{"id":7627,"date":"2013-01-02T17:13:12","date_gmt":"2013-01-03T00:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/?p=7627"},"modified":"2017-02-08T22:20:24","modified_gmt":"2017-02-09T05:20:24","slug":"who-does-congress-really-listen-to-its-not-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2013\/01\/who-does-congress-really-listen-to-its-not-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Does Congress Really Listen To? (it&#8217;s not us)"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><blockquote>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7630\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7630\" style=\"width: 576px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/254\/2013\/01\/1357151101340_252_21wUhajdz6bf1_6_0.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7630\" title=\"1357151101340_252_21wUhajdz6bf1_6_0\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/254\/2013\/01\/1357151101340_252_21wUhajdz6bf1_6_0.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"576\" height=\"324\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7630\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fiscal Cliff vote in the House.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h1 id=\"yui_3_5_1_21_1357171553536_269\">Who forced a fiscal cliff deal? Try<\/h1>\n<h1>foreign investors<\/h1>\n<h2 id=\"yui_3_5_1_21_1357171553536_268\">Washington is now all too aware that foreign<\/h2>\n<h2>creditors and investors will punish it for any<\/h2>\n<h2>macroeconomic mismanagement. American<\/h2>\n<h2>competitiveness was at stake in the fiscal cliff<\/h2>\n<h2>negotiations.<\/h2>\n<p id=\"yui_3_5_1_21_1357171381459_247\"><cite id=\"yui_3_5_1_21_1357171553536_270\">By\u00a0the Monitor\u2019s Editorial Board\u00a0|\u00a0Christian Science Monitor\u00a0<\/cite><\/p>\n<p><cite id=\"yui_3_5_1_21_1357171553536_270\"><\/cite>Take a guess. Which of these put more pressure on US lawmakers to strike a deal and avoid the \u201cfiscal cliff\u201d \u2013 voters or global financial markets?<\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_5_1_21_1357171381459_246\">If you picked markets, you may be right.<\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_5_1_21_1357171381459_245\">On the day after the last-minute agreement, an uptick in global stock prices seemed far more welcome in\u00a0<a id=\"yui_3_5_1_21_1357171381459_263\" href=\"http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/tags\/topic\/Washington%2c+DC\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Washington<\/a>\u00a0than the reaction of voters. The reason is that foreign creditors to the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/tags\/topic\/U.S.+Department+of+the+Treasury\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">US Treasury<\/a>\u00a0had been near a tipping point in wanting their money back, possibly forcing a crisis for US debt.<\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_5_1_21_1357171381459_236\">Investors worldwide now demand the US government display more stability and trust. Globalization has given them a big say in the policy logjams of many countries, and the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/tags\/topic\/United+States\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">United States<\/a>\u00a0is not immune. Its lingering disputes over issues like taxes and spending have become a prime indicator of its ability to remain innovative, reliable, and productive.<\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_5_1_21_1357171381459_241\">Elections do have consequences, for sure. But today so does a country\u2019s economic competitiveness, measured in part by its level of dependability, openness, and flexibility in governance. On those sorts of attributes, the US needs work. Consider these latest rankings:<\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_5_1_21_1357171381459_242\">On a global index of innovation, the US has dropped from No. 1 in 2007 to 10th. On economic competitiveness, it has dropped to seventh in the last few years. And compared with other countries, the trust by Americans in their government ranks 54th.<\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_5_1_21_1357171381459_250\">The greatest weakness of the US is seen in its lack of macroeconomic stability. On that measure it fell last year from 90th to 111th.<\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_5_1_21_1357171381459_248\">Economic freedom in the US has been falling and now ranks 10th \u2013 behind even the African country of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/tags\/topic\/Mauritius\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Mauritius<\/a>. It ranks fifth in the ease of doing business, according to the\u00a0<a id=\"yui_3_5_1_21_1357171381459_256\" href=\"http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/tags\/topic\/The+World+Bank+Group\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">World Bank<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_5_1_21_1357171381459_249\">In 2012, the US fell from the top tier of a \u201cglobal prosperity index,\u201d which measures such nonmaterial factors as entrepreneurship, safety, education, and governance. It now ranks 12th. (Read more <a href=\"http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/Commentary\/the-monitors-view\/2013\/0102\/Who-forced-a-fiscal-cliff-deal-Try-foreign-investors\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who forced a fiscal cliff deal? Try foreign investors Washington is now all too aware that foreign creditors and investors will punish it for any macroeconomic mismanagement. American competitiveness was at stake in the fiscal cliff negotiations. By\u00a0the Monitor\u2019s Editorial Board\u00a0|\u00a0Christian Science Monitor\u00a0 Take a guess. Which of these put more pressure on US lawmakers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1155,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,900,41,1],"tags":[1565,1979,1980,1978],"class_list":["post-7627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-america","category-economics","category-politics","category-uncategorized","tag-fiscal-cliff","tag-foreign-investors","tag-national-debt","tag-united-states-congress"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Who Does Congress Really Listen To? (it&#039;s not us)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Who forced a fiscal cliff deal? 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