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 US Slips Down Global Competitiveness RankingThe United States has slipped further down a global ranking of the world's most competitive economies, according to a World Economic Forum (WEF) survey released on Wednesday. The world's largest economy, which was placed 5th last year, fell two positions to the 7th spot - marking its fourth year of decline. A lack of macroeconomic stability, the business community's continued mistrust of the government and concerns over its fiscal health were some of the reasons for the downgrade, according to the annual survey. "A number of weaknesses are chipping away at its competitiveness...the U.S. fiscal imbalances and continued political deadlock over resolving these challenges," said Jennifer Blanke, Economist at the Geneva-based WEF. Political deadlock over reducing the unsustainable federal government budget deficit - projected to hit $1.1 trillion this year - prompted Standard & Poor's to downgrade the country's credit rating by one notch to AA+ from AAA last August. A mix of U.S. tax hikes and spending cuts - referred to as the "fiscal cliff" - are set to come into force in January unless lawmakers reach a compromise for avoiding them. The survey, which has been conducted annually for over three decades, ranks the competitiveness of 144 countries based on 12 key indicators including infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, labor market efficiency and innovation. Despite declining in the overall ranking, the forum highlighted that the U.S. remains one of the world's top innovators - supported by an "excellent" university system - and continues to offer vast opportunities because of the sheer size of its domestic economy. Switzerland and Singapore retained their positions as the most competitive economies, coming in 1st and 2nd, respectively. Switzerland's top spot was achieved as a result of its strong performance across the board, according to WEF, with notable labor market efficiency, sophistication of its business sector and its innovative capacity. The country has among the highest rates of patents per capita globally. "Switzerland's productivity is further enhanced by a business sector that offers excellent on-the-job-training opportunities and labor markets that balance employee protection with the interests of employers," the report said. China Tops the BRICs Among the large emerging economies, China was ranked highest at 26, thanks to favorable macroeconomic conditions. This was significantly higher than Brazil, India and Russia which came in at 53, 56 and 66, respectively. China runs a moderate budget deficit, boasts a low government debt-to-GDP ratio of 26 percent and its gross savings rate remains above 50 percent of GDP, the forum said. In addition, the rating of its sovereign debt (AA-) is significantly better than that of the other BRICs and of many advanced economies. However, the world's second largest economy has slipped two notches from last year's ranking, owing to a deterioration in the development of its financial markets and technological readiness. "Insufficient domestic and foreign competition is of particular concern, as the various barriers to entry appear to be more prevalent and more important than in previous years," WEF report said. |
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The 4th year of decline. Hmmm... any causal relationship with the last four years of BO or is that simply coincidence? We have also suffered a lose (or downgrade) in our credit rating during this last four years. Hmmm... simply coincidence? The article spells it out pretty well, imho. |
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softy |
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change That is more debt accumulated by him than all the previous presidents, up to Bush. I'll admit that Bush pushed us in the wrong direction regarding spending (and possible taxation) but BO has tripled that "badness". His average budget deficit is three times bigger than Bush's last budget, which was his biggest. btw... with our 4th year of over a trillion dollar budget deficit, we have had NO budgets passed. Those are my facts. What facts are you talking about? |
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softy |
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I pulled this from the other thread… __________________________________________________________________________ No. Is there talk that spending is down? If so, that is not true at all. It is worse than ever. and represents a real danger to our country. Hope this information helps. The charts below show two things: Deficits by year---spending money we don't have. You can see the number is growing by leaps and bounds. You will note that: 2007--->2008 was a 285% increase. 2008--->2009 was a 300% increase. 2009--->2010 was 91% of the prior year but still 281% of 2008, and 800% of 2007. 2010--->2011 was nearly identical to 2010--still a huge deficit. 2011--->2012 is another banner spending year. Obama Deficits FY 2012*: $1,327 billion FY 2011: $1,300 billion FY 2010: $1,293 billion FY 2009: $1,413 billion FY 2008: $459 billion FY 2007: $161 billion **Some extrapolation required, but quite accurate. And second, spending by year. I also looked at the numbers as a percentage of GDP--our spending is even worse in that light. Year Billions Spent 1997 2813 1998 2923 1999 3053 2000 3239 2001 3428 2002 3697 2003 3934 2004 4131 2005 4397 2006 4697 2007 4923 2008 5336 2009 5942 2010 5920 2011 6050 2012 6282 Went back to 1997---not sure if that is far enough or too far! The most responsible spending occurred most recently under Clinton when we had surpluses. The worst spending---Obama. OF course, you have to realize that while other Presidents were actually trying to spend less than we needed to (e.g. Clinton) Obama has said that his plan is to spend us out of our problems. Perhaps a discussion on the logic of that idea is worthwhile. DoK |
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The actual dollars spent are listed above…and below is a chart. www.usgovernmentdebt.us |
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dok |
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That link is dead now...weird. |
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