Donald Trump’s dismissal two weeks ago, the Labor Statistics Commissioner, Erika Mcentarfer, and the appointment of EJ Antoni, while her replacement generates numerous gossip “in internal baseball” among the political class.
But the President – as coarse and brown as his methods fell on a truth that was hidden in sight: that government economic data relied on markets and business leaders for the award of hundreds of billions of capital is simply not very precise?
“I would probably also have pulled the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics,” wrote Ray Dalio, founder and now former CEO of the Bridgewater cover giant. “His process to make estimates is obviously obsolete and subject to errors, and there is no good plan to repair it,” he continued.
Dalio noted that the massive decreased revisions of data on the employment of May and June included with the July report were “symptomatic” of rot in the BLS. Private estimates, Dalio said, were much better. “I know a lot about how I use the data to follow the economy and bet on where it goes,” he said.
Trump’s named replacement at the top of the BLS, EJ Antoni, qualified data from the “BS” agency and earlier this week, suggested suspending monthly employment reports in favor of quarterly versions until improvements can be made.
The BLS produces not only employment data, but also the consumer price index, which for many years was faced with criticism of all neighborhoods so as not to describe the inflation pressure felt by the Americans.
