Abraham discounts political pressure at BLS

Questions about the accuracy of government statistics have gotten a lot of press lately. Jack Hough at SmartMoney decided to do a little fact checking. Among his sources is Katharine Abraham, an MPRC Faculty Associate and former Commissioner of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics during the Clinton administration. "Commissioners, unlike the statisticians who work for them, are political appointees," Hough notes. "Now a professor at University of Maryland, Abraham says she did see political pressure, but rarely, and never with results. Once, she says, a prominent lawmaker told her the BLS might get more funding if it would agree to propose changes that reduce the appearance of inflation. Abraham says she rebuffed the offer."

See the complete SmartMoney article.