An opinion piece by Bob Herbert in the New York Times kind of says it all. Stop Being Stupid on U.S. economy policy.

Ya got that right! He lists a series of absurd policy positions and the make-believe public relations talking points that followed it as a classic case of denial by policy makers and by the American people. One call out I particularly enjoyed:

We were stupid in so many ways. We shipped American jobs overseas by the millions and came up with the fiction that this was a good deal for just about everybody. We could have and should have taken the time and made the effort to think globalization through, to be smarter about it and craft ways to cushion its more harmful effects and to share its benefits more equitably.