Erika McEntarfer can console herself that things could be worse. When the agency she ran, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), produced disappointing employment numbers, Donald Trump gave instructions that she be fired. When statistician Olimpiy Kvitkin produced disappointing numbers in the 1937 census of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin gave instructions that he be shot.
So, yes, it could be worse. But the parallel is not wholly encouraging. No doubt Kvitkin’s successors got the message, and while McEntarfer’s defenestration will not change last month’s estimates, it will certainly sharpen the thinking of everyone working on the numbers next time.
President Trump alleges that McEntarfer manipulated the data to make him look bad. There is no evidence that she did and, given the likelihood that any conspiracy would be exposed by an outraged bean-counter, there is good reason to think she did not.