The Bananafication of America

A bunch of economic pressures, from slow jobs growth to rising inflation, is testing the US's resilience

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Of all the crazy and unpredictable things US President Donald Trump has done during his second stint in the White House, surely the most absurd happened in early August. After disappointing jobs figures, he summarily sacked the head of America’s labour statistics agency.

On 1 August, Trump ordered officials to fire the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner Erika McEntarfer, who was appointed by his predecessor, Joe Biden.

“[McEntarfer] will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified. Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can’t be manipulated for political purposes,’ Trump said, alleging without evidence that she had reduced the numbers for “political purposes”.

Being a messenger in Trump's world is a risky business. Bearers of bad news tend to end up motionless in a dark alley.

McEntarfer’s transgression was simply to oversee the compilation of the latest US jobs report, which exposed last month’s hiring slump and included downward revisions to the previous two months, which were even worse. Who knows how long her successor will last, or whether they could be tempted to massage the numbers upwards (and risk being caught) simply to avoid the president's ire?

What we are witnessing is the Bananafication of America, with all due respect to republics which export bananas and are now, by comparison with the US, models of sane and balanced economic and monetary management.

Meanwhile, the tussle over the chief US labour statistician is merely the hors d’oeuvre. Ever since Trump launched his global tariff war on 2 April, there has been one economic official in his crosshairs: the chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, who has refused to cut interest rates. This has led to Trump calling him a “moron”, “knucklehead”, “numbskull” and “bonehead”. “Too late, Jerome!” goes the president's refrain.