Uncommon Commentary #251: Don't Trust Mind-Numbers to Mind Numbers

Since the economic statistics that govern a president's chances of re-election are provided by his own administration, I suggest that we have an independent source begin to provide those numbers. (It would save the taxpayers money, as well, to privatize the conducting of the surveys that determine the rates of economic growth and of unemployment.) The willingness of the current administration to distort or to fabricate figures—the latest example, to my knowledge, being the outlandish assertion as to what percentage of women have used contraception; see Uncommon Commentary #249—may impart urgency to my proposition.