Global Cooperation/Competitiveness

Starting with an interesting look back at an interview recorded in Nov2008 at the beginning of the Crisis.

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/9552

The BIG Picture.

With our attention focused on world events downloaded at kilobytes per second and politics reacting to the daily Polls I believe it wise to think Globally.

“Policy-makers are struggling with ways of managing the present economic challenges while preparing their economies to perform well in a future economic landscape characterized by uncertainty and shifting balances,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum. “In such a global economic environment, it is more important than ever for countries to put into place the fundamentals underpinning economic growth and development.”

United States Falls in Competitiveness Rankings Richard Elliott, Associate Director, Media,Tel.: +41 (0)22 869 1292; E-mail: richard.elliott@weforum.org Arabic I Español I Français I Deutsch I Português I 日本語 I 中文 The United States falls two places to fourth position, overtaken by Sweden and Singapore in the rankings of the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2010-2011 The People’s Republic of China continues to move up the rankings, with marked improvements in several other Asian countries Germany moves up two places to fifth place, leading the Eurozone countries Switzerland tops the rankings Watch video interview with Jennifer Blanke, Lead Economist Director, Head of Centre for Global Competitiveness and Performance and download the full report profiling 139 economies, highlights, rankings and more athttp://www.weforum.org/gcr The Global Competitiveness Report 2010–2011 is being released at a time when the global economy continues to be characterized by significant uncertainty. Growth has resumed following important injections, in many countries, of government stimulus spending aimed at counterbalancing the worst global recession in decades. Yet economies are advancing at different speeds and there is still the risk of a “double dip” in a number of countries.While emerging economies have, for the most part, bounced back to healthy growth, advanced economies face continuing difficulties such as persisting unemployment, weak demand, and spiraling debt, while still struggling with reforms in the financial and labor markets, among other challenges.The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts growth of 6.25 percent for emerging markets, compared with 2.25 percent for advanced economies in 2010.