United States no longer among top 10 for economic freedom.

The world's freest economy is...

From the article:

The United States is no longer among the world's top 10 nations in terms of economic freedom, according to a newly published index.

The index evaluates countries in four broad areas: rule of law; regulatory efficiency; limited government; and open markets.

"The overall economic policy direction of the United States in recent years has involved substantial growth in the size and scope of government, accelerating the erosion of economic freedom and contributing directly to America's fall from the top 10 freest economies," a report accompanying the index said.

"The absence of meaningful fiscal reform has weakened the government's balance sheet and led to the explosive growth of government debt. The increasing cronyism that has accompanied the growth of government has undermined the rule of law, further eroding America's economic freedom," it added.

In addition, costly regulations in areas like finance, health care and the environment have curtailed economic freedom in the country, which is at its second lowest level in the 20-year history of the Index.

"These have injected uncertainty into business decision-making that has slowed job creation and hiring and hurt economic recovery and growth," the report said.

Asian financial capital Hong Kong maintained its title as the world's freest economy for the twentieth consecutive year.

"Creation of a new company, the level of taxation, the ability of the lowest quintile to rise up, is better in Hong Kong than anywhere else," Ed Feulner, founder and chairman of the Asian Studies Center, The Heritage Foundation told CNBC Asia's Squawk Box.

Meantime, Singapore, Australia, Switzerland, New Zealand and Canada placed in second through sixth place, respectively. The world's most-improved country is Burma thanks to improvements in its investment, business and labor freedom scores.

Finally, and not surprisingly, the hermit kingdom, North Korea has retained its position as the least free economy.

That means very, very little.

Is there any reason Hong Kong is being compared to other countries? Or are we just supposed to assume the number one country, economically, is China?

Anyway, this may stir up some actual emotions from US citizens. Not that it matters.

Thanks, Obama.

Economics in Hong Kong are vastly different from Mainland China (though the difference isn't as striking as it once was). Hong Kong even has its own currency.

Conservative think tank, funded by wall street thinks Obama administration is bad and that there is excessive regulation of the financial industry. Something about this seems fishy to me.

Hong Kong =/= Mainland China

I'd love to see this information from a source other than a conservative think tank, and a conservative newspaper.

meanwhile china is ranked 137 lol!

I'm sure you would, duly noted but that doesn't the make the study's findings untrue. I will keep your objections in mind the next time someone brings up a study sponsored by the Center for American Progress, the New York Times or some liberal source. What is good for the goose is good for the gander.

should have been higher

Typical OT. Anything from The Heritage Foundation is lambasted while sources from MSNBC and The Huffington Post are hailed as gospel.

The fact that CNBC is reporting this assuages any fear of bias I might have. CNBC is pretty good.

With air on this one

Isn't msnbc like usually hated on here by the general peeps though

I'd like to see the criteria which they judge 'good' or 'bad' on with regards to regulation. They list environmental regulation as a reason why the US has been lowered. Interested to see which environmental regulations are so bad to them.

I'm wondering how Singapore and Hong Kong fit into the picture given that they're basically city states. They don't have a plethora of other industries and the regulations that come along with them. Are they given a pass on these?

Too much economic freedom isn't necessarily a good thing.

The folks in CNBC is only looking at a business standpoint only, rather then looking at the entire scope of everything we needs. I believe in the United States laws can be changed so that people have a easier time of creating a business and innovating without the fear of getting sued.

Like for example?

Would have to look more at the index to see if it's meaningful. The problem is that in its purest sense, complete economic freedom would probably end up being pretty bad, meaning that a high ranking might not necessarily be a good thing.

For example having things like minimum wage, controlling the distribution of harmful substances and regulating what gets sold( although this system is flawed but that's due to corruption, not the idea itself), and control of economic highs and lows such as setting barriers which could otherwise cause good things like times of much prosperity or bad things like the depression in the 20s and 30s.

Hey if Republicans can cry liberal medial all the goddamn time I don't see why Democrats can't call out groups that describe themselves as conservative think tanks.

Calling something out isn't the same as dismissing something out of hand.

I don't believe this country needs more economic liberalism. I believe a nationalized healthcare system is a great short term goal. Agressive state barging can radically cut down the costs.

I dismiss pretty much everything that has a political bias, doesn't matter which way. But I'm a liberal in some respects, so I must such the tiny, limp dick that is MSNBC. As opposed to sucking the even tinier, limp dick that is Fox News.

If you liberals would take off the blinders it is easy to see why this would be true. Why would you be such lemmings as to dismiss ANYTHING negative about the job your dear leader is doing?

All of you 2 party lemmings need to come to the libertarian side where men can marry other men, easily open up a business, and not be taxed to death. Everyone gets to be happy.

Hong Kong is seen as a country by the majority of the world, but can't tell China that or they get all butt hurt.

Same goes for Taiwan.

America, private prisons.

Who cares?

https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/genetic

TOPIC: Not surprising, and it's definitely not going to get any better. Economies of the future will be based on science and technology. A shrinking number of young Americans are choosing education in these fields, and the labs in colleges and universities in the U.S. are being filled with more and more people from other countries.

