“Fake Data”: Economists Concerned Trump Administration Will Adopt ‘Alternative’ Economic Facts

Over the weekend we noted that the Trump administration was considering changing the U. S. trade deficit calculation to exclude re-exports from the US trade balance, a shift that would make America’s trade gap appear even greater than it has been in recent years, potentially making future trade skirmishes and wars with America’s export-heavy trade partners far more likely (see “White House May Change Calculation Of US Trade Deficit, Boosting Trade War Odds“).
Of course, Trump has made a habit of questioning certain economic propaganda, including the “phony” unemployment figures. Repeatedly on the campaign trail, Trump questioned the logic of focusing on an unemployment figure that excludes those people who have been unemployed for so long that they’ve simply given up looking for work, a favorite statistic of President Obama. Per Bloomberg:

This post was published at Zero Hedge on Feb 20, 2017.