In Front of Our Noses: Firing the Messenger
It is textbook authoritarianism.
“To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.”-George Orwell.
For previous entries, click here.
I know this was mentioned in the comments, but it is worth noting as a main post (and yes, it also feels a bit like it belongs in a “Meanwhile in North Korea” post).
Via the NYT: Trump, Claiming Weak Jobs Numbers Were ‘Rigged,’ Fires Labor Official.
The president fired Dr. McEntarfer after the bureau released monthly jobs data showing surprisingly weak hiring in July and large downward revisions to job growth in the previous two months. Economists widely interpreted the report as evidence that Mr. Trump’s policies were beginning to take a toll on the economy, though the president insisted in a subsequent post that the country was “doing GREAT!”
Side note: it is my recollection that the NYT’s editorial policy is to only call M.D.’s “Dr.”, so I wonder if this is a conscious choice (or a change I am unaware of). I approve, in any event.
Axios‘ headline hits the nail on the head: Trump’s authoritarian streak (although “streak” downplays it a bit).
Krugman is on point with both headline and subtitle, Caracas on the Potomac: Goodbye, reliable economic data.
The BLS isn’t always right, nor should you expect it to be. It’s trying to track a complex economy, and sometimes it revises its past estimates — as it did this morning. But it is extremely professional, rigorously nonpartisan, and everyone in the business considers it the gold standard for economic data.
Or maybe I should say “it was” rather than “it is”. I have to admit that I expected Trump’s corruption of economic data to be insidious and take place gradually. Instead he just fired the head of the BLS because he didn’t like the numbers it reported — a clear signal to the remaining staff not to report bad news.
And just like that, we can no longer treat BLS data as the gold standard. (Maybe Trump will use the gold on the walls of his new ballroom.) Maybe, just maybe, the staff at the BLS will hold to their principles and continue to report honestly. But how can we trust what they report — especially if Trump flunkies are put in charge, filtering what gets released?
From here on, I’m going to be paying a lot more attention to private surveys. And when they tell a different story from the official numbers, there will no longer be a reason to take the official data more seriously.
It’s one more step on our rapid descent into banana republic status.
Emphasis mine.
This is on point. Authoritarians, especially of the tin-pot variety, play these kinds of games. Don’t like the message? Serious leaders take that information and adjust their thinking accordingly. But unserious dictators just get rid of the bad news without any attempt to cope with it.
It is, yet again, an example of the preference for unreality by this president and the administration he wants.
It is often said that every accusation is a confession. Well, here we have a guy who has argued for years that the “Deep State” is a “swamp” that is politically motivated. But, here we have clear evidence that what he wants it is his own politically motivated bureuacrats who will tell daddy what he wants to hear (see, also, the DoJ).
This move is bad for America and our long-term ability to govern effectively. It is another chip, indeed a gouge, out of the strong foundation of the American state.
- Via NBC News: Republican senators raise concerns about Trump’s firing of Labor Dept. official. We need more than “concern.”
- Via the AP: Who is Erika McEntarfer, the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner fired by Trump?
McEntarfer, whose research focuses on job loss, retirement, worker mobility, and wage rigidity, had previously worked at the Census Bureau’s Center for Economic Studies, the Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Policy and the White House Council of Economic Advisers in a nonpolitical role.
She has a bachelor’s degree in Social Science from Bard College and a doctoral degree in economics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Corporations and banks rely on government data to make projections–data from official sources is baked into a lot of estimating tools, earnings projections, and more.
Trump has just declared that the data can no longer be trusted. This is a very, very bad thing for our economy.
This seems to be a standard part of the game. If they were in power they would do X, in this case fudging the numbers. They project this on those actually in power and believe, without other evidence, they are doing X. Which becomes the justification for X when they themselves take power.
It can’t be overstressed that while Trump may be sui generis in U. S. experience, he’s following the common path for tin pot dictators.
The cynical part of me that has followed politics for too long asks, “How can we tie this to Jeffrey Epstein?”
@gVOR10: I would say that Trump knows that wasn’t the way it worked in the government. He found out during his first term, and it pissed him off. He’s not gonna live with that this time around, oh no.
Trump has realized that the only thing that can functionally stop him is impeachment and removal, and Republican legislators are unwilling to do that. So game on!
One thing that did in the Soviet Union was that serious policy making was all but impossible due to bullshit data.
Official government statistics were basically exercises in creative writing.
Kinda rough to see the US take the same path.
The funny thing here is his justification is that the BLS revised Biden’s job numbers downward after the election, which is:
a) Not true, unless the election took place in August
b) The revisions were mostly to work done by McEntarfer’s predecessor, who was … appointed by Trump.
Going to be fun seeing the BLS claiming 17 million jobs were created in December alone while Hoovervilles spring up all over the US.
@gVOR10:
He’s actually giving tin pot dictators a bad name.
In the Technomage novels, there’s a fair bit of new info on the Shadows that didn’t make it to Babylon 5 on TV. One item of note, no spoilers, is that the Shadows sowed chaos among others, not among themselves.
Good news citizens! The brilliant execution of our genius five year plan is coming to fruition. Bumper crops of grain will soon be busting our warehouses. All glory to our leader!
Such a sad, weak, pathetic old man. With cankles.
Utterly, stupendously, incredibly, bloody stupid.
The functioning of the modern state is founded upon both laws and objective information.
This is true even in non- or quasi-democratic states that are effective and not rotted by corruption and deference to the “maximum leader”.
(See eg Russia)
The German concept of the “Rechtsstaat”: the requirement for effective governance to be founded on predicatable regulation, procedural consistency, and rationality.
This is not going to help calm markets next time Trump starts bashing Powell and the Fed.
The Triumph of the Will: first as tragedy, then as farce.
Meanwhile in Russia —- when information become an enemy of leadership, leadership becomes enemy of the functional state.
Same tune. Pas de deux.
@Rob1:
More like Folie à deux