Our Two Pesos: Reflecting on the Opportunity for Stronger North American Competitiveness

While most elected (and wanting-to-be-elected) officials in Washington D.C. and some US States continue to portray illegal immigration as virtually the only topic of interest we potentially share when it comes to talking about Mexico and our border region (we’re thinking of you, Arizona, and California gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner’s Prop 187-style ads), the new 2010 World Competitiveness Yearbook was released today by the Switzerland-based IMD School of Business. The most striking news from this annual study: the US has dropped from the leading to the third-ranking position (behind Singapore and Hong Kong). While not necessarily surprising to many, certainly the news was big enough for BusinessWeek to headline their story: “Asia Gains, U.S. Drops in Competitiveness” (in case you didn’t get the point).

This news comes on the same day that Presidents Obama and Calderon are meeting in Washington D.C., talking about some of the very issues that are critical to increasing North American competitiveness, and growing jobs (and wealth) in our region…[read more]

Our Two-Pesos: Low Prospects for Free Trade Agreements Given High Unemployment

It’s a hard, practical reality that the American public — not necessarily just the Administration — will likely find it hard to swallow public efforts to promote FTAs (viewed mainly as a potential “job loser”), until unemployment hits somewhere in the 6-8% range.