The US sub-prime housing market crash is rolling into its third year and several prominent economists have gone on record to say that the US economy is already in recession.
But in the midst of all that doom and gloom, The World Economic Forum (WEF) has put America in no1 spot for the fifth year running in its annual economic competitiveness chart.
This is the good news that the American Republican party has been hoping for in the run up to the Presidential election, with voter concerns having recently swayed from the Iraq war to the failing economy in a very rapid and big way.
The WEF rankings are based on the following factors: institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomy, health and primary education, higher education and training, goods-market efficiency, financial-market sophistication, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication, and innovation.
The US stayed in first place even as Britain dropped from 2nd to ninth, in part because only six percent of its workforce is susceptible to the ‘ongoing purge in the financial sector’; the possibility of adding a fraction of six percent unemployment means American's in employment should be well placed to keep the American economy afloat.
This is also good news for those awaiting the recovery of the sub-prime American housing market - widely believed to begin this year.
Liam Bailey, head of international research for UK based overseas property agent David Stanley Redfern Ltd said: “With only six percent of the American workforce employed in the risky financial sector, and it being absolutely impossible that all of those people will lose their jobs, then the fraction of additional unemployment still leaves plenty of people to buy houses, which is good news for us having just taken on another Los Angeles condominium development.”
Bailey was referring to the Downtown Los Angeles Designer Boutique Lofts, located between the new Broadway and its host of new theatres restaurants and bars, and the fashion district. Apartments are available from as little as £180,000.
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