Nancy Birdsall

Statement from the American Economics Association.

Signed by

AEA President & former USDOL Chief Economist @lkatz42.bsky.social

Former BLS Commissioner Abraham

Former Treasury DAS & Chief Economist Dynan, &

Chair of AEA Govt Relations Committee Ken Troske
bsky.app/profile/mart...

Lesotho was one of the biggest successes of AGOA -- which meant 'liberation day' hit particularly hard.

Little early to see this in the trade data, but doesn't look great.

NYT reporting factories shuttered. People going from $7/day factory jobs to $1/day hawking on the street.

Kick off your morning with two powerful minutes from Samuel Garcia — an everyday American who drove three hours just to confront the Texas legislature with the truth. Let’s all be Samuel Garcia. Speak up. Be bold. Make them hear us. This man is the definition of a great American.

President Trump called into question the integrity of the Employment Situation report that the BLS released this morning. He accused BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer of deliberately reporting false numbers to reflect poorly on this administration. This baseless, damaging claim undermines the valuable work and dedication of BLS staff who produce the reports each month. This escalates the President’s unprecedented attacks on the independence and integrity of the federal statistical system. The President seeks to blame someone for unwelcome economic news. The Commissioner does not determine what the numbers are but simply reports on what the data show. The process of obtaining the numbers is decentralized by design to avoid opportunities for interference. The BLS uses the same proven, transparent, reliable process to produce estimates every month. Every month, BLS revises the prior two months’ employment estimates to reflect slower-arriving, more-accurate information. This rationale for firing Dr. McEntarfer is without merit and undermines the credibility of federal economic statistics that are a cornerstone of intelligent economic decision-making by businesses, families, and policymakers. U.S. official statistics are the gold standard globally. When leaders of other nations have politicized economic data, it has destroyed public trust in all official statistics and in government science. We call on Congress to respond immediately, to investigate the factors that led to Commissioner McEntarfer’s removal, to strongly urge the Commissioner’s continued service, and ensure that the nonpartisan integrity of the position is retained. The statement from the President undermines these tenets and politicizes data which cannot and should not be used for political points.

"...escalates the President’s unprecedented attacks on the independence & integrity of the federal statistical system.

"The president seeks to blame someone for unwelcome economic news.

"...firing Dr. McEntarfer is without merit & undermines the credibility of federal economic statistics..."

Trump destroys our source of information about jobs. This is beyond irresponsible. He hates facts. He rejects truth. He doesn't want the public to know what's really happening.

And now the Bur Labor Stats down the Trump data drain:
open.substack.com/pub/robertre... @robertreich.substack.com.web.brid.gy

The Hellscapes of Their Minds ICE says it’s going to “flood” New York. Good luck with that

Paul Krugman on Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, NY: a quandary for ICE (!) open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

Has Brazil Invented the Future of Money? And will it ever come to America?

Yes! Brazil has invented the future of money....read about Pix: open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

U.S. Quietly Drafts Plan to End Program That Saved Millions From AIDS

Why isn't George W. Bush issuing a statement regretting what his Republican colleague Trump is doing to Pepfar? What has he got to lose? www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/h...

Impressive reporting from Pro Publica. I'm glad @mclem.org is paying attention to the cruelty not just the economic stupidity of the deportations.

This is so good (effective tariff rates of US). In some ways seems random -- makes one wonder if anyone in the White House has a clue about what they are doing to friends vs foes. www.cgdev.org/media/us-tar...

real effective tariffs country by country. (Why is Trump torturing poor Cambodia?!? ) www.cgdev.org/media/us-tar...

"Immigrants are the lifeboat of the (US) economy" (we are losing 1 m workers per year.... mostly due to aging). Listen to @mclem.org on this panel. . .Sigh...what's happening is perverse, and cruel too.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu announced Tuesday that she signed an executive order seeking greater transparency from federal immigration officials. She said the city will submit regular Freedom of Information Act requests to find out who ICE is detaining and on what grounds.

It is an impossible perversion of federal power to deploy US Marines against American citizens on US soil in peacetime. No civil war exists.

Really good, and really alarming....on what's happening in West Africa....

Newsom's retort to Ala. Senator Tuberville (re the non-riots in LA) : “Alabama has 3X the homicide rate of California. Its murder rate is ranked third in the entire country. Stick to football, bro.”

Show Your Stripes Visualising how the climate has changed for every country across the globe

No wonder my husband is always complaining about the heat: showyourstripes.info/c/northameri.... Three degrees F on top of 90in summer is a lot.

Is There a Tariff End Game? I still don't see an off-ramp

On trade: Bad news from Krugman: No off-ramp TACO just more temper tantrums. paulkrugman.substack.com/p/is-there-a...

Researchers, policymakers, and more are back at @cgdev.org today for Day 2 of the Research Conference on Global Lead Exposure.

Stay tuned for crucial presentations on established sources of lead exposure, the role of funders, and more.
www.cgdev.org/event/first-...

In Trumponomics, Banning Foreign Students Hurts Trump’s Own Economic Success Metric: Trade Deficit Last week was dominated by headlines about the Trump administration’s latest target: foreign students at US universities. It began with the administration seeking to prevent Harvard, a private univers...

Why Trump is undermining his own trade goal www.cgdev.org/blog/trumpon.... Good from Danny Bahar @cgdev.org

Some Americans are Conservative, and some Americans are Liberal, but Americans are not stupid.

The Trump Administration and the International Financial Institutions: The Good, the Bad, and the Cynical Following Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s interventions during the World Bank and IMF Spring Meetings and the White House submission of the “skinny” budget to Congress last week, we now have some c...

Excellent summary (on African Dev Bank looks bleak)

The Economist does not exaggerate...its approach is brilliantly and carefully centrist..

Big news: on a bipartisan basis the Senate just voted to reject Trump's tariffs on Canada. The House has to vote on it next, where it's less likely to pass, but the cracks are starting to form. Trump is losing support from Republicans on his costly trade war.

Worried about the climate? Get off the couch. The data supports it. A weekly reckoning with...

Climate protest is good for your anxiety (and mine) -- and it works: "...climate activism shifts public opinion and media coverage..." newsletter.tnr.com/index.php?ac...

The USAID Cuts: Little Sign of Mercy for “Life-Saving” Health Programs The bottom line: we estimate the cancelled awards represent somewhere over 34 percent of USAID programming. And notably, “life-saving” program areas like maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS, malaria,…

Reviewing a list of canceled USAID contracts, @charlesjkenny.bsky.social & @justsand.bsky.social examine which sectors will be hit hardest.

They find that despite Secretary Rubio’s pledge to preserve life-saving aid, essential health programs haven’t been spared ⬇️
bit.ly/41OWdKL

To maintain social security benefits past 2035 would cost 1.5% of GDP--0.1% more than proposed tax cut of House Republicans. Thanks @pkrugman.bsky.social paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-clean-...

from @hcrichardson.bsky.social What seems a deliberate attempt to crash what was. . a booming U.S. economy, is a feature not a bug. It creates “curated failure” that enables oligarchs to buy up the assets of the state and of desperate individuals for “rock-bottom prices.

State ramps up effort to bring fired federal employees into the state fold - Maryland Matters Gov. Wes Moore (D) called on his own state agencies, as well as the private sector and nonprofits, to step up and hire federal employees and contractors purged by President Donald Trump (R).

This is a great act of care and solidarity. Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland has pledge to step up and hire federal employees and contractors purged by the Musk/Trump regime.
marylandmatters.org/2025/02/28/s...

If you live in DC: 1) Resist incursions on home rule and join the fight for statehood; 2) Call a Va. or Md. representative.