The United States has slipped further down a global ranking of the world’s most competitive economies, falling to the fifth place position because of its enormous deficits and diminishing public confidence in government, a global economic group reported last Wednesday. Meanwhile, Western European countries dominated the survey’s top 10 economies.

The report by the World Economic Forum is the latest item in a string of discouraging news for the Obama administration, which has striven to resuscitate the U.S.’s diseased economy and to alleviate the nation’s rising unemployment rate.

Switzerland clung to the first place position for the third consecutive year in the annual ranking, and Singapore climbed to second place, nudging Sweden down to third. Finland ascended to fourth place, from seventh last year. Germany held the sixth place, followed by the Netherlands and Denmark. The U.S. was in fourth place last year, after falling from the first place position in 2008.

The rating system is based on a survey of 15,000 business elites, and assesses countries based on infrastructure, innovation, the macroeconomic environment and other factors.

The forum cited “a number of escalating weaknesses” in the U.S. as the reason for downgrading America’s position, including soaring government debt and dwindling faith in political leaders.

For more than five decades, educator Herbert W. Armstrong wrote about the U.S.’s unparalleled strength and prosperity, and the escalating weaknesses supplanting that strength. “Like Rome, we’ve grown fat and prosperous and lazy. We Americans are rolling in money. We have more money than any people ever had. Money has come so easily! … We’re the wealthiest, as compared to any other nation, and we are fast growing lazy and soft, seeking luxury and pleasure, and excitement, idleness and ease, labor-saving, step-saving devices and gadgets” (Plain Truth, February 1956).

In light of such indicators as the World Economic Forum’s survey, it is clear that Mr. Armstrong’s assessment applies to the U.S. today to a greater degree than it did in 1956. The dulling competitive edge of the U.S. economy provides one more sobering sign of the country’s declining power. To understand more, read The United States and Britain in Prophecy.