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Comment by jimmydoe | Hacker News Reader

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jimmydoe·

govt is resetting the baseline now, so we will see some good numbers in November.

it's all about optics for mid term.

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No. Very bad economic numbers in August before a midterm is not a cunning political optics move.

It doesn’t matter whether it is a good move; just whether they think it’s a good move.

They don’t. They aren’t faking the BLS numbers as an electoral strategy. No one at WH or NRCC or CLF are rubbing their hands together as if this is all according to plan.

I'm surprised by the conspiratorial comments here like this is some sort of 4D chess move. *It's not.*

This is chickens coming home to roost from US actions in Iran, with tariffs, and other things introducing economic uncertainty.

As you alluded to; this is terrible for Republicans in power. And quite useful for Democrats.

if the government was able to lie on the jobs report, why wouldn't they just continuously pretend that jobs are up from now all the way through the election? (all the way through to the presidential election, for that matter)

The 2026 midterm election date is November 3rd, the jobs numbers are released on the first Friday of the month, November 6th. Intentionally trending numbers down in August, with only two more jobs reports before the election, would be risky (and stupid, and extremely unlikely). The Trump Administration just doesn't look ahead like that either, they live in the perpetual now.

Maybe. But I think the government could just lie about both quarters and then restate after the election.

The worse Q2 looks the bigger improvement a bogus Q3 will look.

Wish i had your optimism.

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