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America Slips Again in World Rankings on Numerous Economic Stats. We Now Trail Mauritius and Jordan.
Don't worry guys, we're totally kicking Burundi's butt...
ijreview.com

America Slips Again in World Rankings on Numerous Economic Stats. We Now Trail Mauritius and Jordan.

3,350 Shares By Michael Hausam 10 hours ago


According to the Cato Institute‘s annual index of the world’s freest economies, the U.S. is number 12. This is behind Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland, Mauritius, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Australia, Jordan, Chile and Finland.
Yes, Mauritius and Jordan are kicking our ass.
But it gets even worse, fourteen years ago, the U.S. was number 2. That’s a pretty swift and far fall.
The rankings are based upon the size of a country’s government, the legal structure, sound money practices, free trade, and regulation. Over the last 14 years, here’s where the U.S. has done in each of these areas:

  • Government size: It’s 46th, smaller than some European governments, but bigger than Brazil and Mexico.


  • Free trade: 29th place.


  • Sound money: 38th place, thanks in large part to the Federal Reserve extraordinary money printing (“quantitative easing”). In 2005, we were 1st.


  • Legal system: 36th place, which was down from 10th in 2000, and from 1st in 1980. This is due to eminent domain use, as well as property seizures and violations as a result of the auto bailout, where the government negotiated away bond-holder and stock ownership rights to the benefit of labor unions.


  • Regulation: 10th place, down from 2nd in 2000.

One note: the study is careful to point out that it is constrained to economic-freedom issues and doesn’t take into account other things like government surveillance, police militarization, and bureaucratic intrusiveness. It doesn’t take a social scientist to see that these are areas in which the U.S. is steadily losing ground, as well.
National Review points out that the bottom 10 nations were Republican of the Congo, Zimbabwe, Argentina, Algeria, Iran, Chad, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Myanmar.
But don’t worry, guys. We’re kicking Burundi’s ass!

Image credit: Minnesotans for Global Warming.

http://www.ijreview.com/2014/10/1868...onger-top-ten/