http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2 ... idn-t.html
The Great Recession changed everything, and the leading figures in both parties failed to grasp how deeply. And so we got what we’ve got.
Much of the previous generation's growth had been an illusion – an illusion built on ever-higher levels of consumer debt. Global financial firms provided the credit to make up for the wage stagnation that global trade helped cause. Between 1983 and 2007, mortgage debt nearly quintupled (after inflation). Other household debt – credit cards, auto loans, and the like – grew by nearly threefold. (The U.S. population didn't quintuple or triple; it grew by a third.)
Policy-wise, Clinton's instinct was to rely on the past. “I think may husband did a pretty good job in the 1990s,” she said in her first debate with Trump. That statement led to a devastating Trump rejoinder: “Your husband signed NAFTA, which … is the worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere, but certainly ever signed in this country. … You go to Ohio, Pennsylvania” – states Trump would win – “and you will see devastation.”
Trump's reading of NAFTA is superficial, as the experts always point out. But it is far less superficial than ignoring the fact that globalization has left many Americans behind.