3 ms·

> It is disingenuous of you (and contributing to the erosion of institutional trust of Federal institution) by falsely accusing them. There are trillions of do

by bko 5y ago

> It is disingenuous of you (and contributing to the erosion of institutional trust of Federal institution) by falsely accusing them. There are trillions of dollars tied to these inflation numbers. Many social services are tied to these values. So if an agency could get reported inflation down just a few basis points based on their subjective decisions on what to include and what to substitute, that could save the government billions. That's not saying that they are necessarily doing that, but its wise to be suspicious when there are such large stakes

cheriot 5y ago
That suspicion should motivate people to educate themselves before pushing conspiracies. Public debate needs a core set of facts to reason about the world so politicizing BLS numbers is... really bad.
- bko 5y ago
  That suspicion should motivate people to think about the incentives they're setting for government agencies and try to create clear objective measures that cannot be gamed. > Public debate needs a core set of facts to reason about the world so politicizing BLS numbers is... really bad When it becomes tied to trillions and the agencies are selected by politicians then its by definition political.
  - cheriot 5y ago
    > create clear objective measures that cannot be gamed There is no perfect world where nothing can be gamed. We have a respected institution in the BLS and setting an impossible bar only promotes misinformation by discrediting what's credible. > the agencies are selected by politicians This is why there are specific roles for political appointees and others for career civil servants. In this specific case, we're talking about the usual noise of someone not understanding the point of core inflation, not knowing that there are other measures of inflation, and jumping to a conclusion that the numbers must be bogus. Regardless of what you think about inflation numbers, the reasoning was bad.

by bko 5y ago

cheriot 5y ago

That suspicion should motivate people to educate themselves before pushing conspiracies. Public debate needs a core set of facts to reason about the world so politicizing BLS numbers is... really bad.

bko 5y ago
That suspicion should motivate people to think about the incentives they're setting for government agencies and try to create clear objective measures that cannot be gamed. > Public debate needs a core set of facts to reason about the world so politicizing BLS numbers is... really bad When it becomes tied to trillions and the agencies are selected by politicians then its by definition political.
- cheriot 5y ago
  > create clear objective measures that cannot be gamed There is no perfect world where nothing can be gamed. We have a respected institution in the BLS and setting an impossible bar only promotes misinformation by discrediting what's credible. > the agencies are selected by politicians This is why there are specific roles for political appointees and others for career civil servants. In this specific case, we're talking about the usual noise of someone not understanding the point of core inflation, not knowing that there are other measures of inflation, and jumping to a conclusion that the numbers must be bogus. Regardless of what you think about inflation numbers, the reasoning was bad.