How the State Manipulates Numbers to Justify Control

A “Low-Priority” Office Suddenly Becomes High Stakes The average American still thinks the Bureau of Labor Statistics is some neutral bean-counting office, quietly recording the health of the job market like a thermometer takes your temperature. That illusion should’ve died years ago. Now, under the Trump administration, the curtain is being pulled back once again—this time with the firing of BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer and the nomination of E.J. Antoni, a man guilty of the ultimate crime in Washington: liking Rothbard. Naturally, this has set off the pearl-clutchers in the media and the academic class. They claim the numbers are being politicized—as if they weren’t already. The dirty little secret is that BLS data has always been political. The real…