“His grandiose legislative ambition has become the partially free economy’s biggest debt problem (see chart below, data here).”
Neil Reynolds writing in today’s Toronto Globe and Mail:
“When President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address tonight, he should – but won’t – report the significant U.S. decline in economic freedom during his first year in the Oval Office.
Jointly published last week by the conservative Washington-based Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, the 2010 Index of Economic Freedom (a 480-page work) strips the United States of its traditional designation as a “free economy,” listing it instead – and ranking it as No. 8 in the world – as “partially free.” More embarrassing for Mr. Obama, it elevates Canada to the No. 7 spot that the United States surrendered, making Prime Minister Stephen Harper the leader of the economically freest country in the Western Hemisphere (see top ten below, click to enlarge).”
