I have no doubt that anything good that comes out of something planned by the Trumpkins is accidental, but I would recommend that fellow lefties not overstate the case by bending over backwards to defend Washington Consensus economic ideas. NAFTA probably was not a good thing for either the US or Mexico.
Rodrik doesn't say it precisely, but almost all discussions of policies which discuss "number of jobs created (destroyed)," either expected or actual, are basically bullshit (the exception being more short run things like fiscal policy during a downturn). It's all about income distribution (individual and geographic), something we're not allowed to talk about.
