Blaming other countries is always an easy, surefire way for politicians to whip up a storm over domestic economic woes, but finger-pointing and protectionism are counter-productive to remedying those woes.

Last week, tens of thousands of German steel workers went on strike over steel products from China, while Indian steel giant Tata's decision to close mills in the United Kingdom saw a media flurry of accusations that China had flooded the market with products at artificially lowered prices.

It may seem reasonable at first to put the blame on China. But on closer inspection it is clearly just a lame and lazy excuse for protectionism.