“New globalization’s impact is more sudden than old globalization’s because it’s driven by [information and communication technology], not by tariff cuts or the construction of new ports and container ships. It’s more individual because it’s no longer felt across entire sectors and skill groups, but in individual stages of production. It’s more unpredictable. It’s hard to know which of these stages will disappear and why. And it’s more uncontrollable because governments have very good policies for controlling people and goods crossing borders, but they don’t have good policies for controlling firm-specific know-how crossing borders.

So there has been a generalized feeling in goods-producing sectors that no matter what job or skill set you have, you can’t really be sure whether your job won’t be next. There has been a sense of fragility, of vulnerability—an economic insecurity that’s been generalized, and this has been going on for two decades. “