In the world of management, there are different managers and the issue is how will the organization run through both good and not so good times. Every industry goes through cycles and it is much easier when times are good, but markets have a way of keeping people on their toes, because similar to the story in Aesop Fables of the ant and grasshopper, if you do not have supplies in reserve, when the harvest is long gone, what will you do?

In an article by Ben Casselman of the New York Times News Service, one of President Trump’s management style is he does not like bad news.

When President Trump didn’t like the weak jobs numbers, he fired the person responsible for producing them. Never mind the numbers reported on is what the financial industry relies on, never mind the person who gave the numbers is at the top of a large number of people who have input into the numbers, never mind it would almost be impossible to manipulate the data and never mind if the numbers are what President Trump called fake numbers, it leads to many questions and none of them are good.

In countries such as Greece, Argentina and China, numbers were reported that faked deficit for years. One hopes with a great many economists going through the data, if the data does not mean expectations of private sector data, it would be very hard for the US government to report fake data.

The Bureau of Statistics is officially part of the Labor Department whose Secretary is in the Cabinet. The agency operates independently. producing detailed, non-partisan data on employment, prices, wages and other topics.

Official statistics, government statistics are a mirror that society holes up to itself. If that mirror is distorted or broken, then the accountability that is central to the democratic system cannot work. If society cannot see itself clearly, then it cannot identify its problems. If it cannot identify its problem than it cannot find the right solutions.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, as investors company report their earning every 3 months, if you believe they are fake, and it has happened in the past, the result is the company’s stock goes to zero. Good data matched to analyst expectations allow you to keep your money in the stock market.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.