Time Global Business: Cool Chart But Where's The Beef?

The Wall Street Journal had a giant ad today announcing Time Magazine's new Global Business section so I checked it out. As my kids would say, "lame."

There is very little there beyond one really cool chart. The chart is based on the World Economic Forum's 2007 Global Competitiveness Report and it lists the percentage of respondents who consider the following to be "problematic factors" for doing business in a particular country:

Access to financing Restrictive labor regulations

Foreign currency regulations

Inadequate supply of infrastructure

Inefficient government bureaucracy

Inadequately educated workforce

Poor work ethic in national labor force

Policy instability

Government instability/coups

Crime and theft

Corruption

Tax regulations

Tax rates

Inflation

What makes it so cool is that you can compare all of these items graphically between any two countries that make it to the list.

Well I liked it anyway.