Donald Trump’s war on statistics is an authoritarian attack on democracy and countries like Australia should call it out | Greg Jericho
Whether it be the judicial system, universities, or health organisations, Donald Trump cannot abide by anything that does not confirm his world view.So it was not a shock when late last week he came for statistics – or, more pointedly, the person in charge of the economic statistics.On Friday, the US’s Bureau of Labor Studies released the July US employment figures.They were not good.Just 73,000 non-farm jobs were added and annual employment growth was the worst it has been since the GFC years (excluding the pandemic):If the graph does not display click hereIn response, Trump did what any autocrat would do when told bad news: he shot the messenger – at least only figuratively.
Trump argued that Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of labor statistics, had faked bad figures purely to hurt him.And so he fired her.But this should not be dismissed as “oh that’s just Trump”, nor should we just sigh and say we have been in a fact-free era for nearly a decade.Reality might be hanging on to the political debate for dear life, but this move threatens to fling it off the cliff.The BLS data is vital for understanding not just what is going on in the USA but to guide other nations – like here in Australia.
For example, Australia is doing very well compared with the US.Unlike the US, our employment rate is higher now than it was before the pandemic:If the graph does not display click hereThese comparisons can influence future policies.For example, we did very well during the GFC; the US did not.We also did much better during the pandemic than the US.They also give insight into the future.
The US is still the world’s biggest economy and – as we have seen with inflation – what happens there, often happens here, in Australia:If the graph does not display click hereIf Trump doesn’t like weak employment growth numbers, you think he’ll be happy with inflation data that shows his tariffs are causing higher prices? And this is not just some academic exercise,US welfare payments are indexed to inflation, so the official data vitally affects the livelihood of many people,Trump thinks when he closes his eyes the rest of the world disappears,But not measuring inflation or unemployment or global temperatures doesn’t disappear the problems,And loss of trust in official data will affect business investment decisions, borrowing costs and – as with all attacks on institutions – faith in democracy.
For example, in Australia, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has revealed that in the past year the cost of living for all households except “self-funded” retirees rose faster than did inflation:If the graph does not display click hereThis is not the greatest news for the Australian government – no politician likes data that says things might be worse than what they previously argued.Cost of living, unlike inflation, includes mortgage repayments.Despite falling interest rates, repaying a mortgage is still around 4.4% higher than it was a year ago, and since March 2022 mortgage repayments have accounted for nearly half of the increase in cost of living:If the graph does not display click hereDoes it help the Australian government for the ABS to reveal this? Not really.It could blame our Reserve Bank, but generally governments are blamed for high interest rates.
It certainly doesn’t help the government for the ABS to release figures that some journalist like me can use to show that the value of wages are 8.6% lower than they were in March 2021 when you use cost of living rather than CPI:If the graph does not display click hereThat type of information makes life hard for the government – but so it should!In a democracy you have to face your critics, argue your case and convince voters you have the best plans and way forward.Political parties are already working hard to make you question reality.But at least till now, even in the US, where Trump would like there to be a new kind of maths where prices can fall by more than 100% (1,000%, 1,100, 1,200, 1,300!!), reality has been counted and presented.The end of impartial economic data would not just be another case of Trump “flooding the zone”.
It would be a fundamental attack on democracy, designed to ensure those who are suffering from his polices are not able to demonstrate that things are worse – either for them or for the nation,They are the actions usually associated with authoritarian regimes, and we should not shy away from making that clear,Greg Jericho is a Guardian columnist and policy director at the Centre for Future Work
What are Nigella Lawson, Robert Irwin and a cartoon kangaroo doing in Australia’s latest round of tourism ads?
