My favorite Heritage Foundation publication (other than the papers I wrote, of course) is the Index of Economic Freedom. The 2010 Index was just released and it is bad news for America. The United States moved significantly in the wrong direction, dropping 2.7 points (on a 0-to-100 scale), which was almost as bad as the reduction of 2.8 points in the thugocracy known as Venezuela. America now ranks below Canada, which is rather embarrassing, and has dropped from “free” to “partly free” in the overall ratings. These findings echo the data in the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World (co-published by Cato), which also show a decline in America’s score (as an aside, I will brag that the EFW must be a bit more accurate than the IEF since it was quicker to show America (see page 185) becoming less free during the big-government Bush years). The new Heritage Index has lots of fascinating information, including Chile’s top-10 ranking, making it far and away the freest economy in Latin America. Montenegro enjoyed the biggest jump in the yearly rankings, climbing by 5.4 points (though it still ranks only #68), and Timor-Leste (wherever that is) had the biggest fall, dropping by 4.7 points (are they getting advice from Obama’s economic team?). One final thing worth noting, as seen below, is that the United Kingdom and six of its former colonies dominate the top 10.
