This year the US dropped out of the “Free Economy” rank measured by the Index of Economic Freedom.
Canada, Switzerland, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong are all ahead of the United States in economic freedom.
Yesterday, just one year after President Barack Obama took office, we released the 16th edition of the Index of Economic Freedom in both Hong Kong and Washington. Once again, it provides empirical evidence that economic freedom is the pathway to prosperity.
The good news is that despite the global economic crisis, the overall level of global economic freedom remained about the same. Some countries improved while others declined.
The bad news is that the United States is one of the economies that declined. For the first time since we began measuring economic freedom, the United States fell out of the top tier of free economies into a lower “mostly free” tier, now ranked with countries like Belgium, Botswana and Sweden. The United States came in dead last among the 20 major economies of the world.
Hope and Change! Yay, “Mostly Free” right up there with Botswana.
This year, of the world’s 20 largest economies, the U.S. suffered the largest drop in overall economic freedom. Its score declined to 78 from 80.7 on the 0 to 100 Index scale.
THIS YEAR. Not last year, not Bush’s year. Obama’s year. President Hope-N-Change’s year. Happy now?
I’m Embarrassed. Are you?
