>>we also have most of the world's leading academics
>And most of them are foreign.
So is 99% of the US population, fuckwit.
>>world's best universities
>if by best you mean the one's with most money.
That, and most publication, most academic journals, highest ranking academic publication, biggest names in the business for most domains, most postgraduates, most PhDs produced, most Masters degrees accomplished, etc etc etc
America may be going down economico-politically, and it puts a bit of a strain on academics, but we're still world leaders in academia, despite the (perhaps well deserved) reputation of being arrogant ignorant fuckheads. You've got to remember that there's a distinction between your average beer-luvin' Bob over here and people like John Searle or Noam Chomsky.
Anywho, none of this actually goes against my point. We say Math, you say Maths, who gives a flying fuck?