Catherine Rampell

Many of the political appointees working in the White House have academic jobs they can return to. I hope they do.

White House economist calls for 'fresh set of eyes at the BLS' after weak jobs report | Fox Business Video National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett discusses the latest jobs report, the firing of the labor statistics chief and the consumer impact of tariffs on 'Fox News Sunday.'

Hassett went on TV and claimed you can’t trust the economic data anymore because all the recent revisions are partisan.
A bald-faced lie.
Every serious economist still in this administration should resign. They are actively underminding the US economy by lending their credibility to this horse****

Listen pal if you’re going to be a 30 year old baby you’re going to need to have a Bluesky account

“The Dershowitz pierogi dispute” would be a great band name.

Meant to add this to the megathread bsky.app/profile/cram...

Trump Fired America’s Economic Data Collector. History Shows the Perils.

Trump Fired America’s Economic Data Collector. History Shows the Perils.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/b...

Kentucky hospital group warns of closures, reduced services, job losses due to Medicaid cuts Healthcare in Kentucky is facing a tough future with billions in Medicaid cuts on the horizon, according to the Kentucky Hospital Association.

Kentucky hospital group warns of closures, reduced services, job losses due to Medicaid cuts www.lex18.com/news/coverin...

Opinion | Forget Trump’s IVF promises. The GOP’s record shows contempt for fertility care. As always, pay more attention to what politicians do than to what they say.

He was lying about this from the get-go, which was obvious if you looked at literally anything he had done in his first term related to fertility care.
Pay more attention to what politicians do than to what they say. css.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

White House has no plan to mandate IVF care, despite campaign pledge President Donald Trump has said he wants a “baby boom,” but critics say his administration has yet to make significant family policy changes — and that Medicaid cuts will hurt.

All those Trump surrogates who touted this, and news orgs that reported it credulously, owe Americans a big fat apology www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Also, how does this help Trump’s other objectives, such as reducing trade deficits? Someone should tell the president that selling higher education to international students is one of our most successful exports. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Trump And Miller Compel Colleges Not To Enroll International Students Trump officials are using rules, policies and agreements to compel and discourage U.S. universities from enrolling international students.

Wow. Had not realized that Columbia’s settlement with Trump admin included a commitment to decrease international student enrollment. In what way does this help “combat antisemitism,” which is supposedly the administration’s objective?
www.forbes.com/sites/stuart...

Autobiographies and books on slavery at risk for removal from Charleston historical site gift shops National Park Service staff marked 10 books sold at gift shops in the Fort Sumter, Fort Moultrie and Charles Pinckney historic sites for content review.

Censorship at other historic sites too. Stories about history of slavery in SC, firsthand accounts from former enslaved people and story of a Freedmen’s school are among works flagged by National Park Service staff for review — and potential removal — at three historical sites in the Charleston area

Inside the fight to save more than a dozen Independence Park exhibits from potential Trump administration removal in September Two Philadelphians are working to preserve or archive historic sites at Independence National Historical Park before items are removed or covered by the Trump administration in the fall.

In six weeks, more than a dozen exhibits about slavery at Philly’s Independence National Historical Park could be removed or covered up, per Trump EO to “ensure” that content which “inappropriately disparage” Americans past or living ceases to exist at National Parks www.inquirer.com/politics/nat...

Now That They’re Free, Venezuelan Men Want the World to Know What They Endured in CECOT Venezuelan men deported by the Trump administration say they endured months of physical and mental abuse inside a Salvadoran prison. Though happy to be home, they say the fact that they were released…

Leonardo José Colmenares Solórzano, a 31-year-old Venezuelan, wants the world to know that he was tortured over four months in a Salvadoran prison.

He said guards stomped on his hands, poured filthy water into his ears and threatened to beat him.

Ostensibly to combat antisemitism, the Trump administration has canceled the grant of a computer scientist who advocates against antisemitism. bsky.app/profile/davi...

Trump canceled the research grant for America’s — perhaps the world’s? — top mathematician (via @weakinstrument.bsky.social)

Opinion | First thing we do, let’s fire all the statisticians The Trump administration’s strategy in dealing with tough numbers: Don’t count them.

Just remembering I wrote this ~3 weeks ago. For once wishing I’d been wrong. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

free countries have gdp data line up well. partly free countries are only mediocre. not free countries are bad.

Here’s a graph from the Economist showing GDP data from official government sources versus private estimates.

Free countries, like the US, don’t manipulate econ data. Less free countries do. Trump is seeking to break that for short-term PR.

(Yes I know GDP is BEA and not BLS.)

Lemme just say if President Bernie Sanders had unilaterally imposed, by executive fiat, hundreds of billions of new taxes, personally browbeat executives about job cuts and investments and then fired the head of BLS, the Chamber of Commerce and the business orgs would not be sitting idly by.

The Nation’s Data at Risk: Ongoing Monitoring The American Statistical Association is the world’s largest community of statisticians, the “Big Tent for Statistics.

Now that threats to federal statistics have gotten your attention, check out the damage that’s already been done:

www.amstat.org/the-nations-...

When you’ve even lost O’Leary…
And one observation: you don’t need to go back to Ancient Rome (as O’Leary does) to find analogues. There are much more recent cases of authoritarians axing (or even executing) statisticians when the numbers proved inconvenient.
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/int...

Nearly a decade ago, Elon Musk said Boring Co. would transform public transportation. Since then, it’s mostly built tunnels for Teslas and his own employees www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Trump, Claiming Weak Jobs Numbers Were ‘Rigged,’ Fires Labor Official

For months, people have been asking me whether I still trusted gov’t data. My answer was always the same: The stats agencies faced longstanding challenges, some of which Trump was making worse. But there was no sign of political meddling.
I can’t say that anymore.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/b...

“.. a week that bore many authoritarian hallmarks — purging dissenters, rewriting history, criminalizing opposition and demanding total institutional loyalty .. Vast swaths of society are falling in line ..”

@axios.com
www.axios.com/newsletters/...

Having flashbacks to Trump’s 2021 demand that a state official “find” missing votes, because the numbers weren’t in his favor.
This is what he expects of the BLS commissioner too: “find” missing jobs. He will try to appoint someone who does this bidding, unless GOP senators miraculously grow spines

It has been the honor of my life to serve as Commissioner of BLS alongside the many dedicated civil servants tasked with measuring a vast and dynamic economy. It is vital and important work and I thank them for their service to this nation.

Shortly after the numbers were released, Stephen Miran, the chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, offered an explanation for the jobs revision that was much different from Mr. Trump’s. On CNBC, he said much of the change was the result of “quirks in the seasonal adjustment process” and even the president’s own policies, particularly on immigration, potentially affecting hiring numbers for May and June. He made no mention of any concerns about manipulated data as he sought to recast the slowdown in July as a “pretty decent” jobs report.

Great story @bencasselman.bsky.social & @tonyromm.bsky.social @nytimes.com points out that the chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers offered a completely normal reaction to the revisions this morning, in contrast to POTUS's later position.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/b...

Then DO SOMETHING

The totally groundless firing of Dr. Erika McEntarfer, my successor as Commissioner of Labor Statistics at BLS, sets a dangerous precedent and undermines the statistical mission of the Bureau. For a full statement opposing this move, read:

Trump’s first BLS Commissioner, Bill Beach, calls today’s firing groundless and dangerous.
www.friendsofbls.org/updates/2025...

Picking them off one by one.
Hang together or hang separately.