Mike Konczal

As someone with a bit of personal experience in what infertility does to couples, I always thought this was one of the more despicable empty promises of this campaign and that everyone who participated in this scam deserves to have very bad things happen to them.

I'll be on @cspanwj.bsky.social tomorrow morning, 8am ET, with E.J. Antoni of the Heritage Foundation, discussing the past week in data collection news.

I'm very excited to see how this goes. Any thoughts on what to emphasize?

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.

Key point: Friday's "disappointing" jobs report was not some outlier, much less a statistical blunder. It meshes reasonably well with the other data out there.

The Friends of #BLS protest the firing of BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer.

The rationale for firing her 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.

Dr. Erika McEntarfer has devoted her career to public service. She has conducted herself as BLS Commissioner with great integrity. There is no evidence whatsoever that BLS data are politically biased.

#econsky

Today, Trump directed his team to fire the commissioner BLS because he didn’t like the jobs numbers BLS released. This is a move straight out of an autocratic playbook. 1/

Trump Administration Plans to Force Millions More Seniors and People With Disabilities to Travel to Social Security’s Overburdened Field Offices | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities The Social Security Administration (SSA) is overwhelming its local offices by forcing millions more people to seek in-person service while cutting thousands of staff who provide that help. These...

Starting in less than 3 weeks, the Trump Admin plans to force millions more seniors, people with disabilities & bereaved families to travel to local Social Security offices to receive service--even as they cut thousands of the frontline staff who provide that help. www.cbpp.org/blog/trump-a...

So re: Score, Growing up near Comiskey Park, the White Sox stadium, we were all Bo Jackson fans, and looking at the Score chase card we were all obsessed with buying, it's a bit more 🤔🤔🤔 than I had remembered.

If there is a senior in your family, you have been praying for something like this.

Topps, Upper Deck, or Score?

Also I have to think of all the numbers in a row, are there actually 5?, compared to just glancing at the simple symbols, that extra work should be rewarded.

I know combinatorics, I understand the math.

But it still feels unfair to me that a flush beats a straight.

link?

Honestly, the best place to start is reading Douglass' autobiographies, which are very much treatises of political philosophy. David Blight's biography is masterful, and I have really enjoyed the volume "The Political Thought of Frederick Douglass" www.nicholasbuccola.com/the-politica...

Anything by Douglass you'd recommend reading on the moral liberalism front?

This is grotesque. A civil society group effectively being destroyed utterly meritless litigation because of expression that antagonized a politically-connected billionaire. Who ludicrously claims to be a champion of free speech.

!!!

Trump: It looks like it’s about $3.1 billion

Powell: I’m not aware of that.

Trump: It just came out

Powell: You just added in a third building

Trump: It’s a building that’s being built

Powell: It was built five years ago.

Chris Waller's Cuts, Declining Jobs, and the Quiet Case for Fed Independence Why Fed independence matters for communications when the economy slows.

mikekonczal.substack.com/p/chris-wall...

New post, where we discuss:
- Q2 GDP numbers coming out the morning of a big FOMC vote (!)
- remember how Marco Rubio said jobs revisions were a BLS conspiracy in 2024, even as they've gotten worse in 2025
- Kobayashi Maru Waller's case for the Fed job.

Shakedown politics: whether an individual shakedown is a good deal for the parties, subject to transaction costs, monitoring, and time consistency.

Politics of shakedowns: what are the political causes and consequences of the Executive shaking down pillars of civil society.

Yeah it fits ketchup.

Hatzius ⚡⚡⚡

folks On Here are not going to want to hear this but the data is suggesting that the outlook is shifting towards significant economic strengthening despite uncertainty/tariff cost burdens, I think there's a real risk the Fed doesn't cut at all this year (for mostly "good" i.e. positive reasons)

"The conservative attempt to take over the Federal Reserve isn’t about Powell being off by one cut...They’re arguing for a Fed that does what they say, because they’re running up deficits and want someone else to take the hit."

❤️🫡

The Four Data Sleights‑of‑Hand Behind Trump’s Assault on Powell What looks like a monetary policy debate is really a cover to take control of the central bank.

Mike Konczal lays out the case against Trump's attacks on Powell.

mikekonczal.substack.com/p/the-four-d...

The Four Data Sleights‑of‑Hand Behind Trump’s Assault on Powell What looks like a monetary policy debate is really a cover to take control of the central bank.

New post: I dug into the empirical conservative arguments against Powell and Fed's monetary policy. They involve 4 sleights-of-hand, distractions from what's really happening.

With a full-court political assault on the Fed, it's worth understanding them.
mikekonczal.substack.com/p/the-four-d...

Marc Andreessen Is a Traitor It is the tech oligarchs, not young radicals, who have turned against the system that made them.

This from @adamgurri.liberalcurrents.com is excellent. www.liberalcurrents.com/marc-andrees...

You can catch me, hopefully for the last time, not realizing all podcasts being on YouTube now means I should be staring intently at the camera like a short TV hit, rather than looking all around, staring at notes, etc.

Discussing the tax law and the question over whether or not a 24oz can of beer is a "tallboy" or not.