Slouching Toward Obama's Sinking America

[Geee]

Investors Business Daily:

American Decline: The U.S. falls even deeper in the global competitiveness rankings. How does this keep happening? Ask the president.

In the World Economic Forum's 2012-13 Global Competitiveness Report released Wednesday, the U.S. has dropped to seventh place, down from fifth the year before. It is the fourth straight year our country has slipped lower in the rankings. This should be a source of concern.

Switzerland, Singapore, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany all rank higher than the U.S. in the current report, with the latter two having vaulted over America since the 2011-12 report was released. The rankings mean that these nations have a better "set of institutions, policies and factors that determine" their level of productivity than the U.S.

A country's "level of productivity," says the report, "in turn, sets the level of prosperity that can be earned by an economy."

So what's wrong with America?

According to the WEF, "the business community continues to be critical toward public and private institutions ... its trust in politicians is not strong," and "business leaders also remain concerned about the government's ability to maintain arms-length relationships with the private sector, and consider that the government spends its resources relatively wastefully."

Our country's greatest weakness is its "lack of macroeconomic stability." In other words, businesses don't know what to expect next from this administration.