Trumps Policies Could Distort Key U.S. Economic Indices, Including CPI

As a result of the actions taken by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, key economic indicators, including the Consumer Price Index (CPI), may lose their reliability. This information has been reported by The Economist.

The ongoing reduction of staff within government agencies is adversely affecting the comprehensive data collection system. By August 2025, data concerning producer prices across 34 industries will be eliminated. Consequently, the overall depiction of the strongest economy in the world could become distorted, potentially leading to ineffective policies from the Federal Reserve and other alarming repercussions.

Employees at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) monitor changes in the prices of a «basket» of goods and services in 75 cities. Their analysis covers a wide range of expenses, from public transportation fares to apartment rents and bottled water prices. The collected data is essential for calculating the Consumer Price Index, a primary tool for assessing inflation.

Due to resource constraints, the BLS halted data collection on living expenses in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Provo, Utah, in April 2025. Buffalo, New York, was added to the list of discontinued data collection in July. As part of reorganizational plans, data on producer prices spanning 350 economic indices—including sectors like ammunition production and metal utensils—is set to be removed by August.

Many indicators, such as the CPI, heavily depend on citizen engagement in surveys. Participation in the critical employment study fell from 93% in 2000 to 83% in 2019, and has plummeted to 67% following the pandemic. The cuts have directly impacted the BLS and its related statistical agencies—such as the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Over the past two decades, funding for these agencies has decreased by 18%.

According to The Economist, a hiring freeze and layoffs have left three agencies operating at only 60% of their required capacity. This lack of personnel is contributing to an increase in fabricated or inaccurate information.

The BLS is mandated to provide economic data, regardless of its accuracy. If it cannot find a specific price for a good, the bureau may have to insert the price of a similar item or one from a different region entirely. During the pandemic, the percentage of such estimations rose from 8% to 16%, and spiked to 30% in April and May 2025.

Inaccurate and understated inflation figures could result in reduced Social Security payments for millions of Americans, while inflated numbers could trigger unnecessary interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve.

Trump’s budget proposal suggests an additional reduction of $56 million (8%) in BLS funding, which The Economist believes will exacerbate the situation.

According to the Layoffs service that tracks job losses worldwide, 61,296 government employees were laid off in 2025 as part of the Department of Efficiency in Government initiative (DOGE). In total, 171,843 federal employees have departed from their positions.

The job market data from the private sector, particularly in Big Tech, also appears grim. Over the last six months, 63,823 employees from 150 tech companies have been laid off.

According to TechCrunch, the landscape in major tech firms is as follows:

There have been numerous layoffs in the blockchain industry and among cryptocurrency companies over the past year.

In October 2024, the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken announced a corporate restructuring that would affect around 400 employees out of a total workforce of about 2,600. That same month, it became known that the developer of the Web3 game underwent a strategic reorganization, resulting in the layoff of 21% of its employees from the studio responsible for Axie Infinity and the Ronin sidechain.

At the end of last year, the largest mining pool in the U.S., Foundry, reduced its staff by 27%, from 274 to 200 employees, prioritizing a reduction in its ASIC device production efforts. In January 2025, the research firm Messari laid off 15% of its workforce.

This situation has affected many professionals with expertise in various aspects of the technology economy, from designing complex systems to analyzing their financial viability.

The policy of the U.S. «crypto president» appears, at first glance, to challenge the established notion of national prosperity. Whether the opacity of economic indices will lead to a downgrade in the country’s credit and investment ratings remains an open question.

The ambitious initiative for a national Bitcoin reserve requires comprehensive support from living personnel, who are increasingly scarce. The lack of budgetary resources, and consequently credible data, could cast a shadow over not only the traditional U.S. economy but also the crypto industry.

It is worth noting that in June the head of the Federal Reserve expressed support for regulating stablecoins in the United States.