Autocrats Do the Same Thing

They try to cook the books to deny reality.

In Russia, they're classifying economic statistics to hide their worsening economy. Putin's decreed there will be no recession, so the way he'll do that is to tell everyone there's no recession.

In this country, our petulant leader fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because he didn't like the numbers. The message is clear to her successors: Cook the books to please the Sundowner-in-Chief. He's also on a campaign to turn the Federal Reserve from caring about inflation to caring about his poll numbers.

But the bond market is what keeps the country from collapsing under the massive debt that Republican presidents have saddled it with. If the Angry Bloated Orage Toddler fucks around with the interest rates, large infestors will dump treasury bonds and then things will get much worse rather quickly.