic-impact
Is coverage complete?
No. Coverage is partial and not every channel or linkage is represented. Every channel resolves to source-linked figures via the trust surfaces.
From /transmission-map
Causality
Whether a figure attributes cause.
Does higher military spending mean more military activity?
No. Military expenditure is an annual budget measure — it is not the same as procurement, military aid, or battlefield activity, and these figures are levels and direction only, not a causal attribution.
From /defense/comparison
Are price moves attributed to chokepoint events?
No. Benchmarks are tracked alongside risk; linkages are associative, not a causal attribution.
What does 'stale' mean?
Stale is a review status — a re-check is recommended before citing the value as current context. It does not mean the value is wrong; many stale rows are valid historical snapshots.
From /methodology
Does 'stale' mean the data is wrong?
No. Stale is a review signal based on each source's cadence — it means a re-check is recommended, not that the value is incorrect.
From /data-coverage
Does stale mean the figure is false?
No. Stale means a manual re-check is recommended before citing the value as current context; dated policy effective dates and event snapshots read stale by design.
From /data-review
Why does the Strait of Hormuz matter to the economy?
It is the world's most important oil-transit chokepoint; perceived transit risk is tracked alongside crude benchmark prices. Linkages are associative, not a causal attribution.
What are Brent and WTI?
Brent is the international waterborne crude benchmark; WTI is the U.S. (Cushing) benchmark. The EIA reported Brent spot at US$92.88/bbl and WTI at US$91.16/bbl on 29 May 2026. They are market benchmarks, not causal attributions.
Does this prove a war caused a price move?
No. Oil prices reflect supply, demand, OPEC+ decisions, inventories, and the dollar. Warconomy tracks benchmarks alongside risk and does not attribute a move to a single event unless the source does.
Did the Russia–Ukraine war cause these prices?
Cereals and vegetable oils are the sub-indices most exposed to the Black Sea / Ukraine channel, but prices reflect many factors. Warconomy tracks the indices alongside the food channel, not as a causal attribution.
Are these prices attributed to wars or sanctions?
No. Commodity prices are market benchmarks tracked alongside conflict, sanctions, and chokepoint risk — not causal attributions. Prices reflect many factors.
What does stale mean here?
Stale means a manual review is recommended before citing a value as current context — not that the value is wrong. Dated historical snapshots (e.g. EIA quarterly chokepoint flows) can remain valid while reading stale.
From /data-maintenance
What does source readiness mean?
It is a derived label (high/medium/low) describing how directly a source backs a maintained value — based on authority, citation role, deep-linking, and review metadata. It explains why a source is trusted, not whether a value is correct.
From /source-quality
Does the map show causation?
No. It is a relationship map derived from how Warconomy's data links together. A connection means 'tracked alongside', not 'caused by' — it is not a causal-attribution model.
From /transmission-map
Is the FAO index a measure of war damage?
No — it is a global food-commodity benchmark tracked alongside the food channel, not a causal attribution to the war.
Legal / compliance
Why this is not legal or compliance advice.
What is the best page for sanctions questions?
The sanctions dashboard (/sanctions/dashboard) is the cross-topic overview; individual figures live on the energy-trade, shadow-fleet, frozen-assets, and circumvention topic pages. It is an economic-impact reference, not legal or compliance advice.
From /economic-impact
Is this legal or compliance advice?
No. This is an economic-impact reference, not legal or compliance advice.
Is this legal or compliance advice?
No. It is an economic-impact reference, not legal or compliance advice.
From /sanctions/shadow-fleet-shipping-insurance/economic-impact
Is this legal or compliance advice?
No. It is an economic-impact reference, not legal or compliance advice, and not a tracker of legal proceedings.
From /sanctions/frozen-russian-assets-ukraine-financing/economic-impact
Provenance & versioning
How values are sourced, frozen, and diffed.
Are the price caps market prices?
No — price caps are policy thresholds, not market prices, and the EU and U.S./G7 caps differ by jurisdiction.
