This week, for example, Harvard Business School released a survey showing that 53 per cent of US business leaders expect the country to be less competitive in three years’ time. And there was bipartisan agreement that political dysfunction was a key reason for falling competitiveness. “Even among the strongly liberal respondents in 2012, the majority expect US competitiveness to be worse in three years,” says Jan Rivkin, a HBS professor. “They see the boat as sinking more slowly, but still sinking.”

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