USA! USA! We're # 22! USA!

More global rankings.  This time the U.S. came in slightly better with the 22nd best global reputation, according to a survey of 27,000 citizens of G-8 countries.  The survey was based on three dimensions:  Advanced Economy, Appealing Environment and Effective Government.  Within these three dimensions, respondents measured a total of 16 attributes.  

According to those attributes, interestingly, the U.S. came in 2nd to Japan for "Well-Known Brands," 6th in "Culture," and 3rd in "Technology" behind Japan and Germany.  The U.S. did not come in the top 10 in any other attributes, including such as "Business Environment," "Safety," or "Institutional Environment!"

The top 10 countries by reputation in 2013 were:

1. Canada
2. Sweden
3. Switzerland
4. Australia
5. Norway
6. Denmark
7. New Zealand
8. Finland
9. Netherlands 
10. Austria

Our silent neighbor to the north, Canada, has been either #1 or #2 for the past five years.  Maybe we should go up there more often and check out what they're doing right?  

Finally, I know this has absolutely nothing to do with President Obama's leadership, but America's reputation has increased by more than 9 percentage points since 2009.  

2013 Country RepTrak™ Topline Report 

By Reputation Institute

URL: http://www.reputationinstitute.com/thought-leadership/complimentary-reports-2013

USA! USA! We're # 27! USA!

Does anybody else see the irony?  We went to war in 1991 to liberate Kuwait and today their middle class is richer than ours.  Maybe Kuwait should come and save us?  

Les Leopold tells us why the U.S. middle class is so poor:

The International Labor organization produced a remarkable study, (Global Wage Report 2012-13) that sorts out the causes of why wages have remained stagnant while elite incomes have soared. The report compares key causal explanations like declining bargaining power of unions, porous social safety nets, globalization, new technologies and financialization.

Guess which one had the biggest impact on the growing split between the one percent and the 99 percent?

Financialization!

I've shown you this chart before:

All the growth in U.S. wealth over the past 30 years has been financial wealth and the growth of Too Big Too Fail Banks.  Obviously this is no way to grow our middle class or ensure economic growth for Americans who are not bankers and who do not derive most of their wealth from financial securities.  

Big Lie: America Doesn't Have #1 Richest Middle-Class in the World... We're Ranked 27th!

By Les Leopold

June 28, 2013 | Huffington Post

URL: http://huff.to/1cuEYgj