“The China Syndrome,” a 2011 paper on the impact of trade withChina by a powerful troika of economists—David Autor, David Dorn,and Gordon Hanson—underscored what is going on. The empiricalstudy is particularly significant because it marks a shift in consensusthinking in the academy. In the debate about the causes of growingincome inequality, American economists have tended to opt fortechnology as the driving force. But, drawing on detailed data fromlocal labor markets in the United States, the authors of “The ChinaSyndrome” argue that globalization, and in particular trade with themighty Middle Kingdom, are today also having a huge impact onAmerican blue-collar workers: “Conservatively, it explains one-quarterof the contemporaneous aggregate decline in U.S. manufacturingemployment.”