https://www.wsj.com/articles/robert-rubin-warns-that-the-u-s-is-failing-to-face-its-problems-16c7dcdb?mod=hp_lista_pos1
"As for American politics, he describes it as “about as dysfunctional as it has ever been in my lifetime.”

Even more troubling, Mr. Rubin, 84, suggests that our collective ability to make sound decisions is getting worse. “Too many people—and too many of our institutions—have responded by rushing toward absolutes and simplistic answers,”...He worries
that Americans are increasingly in thrall to leaders who promise easy fixes and that “us-or-them polarization” makes us less willing to engage in the give-and-take of compromise. “We just don’t seem to want to face our problems,” he says.
...
Because many high-stakes choices are unpredictable, Mr. Rubin says it is a mistake to evaluate a decision based solely on its results. For example, although he rose through the ranks at Goldman Sachs and then steered the Treasury during the economic
expansion of the 1990s, he is careful not to take too much credit for his success: “I can point to a whole bunch of places where luck made a big difference.”
...
With economic populism on the rise and politicians of all stripes calling to restrict trade to help American workers, Mr. Rubin defends the trade agreements of the Clinton administration. “The politics of trade are always bad, but the substance is good,
” he says, noting that pacts with Mexico and China have allowed Americans to buy more goods at lower prices.

He allows that cheaper labor overseas has undercut the country’s manufacturing sector and cost jobs in the working and middle class, but says that the answer is more and better training for the many jobs that remain in health care and other sectors. “
I don’t think you get rid of something that’s good because it has bad effects,” Mr. Rubin explains. “What you do is address the bad effects.”

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