President Trump abruptly fired Erika McEntarfer, head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in reaction to the weak July payroll report. This has triggered frightening flashbacks to the Argentina of nearly two decades ago: a populist leader whose flawed policies are ruining the economy; the firing of the head of an agency producing key economic data; mounting discrepancies between benign official statistics and downbeat independent estimates; and an erosion of trust and credibility leading to further economic deterioration.

America is still a long ways from that nightmare scenario, but any attempt to follow in the footsteps of past Argentinian policies does not bode well for our economic future.

Argentina, of course, is a byword for chaotic economic policy and financial turbulence. Following its hyperinflation of 1989 to 1990, Argentina achieved a modicum of stability during the remainder of the ’90s under the “convertibility plan,” a currency board that fixed the value of the peso against the dollar and kept inflation down to low single digits. However, mounting fiscal deficits forced a devaluation and default that pushed the economy back into crisis in 2001 to 2002. After some gyrations, inflation was still as low as 4.4 percent in 2004 but started rising to 9.6 percent in 2005 and 11 percent in 2006.

Over the course of 2006, the Peronist government of Nestor Kirchner put mounting pressure on the........

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