If Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker had to defend his incumbency in the cataclysmic election last week he likely would have lost. Baker can only hope that the political landscape for his reelection in 2018 is like 2014, not 2016, to ensure victory. In Massachusetts, being moderate and popular can be politically precarious.
In a post-election post-mortem, Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr concluded that Baker was among the night's biggest "losers." Carr, an ardent Trump supporter, noted that Baker supported the defeated Question 2 ballot measure (which sought expansion of Charter Schools) and opposed the successful Question 4 (which sought legalization of recreational marijuana). Baker never supported President-elect Trump.
A new 400-page report by the World Economic Forum reveals the current state of economic competitiveness for almost 140 countries around the world and offers analysis on the trends that will determine the economic landscape of the future.
The report measures countries across three "subindexes," each measured by a collection of "pillars" that seek to understand how countries perform across a variety of variables. The pillars cover everything from the state of infrastructure and primary education, variables that measure a country's basic requirements to attracting and training quality workers, to technological readiness and innovation, variables that describe how a country will drive efficiency and new developments in the future.
