Of course the Bureau of Labor Statistic (BLS) is wrong about levels of employment or lack thereof. How could it be right? Precisely because employment figures are valuable within the broad marketplace, why on earth would anyone possessing a skill associated with divining the figures toil at the BLS?
It’s a question worth asking as the self-serious on the left and right bemoan Trump’s garish firing of the proverbial scale. The horrors! How dare Trump blind the global economy?
Except we can still see. There's nothing to Trump’s action last Friday. The more pertinent critique of Trump, and for the matter DOGE, is that the BLS wasn't shut down in January.
That’s because the BLS is the embodiment of government waste. It’s been a while, but memory says that the annual cost to the BLS for coming up with the employment report is something like $600 million. That's the number arrived at by Jason Trennert of Strategas Partners.
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