The annual ranking by Independent Australia today shows the US economy now ranks 26th in the world.
In a shock revelation, it is now proven that Trump’s tweets claiming his economy is ”world’s best” are not actually true.
Taiwan leads for the first time
The 2020 global leader is Taiwan, which is also the stand-out success in responding to the coronavirus pandemic, with zero deaths since early May.
Taiwan recorded shallow negative annual growth in gross domestic product (GDP) in the second quarter this year – just 0.58%. It then bounced back with a creditable 3.33% growth in the third quarter. Its jobless rate is currently an impressive 3.78%, GDP per person is high, as is its economic freedom.
Top ten economies
In order, the best-performed economies in 2020, with scores achieved, are:
1. Taiwan: 13.78
2. Switzerland: 11.63
3. South Korea: 10.62
4. Luxembourg: 10.07
5. Norway: 9.39
6. China: 8.49
7. Ireland: 7.98
8. Czech Republic: 6.88
9. Netherlands: 6.75
10. Hong Kong: 6.49
The formula for determining this ranking uses national income per person, GDP growth, employment, inflation, tax levels, government debt and economic freedom. The raw data comes from the World Bank, Heritage Foundation, the CIA Factbook and tradingeconomics.com.
The composition of the score is shown in the table at the top for the ten leading economies and a few selected others. The full top thirty table is shown here at Independent Australia.
Winners and losers through the pandemic
The analysis published in Australia today reports that every economy has been hit by the coronavirus this year. But some governments have handled the challenges better than others.
Economies which have advanced most impressively in 2020 are Taiwan, South Korea, China, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Denmark, Vietnam and Indonesia.
Major losers have been the United States, Sweden, Malta, Canada and the United Kingdom. Unsurprisingly, most of these have failed badly to control the pandemic.
The United States in an election year
The US economy has been crushed not just by the mismanagement of the coronavirus; the downturn was evident long before that arrived.
Variables which have collapsed since 2016 include, jobs, wages, homelessness, long-term unemployment, exports, economic growth, industrial production, the budget deficit, government debt and wealth per adult.
As shown here and here, the critical decisions which have caused widespread hardship have been the tax cuts for the rich, the abandonment of established trade deals and the disastrous imposition of tariffs.
The USA ranked tenth in 2014 during the Obama/Biden administration.
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The 2020 full report is here:
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/worlds-best-economy-in-an-age-of-covid-19--taiwan-tops-the-table,14510
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“Alan Austin is a great Australian journalist and, I think, a pirate. I steal Alan Austin’s findings all the time.”
~ Jordan Shanks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtV-2X4BjQI