Source: Washington Post
by Megan McArdle
“For months, commentators have been asking why tariffs aren’t weighing on the economy more heavily. Importers — including many manufacturers — have been worried that they will. But the headline jobs and gross domestic product data have looked pretty good. Then came Friday’s jobs report. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, a unit of the Labor Department, revised its estimates for May and June payrolls sharply downward, by more than 250,000 jobs, and estimated that the economy added only 73,000 jobs in July, well below analysts’ expectations. Virtually all these new jobs came from health care and social services. The numbers contain no sign of the manufacturing boom that President Donald Trump has promised. … So Trump took immediate, decisive action: He hopped on Truth Social and announced that he would fire Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.” (08/02/25)