Editorials & Other Articles

I am a recently retired government statistician who worked closely with the Bureau of Labor Statistics for over 33 years. I can say with absolute certainty that the career government statisticians will never manipulate data, they would resign before throwing away their integrity with fake data.

Beyond that, there are 3 blatantly obvious signs that the data has not been manipulated to this point. First, if they were going to fake data, they'd make the data look good. All of the economic data released by the administration so far has been mediocre at best and downright terrible in some cases. Second, firing the BLS Commissioner was an obvious sign that the data from BLS has been honest. Third, and most importantly, the entire economic community in this country brutally criticized Trump for firing the BLS commissioner fearing it was a sign he will try to manipulate the numbers moving forward. I have been unable to find record of a single economist or statistician who has accused Trump of already faking the data. That's because it hasn't happened. Professional economists and statisticians aren't stupid - they will be able to tell when the data ceases being honest and at that point will make sure the entire world knows it.