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Chris
09-18-2012, 03:36 PM
The conservative Canadian Fraser Institute has released its Annual Economic Freedom of the World Report (http://www.freetheworld.com/release.html).

Canada has moved up to 5th position while the US has dropped to 18th.

http://i.snag.gy/UQeoi.jpg

This is consistent with the American Heritage's similar Annual Index of Economic freedom (http://www.heritage.org/index/ranking) where Canada has been rising while the US is slipping.

Canada rises to Top Five in world economic freedom ranking as U.S. plummets to 18th (http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/09/18/canada-rises-to-top-five-in-world-economic-freedom-ranking-as-u-s-plummets-to-18th/) has put together a side-by-side comparison of CA and the US in 2005 and 2010, which gives some indication of the measures used:

http://i.snag.gy/TQimJ.jpg

Is there any question but that we, the US, are headed in the wrong direction?

Captain Obvious
09-18-2012, 05:19 PM
I don't understand the ratings, are they all positives or are some deterrents?

And what does "freedom to trade internationally" mean? Regulation, which is already covered?

Chris
09-18-2012, 06:31 PM
My understanding is you start from 0 and earn points in each category.

Yes, freedom to trade concerns regulation. According to http://www.freetheworld.com/2012/EFW2012-ch1.pdf, regulation covers Credit market regulations, Labor market regulations, and Business regulations, while freedom to trade covers Tariffs, Regulatory trade barriers, Black-market exchange rates, and Controls of the movement of capital and people--with additional details at the link. Additional discussion there goes into "regulations restrict entry into markets and interfere with the freedom to engage in voluntary exchange, they reduce economic freedom" vs "freedom of exchange across national boundaries is a key ingredient of economic freedom".

Captain Obvious
09-18-2012, 06:36 PM
Right - but do all categories add to our score, do some add and some detract?

It's kinda vague on the surface.

Peter1469
09-18-2012, 06:43 PM
The charts likely don't reflect unfair trade directed against a particular nation...

Chris
09-18-2012, 06:45 PM
It varies by measure but methods are explained in the appendix: http://www.freetheworld.com/2012/EFW2012-app.pdf. Skimming through them I see a lot of percentages, some scales from 0 to 10, and so on.

Captain Obvious
09-18-2012, 06:52 PM
I'm not doubting the data supports the final product, I sometimes have difficulty with summarized results without the data at hand to dig through.

Not sure I want to dig through this stuff right now but I might later.

Chris
09-18-2012, 07:08 PM
I hear you, it's a lot of data and a lot of formulas, statistics. That's why I mention consistency with American Heritage's Index.