View from City Road: Spin doctors polish US figures
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The Clinton administration wheeled out its biggest guns yesterday, anxious to play down the idea that the latest set of economic figures signalled bad news on inflation.
The spin doctoring seemed to meet with some success; after initially taking fright at a much bigger drop than expected in the May unemployment rate, the markets shifted their gaze to the payroll figures, which pointed in exactly the opposite direction.
With the two surveys giving contradictory signals, the pundits justified their own jobs arguing the toss - though in the end they appeared to give the payroll figures, based on surveys completed by employers, the benefit of the doubt. The argument that the unemployment figures, based on a household survey and subject to a rather doubtful seasonal adjustment, were less reliable seemed to have the edge.
But even if the markets were superficially reassured, there is no guarantee the independently minded Federal Reserve Board will feel the same way when it meets on 5 July.
As Katharine Abraham, the US Labour Bureau's statistics commissioner, had to admit, there is no dispute that the unemployment trend is firmly down. While last February's shock precautionary interest-rate rise has undoubtedly had some dampening effect - mortgage refinancing has virtually come to a standstill - the view persists that next month the Fed will have to go further if inflation is to be kept under control.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments