Dina Gerdeman – “The American economy is a mess, and our broken political system is largely to blame, according to a Harvard Business School US Competitiveness Project report released today. Harvard’s Michael E. Porter, Jan W. Rivkin, and Mihir A. Desai say American economic performance peaked in the late 1990s and since then has experienced a lingering period of weakness, with slower than usual productivity growth, job growth, and investment growth. The report, Problems Unsolved and a Nation Divided: The State of US Competitiveness in 2016, which contains an in-depth analysis of the American economy and the results of surveys of global business leaders and the general public, says the US is “failing the test of competitiveness.” Overall prosperity may be growing slowly—but only for a small slice of the population. Large companies and highly skilled, high-income workers are faring well, but many others, including working- and middle-class Americans, are struggling, as are many small businesses. The single biggest thorn in the economy’s side: our dysfunctional political system…”