Tag: world economic forum

Debunking the "our banks are the best" meme

The World Economic Forum’s annual Global Competitiveness Index is out today. See the hi-lites and political implications here.

But can we trust this “Index”? To my layperson’s eyes, there seems to be some serious flaws with the methodology the WEF uses to arrive at these “rankings.”

First, the common understanding of a “ranking” is that the benchmarks being used to develop a ranking, the judge or arbiter of these rankings, and the objects being ranked all have something in common. Continue reading Debunking the "our banks are the best" meme

Our banks are number one! Our governments, er, not so much

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has just released its 2011-2012 Global Competitiveness Index. One datapoint in that index that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and most of the Conservative caucus have clung to like a lifeline over the last few years is this one: Canada is ranked number one in the world when it comest to “Soundness of Banks.”  We’ve held that title since 2008 and we’re number one again this year. That guarantees that that talking point will be a highlight of Harper’s speeches abroad and around the country. In fact, he can boast of this statistic once again tomorrow when he speaks at a conference in Vancouver organized by the Bloomberg news service for investors and the like.

The Harper government — along with provincial governments — may also wish to boast over these two other data points: Continue reading Our banks are number one! Our governments, er, not so much