DAVID STOCKMAN: It's True, The BLS Data Is Made Up

Business Insider ^ | February 07, 2012 | Gus Lubin

[lasereye]

After countless attempts to discredit or defend Friday's jobs report, we can all agree on one thing: The data is complicated. So complicated that the BLS could make the economy look better than it was and no one would be sure.

Former Reagan budget director David Stockman said as much in an email to Bruce Krasting, in response to Krasting's criticism of the jobs report.

Stockman writes: "If you spend a little time with these numbers you will know that they are being made up."

Here's the email (via Wall Street Examiner):

Bruce– Great job on the Summers catch, but I’m wondering if this goes much deeper. I don’t particularly believe in tin foil hats, but all of these mainstream economists treat the BLS and BEA data like it’s holy writ—when it’s evident that the reports are so massaged, estimated, deemed, revised, re-bench marked and seasonally adjusted that any month-to-month change has a decent chance of being noise. What deep secret might they be hiding?

[Lancey Howard]

I didn’t leave Ann Coulter. Anne Coulter left me.