Given that Trump recently fired his head of labor statistics, because he didn't like what was being reported, I'd take this with a grain of salt. Presumably whatever numbers are now being released are whatever "alternate facts" he wants to put out.

There could be various reasons Trump wants to report bad numbers, such as pressuring the Fed to lower rates, or to establish a horrible baseline from which he can then report improvement on by the midterms.

It reminds of the soviet union reporting all sorts of bogus improvement statistics by implicitly using the worst possible baseline they could - from decades earlier.

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tzs 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

> Given that Trump recently fired his head of labor statistics, because he didn't like what was being reported, I'd take this with a grain of salt. Presumably whatever numbers are now being released are whatever "alternate facts" he wants to put out.

That may someday be the case, but is is not yet. Trump fired the head, but the analysis and reports are still being produced by the professional career statisticians that have long worked there.

	▲	jmull 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		> still being produced by the professional career statisticians that have long worked there ...who all know that if they want to remain employed they better produce reports The administration likes. I doubt they like it, but probably few of the rank and file can afford to take a stand.

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Uehreka 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

> There could be various reasons Trump wants to report bad numbers, such as pressuring the Fed to lower rates, or to establish a horrible baseline from which he can then report improvement on by the midterms.

Trump doesn’t play 3D chess like this, he just doesn’t. This is just him failing to have the iron grip he wants to have over things. Perhaps he’ll fire more civil servants in response, or he’ll get distracted by something else before he can do so.