Catherine Rampell and Michael Steinberger: Trump Wants to Cook the Books

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The Bulwark Daily 1h 11m 4 speakers 8 chapters transcribed
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What are the implications of Trump's actions on economic statistics?

Catherine Rampell 0:00
What if this was someone in your family that had a chronic illness that they could not get away from?
Unknown 0:05
Millions of Americans live with a disease that has no cure.
Catherine Rampell 0:11
I was diagnosed with a rare form of sarcoma. The most immediate findings indicated that I should lose my leg. It ended up taking four clinical trials in 25 years to get me to this point.
Unknown 0:26
Cures are within reach if we invest in funding for life-saving medical research that's needed to find them.
Tim Miller 0:33
Even if they're unsuccessful in my treatment, that they will have learned from my treatment that we'll be able to to allow others to stand on my shoulders to be able to be helped.
Unknown 0:46
Join the fight for cures. Tell your elected representatives to support American medical research.

How are job losses affecting the economy under current policies?

Unknown 0:52
Visit unitedforcures.org slash action to send a letter today. Paid for by United for Cures Action.
Michael Steinberger 1:01
President Trump made the right moves to get Puerto Rico out of a mess, putting private enterprise to work.
Tim Miller 1:07
The electrical grid and other infrastructure were already in very, very poor shape. They were at their life's end prior to the hurricanes. And now virtually everything has been wiped out. We're literally starting from scratch.
Michael Steinberger 1:25
But Governor González-Colón thinks she knows better. Innovative companies ran to meet the challenge to rebuild Puerto Rico's grid.

What role does Palantir play in the government's data handling?

Michael Steinberger 1:33
Now she's blowing up a valid contract to siphon money back to her closest political advisors. President Trump puts real businesses to work instead of fueling government waste. Don't let the governor send Puerto Rico back to square one. Support the rule of law. Visit PuertoRicoInvestment.org. Paid for by the Committee for Puerto Rican Investment, Inc.
Tim Miller 2:13
Hello and welcome to the Bulwark Podcast. I'm your host, Tim Miller. We have got a doubleheader today. I told you we'd get serious.

How is the Trump administration impacting statistical agencies?

Tim Miller 2:18
I've been wanting to do an episode focused on Palantir for a while now and was happy to have a chance to talk to Mike Steinberger, who's got a new book about Palantir and their CEO, Alex Karp. So we got that in segment two. Also wanted to throw out to you, I got this flag to me. I'm not going to be there. I'm in New Orleans. I know there will not be actually any Bulwark people there, but Bulwark fans are doing a meetup in St. Paul tonight. The Dual Citizen Brewery in the Twin Cities. So go, if you're listening. Go meet some other people.

What are the concerns surrounding immigration policies and their effects?

Tim Miller 2:53
I thought I'd help the industrious Bulwark listeners who are trying to have revelry and have gatherings this holiday season. Encourage anybody else in the Twin Cities to go check it out. But first up... We've got my colleague. She's the economics editor at The Bulwark. She writes the newsletter Receipts, which is published on Thursday evenings. She also co-hosts MS Now's The Weekend Primetime. It's Catherine Rampell. Welcome back to the show. How are you doing, girl?

How does the economic landscape look with rising tariffs?

Catherine Rampell 3:20
Doing well. Doing well. As well as when can in these trying times. That's true.
Tim Miller 3:26
We're in the holiday season. We don't need to caveat. Things are good. Personally, I mean, you know, the world's. is full of torment always. True.

What is the relationship between Palantir and surveillance practices?

Tim Miller 3:36
Maybe it's feeling a little more acute right now. It's certainly feeling a little more acute in the economy. How about that transition? I wanted to talk to you about we had some delayed jobs numbers that came out because of the government shutdown and the fact that the president was considering a scheme to cook the books that isn't going well so far. And the numbers that we saw yesterday revealed an unemployment rate that's at a four-year high. even though I should say it's pretty low, you know, compared to like past really bad recessions and just otherwise a lot of softness in the economic numbers. What did you see? What caught your eye in particular?
Catherine Rampell 4:13
Yeah. So this was, as you said, a delayed report, not,

How is Alex Karp's perspective on governance and technology evolving?

Catherine Rampell 4:16
Everybody's kind of looking around to figure out what's going on in this economy because it is very confusing. Everybody, specifically including the people at the Federal Reserve who have to actually act upon these data beyond the fact that the unemployment rate went up. We now have measures suggesting that in three of the past six months, we actually lost jobs.

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