https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/jpmorgan-blackrock-among-bls-economist-184301611.html
An economist from the Bureau of Labor Statistics corresponded on data related to a key US inflation gauge with major Wall Street firms like JPMorgan Chase & Co. and BlackRock Inc., raising questions about equitable access to economic information.
The BLS economist answered numerous inquiries about details within the consumer price index in recent months, mostly related to computations in key categories within shelter as well as used cars, according to records requested by Bloomberg.
The back and forth between the financial firms and the economist, who has been with the BLS for many years, was first reported by the New York Times. He sent several emails to a broader group, which he called “my super users” in one of the emails obtained by Bloomberg. The BLS has said it doesn’t maintain a list of “super users.”
Economists have been clamoring to find out more about these “super users” after the BLS staffer addressed an email to those people in February, suggesting that a change to the weights of underlying data within a key measure of rental inflation was behind its surge in January’s CPI. The BLS told recipients to disregard its contents, and subsequently tried to clear the confusion with a notice on its website. The agency also said that the email was “a mistake.”
The BLS economist often pointed users to relevant links on the agency’s website. But in at least one case, he shared information that wasn’t publicly available at the time, related to the calculation for the used cars index within the CPI.
Liddel said it is “still under review” whether the employee shared other nonpublic information.
Coincidentally: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-09/bond-trader-places-record-futures-bet-on-eve-of-inflation-data?srnd=homepage-americas
