Competitiveness Rank Of No. 1 Makes It Official — U.S. Economy Is Great Again
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Competitiveness: It might not make a lot of mainstream newspapers, so let us inform you: The World Economic Forum just ranked the U.S. as the world's most competitive economy for the first time since 2008. A lot has happened since then, but mostly the U.S.' No. 1 ranking is a result of the surprise election of Donald Trump.
It's also yet another bit of evidence for why policies truly matter. The last time the U.S. stood atop the WEF global ranking of 140-plus countries, President Obama had just been elected. But he had yet to sign the growth-killing Dodd-Frank and ObamaCare bills, or a wasteful "stimulus" of nearly $1 trillion.
For the next eight years, the U.S.' competitiveness ranking slid, pretty much until Trump was elected and reversed the slide with tax cuts, deregulation and trade renegotiations that pushed U.S. GDP growth roughly 50% higher than it was under Obama.
It was a stark admission by the global group, which includes many of the world's left-leaning elite and superwealthy CEOs and entrepreneurs, of the strides made under Trump. For the record, the U.S. ranked as low as seventh place but got no higher than No. 3 under Obama.
As Breitbart.com aptly put it, "Davos just declared that America is great again."
Competitiveness: U.S. Back On Top
The WEF's members and data sets gave the U.S. a ranking of 85.6 out of 100, making it "the country closest to the frontier of competitiveness." That means basically it's the most cutting-edge economy in the world, thanks to its entrepreneurial culture, flexible and well-educated labor market, and powerful and open financial markets, which "are among the several factors that contribute to making the U.S.' innovation ecosystem one of the best in the world," the WEF said.
We would note this is no fluke. In May, we reported that the IMD Competitiveness Center in Switzerland, which ranks countries by 256 different variables for its competitiveness ranking, also put the U.S. in the world's top spot for competitiveness, ahead of Hong Kong, Singapore, The Netherlands and Switzerland. It earned the spot due to its "strength in economic performance and infrastructure."
No one should be surprised at this. What's stunning is how silent the media get when discussing the economy, at least as far as Trump's credit for the current economic boom goes.
Let's review. GDP is now averaging 3% growth since Trump entered office, but it hit 4.2% in the second quarter. The Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank's "GDP Now" estimate for the third quarter stands at 3.9%, as of Wednesday.
The Household Wealth Machine
Unemployment of 3.7% is at a half-century low, while inflation remains tame at close to 2%. Meanwhile, U.S. household net worth has soared from $95.2 trillion when Trump entered office to $107 trillion in this year's second quarter, a jump of $11.8 trillion. That's the equivalent of about $94,000 in new wealth added per household in the U.S. in under two years.
So, yes, the U.S. is plainly the world's most competitive economy right now.
Earlier this year, you might also recall, Trump traveled to Davos for the WEF's annual gathering of billionaires, CEOs, entrepreneurs and political pooh-bahs. Some warned that Trump might be met by more than a little hostility at the conference. But they were seriously disappointed.
At the time, we quoted this bit of reporting from the Daily Caller, which caught our eye. It describes what happened after Trump finished his speech.
"In a stunning moment, one by one, European titans of industry from companies like Adidas, Siemens and Bayer went around the table to thank Trump for the passage of tax cuts and the easing of corporate burdens. Almost every CEO had a new U.S.-based investment or strategic business to announce," the Daily Caller wrote.
Foreign CEOs Get It
Those were foreign CEOs, who of course know that an economically strong America is essential to the global economy. That's something the increasingly far-left Democrats and President Obama never seemed to get.
Trump's success wasn't an accident, as those Euro-CEOs' comments show. It came from very specific policies. Only the U.S. media and the Democratic Party don't understand that Trump's moves to slash regulation, reduce tax burdens and make trade rules fairer for all, have been extremely successful in resetting the U.S. growth agenda. And his ability to put two new judges on the Supreme Court who will judge by the law, not by popular politics, has helped restore the rule of law in the U.S. — one of the key elements of economic growth.
We have no crystal ball. But expansions don't die of old age. They die of mistakes. As long as Trump, Congress and the Fed minimize their mistakes, there's no reason we can't keep growing — and remain the world's top dog in competitiveness.
Tags
Who is online
79 visitors
The economy was great before trump took office.
Remember the right complaining about the debt and the deficit for 8 year when Obama was president? Remember how they suddenly STOPPED complaining about it the day Trumpy took office?
Anyone else notice a trend here?
(And with that, I am taking some time off from here, my wife was in a serious car accident today and she is not feeling too well, (the car did not survive), see ya'll in a few days).
Sorry to hear it, Best wishes to Mrs. Frost and yourself.
Ditto, Frost, absolutely, family first.
Absolutely family first. I hope your wife recovers soon.
So the US 'wins' by about 2% and 30% of the rating is based on how business leaders 'feel' about the economy.
Talk about fluffing...
BTW we 'win' by 2% over Singapore which is smaller in population than NYC. Woo hoo!
How the feel about the economy after about a 2 trillion dollar bribe.
The US economy has been getting better for years now. And of course, that really all depends on your perspective, if you are an hourly worker then you have seen little to no improvement, but for me things have been pretty damn good for going on 7 years.
Had to be done. I never liked it, but I accepted that it was necessary, better that than to have a repeat of 1929.
Yep
Don't forget about those who were wise enough to invest in property at this time as well, that has been my biggest boon.
Nah, they don't need to be paid that much, just enough to afford a roof (even a shitty one) and food. Enough to keep them quiet.