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Speaking of US economic data reliability: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/business/economy/inflation-cpi-pce-methodology.html https://www.nytimes.com/2026/0
by lateforwork 7mo ago
Speaking of US economic data reliability:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/business/economy/inflation-cpi-pce-methodology.html https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/business/economy/inflatio...
Story title:
Change in Data Sources Led to Lower Inflation Reading
Excerpts:
“On its merits, you can defend the change,” said Omair Sharif, founder of Inflation Insights, a forecasting firm. “Optically, it’s just not a good look in an environment when people are worried about political interference.”
Mr. Sharif said he did not believe the change was politically motivated. But Courtney Shupert, an economist at MacroPolicy Perspectives, another forecasting firm, said such decisions undermine public confidence in the statistical system.
“It seems like we are moving to more of a vague, uncertain, cloudy data quality environment that is going to make market participants less confident in the data that we do receive,” Ms. Shupert said.
- tomrod 7mo agoThe US fired many of its government-employed economists. The administration head tried to fire people at NOAA his first term, until he got a yes-head. Data was deliberately buried in a mad rush the first few weeks and months of 2025. I'm not quite sure Mr. Sharif's opinion is well-founded given the known facts. [0] https://digitalgovernmenthub.org/library/federal-data-are-disappearing-as-statistical-agencies-face-budget-cuts-and-political-pressure/ https://digitalgovernmenthub.org/library/federal-data-are-di... [1] https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2026/03/report-nearly-95k-science-employees-left-government-trump-downsized-agency-workforces/411888/ https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2026/03/report-nearly-95k-...