World Economic Forum: U.S. Still Sliding

The World Economic Forum just released their global competitiveness ranking and the good news is the U.S. is still in the top 10, number 7 to be precise, just behind the Netherlands and Germany. The bad news is that’s 2 places lower than last year, and 6 places lower than in 2008 when the U.S. was the most competitive economy on earth.

America’s least competitive areas include taxes and government debt. The U.S. ranks 69^th, right behind Ethiopia, in terms of the impact taxes have on incentives to work and invest. The U.S. ranks 103^rd of 144 countries in terms of the total tax rate as a percent of profits.

U.S. respondents found taxes and government bureaucracy to be the most problematic areas for doing business:

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