Is the BLS Politicized?!
Media Hit, 8/1/25
I’m going on NewsMax with Rick Leventhal tonight (Friday, 8/1) and then again on the Randy Tobler Show tomorrow (Saturday, 8/2) to talk about tariffs and trade. I’m sure we’ll get into some other topics as well because, in case you missed it, this was a big week in the world of tariffs and the US economy. We had the deal with Japan announced, the deal with the EU announced, GDP figures released for Q2, the Fed deciding to keep interest rates stable, Liberation Day 2.0, and a jobs report.
Let’s just go through these item by item real quick and lay out some talking points:
US/Japan Deal
Trade with Japan is opened to American businesses, unlike before.
But here’s the kicker: it disincentivizes American production of cars.
We’re already starting to see this, with an Alabama auto plant only producing 14 cars for export as compared to the thousands per month it used to produce.
Insofar as the deal includes new foreign direct investment from Japan, this will actually increase the trade deficit.
This is an accounting identity, not some theory.
Fortunately, it doesn’t actually matter, as I’ve written before. But it’s telling that the President wants to reduce the trade deficit and insists on Japan doing things that will increase it instead.
Most telling: the US will keep 90% of the profits from the $550 billion in investment Japan promised and Trump himself will get to direct where those investments go.
That’s… bold.
US/EU Deal
I’m just going to refer back to this post here:
GDP Figures
Again, referring you here:
Fed Interest Rates
One more, here:
Liberation Day 2.0
Tariffs are still bad.
I think I’ve written enough about this to fill more than a few volumes.
Jobs Report
Woof, where to even start with this one?
First, the job growth for last month was anemic.
Second, the revision to the previous two months are shocking.
The gist of it all is this: job growth has been abysmal for the past three months.
Trump then fired the current BLS Commissioner, Erika McEntarfer, and accused her of being politically motivated.
Strangely, this is the same person who announced the 818,000 downward revision of job growth under Biden one year ago.
If they’re so politically motivated, why would they release those figures back then, ahead of the election?
Then there’s this statement, shared by a former Commissioner of the BLS (and a dear friend of mine), Bill Beach:
Which links to this letter from the Friends of the BLS
For those that don’t recall, Bill was appointed to head up the BLS… by President Trump!
