Friend,

The latest jobs report came in way below economists' expectations last week; the American economy added only 73,000 jobs in July. Not only that, but the May and June jobs reports were revised down by 258,000 jobs. Overall, our unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2%, while the Nasdaq Composite fell by 2.2% and the S&P 500 dropped 1.6%. The Dow suffered its worst week since  Trump’s "Liberation Day" week in early April.

It's not hard to figure out why all of this is happening. Trump has sown uncertainty in the market, leading to 744,308 layoffs in the first half of this year.

How did the President respond to this bad news? Well, he called the numbers "phony" and fired the statistician responsible for delivering the monthly jobs report. That ought to do the trick.

What's that expression — don’t blame the messenger?

— Jim