Why did the World Economic Forum rate America as less competitive than it has in the past? In part, the WEF report demonstrated "particular concerns on the part of the business community about the government’s ability to maintain arm’s-length relationships with the private sector and in the perception that the government spends its resources wastefully."

Yup, that sounds about right.

It gets better though. America was rated very highly with regard to innovation and business efficiency, but we lost big points in the macroeconomics category, largely because of extreme public debt. The United State also ranked poorly from an administrative and legal standpoint. Perhaps most telling is that in the category of soundness of banks, America is ranked 108th out of 133, which--in the words of the Financial Times video--"nestles it right between Tanzania and Venezuela."

That's not a place I want my country to be.

You can download the full report and pick it apart for yourselves via FT.com: http://www.ft.com/cms/6a14d298-9c67-11de-ab58-00144feabdc0.pdf.>