Can ... we still trust the monthly jobs repor...

There is a $3 trillion dollar black box at the center of the economy. It’s called private credit. These are direct loans from private investors to private companies. They’re often riskier, less regulated than traditional bank loans – and far less transparent. Spooked investors ar ...  Show more

School lunch has been revamped a ton over the last two decades. Now, the Trump administration wants to rejigger the menu once more to align with its Make America Healthy Again agenda. That means more meat. More dairy. But do schools really need another menu overhaul? And could th ...  Show more

Trust in experts is down. In all kinds of institutions and professions - in government, in media, in medical science... and lately, economists are feeling the burn acutely. In fact, President Trump just fired the economist who ran the Bureau of Labor Statistics, accusing her – wi ...  Show more

After President Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, economists and statisticians across the board were horrified. Because the firing raises the spectre of potential manipulation – and it raises the worry that, in the future, the numbers won't be as trustworthy ...  Show more

There's one statistic that rules them all when it comes to keeping track of the economy: gross domestic product (GDP). It's the sum of all final transactions, so all the goods or services bought and sold, in an economy. GDP tells us how hot the economy is running, or how cool — l ...  Show more

OIRA — the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs — is an obscure, but powerful federal office around the corner from the White House. President Trump has decided that it should get even more powerful.For the last 45 years, OIRA has overseen most federal agencies by reviewi ...  Show more