But as they do so, they are in fact undermining their own authority. Lying never hurts politicians as much as politicians say it should. The real problem is that national politicians are moving outside the realm of their own competence. The longer they lie about that, the harder they'll fall. To see why, start with the global economy.
Governments can no longer define the rules of competition.
The US now exports 20 percent of its manufactured goods, up from 5 percent in 1960. In the UK and Germany, manufactured exports have doubled to two-fifths of production over the same period. And the growth of global finance has outstripped even the growth of trade. The average weekly turnover of foreign-exchange markets now exceeds the value of goods traded internationally in a year. But nations manifestly still do control access to the fast-growing international economic regulatory system.