Its a straw man cartoon. Among the major economies, the US has least red tape.
"A World Economic Forum survey that ranks countries on their overall economic competitiveness puts the United States fifth; the countries ahead of it, including Singapore and Finland, are tiny, with populations around 5 percent that of the United States. The World Bank publishes a report that looks at “Doing Business” across the globe. The United States ranks No. 4, again behind a handful of tiny countries. As is the case with the World Economic Forum, that ranking has not changed much over the years."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obamas-economic-speech-shifts-the-focus-from-deficits/2011/12/07/gIQA0WHcdO_story.html?hpid=z3
"A World Economic Forum survey that ranks countries on their overall economic competitiveness puts the United States fifth; the countries ahead of it, including Singapore and Finland, are tiny, with populations around 5 percent that of the United States. The World Bank publishes a report that looks at “Doing Business” across the globe. The United States ranks No. 4, again behind a handful of tiny countries. As is the case with the World Economic Forum, that ranking has not changed much over the years."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obamas-economic-speech-shifts-the-focus-from-deficits/2011/12/07/gIQA0WHcdO_story.html?hpid=z3
Ironically, your cited resource is a strawman.
Now, if the point you wished to make was true, my point may be held as irrelevant but that is not the case. Regulation is very centralized in the United States, while little compared to competing nations, they are smaller. Redtape in those nations is not as potent over small decentralized populaces as compared to little regulation on a federal level over 300 million people. We are suffering due to a combination of factors which include our large populace and the rigid one-size-fits-all regulations that inhibit them; as little as they may appear to be.
So, one should not assume strong governments over small populaces should be held as idols to governance for larger populaces; they should not be revered. In fact, the discussion over regulations overall may not be relevant to the ends we wish to achieve.
What really needs to be discussed is how rules are applied to people and in what division: centralized or decentralized?
The resource is not a strawman. It makes the point that the US is producing more graduates than ever yet its producing less science and engineering graduates than ever. so unless there is a coming boom in the Women's Studies, Black History or Elizabethan Stitchwork industries, the US is committing economic suicide.
The problem isn't regulation - its motivation. For some reason, not enough young Americans want to be techies. As a European it baffles me when I see that people borrow sums like $100,000 for degrees in Puppetry and Drumming.
