Canada’s Fraser Institute released its current rankings of economic freedom across the globe and America dived to its lowest ever ranking of eighteen, moving from the ten spot to number eighteen in just the past year.
America joins Venezuela, Argentina and Iceland in the category of countries showing the greatest declines dropping from second to eighteenth since the year 2000.
The top twenty are: Hong Kong 1, Singapore 2, New Zealand 3, Switzerland 4, Australia 5, Canada 5, Bahrain 7, Mauritius 8, Finland 9, Chile 10, United Arab Emirates 11, Ireland 12, United Kingdom 12, Estonia 14, Taiwan 15, Denmark 16, Qatar 17, United States 18, Kuwait 19, Cyprus 20.
Economic Freedom of the World measures the degree to which the policies and institutions of countries support economic freedom. The annual report is published in conjunction with the Economic Freedom Network, a group of independent research and educational institutes in 90 nations and territories worldwide. The 2012 report was prepared by James Gwartney, Florida State University; Robert A. Lawson, Southern Methodist University; and Joshua Hall, Beloit College.
To view the report: http://www.fraserinstitute.org/uploadedFiles/fraser-ca/Content/research-news/research/publications/economic-freedom-of-the-world-2012.pdf
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