Government Statistics: Trump fires labor statistics chief after weaker than expected jobs report

Comments

• JD_co

  August 1

  Our credibility is going to be completely shot. Not just here at home in the US, but globally. We are no better than Russia at this point.
  
  I refuse to believe any reporting that this admin generates....which may well be the point of their shenanigans.
  
  Hey, Dump....mission accomplished!
• Old_Joe

  August 1 edited August 1

  And these additions, from a report in The New York Times:

  President Trump unleashed his fury about weakness in the labor market on Friday, saying without evidence that the data were “manipulated” and that he was firing the Senate-confirmed Department of Labor official responsible for pulling together the numbers each month.
  
  In a long post on social media on Friday, Mr. Trump said he had directed his team to fire Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics who was confirmed on a bipartisan basis in 2024.
  
  Only hours earlier, Stephen Miran, the chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, offered a much different explanation for the jobs revision. In an appearance on CNBC, he said much of the change was the result of “quirks in the seasonal adjustment process” and even the president’s own policies, particularly on immigration, potentially affecting hiring numbers for May and June. He made no mention of any concerns about manipulated data.
• gman57

  August 1

  More diversion or flooding the zone. Keep announcing crazy stuff until people stop paying attention.
• Old_Joe

  August 1

  Too serious for that... the people over at the Fed certainly cannot stop paying attention, nor can any financial operation that depends on accurate information on the economy.
  
  This bozo of a "leader" cannot grasp a situation of any complexity. He sees only one small piece of information and cannot grasp that it is an integral moving part that also governs the operation of many other pieces of moving machinery.
• JD_co

  August 1

  Sinking the stock market with surprise tariffs could actually be an attempt to move the news cycle further away from Epstein.
  
  But this move is just one small piece of the "loyalist" plan to set up an authoritarian regime that does whatever he says.
• Old_Joe

  August 1

  Yes, that's quite possible also.
• rforno

  August 1

  Words continue to fail me this year ....
  
  We can't trust anything the US government says, does, writes, or releases these days.
  
  Dictator-like tendencies, indeed.
• larryB

  August 1

  What a shock. Nobody saw this coming. The end of transparency ! Another reason to continue shifting investments ex USA.
• Old_Joe

  August 1

  @larryB- Now don't be too hasty... maybe Ford would be a great investment right now. Oh, wait... maybe not... seems like Trump's really stuck it to them. Oh well...
• Observant1

  August 1

  The quality of U.S. economic data, long seen as the "gold standard," may be further called into question.
  
  “The single most important piece of news today is the BLS firing. If you can’t trust the data,
  I don’t know how investors make decisions,” said Ajay Rajadhyaksha, global chair of research at Barclays.
• rforno

  August 1

  Observant1 said:

  The quality of U.S. economic data, long seen as the "gold standard," may be further called into question.
  
  “The single most important piece of news today is the BLS firing. If you can’t trust the data,
  I don’t know how investors make decisions,” said Ajay Rajadhyaksha, global chair of research at Barclays.

  After this action, I would think Wall Street is smart enough to know now that they can't trust government-provided economic data/forecasts anymore. Maybe?
• hank

  August 1 edited August 1

  I’m trying to figure out how to invest based on this new development. If the new Commissioner of Labour Statistics is able to “cook” the numbers to be better than they now appear, won’t investor confidence rebound and stocks stage a big comeback? Those who piled in on ”Liberation Day” must be very happy now. I think it was Buffett who once called the stock market a “voting machine.” That implies that investor psychology is more important shorter term than any particular set of statistics.
  
  Does anybody here seriously look at the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers before throwing $$ at this fund or that fund? Really? I couldn’t have told you what BLS stood for before today!
• larryB

  August 1

  @Hank. I never heard of a tout named Stack before you brought him up as a source of market intel. But I certainly was well aware of the BLS. “To each his own, it’s all unknown. “ B. Dylan.
• Old_Joe

  12:16AM edited 12:17AM

  "Does anybody here seriously look at the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers before throwing $$ at this fund or that fund?"
  
  Maybe not too many here at MFO, but do you really believe that the Fed doesn't take a real hard look at those numbers in trying to understand the mechanics of the economy?
  
  Do you really believe that the advisors of many mutual funds who need to decide what securities their mutual funds should buy or sell don't take a real hard look at those numbers?
  
  Do you really think that if Trump can demand that BLS stats be cooked that we, and the entire financial world, can continue to believe any other government statistics, and make intelligent decisions based on nothing more than Trump's wishful thinking?
  
• howaya

  1:23AM

  If you were hell bent on influencing a lower short term interest rate, why would a weak BLS employment report be so upsetting? Doesn't Trump understand he could turn to Powell and say "See, see!" while jumping up and down? His instinct to fire McEntarfer is is the wrong knee jerk reaction to have.
• Old_Joe

  1:35AM

  Exactamente.
• Observant1

  2:09AM edited 3:00AM

  "His instinct to fire McEntarfer is the wrong knee jerk reaction to have."
  
  Trump's base instinct is to berate, fire, or sue any individual/institution
  which has opposing views or provides information he detests.
  Regardless if he has a firm understanding of the subject matter...
• Crash

  2:52AM

  Just back home after being stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues again. No, wait. I was stuck in L.A. waiting for my re-booked flight after the non-tsunami event. Anyhow, it gave me a chance to connect with my son, who lives in the L.A. burbs.
  ...And now, I'm reading this thread. Talk about a tin foil potentate! The US is worthy of precisely nobody's investment money, under the reign of the Orange Doink.