Well, howdy there, Internet people, it's Bell again. So today, we're going to talk about

Trump picking a replacement for labor stats. So we got an interesting question that's worth

talking about, even though there isn't a clear answer. It's worth talking about because it gives us a little glimpse of the

trouble that Trump's desire to fire the calculator has already caused. If you missed it,

the Bureau of Labor Statistics released a jobs report, and it wasn't as rosy as Trump wanted it.

He claimed it was the fault of the commissioner because numbers were revised down and convinced

his base that revisions were abnormal, even though they all go through more than one revision.

So here's the question.

How does he get someone qualified to run BLS now?

Does he even want someone qualified?

If he doesn't get someone qualified, isn't that going to damage the economy and increase uncertainty?

Does he understand how bigly he's messed up?

This is nuts. We've always had numbers we could trust

my entire career. Now, I don't know what to advise. The answers? I don't know. I don't think so.

Yes. I doubt it. A little bit more in depth. I don't know how he's going to get someone

qualified to run BLS now. The people who can do that job are either high-end managers

who could be CEOs or their economic gurus, or maybe both. Why would an economic guru go to work for somebody

who seems like they will require them to put out bad numbers and destroy their career?

An economist who knowingly puts out bad numbers to the public is done. There's no coming back from

that. That seems like what he wants. So, he won't

get any good one wanting the job. High-end managers who could be CEOs won't want to be tied to bad

numbers either. So the odds are that he'll end up with a loyalist, which is probably what he wants.

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