"In 1996, five economists, known as the Boskin Commission, were tasked with saving the government $1 trillion. They observed that if the CPI were lowered by 1.1 percent, then a $1 trillion could indeed be saved over the coming decade. So what did they do? They proposed a way to alter the formula that would lower the CPI by exactly that amount!

This raises a question: Is economics being used as science or as after-the-fact justification, much like economic statistics were manipulated in the Soviet Union? More importantly, is anyone paying attention? Are we willing to give government agents a free hand to keep changing this all-important formula whenever it suits their political needs, simply because they think we won’t get the math?"

This was written by Edward Frenkel, a math professor at UC Berkeley who was born in the USSR in 1968 and so, we can assume, had some familiarity with statistical games played by regimes trying to hold onto power.

I invite you consider that you might extend too much faith toward federal institutions that have presided over a ceaseless rise in inequality and erosion of rights in recent decades.

https://slate.com/technology/2013/02/should-algebra-be-in-cu...