Reminder: BLS produces the employment and inflation data. Independence from politics is as important there as at the Fed.
The loss of independence of the BLS is not just something that would make economists lives hard … the federal government could ‘save’ a lot of money if it manipulated the CPI.
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Another way to slash Medicare and Social Security. Brought to you by project 2025 and some “libertarian” tech bro elitists.
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An article that tells the story of BLS's independence :) www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Shaping Knowledge about American Labor: External Advising at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Twentieth Century | Science in Context | Cambridge Core
Shaping Knowledge about American Labor: External Advising at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Twentieth Century - Volume 23 Issue 2
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The reality is that there are no data from the government that are credible. Whether mortality, economic, labor, morbidity...doesn't matter. None of it is credible any longer.
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It is indeed depressing and scary, but I believe there are other reliable data sources for both employment and inflation such that any manipulation will be exposed (perhaps after a 5 to 8 month lag, however).
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I commented on this elsewhere. "... I definitely became concerned when I remembered that BLS determines the cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security based on their Consumer Price Index. What happens when Trump says inflation is 1 percent but I am somehow being crushed by my grocery bill."
