Data: you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone

1. 1. Despite qualitative benefits like building trust and improving decision-making, official statistical agencies often lack clear cost-benefit analyses for their work.
2. 2. Sir John Cowperthwaite, Hong Kong's financial secretary in the 1960s, argued official statistics had negative value by encouraging government interference.
3. 3. A US National Academies report found that the 'government data-intensive sector' nearly doubled its revenue to $800 billion by 2022.
4. 4. President Trump's firing of BLS head Erika McEntarfer and his claim of 'RIGGED' jobs numbers in August damaged the institution's credibility.
5. 5. Researchers measured the impact using the Economic Policy Uncertainty Index (EPU), which sharply rose immediately after McEntarfer's dismissal.
6. 6. A refined estimate, isolating McEntarfer's firing and criticism, suggests nearly $20 billion in economic damage from the generated fear and uncertainty.
7. 7. The estimated $20 billion in damage, though a tiny fraction of US GDP, is about 25 times the entire annual budget of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
8. 8. Government-funded statistics constitute just over one dollar in a thousand of federal spending, a small investment to ensure better use of the remaining $999.