Cowan talks about a "reset". Perhaps part of the "reset" will be putting some of benefits of productivity back in everyone's pocket.
Now that trade borders are relatively open, companies have the option of looking elsewhere. US workers can no longer extract the surplus because if they attempt to, their company will simply relocate operations to a different country.
It's an either-or proposition: You can have free global trade, or you can have a job market that pays high wages to workers of average skill. You want both, but it's impossible; so we have to make a choice. We've chosen free global trade, and (as the article notes) there's a slow adjustment time in institutions. Figuring it began in the 1970's with Nixon opening up China, it took about 25 years to really be felt (in the dotcom bust, financial crisis and subsequent slow recovery).
In theory, tighter margins means better purchasing power for everyone, but somehow that excess from the squeeze seems to be unevenly sticky as capital flows past the upper wealth brackets.
I would also blame regulatory & policy screw-ups by government and central banks that cause gross mis-allocation of resources as huge contributor.
Automation. East asia remains the manufacturing powerhouse of the world, but even that region is losing production jobs in absolute numbers. Low skilled labour opportunities are disappearing everywhere.
Transport. Free trade doesn't cause a sudden loss of jobs to abroad. Cheap and effiecient logistics did. The incentives for moving jobs abroad is there with or without trade treaties.
Regulation and incentives. Not sure if it remains the case but most of the major US tech companies including the likes of Microsoft, Dell and Intel used to be headquartered on Ireland due to tax incentives.
Unions. Love 'em or hate 'em, they do cause disturbances in the market equilibriums.
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All of this has happened without treaties with either the EU nor the pacific countries. Some automotive factories may have ended up in Mexico, but NAFTA is hardly the reason that the US is where it's at.
> Automation
> ...
> Transport
about the only thing that will stop this is the cost of energy, which is all but artificially low right now. If/when it climbs, the economy is in for the mother of all "resets".