We've now had so many instances of what charitably may be called artful reporting that it's beginning to undermine my faith in government statistics. Unreliable government statistics are a Banana Republic Indicator..... the integrity of that data is becoming compromised on enough fronts so as to render them suspect. And inaccurate data leads to bad business and bad policy decisions. Bad policy decisions are particularly likely since the information is massaged so as to minimize unpleasant news.