Antoni nomination to head the BLS is withdrawn

Antoni nomination to head the BLS is withdrawn

The president has withdrawn the nomination of A.J. Antoni to be the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The previous head Erika McEntarfer was fired (YOU’RE FIRED!) after the bureau reported dismal job growth in August. The president accused her of rigging the numbers to make him look bad and that she was a Biden appointee – so she had to be anti-Trump. McEntarfer was described as a mild mannered statistician with no obvious political bias and had been confirmed almost unanimously by the Senate. I had said earlier that he should have fired his Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick instead because Lutnick had dismissed the two unpaid advisory boards who were providing input on how to improve the reporting of the data. But Trump shot the messenger instead.

Antoni, who is the chief economist for the Heritage Foundation had been roundly criticized by economists both on the left and right for being less than knowledgeable about labor statistics. His nomination was seen as another politicalization of an organization generally known as having little if any partisan bias. Surely his charge was to make the numbers look good so the president would look good. That the president had contended without evidence that the numbers had been rigged and that Antoni had been a vocal critic in the media of the job data added to his being labelled as a partisan hack by those on the left. However, conservative economists were critical as well with one saying “There are a lot of competent conservative economists that could do this job. E.J. is not one of them.” Yet one of Antoni’s suggestions was one that I had thought had merit. It was to stop publishing the monthly jobs reports until its data collection processes improved and to rely on quarterly data based on actual employment filings with state unemployment offices. This suggestion was almost universally opposed, even by Trump ally, Stephen Moore despite his earlier endorsement of Antoni. I guess bad data are better than no data?

It was somewhat of a surprise that Trump withdrew the nomination given Antoni’s historical support for the president and his criticism of the Biden Administration. By the way, the jobs report for September showed a decline of 36,000. I wonder who is at the BLS to fire now? The agency also announced that due to the shutdown that it had stopped all data releases.

I won’t speculate on why Antoni’s nomination was withdrawn and it is highly unusual to see nothing on the matter. I doubt it was because of the criticism that he was not qualified. If that standard applied then half of all cabinet members in every administration would have been withdrawn as well. However, such is not the case with another nominee whose name was also withdrawn. Brian Quintenz, the president’s nominee to head the Commodities Future Trading Commission was also withdrawn. Quintenz was considered a lock. He was a former CFTC commissioner who had worked at the venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz and the prediction market startup Kalshi. He had wide support but crypto billionaires Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss opposed the nomination and Trump withdrew it. Sort of tells you where the power is now in the White House. There is consideration for the CFTC to regulate cryptocurrencies and the Winklevoss brothers did not consider him an ally. Also the gaming industry opposed Quintenz due to his association with Kalshi which is shaking up that industry with its entry into sports betting. The democrat representing Las Vegas expressed approval with the decision to withdraw the nomination.