From /sanctions/dashboard
How do chokepoints affect the economy?
Through energy benchmarks (e.g. Brent), shipping-transit disruption (Suez/Red Sea), route diversion, and freight costs. Warconomy tracks these with source-linked indicators.
How is freshness computed without a live clock?
Deterministically, against a curated reference date (site.dataAsOf), never the runtime clock — so the static build and tests stay reproducible.
From /methodology
Are the EU and U.S./G7 oil price caps the same?
No. They differ by jurisdiction — the U.S./G7 coalition cap and the EU's lower dynamic cap are tracked as separate source-linked policy thresholds, not market prices.
Are the frozen assets confiscated?
No — they are immobilized, not confiscated. The principal is distinct from the windfall proceeds used to repay G7/EU loans to Ukraine.
From /sanctions/frozen-russian-assets-ukraine-financing/economic-impact
Why do EU and worldwide figures differ?
EU-only figures (about €210bn) are a subset of the worldwide total (about €260bn). Principal, proceeds, committed loans, and disbursements are all distinct.
From /sanctions/frozen-russian-assets-ukraine-financing/economic-impact
Are entity counts comparable across jurisdictions?
No. EU listings, OFAC designations, and BIS Entity List additions use different scopes; the counts here are per-package snapshots, not cumulative or cross-jurisdiction comparable.
From /sanctions/secondary-sanctions-circumvention/economic-impact
How is Bab el-Mandeb different from the Red Sea page?
This page focuses on oil and energy transit through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait (EIA figures), while the Red Sea page covers container-shipping and Suez transit disruption (UNCTAD/IMF). They are kept distinct to avoid duplication.
Which natural gas price does Warconomy track?
The U.S. Henry Hub benchmark: EIA reported US$2.94/MMBtu in May 2026, up from US$2.77 in April 2026. European (TTF) and Asian (JKM) gas prices can move very differently and are not captured here.
How are chokepoints ranked?
By a single comparable EIA metric — crude oil and petroleum-liquids transit volume — for the latest comparable quarter (2Q2025). Vessel transits, tonnage, and price benchmarks are different measures and are not mixed in.
Source limits
When a value can't be directly verified from a source.
How do the top military spenders compare in 2025?
By SIPRI's 2025 estimate the United States (US$954bn), China (US$336bn), and Russia (US$190bn) are the three largest spenders, together about 51% of the world total of US$2,887bn. Only this single comparable SIPRI country metric (same year, same unit, same source) is ranked.
From /defense/comparison
How should I cite a Warconomy page?
Cite a category dashboard for an overview, a topic or source page for an individual figure, and the JSON export or citation graph for machine-readable references. Every figure links to its underlying source.
From /economic-impact
Where is the machine-readable data?
At /datasets/conflict-economic-impact/data.json, with a deterministic citation graph at graph.json. The export includes observations, sources, policy thresholds, the sanctions block, source quality, an FAQ index, and this query hub.
From /economic-impact
How does Warconomy choose sources?
Official and intergovernmental publishers are the source of record; authoritative research is used at medium confidence. News summaries and inaccessible/paywalled charts are not used as the source of record. Each source carries a citation-readiness label.
From /economic-impact
Topic page or dashboard — which should I cite?
Cite a category dashboard for a cross-topic overview and a topic page for an individual figure. Each figure links to its underlying source.
From /topics
What counts as a source of record?
Official and intergovernmental publishers first; authoritative research (e.g. CREA, KSE) at medium confidence. News summaries and inaccessible/paywalled charts are not used as the source of record for live observations.
From /methodology
Where does Warconomy's data come from?
Official and intergovernmental publishers (EIA, SIPRI, NATO, UNCTAD, IMF, the European Commission, the U.S. Treasury) and authoritative research (CREA). Every public source is listed here with a per-source detail page.
From /sources
What is citation readiness?
A derived label (high/medium/low) summarizing a source's authority, role, and how directly it backs a maintained value — to help cite the strongest source for each figure.
From /sources
What is the shadow fleet?
