This is a post about a process that technology has threatened.
At 8:30AM on the first Friday of every month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announces the number of jobs created in the prior month and the percentage of the labor force that is unemployed but seeking work. Sometimes, within a small number of minutes after the announcement, many billions of dollars move across stock exchanges throughout the world.
Similar stories can be told about other key economic indicators (e.g., the consumer price index, wholesale and retail trade statistics). The statistics move markets.
A little reflection on this makes it obvious that the more quickly one might react to such information, the more money one might make based on the information. Federal statistical agencies have the mission of delivering the same information at the same time to all publics. The wider and deeper the dissemination, the better.
So, over time, there have been put in place various measures to assure equal access and to prevent any undo external influence on the statistics. One is that there is a schedule of the publication of these key indicators that is available for all to see. Another is that there are regulatory frameworks, currently being re-evaluated, that prohibit political commentary on the statistics prematurely (e.g., delaying political leaders’ comments on the movement in some statistic until various public events occur).
Another protective device is “the lockup.” This is a protocol that has been used for over half a century. There are a variety of different flavors of a lockup, but they all sequester a set of individuals who know the to-be-released statistic prior to the public release. The original purpose was to get informed stories about the statistic out to the public as quickly as possible.
For some cases, a set of journalists who plan to deliver a story about the release enter a room, often a windowless room with tables, with statistical agency officials. The room is locked, and there is no ability to communicate to the outside world (e.g., no phones in the room, no internet connections). The new statistics are released to those in the room. Often there is some questions answered by agency staff. Then the journalists write their stories. Many lockups last 30-60 minutes, followed by a news conference with an oral presentation of the statistics and Q&A. For some years, journalists have brought laptops into the room to write their stories.
For many decades, lockups worked pretty well, but increasingly, because of the high stakes involved in the knowledge of the value of the statistic, concerns arose about whether those in the room were being given a technical advantage. What guarantees were there that the laptops were really disconnected from the internet? What if some journalists had clear technical advantages in getting to their outlets the information more quickly than others? And indeed, what exactly qualifies a journalist to be there? What if a journalist’s only job was to feed information quickly to a set of large investors? How would that be detected?
So, over time, those devoted to making sure that the public gets the same information at the same time are worried that technology may have threatened the lockup as an effective device to both increase the timeliness and equity of access of the statistics. There is a call among many to drop the lockup and return to a time when the web release and oral presentation of the new statistic is done simultaneously. All of this in the spirit of attempting to make sure that everyone has the same information at the same time.
As technology changes, achieving that goal becomes more and more complicated.
It’s a nice example of how technology to increase the efficiency of delivery of information also brings threats to the original intent to spread information widely and equitably.