U.S. loses top spot to Switzerland in report on competitiveness

Maybe it shouldn't be surprising, but it still comes as a shock to hear that the United States fell to second place in the overall rankings of the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report for 2009-2010. Switzerland toppled the U.S. to take first place. Singapore, which moved up two spots to third place, Sweden and Denmark rounded out the top five.

The report cites the U.S.'s weaker financial markets and decreased macroeconomic stability as the reasons for its decline. Despite similar conditions in Europe, European countries take up six of the top ten spots. Britain and Iceland were the losers of the crisis.