This from Buzzfeed this AM.
Trump promised not to do it again, see below!!!
Labor Officials Were Alarmed By Trump's Jobs Report Tweet: "It's All Over The News"
"Are you 'whispering words of wisdom'?" one official wrote, according to emails newly obtained by BuzzFeed News.
Posted on July 5, 2018, at 4:04 p.m.
Jason Leopold
BuzzFeed News Reporter
Top officials at the Bureau of Labor Statistics expressed alarm over a tweet by President Donald Trump last month touting a jobs report before it was officially released, according to newly obtained emails.
In his June 1 tweet, Trump said: "Looking forward to seeing the employment numbers at 8:30 this morning."
According to emails obtained by BuzzFeed News in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, Trump's tweet prompted concerns within the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) that the words "looking forward" would be interpreted by the markets as indicating positive numbers.
"It's all over the news," Nancy Ruiz de Gamboa, the agency's associate commissioner for administration, wrote in an email to senior officials at the bureau.
In fact, Trump's tweet, which broke with decades of protocol in which the president waited until employment numbers were officially released to comment, did have an impact on the market: Stocks jumped, resulting in a flurry of activity inside BLS by officials who were trying to get a handle on the situation.
In another email, Eric Molina, the bureau's acting chief for the division of management systems, flagged Trump's tweet to William Wiatrowski, the commissioner of BLS. Molina said that while the tweet was "vague," it was interpreted to mean "that the Jobs Report was going in a positive direction."
"Obviously, we are concerned of any such statements because of the potential impact on markets before the actual numbers come out," Molina wrote.
Wiatrowski's response was succinct.
"Let it be," he wrote.
He also told Molina he alerted Nancy Potok, the chief statistician of the US, which prompted Molina to respond, "Understood. Are you 'whispering words of wisdom'?" referring to lyrics of the famous Beatles song.
Neither the White House nor Potok responded to a request for comment. However, two BLS sources said concerns were discussed with Trump, who promised not to tweet about the jobs report in advance of its official release.
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Andrew Beveridge
Professor of Sociology
Queens and Grad Center CUNY
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-02-2018 11:06
From: Ronald Wasserstein
Subject: Thanks for your comments in our letter to the editor
Dear ASA colleagues,
I am grateful for your engagement on ASA Connect. Your thoughtful consideration of the letter to the editor of the Washington Post that ASA President Lisa LaVange and I wrote is appreciated. Thanks as well to those who wrote their comments to Lisa and me via email.
Some of the posts specifically addressed the issue of whether or not the ASA should write such letters. To make the decision whether or not the ASA should write a response, we look at five questions . The questions are in my blog from last year: http://community.amstat.org/blogs/ronald-wasserstein/2017/06/23/when-should-the-asa-make-a-public-statement-on-an-issue. In this case, we found "yes" to be a reasonable response to the first four of the questions. The ASA's elected and appointed leadership takes seriously its responsibilities when speaking on behalf of the association. Each time we do so, we also review the comments we receive, such as those in the recent thread, so that we can understand a variety of perspectives on the matter at hand.
We will continue to do our best to determine when the association should speak up on behalf of the statistics profession. Suggestions on appropriate topics about which the association should give voice are welcome. It is especially helpful when those suggestions indicate why we should take a position (see the five questions) and what position we should take.
Colleagues, we cannot be silent on everything except those matters on which every member agrees. Perhaps some time we will err and speak up about something we should not have. If that happens we will recalibrate to avoid repeating the error, but let's not be so cautious that we render ourselves unresponsive and remove from the public arena the unique voice of statistics.
Sincerely,
Ron
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Ron Wasserstein
Executive Director
The American Statistical Association
Promoting the Practice and Profession of Statistics
732 N. Washington St.
Alexandria, VA 22314
703-684-1221 x1860
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