Try as some might, can’t blame this on Clinton.

Survey says U.S. down in competitiveness

U.S. economic competitiveness fell significantly over the last year, as high budget and trade deficits hurt America’s business environment, according to a survey released Tuesday by the World Economic Forum.

The disappointing response to Hurricane Katrina, government corruption and a decreasing talent pool for employment due to immigration restrictions were other factors cited by the forum, which moved the United States to sixth in its “global competitiveness index” from the top spot a year ago.

“While strengths in the technological and market efficiency sectors explain the country’s overall high rank, the U.S. economy suffers from striking weaknesses,” the report said. “There is significant risk to both the country’s overall competitiveness and, given the relative size of the U.S., the future of the global economy.”



  1. Cadtoon says:

    The entire report looks a little boring, try checking out the economics rankings on Google Earth (not as dry)….

    http://arcdex.blogspot.com/2006/09/global-competitiveness-report-in.html

  2. ECA says:

    in the last 10 years, the US hasnt been competeing with ANYONE.
    Not even Corps are fighting each other for business.

  3. xrayspex says:

    decreasing talent pool for employment due to immigration restrictions

    [upraised middle finger].

    Try “decreasing talent pool for employment due to a piss-poor educational system”

    Leave the programmer-walas at home.

  4. tkane says:

    Blame Clinton? Sure you can, why not? You can also blame Bush 41. The report seemed politically neutral to me, though. The conclusions drawn can be argued with. It can be said that immigration restrictions resolve to more H1B visas, because seems to me we’re not restricting any immigration. There’s no doubt we’re neglecting our infrastructure, including health care and education. And it wouldn’t be hard to say that even the basic protections guaranteed us by the Constitution are being either neglected or too narrowly defined. But I would like to see any political party make claims that they will address these issues directly. I’m not seeing it anywhere.

  5. AB CD says:

    Let’s see over the last 3 years, the US economy grew more than the total size of China and India combined, but that budget deficit must mean the US has to drop down the list.

  6. AB CD says:

    This methodology is weird. There are 50 countries spread out over a range of 1.25 with each score measured in units of .01. I would think there would be many more ties on such a list.

  7. Frank Baird says:

    Hmm… On the same page of John’s blog are two other interesting titles:
    “500 Miles on a $6 Worth of Electricity?” about a company in Texas, and “Lucent Claims 100-Gbit Ethernet over 2,000 km.” Wow. That’s pretty good for a country that can’t compete.
    Sure, we have problems, and we aren’t as competitive today as we once were. But we still innovate more than any other country. And we are still resilient. Don’t give up on the US yet. Just because the “say or do anything to hurt the US” crowd has lobbed another salvo doesn’t mean they’ve won the war.
    BTW, I’m sure the countries ahead of the US, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Singapore have made significant innovations in the last year (seriously, no sarcasm here) but I don’t remember anything, except perhaps Nokia. Could anyone list a few of them please? Anything on the order of how competitive, say Apple or Microsoft, are?

  8. Uncle Dave says:

    “Just because the “say or do anything to hurt the US” crowd has lobbed another salvo doesn’t mean they’ve won the war.”

    I think you misunderstand this “crowd”. They are simply pointing out the areas that need fixing to get us back to being the country we used to be rather than accepting the situation we are sinking into. I would say they are more patriotic than the flag waving, my-country-right-or-wrong crowd who are happy with the way things are.

  9. Mister Mustard says:

    >>Let’s see over the last 3 years, the US economy grew more than
    >>the total size of China and India combined

    Don’t know what you’ve been smoking, but can I get some of it????

  10. OhForTheLoveOf says:

    #9 – I wasn’t gonna get into it this time around… but now that I know we are passing around some good shit…

  11. AB CD says:

    My bad it’s the last 6 years.

  12. ECA says:

    aby one HERE think the US corps compete with each other??

    Only coirp I see competeing, is makeing a fortune by going to the makers(in china, Japan, indoneasa) and shipping it direct to Themself..Its called Walmart.
    Any other route and it gets handled 2-3 times by distributours and adds pricing to the products.

  13. I wonder what would happen if they ran the math and took the percentage of illegal immigrants in the U.S. and the competitiveness of their respective countries to see if that might be a factor. Don’t look for it to happen, but I’ll guarantee it has more of an impact than Hurricane Katrina.

  14. joshua says:

    We need this report put into Spanish. Then maybe those pesky 300,000 illegals a year will head for Sweden or Switzerland instead of L.A.

    We have been heading into the service society ranks for years. We allowed our industrial companies to destroy themselves instead of modernizing and being competitive and now we have almost none. We import our tech workers because the public school system (and cheaper labour) can’t get it’s collective head out of it’s collective ass and teach kids how to study instead of rote learning. We argue over Homosexual rights, and religion in schools instead of what little Johnny and Jane are actually being taught (if anything). Our Universities have curriculums that are top heavy with *basics* because we aren’t teaching them in K-12 anymore. Then they load a lot of crap onto any degree to make it a *liberal* (not the ideology) education when whats needed is concentrated study in the degree area. They do this to keep money flowing into the coffers, not to educate young people, and to keep useless Professors in a job.
    When a class such as Black Lesbian Eskimo Studies (obviously not real) is more important to a University than Bio-Engineering or Law or any science, then what hope do we have of ever being competitive again?

  15. Max says:

    Why do you even say things like? Who even thought about blaming Clinton? Do you have some guilty conscience or something?

  16. Uncle Dave says:

    #15: Take a look at some of the posts over the last week. Those on the right seem determined to blame Clinton for everything — even what happened after he left office — rather than take responsibility for their own party’s actions/inacations.

  17. joshua says:

    #15 and #16…..maybe you need to read the comments better….I don’t see anyone blaming Clinton. Except one post and he blames Bush and others as well.
    Are we a bit defensive????


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