Labor statistics chief fired by Trump sounds alarm over White House’s ‘dangerous’ interference
The former chief US economics data statistics who Donald Trump fired last month called her sudden removal “dangerous” and said Americans should be concerned about the independence of key economic institutions,“Markets have to trust the data are not manipulated,” said Erika McEntarfer, the former head of the Bureau Labor of Statistics, in her first remarks since her firing,“Firing your chief statisticians for releasing data you do not like, it has serious economic consequences,”The bureau collects and releases key economic data on the labor market and prices,In August, the bureau revised down initial figures that showed steady job growth in May and June by 258,000.
Hours after the release, Trump fired McEntarfer, claiming without evidence that the “jobs numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad”.It was the first time a president had fired the head of the data bureau, and it left many economists shaken by what the future of the nonpartisan bureau could look like.Trump has since nominated EJ Antoni, chief economist at the conservative thinktank the Heritage Foundation and a co-author of Project 2025, in addition to a vocal critic of BLS, as McEntarfer’s replacement.Antoni has not yet been confirmed by Congress.William Wiatrowski, a longtime official within the bureau, is currently serving as acting commissioner.
McEntarfer, speaking at Bard College, said that although she trusts Wiatrowski, she is concerned about the future of the bureau.“Firing your chief statisticians for releasing data you do not like has serious economic consequences,” she said, noting that the collection of countries that have gone down a similar route, including Argentina, Greece and Turkey, is “not a good list”.“The resulting loss of trust in economics statistics led these countries to worsening economic crises, higher inflation and higher borrowing costs,” McEntarfer said.Even before her firing, McEntarfer said she was prepared to lead the bureau toward modernizing its data collection.But the bureau’s funding dried up, particularly once Trump entered office.
Under cuts from Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency”, the bureau’s staff fell 20% since January after hiring freezes and delayed onboarding.McEntarfer said that, once Musk left the White House, she was hoping that the bureau could “return to some sense of normalcy”.But when July’s jobs report was published, McEntarfer said a journalist reached out to her for comment about Trump’s social media post that said he was firing McEntarfer.At first, she didn’t take it seriously, but then she soon got a short email from the White House announcing her termination.Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotion“I can vouch for the accuracy and independence of the work of the agency up until the moment I was fired,” McEntarfer said, in light of Trump’s accusations.
The data was revised downward after businesses responded to the survey late, likely “because they’re just too busy trying to stay alive”.Her firing suddenly made her a household name.She recalled the days when she had to be “careful not to bore family and friends by talking too much about my wonky job”.“Now all of a sudden, the whole world was talking about it,” McEntarfer said.“You should get to live in a country where you do not know who the chief statistician is.
”She said the bureau is facing “an uncertain moment” and said that Americans should broadly be concerned about the future of key economic institutions, including the Federal Reserve, which has also received heavy attacks from the White House.“Messing with economic data is like messing with the traffic lights and turning the sensors off.Cars don’t know where to go, traffic backs up at intersections,” she said.“Nobody thinks it’s going to be good for the country if we start messing with those traffic lights.”
Seth Meyers: ‘Trump clearly has no answer to Putin’s aggression’
As several late-night hosts take a break for the Emmys – which went to the Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Sunday night – Seth Meyers looked into Donald Trump’s lack of international leadership.On Monday’s Late Night, Meyers pointed out the hypocrisy behind the Trump’ administration’s foreign policy agenda. “Trump and the GOP spent years whining that Democrats were supposedly leading from behind, and have now declared that America will be setting the world’s agenda,” he explained. “No more waiting for other countries to act – America acts first and other countries follow us. You got that, world?”Except earlier this week, Trump announced on Truth Social that he was ready to enact sanctions against Russia for flying drones into Poland’s airspace … but not until all Nato nations had agreed to stop buying oil from Russia
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International Black Indigenous Circus Week in Philadelphia brings together artists specializing in aerial, juggling clowning and more for various panels and showsIn an industrial building in north Philadelphia, teal and red fabric used for aerial tricks dangled from the high ceiling. Alyssa Bigbee, the co-founder of the Philadelphia-based International Black Indigenous Circus Week, called on five performers to circle around for the first rehearsal of their circus show titled The Rebellion: Anarchy. “Remember to breathe. Remember to pace yourself,” Bigbee told the group of mostly Black and brown artists. “Lean on each other and feed off of each other in terms of energy
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The Guide #208: How theatre is holding its own in the age of artificial intelligence
Last year, more than 37 million people settled their behinds into the red-velvet upholstery, plastic chairs or wooden “I’ll only tolerate this because it’s the Globe” benches of a theatre. West End attendance has reportedly grown by 11% and regional audiences have increased by 4% since 2019 – pretty impressive amid a cost of living crisis and after a pandemic that had us all locked in our houses.The increase in attendance can be chalked up to all sorts of reasons: the post-Covid return of tourists to the UK, schemes offering more reasonably priced tickets, and big films such as Wicked leaving people wondering what that Defying Gravity note sounds like live. But I’d throw another contender into the mix: the rise of AI.For some, AI’s arrival has been exciting or, at the very least, handy – who doesn’t want to outsource life’s grunt work, or get an expert photo editor/nutritionist/therapist for nothing? For others, it feels bleak and bewildering
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