Good going Obama (and your pernicious pack of Progressives!) - Granite Grok

Good going Obama (and your pernicious pack of Progressives!)

The Global Competitive Report fr 2012-2013 has bad news for the US – it seems that Obama’s policy of Determined Weakness is succeeding:

…This year’s Report features a record number of 144 economies, and thus continues to be the most comprehensive assessment of its kind. It contains a detailed profile for each of the economies included in the study as well as an extensive section of data tables with global rankings covering over 100 indicators. This Report remains the flagship publication within the Forum’s Global Benchmarking Network, which produces a number of research studies that mirror the increased integration and complexity of the world economy.

And where is the US in all this?  I would say that this is a big “Oopsies” bordering on “Major FacePalm” – am betting Obama and his cohort that dream of a de-industrialized US are beaming with pride (“status OK, everything proceeding as planned!”):

We used to be first.  Last year: 5th.  Now: 7th.  Given the economy and the way that the Obamanauts go about setting their industrial policy (as IF the Government is SUPPOSED to set that – oh wait, that was in the former USSR, right?  THAT worked out so spectacularly well, eh?), we should be surprised?

What did they measure and what were those items that is causing us to have a less free economy?

They measured:

  • Institutions – The institutional environment is determined by the legal and administrative framework within which individuals, firms, and governments interact to generate wealth.
  • Infrastructure – Extensive and efficient infrastructure is critical for ensuring the effective functioning of the economy, as it is an important factor in determining the location of economic activity and the kinds of activities or sectors that can develop in a particular instance.
  • Macroeconomic environment – The stability of the macroeconomic environment is important for business and, therefore, is important for the overall competitiveness of a country.
  • Health and primary education – A healthy workforce is vital to a country’s competitiveness and productivity.
  • Higher education and training – Quality higher education and training is particularly crucial for economies that want to move up the value chain beyond simple production processes and products.
  • Goods market efficiency – Countries with efficient goods markets are well positioned to produce the right mix of products and services given their particular supply-and-demand conditions, as well as to ensure that these goods can be most effectively traded in the economy.
  • Labor market efficiency – The efficiency and flexibility of the labor market are critical for ensuring that workers are allocated to their most effective use in the economy and provided with incentives to give their best effort in their jobs.
  • Financial market development – The recent economic crisis has highlighted the central role of a sound and well-functioning financial sector for economic activities.
  • Technological readiness – In today’s globalized world, technology is increasingly essential for firms to compete and prosper.
  • Market size – The size of the market affects productivity since large markets allow firms to exploit economies of scale.
  • Business sophistication – There is no doubt that sophisticated business practices are conducive to higher efficiency in the production of goods and services.
  • Innovation – Innovation can emerge from new technological and non-technological knowledge

And where was the US found lacking? (emphasis mine)

 The United States continues the decline that began a few years ago, falling two more positions to take 7th place this year. Although many structural features continue to make its economy extremely productive, a number of escalating and unaddressed weaknesses have lowered the US ranking in recent years. US companies are highly sophisticated and innovative, supported by an excellent university system that collaborates admirably with the business sector in R&D. Combined with flexible labor markets and the scale opportunities afforded by the sheer size of its domestic economy—the largest in the world by far—these qualities continue to make the United States very competitive.

On the other hand, some weaknesses in particular areas have deepened since past assessments. The business community continues to be critical toward public and private institutions (41st). In particular, its trust in politicians is not strong (54th), perhaps not surprising in light of recent political disputes that threaten to push the country back into recession through automatic spending cuts. Business leaders also remain concerned about the government’s ability to maintain arms-length relationships with the private sector (59th), and consider that the government spends its resources relatively wastefully (76th). A lack of macroeconomic stability continues to be the country’s greatest area of weakness (111th, down from 90th last year). On a more positive note, measures of financial market development continue to indicate a recovery, improving from 31st two years ago to 16th this year in that pillar, thanks to the rapid intervention that forced the deleveraging of the banking system from its toxic assets following the financial crisis.

Just as ReProgressives believe that anything connected to Govt has to be superlative simply by definition, this world-wide academic study shows how badly the Obama Administration truly understands how the economy works and how badly its version of crony capitalism and cavalier attitude of how its overly intrusive and expensive regulatory overdrive  mission to completely subsume the Business Society into the Government is affecting the actual results.

Oh yeah – it is never actual results that are the true measure of ReProgressives; rather, it is only the intent.

Once again, the phrase from ‘Grok friend Jim Bender (uttered during his bid to win the Republican nomination for Senator in 2010) rings true:

self-assured incompetence

(H/T: The Foundary)

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