Posts Tagged ‘damage’
2010 U.S. Economy now ‘Mostly Free’
For the first time ever the United States economic freedom score has dropped from free to mostly free according to the Index of Economic Freedom.
How do you measure economic freedom?
We measure ten components of economic freedom, assigning a grade in each using a scale from 0 to 100, where 100 represents the maximum freedom. The ten component scores are then averaged to give an overall economic freedom score for each country. The ten components of economic freedom are:
Business Freedom | Trade Freedom | Fiscal Freedom | Government Spending | Monetary Freedom | Investment Freedom | Financial Freedom | Property rights | Freedom from Corruption | Labor Freedom
Out of ten of the components the U.S. has dropped in 7 catagories.
The United States’ economic freedom score is 78.0, making its economy the 8th freest in the 2010 Index. Its score is 2.7 points lower than last year, reflecting notable decreases in financial freedom, monetary freedom, and property rights. The United States has fallen to 2nd place out of three countries in the North America region.
The U.S. government’s interventionist responses to the financial and economic crisis that began in 2008 have significantly undermined economic freedom and long-term prospects for economic growth. Economic freedom has declined in seven of the 10 categories measured in the Index.
Uncertainties caused by ongoing regulatory changes and politically influenced stimulus spending have discouraged entrepreneurship and job creation, slowing recovery. Leadership in free trade has been undercut by “Buy American” provisions in stimulus legislation and failure to pursue previously agreed free trade agreements with Panama, Colombia, and South Korea. Tax rates are increasingly uncompetitive, and massive stimulus spending is creating unprecedented deficits. Bailouts of financial and automotive firms have generated concerns about property rights.
If there is any doubt that freedom is under attack in the U.S. then these numbers should dispel that. The damage that the liberal congress is causing our country goes far beyond the recession and into creating obstacles to any kind of recovery.
This is the change promised by Barack Obama and the “going forward” promised by Nancy Pelosi.
I just hope we can survive it til the midterm elections.
*Photo from LMAObama*
Tags: Business, damage, economic freedom score, economy, liberal, Monetary, mostly free, Obama, Pelosi, Property rights, recession, United States
