I clicked over to the Financial Times earlier to check out their take on the latest labor market data, and what did I see but this photo. It’s very similar to the photo used to illustrate Wonkblog’s take on the latest labor market data. You see it all the time when people want to write about the labor market, and especially on the day of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly jobs report.
And yet it’s not a photo of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s a photo of the United States Chamber of Commerce—a lobbying organization for the executives of America’s largest companies that just so happens to have picked a clever set of banners to hang on the walls of its office. It’s the single greatest branding coup in American politics and lobbying. After all, it’s not as if the Chamber is some kind of relentless job-creation lobby out there complaining about “the taper” and demanding regime change at the Federal Reserve. They want tax cuts for rich business executives and business-friendly regulatory changes. Sure they say that’ll create jobs, but every lobby shop in DC says that about their agenda.
