For many Americans, the government’s monthly jobs number was a pretty dull statistic — until a few days ago, when President Trump angrily fired the person responsible for producing it, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Now, from Washington to Wall Street, many people are wondering whether you can still trust federal statistics if the president is willing to just get rid of people who give him facts he doesn’t like.

On this episode, Ben Casselman joins The Daily to discuss how the government’s economic data suddenly turned into a national drama.

Guest: Ben Casselman, the chief economics correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• President Trump fired America’s economic data collector. History shows the perils of such a move.
• Until the president fired her, Erika McEntarfer was an economist with bipartisan support.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Photo: Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

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