Central Banks in Many Countries Have for Decades Published Deliberately Misleading Statistics

Central banks in many countries, the venerable Bank of England not excepted, have for decades published deliberately misleading statistics, as, for example, when part of the gold in their possession is put under “other assets” and only part is shown as “gold.” In democratic Great Britain before World War II, the Government’s “Exchange Equalization Account” suppressed for a considerable period all statistics about its gold holdings, although it became clear later that these exceeded the amount of gold shown to be held by the Bank of England at the time. This list could be greatly lengthened. If respectable governments falsify information for policy purposes, if the Bank of England lies and hides or falsifies data, then how can one expect minor operators in the financial world always to be truthful, especially when they know that the Bank of England and so many other central banks are not? 

—Oskar Morgenstern, On the Accuracy of Economic Observations, 2nd ed. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1973), 20-21.