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US is World's Most Competitive Economy for First Time in a Decade (wsj.com)
schwit1 shares a report: The U.S. is back on top as the most competitive country in the world, regaining the No. 1 spot for the first time since 2008 in an index produced by the World Economic Forum [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source], which said the country could still do better on social issues. America climbed one place in the rankings of 140 countries, with the top five rounded out by Singapore, Germany, Switzerland and Japan. All five countries' scores rose from 2017, with the U.S. notching the second-biggest gain after Japan's. [...] The Global Competitiveness Report this year assessed 140 countries on 98 indicators that measure business investment and productivity. The indicators are organized into 12 main drivers of productivity including the nations' institutions, tech savvy, infrastructure, education systems, market size and innovation.
This is what happens when you put a true entrapeneur, and verified job creator with business savvy and acumen, into office rather than the career politicians we are used to that simply are trying to stretch things out for a nice pension. Trump has brought old school competitive spirit and American agressiveness back into the White House. Say what you will about his personality or personal decisions but the man is a bulldog when it comes to business and all Americans are now reaping the rewards with record low jobless rates, more job openings than there are people to fill them, and record low taxes. It's simply amazing to me when I think about what is going to be possible with 6 more years of this environment.
The US has had a trade deficit since the '70s, and still does. What is the value of 'most competitive' if you have to borrow money from the rest of the world in order to pay for your imports ?
LOL @ gender studies. Ohh the stupid hurts!
So, from a certain point of view, with certain restrictions on the data and with more value given to some sectors over others, the US is number one.
I guess this is what constitutes a great country now: statistical manipulation.
MAGA!
Obama, 2015: Those jobs are never coming back.
<Trump beats Hillary!, starts rolling back out-of-control regulatory state, jobs start coming back>
Obama, 2018: I built that!
Yeah, sure you did. Go back to your "War on coal."
Analogically speaking... That's like saying that the ONE olympic star on television winning medals is representative that everyone sitting on their couch eating potato chips watching them perform, are also winning medals.
What is a competitive economy really when for thirty or fourty years, the economy of the PEOPLE has been GUTTED by the corporations and politics supporting them?
Fucking hogwash!
From the alternate source provided:
While it is too early for the data to filter through in this year’s report, we would expect trade tensions with China and other trading partners to have a negative impact on the US’ competitiveness in the future, were they to continue,” Saadia Zahidi, the managing director at the World Economic Forum, said in an email.
Trump is reaping the rewards of 8 years of the Obama Administration's economic planning. Economies do not change overnight but trust that Trump's activity will have an impact. However I am confident you will blame his democratic successor when the bubble finally pops.
Change we can believe in.
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It's funny how that gets repeated even though the last time we were number 1 was 2008.
With so many pretending that they actually know how the economy works please find US Federal Reserve Act.
I'm still trying to figure it out myself. Somehow though, I think presidents are more the tail than they are the dog.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Let me put it more clearly. The point was that the last time the numbers looked like this, there was an economic collapse that crashed the global economy. The point is that this metric is a poor indicator of the actual health of the economy, and citing it uncritically as a good thing is ignoring history.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
I agree with your sentiment except that I think it's Progressivism that's failed rather than Liberalism.
The bottom line is Presidents have a relatively small short-term impact on the economy. The boom/bust cycle has been showing its face for more than a 100 years and I doubt any President can stop the cycle; only tweak it around the edges (not always in good ways).
Economies are also affected by other nations' economies, OPEC decisions, and war.
Presidents do affect things like deficits and regulations, but these typically won't change the economy much in the short term.
(I suppose deregulation can act as a stimulus, but it's not fun to be poisoned even if it increases profits for somebody else. Birth defects and injuries do improve medical economies just as breaking windows increases repair jobs. But if enough people are poisoned with heavy metals or hurt on the job, our economy won't be competitive.)
Table-ized A.I.
Nice fiction. Under Obama, the economy added 11.6 million jobs, and brought employment down to below-average levels. In fact, by every metric I'm aware of, the economy did well under Obama.
Trump, apart from a lot of bluster and some ill-conceived tariffs, has done remarkably little to affect the economy, so it makes sense that it s continuing to improve as it did under Obama. Sometimes, the right thing to do is nothing.
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Also with the State of California (The Top State Economy in the US) carrying most of the country.
Is that what progressives tell themselves these days? Man, someone should add more robust programming to those NPCs, they're pretty repetitive.
Welcome to the Trump Economy. It's why Trump will be re-elected in 2024 and 2028. (2020 is a given.) You ready for the Red Tide in November?
Why wouldn't they? Seeing as how it's true. The Red states are mostly subsidised by the Blue ones (and Texas). Plus the country that sat at the top of the competitiveness scale over the las ten years was Switzerland so for the US to make it to the top once a decade is not really any kind of an achievement. Also, just to add insult to injury Socialist Sweden and Socialist Finland have been higher than the US on that competitiveness list for a good part of the last ten years.
P.S. There are term limits on POTUS. Unless Mitch McConnell manages to repeal amendment XXII to the US constitution orangutang-human hybrid* face will not be re-elected in 2028.
*If Trump can call women 'horse-face' it only seems fair that the rest of us can call him that, or 'orangutang face' for short.