Issues and developments related to ethics, information, and technologies. My Bloomsbury book "Ethics, Information, and Technology" will be published on January 8, 2026; Preorders are available via this webpage: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/ethics-information-and-technology-9781440856662/
Saturday, August 30, 2025
Social Security whistleblower quits after saying Americans’ data was compromised; The Washington Post, August 29, 2025
Tuesday, August 12, 2025
Trump’s Stats Boss Plots Way to Stop Giving Bad Jobs Numbers; The Daily Beast, August 12, 2025
Sarah Ewall-Wice , The Daily Beast; Trump’s Stats Boss Plots Way to Stop Giving Bad Jobs Numbers
"President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggested ending the monthly jobs report after the president raged about July’s numbers.
E.J. Antoni, who Trump tapped on Monday to lead the bureau, argued in an interview Tuesday with Fox Business that the data behind the monthly reports was unreliable and that it should be suspended.
“Until it is corrected, the BLS should suspend issuing the monthly job reports but keep publishing the more accurate, though less timely, quarterly data,” Antoni said...
University of Michigan economics professor Justin Wolfers called ending monthly reports a “disastrously bad idea.”
“Non-farm payrolls data collection has been running continuously since 1939, through wars, and depressions, and global pandemics. At no point through that nearly century-long history, has anyone suggested that the public would be better off without these data,” he told the Daily Beast."
Friday, August 8, 2025
What if You Can’t Believe the Official Numbers?; The New York Times, August 8, 2025
Jeff Sommer, The New York Times; What if You Can’t Believe the Official Numbers?
"Imagine living in a country where you can’t trust the government’s numbers."