State of the Union: What You Won’t Hear Tonight

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).”

About Mark J. Perry 262 Articles

Affiliation: University of Michigan

Dr. Mark J. Perry is a professor of economics and finance in the School of Management at the Flint campus of the University of Michigan.

He holds two graduate degrees in economics (M.A. and Ph.D.) from George Mason University in Washington, D.C. and an MBA degree in finance from the Curtis L. Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.

Since 1997, Professor Perry has been a member of the Board of Scholars for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a nonpartisan research and public policy institute in Michigan.

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