Steve Cortez: “Antoni is … a serious, fact-driven economist with a record of rigorous analysis. “

From Daily Signal. Paragraph continues:

He’s independent, principled, and fearless in saying what Washington insiders won’t. He has exposed a broken system of fake numbers for years and has done it with evidence and real data. Now, he has the mandate to actually fix the broken system itself. It’s a lot like RFK Jr., the most prolific critic of America’s public health bureaucracy, finally being put in charge of reforming that very bureaucracy.

Source: Heritage Foundation.

I just want to reiterate:

Serious? He misunderstood the BLS import price series to be inclusive of tariffs, when it was(is) not.

Rigorous analysis? He submitted a doctoral dissertation five(5) years ago in which he didn’t realize the seemingly small regression coefficient was actually quite large, because he forgot the units in which he measured the variables. That same dissertation has 8 tables of regression results, with not a single R², SER, F-test, DW statistic.

Fact driven? He coauthored an entire paper (with Peter St. Onge) in which he used undocumented deflators to show the United States had been (as of August 2024) in recession since 2022! 

Independent? Since receiving his PhD, he has worked for FreedomWorks, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Committee to Unleash Prosperity, and the Heritage Foundation. These are all interlocking organizations, so I’d be hard pressed to say he’s independent. First two were/are funded by Koch Brothers. The second two are associated with the State Policy Network, of which the Texas Public Policy Foundation is part.

Fearless? Yes, I wouldn’t have in place of honor a painting of the Bismark (Missouri, yes, Nimitz, maybe, Bismark or Tirpitz, no…)

Addendum: According to student reviews, Dr. Antoni assigned readings from PragerU in his class. Far be it from me to criticize additional readings to the textbook (not that there was one), but PragerU?