Posted on 02/16/2017 4:45:40 AM PST by IBD editorial writer
Economy: The U.S. currently ranks a dispiriting 17th on the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom. That's down from 6th when Obama took office in 2009. The question isn't whether President Trump can turn this dismal trend around, it's whether Democrats will let him.
The Heritage Foundation has been publishing this index since 1995. It measures things like property rights, fiscal health, business freedom, tax burden, government spending, rule of law and other indicators of economic freedom in 186 countries. Based on these, each country gets an overall freedom index score, which then can be ranked against other countries.
As Heritage points out, there is good reason to focus on these measures of economic freedom, since they directly correlate with a country's growth and prosperity. "The affirmative link between economic freedom and long-term development is unmistakable and robust," the report notes. "The higher a country's level of economic freedom is, the higher its income per capita also is."
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
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