Obama’s 17-strong board is old, protectionist, filled with lawyers and too few serious economists. Plus they are the face of past failures.

Protectionists David Bonior, Jennifer M. Granholm (both Michigan politicians), Antonio Villaraigosa and Robert Reich are all ‘fair traders’, that is, rabid protectionists. Laura Tyson has long been a crypto-protectionist and Larry Summers has stepped repeatedly over the boundary between legitimate critiques of certain extravagant claims concerning the joys of globalisation and simple trade protectionism.