Not to crowd the ‘bad/depressing news’ queue, but a recent report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, or ITIF, puts the US 6th in innovation and competitiveness - behind Singapore, Sweden and South Korea. 15th in higher education attainment. 8th in advanced degree education - behind France, Spain and Russia. 5th in corporate investment into research and development (R&D) - behind German and South Korea; making it 17th in percent change over last seven years. And the worst news of the study: the US made the least progress in innovation/competition over the last decade of any of the 40 countries in the report.