The Federal Reserve kept rates unchanged last week, which was expected.

Then on Friday Washington announced that producer prices in October rose by 0.6 percent, which was the fastest in six years. That would certainly make the Fed stand up and take notice.

Except that 60 percent of the increase was caused by higher gasoline prices, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But I just showed you at the start of this column that gas prices fell last month. How could they have caused a rise in producer prices?

That’s a very good question. And I think the US government had better start getting its data straight or more people than just me are going to start doubting the accuracy of those statistics.