Today's good news that the unemployment rate fell to 7.8% has spawned a barrage of outrage by Republicans who claim the figures were rigged:
Former GE CEO Jack Welch, wrote: "Unbelievable jobs numbers…these Chicago guys will do anything...can't debate so change numbers."
Other pundits have cast aspersions on the career economists at the Department of Labor who compiled the numbers.
The attack on civil servants whose careers depend on impartially collecting and reporting data is deeply disturbing because it politicizes what should be professional.
I am not a stranger to government workers rigging data. When I grew up in Brazil the government was constantly lying about inflation so as try to impact labor and financial contracts. Citizens became cynical of any information coming out of government, and rightly so.
Fortunately, in the United States, we have a fairly long history of establishing civil servant agencies that are staffed by people with professional ethics.
There are exceptions. I remember the 1972 election when it seemed Arthur Burns at the Fed was intent on re-electing President Nixon and made sure to fix monetary policy for that effect. George W. Bush packed the occupying development agency in Iraq with Republican Party operatives who knew little about development.
Charging "Fire!" in a theater when there is no smoke is an offense. Charging "Fabrication!" on the unemployment data when there isn't a shred of evidence ought to provoke outrage against the perpetrators.
Mr. Welch himself chimes in on this in this morning's WSJ: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444897304578046260406091012.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
Posted by: Mark D. White | October 10, 2012 at 07:00 AM