These actions were taken by Saudi Arabia, China, Russia, India, Luxembourg, and the United Kingdom, respectively.

Meanwhile, in the United States, six million more youths dropped out of high school to join a cadre of similarly situated youths—over half of whom under 25 years of age are currently without jobs.⁷ During the abovementioned interval, another $2 trillion was spent on K-12 public education while K-12 students remained mired near the bottom of the developed-world class.⁸ Labor costs in the United States continue to eclipse those in developing nations, although in some cases by narrowing margins. Over 8.4 million jobs were lost in America … and the dollar dropped 9 percent against the Euro.⁹ The United States share of global high-tech exports dropped from 21 percent to 14 percent while China’s share grew from 7 percent to 20 percent.¹⁰ The stock market declined 57 percent before beginning a halting recovery, and some seven trillion dollars of wealth disappeared.¹¹ The national debt grew from $8 trillion to $13 trillion. Federal debt per citizen increased from $26,700 to $42,000.¹² The nation continued to be dependent upon others for 57 percent of the oil energy it uses.¹³ China continued to graduate more English-trained engineers than the United States. A number of other countries, including Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, conducted their own competitiveness assessments, some patterned after the United States Gathering Storm study, and many moved aggressively to implement the actions that were thus identified.¹⁴