Private initiatives, too, have tried to fill the data gap. The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures created a voluntary framework for reporting climate risks, for example, and a growing industry of climate-risk modeling firms translates scientific projections into risk assessments at an asset level.

E.J. Antoni, chief economist at the Heritage Foundation, has raised questions from economists and policymakers across the political spectrum for his views, experience and misunderstanding of economic data.

President Donald Trump claimed without evidence that the massive revisions to the latest jobs report constituted a “scam.” Yet revisions by the BLS were neither historic nor evidence of corruption.