The trustworthiness of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) data on inflation, employment, wages, productivity, and consumer spending has historically been a concern only for cranks and conspiracy theorists. Unlike many other nations, the United States has long been able to shield its government data collection processes from partisan political wars. We may debate who is to blame for employment trends, yet no credible critic would argue that the BLS is faking the jobs numbers. That is, until President Donald Trump fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer in August in response to a weak jobs report that Trump claimed was "rigged." Trump then nominated as a replacement E.J. Antoni, a Heritage Foundation economist widely considered to be a partisan apparatchik with scant qualifications in lab

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