For the third year running tiny Finland stood atop the Global Competitiveness Ratings made by the World Economic Forum. On the decline, its former mentor Russia at an abysmal 75 and one-time go-getter Spain, now sinking below its neighbors. (Bring back Aznar!) Comer of the year – South Korea (no surprise there to anyone living in Los Angeles).
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I have no idea, and am too lazy to try to figure out, how the WEF goes about making this list. It would seem reasonable that this “Growth Competiveness Index” would index some measures of competiveness and growth. Nimbleness is normally associated with competitiveness. Growth, at least when talking about money, is typically measured as a percentage.
I find it unsurprising, therefore, that 10 of the top 12 are quite small countries. Small is often useful where nimbleness is required. It is also somewhat helpful when % growth is required (it can be much easier to grow someting by 4% when beginning with a small baseline than it can when beginning with a large baseline – particularly a huge baseline).
The US is #2, Japan #12. Those are the only large nations in the top dozen. We start to pick up the large countries after the top dozen spots.
How does a behemoth like the US manage to be #2(!) and a semi behemoth like Japan #12?