Dear All,
Apropos of recent concern over improper political influence on government data (e.g., http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-trumps-white-house-could-mess-with-government-data/), I'm sharing a link to a newly published transcript of a Janet Norwood speech in 2000 in Statistics and Public Policy titled "Politics and Federal Statistics": http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2330443X.2016.1241061. BLS Commissioner Erica Groshen also published an accompanying introduction: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2330443X.2016.1241057.
Norwood reviews "political controversy over the release of BLS unemployment estimates in the early 1970's," criticisms of the Consumer Price Index in the 1990s, and strong political pressure on the 2000 census.
For the first topic, she listened to Nixon tapes, excerpts of which appear in her speech transcript.
Since I'm writing, allow me to plug a piece by Arthur Kennickell in the December issue of Amstat News, Crooked Roads: IRS Statistics of Income, William Blake, Mick Jagger, and the next 100 Years for SOI and Other Federal Statistical Agencies
Best,
Steve
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Steve Pierson
Director of Science Policy
American Statistical Association
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