If you are not American I get it.....but if you are American and you don' care you are either a flat out moron, a socialist/communist, or you are just ignorant as to what economic freedom means.

Economic freedom isn't necessarily a good thing. It doesn't give support to those that need it and lets others exploit it.

I am not American, but I've read some of your other posts and I honestly don't care how you perceive other people because you are nuts. And as someone who is actually educated in economics, I know very well what "economic freedom" means and how vague and irrelevant the term really is.

The United States is ranked twelfth.

In case anyone was wondering where exactly this country ranks worldwide, the above link provides that information and explains why.

lol

Well I have read your posts too and you are nuts as well. And I have a Master in Economics from Harvard, it's true because you read it on the internet. See what I did there?

I would not know you from a hole in the ground, funny you know me considering I rarely post here. Typical internet debating skills.....discredit the other side's opinion then claim to have formal edcuation to bolster your own opinion.

You need some regulation, but right now we have people investing in other countries because of the ridiculous amount of red tape involved in the U.S. Would you rather we continue to lose jobs to countries that are less regulated? It can take years to get the approval to have one factory built in the U.S., whereas other countries can do it in months and allow you to run it with less overhead. Do you deny this? Because the fact is it is happening despite how you "feel". This is the problem with new America, we have people who think with their emotions rather than their brain. We legislate based on "feel good" rather than practical solutions.

The Obama admin is not creating jobs, period. A sensible person would try something else.

Since when were we in a debate? All you did was make some ridiculous "you are a moron/communist/ignorant" post in response to me, it's not like you can expect anything of substance when you open with an attack like that. I don't really care about your personal claims, and if you don't care about mine that's fine too. I'm still going to think you're retarded based on those "rare posts" of yours that I have actually read.

Ad hominemWikipedia: An ad hominem (Latin for "to the man" or "to the person"), short for argumentum ad hominem, is a general category of fallacies in which a claim or argument is rejected on the basis of some irrelevant fact about the author of or the person presenting the claim or argument. →

Actually I said IF you are an American and feel that way you are a..............you stated you were not an American so I did not call you shit. You act like this superior intellectual but you obviously have the IQ of a gnat if you cannot infer from these simple facts I insulted you NOT. If you are not an American I don't give two shits what you think about this story, I don't care what rank your country is either. That reply was for AN AMERICAN. Got it?

You can think what you want based on my rare posts you claim to have read, I can judge your stupidity based on these posts right here and now. The irony here is you quote ad hominem when it really applies to YOU, not me. The politics of an American who says "who cares" to this story is 100% relevant.

Again....you got all worked up about a post and comment that was not even about you. You were so caught up in the reply was to you that you did not stop to think for a second it did not apply to you at all. And you call me the retard lol.

yep all non-Americans are retards and have no ability to understand anything about politics and economy.

Seriously though, why do you need to be from America to understand this type of stuff? You make no sense.

Oh please, don't even think that your post isn't incredibly insulting. You typed that if an American has an opinion X he is communist/stupid/ignorant, but if a foreigner has opinion X "you get it". What you are basically doing is equating foreigners to stupid/socialist/ignorant Americans. This would be like if someone was against gay marriage and some dumbass replied "if you're Christian I understand, if not then you are an uneducated bigoted homophobe".

Also, I have no idea where you got that ad hominem wikipedia piece from because it is not showing up in my post, I never typed it out and it clearly does not look like a part of a coherent sentence.

Was what I said seriously this unclear?!

Dude.....go back and read history of the conversation before you jump in on shit. The guy posted "who cares" in response to the story, I posted...and I quote "If you are not an American I get it (why you would not care)....BUT if you ARE an American....blah blah blah."

I NEVER implied anything negative towards non-Americans, I was simply saying if you are not an American and do not care about this story I understand, my actual reply was to people who ARE Americans that SHOULD care.

Wow, let me go find a brick wall to smash my head against now.

why do you have to be American to care? And why does being American mean you should care?

Really dude? How the hell do you translate "If you are not American I understand that you would not care about this story" to you are a moron??? This is like a chic talking about high heels and a guy saying "who cares" and the chic coming back and saying "well if you are a guy I get it (why you would not care)".

And the ad hom thing was in your post, so it must be some stupid forum feature. Either way, you severely misinterpreted all of this.

I think I might be being trolled now, no one woh can put a sentence together is this stupid. I did edit my post btw to not be as confrontational but **** it.

I did not say you had to be American to care, I said I understand if you are not American and DON'T care. And your second question is just stupid, if you have to ask.

I'm done with you non-reading tools.

but fox news told me USA #1

The heritage foundation still exists? That's unfortunate.

I see them referenced regularly these days. I'm not sure if it's because they're gaining in popularity, they've partnered with other outlets, or I just listen to the sources that have always referenced them more, but it's been a noticeable increase.

With the Tea Party seem to be getting some more clout. Hell, Jim Demint is their new president. They're still engaged in their normal run of the mill Teapublican economics.