Just to elaborate, it wasn’t a central policy at all. It was companies competing for cheaper costs.
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-pr....
The choice to get rid of these policies was made by people who fully understood that doing so would pump assets and dump exports, and that the ability to benefit from the asset pump would be concentrated while the fallout from the dumping of exports would be widespread.
I am glad we have reversed direction and hope that it is not too late.