Ageing tankers with opaque ownership and non-Western insurance that carry Russian oil outside G7 maritime services. Warconomy tracks source-linked vessel-listing and export-share indicators.
From /sanctions/shadow-fleet-shipping-insurance/economic-impact
What are secondary sanctions?
Measures that reach beyond Russia to the third-country firms and intermediaries that re-route restricted goods or finance. Warconomy tracks source-linked enforcement and export-control indicators.
From /sanctions/secondary-sanctions-circumvention/economic-impact
Does Warconomy auto-refresh its data?
No. Warconomy is manually maintained and static — there is no scraping, no scheduled jobs, and no runtime API calls. This page lists which source-linked values are due for a manual re-check, grouped by source cadence.
From /data-maintenance
How are quarterly rows handled?
Quarterly sources such as the EIA Short-Term Energy Outlook chokepoint table use the irregular ('unknown') cadence bucket and are flagged for periodic review or appending the next period when the source updates.
From /data-maintenance
How is readiness scored?
Deterministically from each source's type, cadence, URL, and how it is used (live observations vs facts). There are no manual scores. Official publishers backing a live deep-linked value rank highest.
From /source-quality
How does the war affect the global economy?
Mainly through energy, food, and trade channels, plus large reconstruction needs. Warconomy tracks source-linked indicators (e.g. the RDNA4 reconstruction need and the FAO Food Price Index) rather than battlefield narrative.
Static API (no runtime API)
How to consume the static machine endpoints.
Is the data machine-readable?
Yes. Every page carries JSON-LD, and the full dataset is exported as static JSON at /datasets/conflict-economic-impact/data.json with a citation graph at graph.json.
From /
Where is the machine-readable data?
At /datasets/conflict-economic-impact/data.json, with a citation graph at graph.json. The export includes policy thresholds, the sanctions block, dashboardHub, topicIndex, and per-category review.
From /dashboards
General
Other recurring questions.
Does Warconomy publish casualty figures?
No. Warconomy focuses on economic impact and does not publish casualty or battlefield estimates.
From /conflicts/dashboard
What does category review show?
The same sitewide queue grouped by category (sanctions, conflicts, chokepoints, dashboards). Category counts reconcile with the sitewide totals.
From /data-review
Why did Panama Canal traffic fall?
A severe 2023–2024 drought cut Lake Gatún water levels, forcing the canal to reduce daily transit slots and draft. The Panama Canal Authority reported 9,944 deep-draft transits in FY2024, down about 29% from FY2023. The constraint is freshwater, not security.
How important is the Strait of Malacca for oil?
It is the world's second-busiest oil transit chokepoint after the Strait of Hormuz. The EIA estimates about 21.7 million b/d (1Q2025) and 22.8 million b/d (2Q2025) of crude and petroleum liquids transited, mostly bound for East Asia.
What moves through the Turkish Straits?
Predominantly crude oil from Russian, Caspian, and Black Sea ports bound for the Mediterranean. The EIA estimates about 3.6 million b/d (1Q2025) and 3.7 million b/d (2Q2025) of oil transited the Bosporus and Dardanelles.
Why do the Danish Straits matter for sanctions?
They are a primary outlet for seaborne Russian and Baltic crude and product exports, so they feature in price-cap and shadow-fleet attention. The EIA estimates about 4.8 million b/d (1Q2025) and 4.7 million b/d (2Q2025) of oil transited.
What is the FAO Food Price Index?
A trade-weighted basket of five sub-indices (cereals, vegetable oils, dairy, meat, sugar). It averaged 130.8 points in May 2026 (2014–2016 = 100). It is a global price benchmark, not a hunger or food-insecurity measure.
Why isn't the Strait of Hormuz in the ranking?
Hormuz is the largest oil chokepoint overall, but Warconomy tracks it via a crude benchmark rather than this EIA transit series, so it is not part of this single-metric comparable ranking.
Standing caveats: /caveats · all FAQ: /faq · machine-readable: /faq/caveats/data.json.