Memo, repeat

Michael Mussa, an economist around town, known to you in the field of international economics, once said that the job of the academic was to provoke while the job of the government official was to repeat the same truths over and over again, so long as they remain true. The public has got into its head that some of the numbers I have occasion to crunch are a useless pack of lies. Sometimes, this is indeed the case, but in this instance, the reason many people don’t like these numbers because they are not particularly flattering. It’s the scale that must be off, I can’t imagine where those extra ten pounds came from. Never mind that I’m clearly bursting at the seams.

So, once again, a senior official who has heard from the public that the figures are a pack of lies has turned to us staff to explain then anew. I have about a half-dozen old memos, a recent powerpoint presentation, and a handful of emails, all addressing this singular subject. I look back at my files, a memo in October of last year, in July twice, three times in June, and again in May. The previous year, I have notes on the subject in October, twice in September, and once in July. The file stretches back further, but let me not impose my tedium on you. Truth to power sometimes is tested in the crucible of crisis. Oftener it is simply the long suffering grind.