Trump hooked on ‘world’s greatest lie’: stats
Renowned American author Mark Twain once famously said, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” In the eyes of this founder of American critical realism, the most dangerous and sophisticated lies aren’t outright deception or vulgar fabrications, but carefully packaged and manipulated statistics disguised as “science” and “facts.” And now, the US president is clearly attempting to manipulate this most dangerous and sophisticated “third kind of lie” into his own hands: when Trump disliked the weak jobs data released last Friday, he fired the person responsible for publishing them—a move virtually unprecedented in the century-long history of US economic statistics. However, global history also shows that when political leaders become obsessed with interfering with and influencing government data, good results rarely follow. Greece in the first decade of this century is a prime example. During this period, the government was accused of falsifying budget deficit data, ultimately triggering a devastating debt crisis and forcing multiple international bailouts. When the former head of the Greek Statistics Authority insisted on publishing the true figures, the Greek government launched a criminal prosecution, further damaging its international reputation. It’s too early to tell whether the U.S. will head down a similar path as Trump dictates economic data. But economists and other experts say Trump’s decision last Friday to fire Senate-confirmed Bureau of Labor Statistics Director Erica McEntuff is a worrying step in that direction.
