

2010 Index of Economic Freedom - wallflower
http://www.heritage.org/index/

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myth_drannon
I wouldn't read anything from this think tank....
[http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2010/01/haiti-disaster-
ca...](http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2010/01/haiti-disaster-capitalism-
alert-stop-them-they-shock-again) <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VLiqgm2ma0>

~~~
chasingsparks
_It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without
accepting it._

Heritage exists to offer arguments in favor of a certain ideology. Naomi Klein
writes to offer arguments in favor of a certain ideology. Neither offers all
the data when presenting their arguments, because doing so would weaken their
arguments. However, I still read things from both Heritage and Naomi Klein
because buried in their bias, you can still find interesting viewpoints and
truths.

~~~
dantheman
I lost what little respect I had for Naomi Klein when she started bashing on
Milton Friedman, and proved she had no idea what she was talking about.

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bwanab
Whatever one thinks of Heritage (or Naomi Klein), there's useful data there.
There's also a lot of opinion diguised as data. For example, the choice of
formula from which to determine, say, trade freedom can reflect the prejudice
of the person making that choice. Thus, it looks fair and objective, but you
nor I have any idea of the manipulations in those choices to influence the
outcome.

One observation that stuck me was the large negative correlation between
goverment spend score (where higher spending gives a lower score) and freedom
from corruption score. The conclusion is that the more the government spends,
the lower the incidence of corruption. I suspect this isn't a well loved
relationship by those at Heritage.

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borism
what useful data did you find there?

I love these two graphs: <http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Freedom1996.gif>
<http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/FreedomChange.gif>

from <http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/FreedomIndex.html>

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unignorant
"The U.S. government’s interventionist responses to the financial and economic
crisis that began in 2008 have significantly undermined economic freedom and
long-term prospects for economic growth. Economic freedom has declined in
seven of the 10 categories measured in the Index.

Uncertainties caused by ongoing regulatory changes and politically influenced
stimulus spending have discouraged entrepreneurship and job creation, slowing
recovery. Leadership in free trade has been undercut by “Buy American”
provisions in stimulus legislation and failure to pursue previously agreed
free trade agreements with Panama, Colombia, and South Korea. Tax rates are
increasingly uncompetitive, and massive stimulus spending is creating
unprecedented deficits. Bailouts of financial and automotive firms have
generated concerns about property rights."

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Empact
Back in 2006, someone (<http://stateofworldliberty.org/>) integrated the then-
current Heritage index with the following others:

* The Frasier Institute/Cato Institute "2005 Economic Freedom of the World"

* Freedom House "2005 Freedom in the World"

* Reporters without Borders "Press Freedom Index"

Here are the top few they came up with:

1 Estonia

2 Ireland

3 Canada

4 Switzerland

5 Iceland

6 Bahamas

7 United Kingdom

8 United States

I'd love to update and enhance it with trend charts and so on, one of these
days.

~~~
chasingsparks
This might be helpful.

<http://www.cato.org/pubs/efw/map/index.php>

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huherto
It is sad to see Venezuela in the bottom 10 of the list. How can the
Venezuelan people not see the list and think that there is something wrong
with their current direction. They are in the company of very poor countries.
It is worst since they are doing it by choice. Other countries are there
because they were already very poor to begin with.

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jbooth
Well, cheer up. If their president had said good things about Bush instead of
bad things, Heritage would've ranked them a lot higher. Regardless of whether
their direction is good for the Venezuelan people.

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DrJokepu
Hong Kong is not a country. It is a region of the People's Republic of China.

~~~
blintson
According to the People's Republic of China everywhere is a region of People's
Republic of China. Yes, it's technically part of the PROC, but they've been
independent from the mainland for hundreds of years.

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borism
_they've been independent from the mainland for hundreds of years_

who are "they"? Hong Kong has never been a sovereign nation, it was a colony
of Chinese, British and Japanese Empires, and now PRC.

It is still run as a colony by Communist China - no political sovereignty but
higher economic freedom relative to mainland (thus far).

~~~
bd_at_rivenhill
Hong Kong is governed by a political system that is separate from, but
influenced by, the mainland political system. For example, I was there in June
and witnessed the march to commemorate the anniversary of Tiananmen Square. No
such event would be possible in any territory directly controlled by the
mainland government. That being said, my experience is that the residents of
Hong Kong seem fairly apolitical, and much more interested in economic
concerns. My experience also agrees with the conclusion that Hong Kong has a
higher level of economic freedom than either the US or the UK.

