Over the past year, in my view, there has been a strange and concerning trend happening within our federal government. Federal statistical agencies (FSAs), once the gold standard for information, have seen unprecedented attacks on their independence and capacity, creating questions around whether they can be relied upon to report on problems within the U.S. economy. Since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term, there have been a series of choices that lead one to conclude that the federal government is deliberately trying to hide economic data from the American public. That begs the question: Why are they trying to hide it, and what do they think this will achieve?

Early in the second Trump administration, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick disbanded the Federal Economic Statistics Advisory Committee (FESAC), a crucial body that worked under the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis to ensure that the federal government produces accurate data on economic indicators. Then, the Trump administration gutted the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) Technical Advisory Committee, which advises the Department of Labor on the impact of economic changes on data collection. Next, in August, the President terminated BLS Commissioner Erica McEntarfer, falsely accusing her of manipulating economic data to hurt him politically by releasing an accurate jobs report showing weak employment growth. Trump proceeded to nominate EJ Antoni, described by various media outlets as a “partisan bomb thrower,” to replace McEntarfer. Antoni suggested eliminating federal monthly jobs reports, stunning economists. Under pressure, his nomination was later withdrawn.

Additionally, the current administration has fired numerous independent agency leaders, required every federal agency to have a White House liaison and required supposedly independent agencies to submit draft regulations to the Office of Management and Budget — headed by administration official Russell Vought — for review before publication. They have made a farce of economic data from the federal government, leading independent organizations and think tanks, armed with far less resources, to pick up the slack and attempt to publish accurate economic figures. Again, this raises the question: What is there to be gained from obscuring economic data from the public? Particularly when people are acutely aware of their monthly financial plights. Deceiving the public certainly isn’t a viable long-term strategy.

The current administration doesn’t seem to have any long-term strategy when it comes to hiding economic data, but they are more or less hoping that they can create an alternate reality consisting of only positive economic news. The problem is that the economy is a tangible, lived experience for people. Unlike other political issues, it is impossible to abstract your economic plight. Also, the current economic reality for the vast majority of Americans is extremely difficult, so there is further incentive for the Trump administration to obscure the actual data. However, on an issue like the economy, telling people that what they’re experiencing isn’t actually real is a recipe for severe backlash.

Another emerging economic trend that is being largely ignored by both the media and political classes is the complete decoupling of top-line economic indicators such as stock market growth, unemployment rate and GDP from the real economy that most Americans experience day-to-day. In this current paradigm, it doesn’t serve politicians particularly well to cite top-line economic numbers when they are so thoroughly disconnected from the everyday lives of their constituents. As both the Biden and Trump administrations have found out, citing impressive top-line economic numbers has the dual effect of both inoculating those in power from real economic despair as well as further alienating and angering everyday people, who often feel like those who control the economy live in an alternate reality.

Given this current dynamic and the current administration’s open attempts to suppress economic information, genuine questions arise about how the economy is evaluated on a fundamental level. If top-line economic indicators aren’t particularly useful to the vast majority of people, then perhaps they should be discussed differently from everyday economic indicators. For instance, in baseball, wins were long the main stat used to evaluate starting pitchers. However, over time, evaluators realized that wins can often be a team-dependent statistic for a starting pitcher. As a result, baseball organizations now use a variety of more in-depth statistics, including walks and hits per innings pitched (WHIP) and strikeouts per 9 innings, to give a more accurate evaluation of a starting pitcher’s performance. Perhaps a similar approach should be taken with the economy. Top-line economic statistics can certainly still be used, but should be supplemented with far more in-depth economic indicators.

At a time when there are more questions than ever about the fundamentals of the economy, suppressing or altering economic data is the absolute last approach that should be taken. In fact, this is the time to have an incredibly serious, sober look at how to make the economy work for more Americans. An economy’s true test is not how it functions for the wealthiest among us, but how it functions for more economically precarious people. And, in that regard, the U.S. economy is failing. In recent weeks, there has been a spate of concerning, lesser-publicized news stories that highlight how unmanageable basic costs and necessities are becoming for the majority of Americans.

In late December, Redfin released a report indicating that, “There were an estimated 37.2% more home sellers than buyers in the U.S. housing market in November 2025 (or 529,770 more, in numerical terms) — the largest gap in records dating back to 2013 aside from this summer. That’s up from 35.6% a month earlier and 17% a year earlier. The gap has been hovering above 35% since April.” The report further details, “We define a market where there are over 10% more sellers than buyers as a buyer’s market and a market where there are over 10% fewer sellers than buyers as a seller’s market. A market where the gap is plus or minus 10% is considered a balanced market. By this definition, it has been a buyer’s market since May 2024. When sellers outnumber buyers, buyers typically hold the negotiating power because they have a lot of options to choose from. That’s why a market with a lot more sellers than buyers is considered a buyer’s market. Of course, it’s only a buyer’s market for those who can afford to buy — many Americans have been priced out of the housing market as affordability has eroded.”

Also, according to the New York Federal Reserve, outstanding credit card balances jumped to $1.23 trillion in the third quarter, up 6% over the same time last year and an all-time high. And this data was released prior to the Christmas season, when the majority of Americans incur more debt during their holiday shopping and other activities. Typically, people use the new year to pay some of their debt down, but with rising consumer costs in practically every sector, many people don’t have time to do that. Then follows the inevitable cycle of deepening credit card debt, which is now being exacerbated by buy now, pay later programs used by many consumers. Chi Chi Wu, attorney with the National Consumer Law Center, said the rise of buy now, pay later lending adds extra risk. “We see consumers sometimes get into trouble when they think, ‘Oh, well I can deal with this payment for this one buy now, pay later loan to buy this item,’” she said. “Next thing they know, they’re juggling multiple ‘pay-in-four’ installment plans for their whole shopping list and their plane ticket home.”

Numbers like these illustrate that we don’t have a balanced economy nor a particularly multi-dimensional economy. We have an economy that succeeds in getting a small group of people obscenely wealthy, leading to cascading social and political problems. We don’t have an economy that makes basic necessities affordable, that respects or rewards labor commensurate to its value, or is manageable for the vast majority of the population. Factors like soaring medical and credit card debt, plummeting homeownership rates and rising homelessness indicate an economy that doesn’t have its fundamentals taken care of nor its priorities in line. Hiding and falsifying economic data out in the open is the final admission by those in power that they don’t have anything encouraging to show you outside of their usual tricks, so please stop asking.