FINNS TO THE LEFT, FINNS TO THE RIGHT... (via Buttercup):

Finland, U.S. Most Competitive Economies, Report Says (Reuters, 10/30/03)

Finland is the world's most competitive economy followed by the United States, Sweden, Denmark and Taiwan, according to a Global Competitiveness Report released Thursday.

The survey among business leaders measured economic competitiveness based on a combination of technology, the quality of public institutions and the macroeconomic environment. [...]

The United States scored high on technology but weak on the quality of its public institutions and economic environment, particularly public finances, where it ranked 50th.

Germany moved up one notch to 13th and France gained two places to 26th. The WEF said both countries showed improvements driven by better public institutions and technology, despite budgets troubles.

"If there is one lesson from our exercise, it is that the strength and coherence of government policies have an enormous bearing on a country's ranking," Augusto Lopez-Claros, chief economist of the WEF, said in a statement.

In her e-mail, Buttercup noted the hilarity of believing that the key to competitiveness is government policy. We're struck by the way their measure makes Germany, which is dragging all of Europe into recession (again) a model economy.

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 31, 2003 8:02 AM