My new essay for The Hill details the sheer incompetence, unfitness, and political partisanship of E.J. Antoni, Trump’s nominee to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Even conservative economists oppose him, and his position as “chief economist” at the Heritage Foundation is anything but a legitimate qualification. Here is the gist:
Even conservatives can’t get behind Trump’s Bureau of Labor Statistics pick
President Trump’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics has drawn surprising opposition from conservative economists, and for good reason.
Antoni has meager credentials and no relevant experience for leading an agency with over 2,000 employees, responsible for measuring all “labor market activity, working conditions, price changes and productivity in the U.S. economy.”
Antoni is just five years out of graduate school at Northern Illinois University. His only professional jobs have been with right-wing policy shops.
Economists from multiple conservative think tanks have weighed in against Antoni’s appointment, citing his inexperience and incompetence.
The American Enterprise Institute’s Derek Scissors was even more dismissive, saying Antoni “writes drivel for political reasons.