Bulwark Takes Trump’s Government Is Purging Core Economic and Social Data
Nov 22, 2025
Catherine Rampell, an insightful economics reporter, dives deep into the alarming voids in U.S. economic data caused by government shutdowns and purges. She highlights the permanent gaps left in job numbers and inflation records, complicating policymaking and investment decisions. Rampell warns about the dangers of censorship and defunding of crucial statistics, drawing eerie parallels to authoritarian regimes. She passionately discusses the implications for public health and the reliability of private data, emphasizing the critical need for accurate government statistics.
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Permanent Black Holes In Economic Records
- The shutdown created permanent gaps in core economic series like October jobs and inflation.
- Those black holes hinder policymakers, historians, and the Fed's real-time decisions.
Data Series Are Being Quietly Purged
- The administration has been quietly censoring, defunding, and deleting longstanding data series before the shutdown.
- Examples include an annual hunger report and staff who calculate poverty guidelines being removed.
Staff Cuts Erode Fact-Checking Capacity
- Agencies like the Bureau of Economic Analysis face big staffing losses, forcing cuts to less prominent but important metrics.
- That undermines the government's ability to verify claims such as Trump’s foreign investment boasts.