As we told you earlier, the May jobs numbers show that the economy is beginning to re-ignite after being crippled by weeks and weeks of coronavirus-related shutdowns.
But New York Times economist Paul Krugman is skeptical:
This being the Trump era, you can't completely discount the possibility that they've gotten to the BLS, but it's much more likely that the models used to produce these numbers — they aren't really raw data — have gone haywire in a time of pandemic 3/
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) June 5, 2020
There it is!
“They’ve gotten to the Bureau of Labor Statistics” is something a NYT columnist just wrote entirely in earnest. Incredible. https://t.co/qaRdIAmygn
— James Hasson (@JamesHasson20) June 5, 2020
Incredible. https://t.co/O0MIrDL8aN
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) June 5, 2020
It’s just absolutely devastating to these people when something good happens for America. https://t.co/BrbfcxueBj
— The Partyman (@PartymanRandy) June 5, 2020
Harvard professor and former head of Obama’s economic advisory council Jason Furman didn’t buy what Krugman was selling:
Former Obama dudes clowning on Krugman now. https://t.co/p4jbslQno5
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) June 5, 2020
You can 100% discount the possibility that Trump got to the BLS. Not 98% discount, not 99.9% discount, but 100% discount.
BLS has 2,400 career staff of enormous integrity and one political appointee with no scope to change this number. https://t.co/Cden6rQyN6
— Jason Furman (@jasonfurman) June 5, 2020
Krugman then commenced with the backpedaling:
Getting a lot of outraged pushback over even allowing the possibility of something amiss at BLS. I was just covering myself, because so many weird things have happened lately. But I apologize for any suggestion that a highly professional agency might have been corrupted. 1/
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) June 5, 2020
Recommended
And as I look at the data, I'm starting to believe that the modest job gains may well have been real, not an artifact of the models. I was already on record saying that predictions of a huge job loss didn't look right 2/ https://t.co/v6KvqREFWx
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) June 5, 2020
Well that’s… something at least.
Surprised he hasn't said all the new jobs are people fixing broken glass. https://t.co/44IAhKhoCG
— Tyler Voigt (@tvoigt34) June 5, 2020
No, you are a wackadoodle. https://t.co/sou4ZU6rYV
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) June 5, 2020
But Krugman still has hope that things will start to worsen again. You can practically hear Krugman rooting for the economy to go back to tanking:
Whatever happened, these numbers should make you more, not less, pessimistic about the economic outlook. Why? Because they will reinforce the White House inclination to do nothing and let emergency aid expire 4/ https://t.co/yoo3F6TAo0
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) June 5, 2020