This person was obviously chosen to right the wrongs of the previous commissioner who had the temerity to sign off on factual data. This person will be expected to conform the data to the instant requirements of the Trump administration, or to suppress such data, whichever is most convenient. Trump always hires a person with the ability and the willingness to destroy the integrity of the department/agency to which he/she is appointed.
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Own goals are own goals, so let’s just stipulate that Trump scored again. When a regime decides it has to make its own numbers, it falls to others to figure out what is going on. China, for example, fudges its urban employment figures and has for decades. This in turn, means that other official numbers are out of whack, so the IMF and others end up having to calculate alternative GDP, debt ratios, etc. Not healthy behavior.
The overall non-financial debt increased to 312% of GDP in 2024 from 245%, putting China among the most indebted countries. On the reverse side of the coin, the increase in M2 money supply (annex 4 of the IMF report) is running at twice the growth in real GDP.
It’s easy to forecast China’s official urban unemployment rate, 5%. It’s always 5%. “About 5%” is also the official GDP growth forecast for China, but it is widely accepted that the number is at least 1% lower.
A lot of Trump’s appointments are clownish or provocative, but EJ Antoni PhD is a Rubicon, a breach of trust. In the months ahead we will learn about “full employment”, “unprecedented economic growth”, “beautiful numbers”, “hottest economy in the world”. And it’s easy to provide the numbers to show it, they’re imaginary. Maybe we should speak of the New American Square Root of Minus One Economy or the “i Economy.”
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“White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers responded saying the president nominated Antoni to “restore America’s trust” in BLS jobs data.”
Breaking News: Trump names Ghislaine Maxwell to head independent commission to investigate sexual abuse of underage victims. “Ghislaine has the kind of expertise in this area that is very hard to find outside of this administration,” said spokesperson Taylor Rogers.
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As it says in the Book of Trump — if thy eyes offend the Fuehrer, gouge them out!
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This makes complete sense, the eyes will have to go.
It really is impossible to be Big Brother and make it work when they tell you that up is down if they give an antidote to Newspeak every month.
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Just like Trump during Covid, not wanting to count and announce deaths. Out of sight, out of mind.
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Feature, not a bug.
They think the crazy eyes on a capo makes the boss look a little bit less insane.
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Soon we’ll see the stories about Antoni’s big quandary: determining the proper placement of his many new portraits around BLS facilities;
Maybe he’ll take inspiration from this Brooke Rollins USDA banner that features a joint portrait of her and Trump. Given the circumstances of Antoni’s nomination, a joint portrait might be even more appropriate than in the case of the other suckups, like Rollins, though Trump should probably be looking over their shoulders and not the other way around.
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the president of the Upjohn Institute, said in a separate interview that the Trump administration’s general “lack of faith” in federal statistics is concerning
Lack of faith in Federal statistics? please! Let me fix it for them:
The Trump administration’s general lack of faith in the existence of objective reality is concerning.
According to them anything unflattering to Don (Little Fingers) Trump is Fake Reality.
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The BLS career workers don’t know how to produce bogus reports. So naturally, the administration that can’t find its ass with a map is going to turn off the lights.
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Still waiting for the DOGE cybermunchkins to show up with a fancy social media attention management algorithm and tear down/ replace the existing structure because AI.
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Trump’s uncle the renowned MIT physicist told him about the concept of imaginary numbers, but Trump lost interest before he got to the explanation.
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Seriously. I am very much not a fan of commenting on people’s appearance. But what is the connection between abject evil and ill-will toward lesser (other) humans and a strong resemblance to Nosferatu?
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“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” ― George Orwell
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What we have here is a blind self-driving Tesla of a government. The only question is when it will "unforeseeably "crash and burn.
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You must be from Cleveland?
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I hope this pencil neck is ready to be blamed by angry mobs of retirees when they lose half of their savings because of his meddling. The little shit is asking us to navigate the Titanic in the dark. No lookout, no lights, just blind trust in trump? We are going to have his head on a pike when he crashes the economy.
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And when they don’t, we’ll go to semi-annual reports. Christ on a cracker, this man has no business in our government. He starts work next Tuesday.
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They are going to be able to hide the next economic crash just as well as the next major hurricane or pandemic, which is to say, not at all. What is it with these charlatans with Phds in economics? Him and Navarro, two people in a pod. Trump’s pod people.
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