The internet has been quick to dig into the professional history of EJ Antoni, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the US Bureau of Labour Statistics. It doesn’t take long. Now the chief economist for the Heritage Foundation, he got his doctorate just five years ago and has no publications or citations of note. He has no experience with large public surveys, no research about survey methodology, and no history of managing large organisations such as the 2000 people who work at the bureau. Unusually for an economist, he appears not to have a strong grasp of how recessions work.

Ultimately, however, Antoni himself is uninteresting. He’s just another unqualified Trump nominee. His nomination is worth paying attention to, however, because it illustrates the twin perils facing the economy: the coming slowdown, and a party that refuses to acknowledge it.

Donald Trump with new Bureau of Labour Statistics chief EJ Antoni. Credit: Courtesy: Donald J. Trump via Truth Social

If anyone needed further proof of that slowdown, it came in the jobs numbers that got the last........

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