So Steph, what do Robert Irwin, Nigella Lawson and a cartoon kangaroo have in common?Wait, is this a joke?No not at all, I’m genuinely asking.Oh, sorry. The answer is a new round of ads spruiking Australia as a tourist destination to potential international visitors.Is this the latest from Scott Morrison’s old workplace? Do you mean Tourism Australia? Yes, the former prime minister and former director of Tourism Australia liked to claim he was responsible for the “Where the bloody hell are you?” ad that featured Lara Bingle (and was banned from the UK for being too risque).This new round of ads feature a bunch of personalities from places where the agency intends them to air
Woman’s memoirs give fascinating insight into life in 17th-century northern England
She was a 17th-century Yorkshirewoman whose memoirs combined commentaries on major political events with local and personal details of her life. Now an academic who has studied the writings of Alice Thornton has said they provide a “northern female perspective” in contrast to the London-based diarist Samuel Pepys.Thornton’s memoirs contain accounts of financial catastrophe, rumours of sexual impropriety, childbirth, attempted rapes and repeated interventions by God to deliver her from an early death. Thornton lived to be 80, a remarkable age at the time.Two of four autobiographical volumes were discovered by Cordelia Beattie, a history professor at the University of Edinburgh
The Guide #202: Awol headliners to rampaging deer: how festivals survive the worst-case scenarios
We’re in the thick of festival season in the UK, where every weekend seems to host a dizzying array of musical mega-events. The likes of Glastonbury, Download, TRNSMT, Wireless and others may already be in the rear-view, but there are still plenty more to come across all manner of genres: Camp Bestival (happening this very weekend), Creamfields, Green Man, All Points East, Reading and Leeds, End of the Road and so many others, across farms, city parks, country estates and the odd mid-Wales mountain range.For the people who run these festivals, months or even a full years-worth of work will have gone into readying for a single, crucial long weekend. The stakes are high: whether things go off without a hitch or not will, in some cases, determine that festival’s future. And boy, are there a lot of potential hitches: electricity, sanitation, ticketing, food and drink, security, and the fragile egos of famous musicians, to name but a few
My cultural awakening: Minecraft taught me how to navigate life as a transgender person – one block at a time
Minecraft is my life. I got into it around 2012, when I was 23, and I’ve been playing ever since. It’s a game of endless possibility. You can do anything in it. You can build your own houses, machines, businesses, and put your own personality on to it
From The Naked Gun to Wednesday: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead
The Naked GunOut nowFollowing a slightly tortuous period in development, a new Naked Gun film is in cinemas with Liam Neeson playing the son of legendary Det Sgt Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen in the three original films). Also starring Pamela Anderson and Busta Rhymes.Late ShiftOut nowA nurse on an understaffed surgical ward in a Swiss hospital, Floria (Leonie Benesch), takes her work seriously. But as she cares for a sick young mother and an elderly man, she finds herself caught in a race against time, in this acclaimed drama from Petra Volpe, which premiered at the Berlinale.Sophia Loren: Hollywood Style, Neapolitan SpiritBFI Southbank, to 31 AugustLike Marilyn Monroe or James Dean, the mere words “Sophia Loren” bring to mind a particular image
Seth Meyers on the Epstein conspiracy: ‘This is a crisis of Trump’s making’
Late-night hosts discussed the ongoing Jeffrey Epstein scandal and the “spite” behind Donald Trump’s impending tariffs.On Late Night, Seth Meyers spoke about the theories circulating over the death of Epstein, spurred on by the alleged missing minute from his jail cell video on the night of his death.He said that Trump is not in the right place to be handling it, as he’s “old” and “tired” and just came back from a golfing vacation in Scotland.While there, he opened a private new golf course, which was on the official White House live stream. “They’re not even pretending any more, there’s no separation,” Meyers said
HMRC files winding-up petition against Sanjeev Gupta’s Liberty Steel pipes business
UK construction activity shrinks by most in five years; Trump imposes extra 25% tariff on India – as it happened
OpenAI in talks on share sale that would price it above Elon Musk’s SpaceX
Lib Dems call for urgent regulation of YouTube ads after wave of scams
British athletes could be allowed to compete in future Islamic Solidarity Games
Hundred’s days could be numbered with T20 switch in play for next year