The bottom line

U.S. slips to fourth place in Global Competitiveness Index

The U.S. has slipped from second to fourth in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index, supplanted by Sweden and Singapore. The rankings, with Switzerland in first place, factor each nation’s infrastructure, education, health care, record of innovation and more.

London Guardian

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Investors exit stock mutual funds

The exodus of small investors into bond and money-market funds is taking its toll on stock mutual funds. In the past 12 months, 414 mutual funds, most of them stock funds, have disappeared. The number of taxable bond mutual funds has grown slightly, to 1,271.

USA Today

Students default on loans

Defaults on student loans are climbing, with 7 percent of borrowers in 2008 falling behind within two years of beginning repayment. That’s up from 6.7 percent in 2007. The default rate for students at for-profit schools rose to 11.6 percent from 11 percent.

Associated Press

Workplace discrimination against Muslims rises

Claims of discrimination against Muslims in U.S. workplaces rose to 1,490 last year, up from 1,304 in 2008. The number of workplace-bias claims surpassed the previous high of 1,463 made in 2002, in the wake of 9/11.

MSNBC.com

Jobs at foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies increase

Employment at foreign subsidiaries of U.S. corporations increased 1 percent in 2008—including a 15 percent gain in China. Domestic U.S. hiring at those same companies fell 2 percent in 2008.

Los Angeles Times