Liberty Alone

The 2007 Index has been published and it is generally good news.
Economic freedom has fallen slightly, but is still the second highest ever, but a new system is being used to measure which include labour freedom for the first time which may affect the results.
The UK comes in at number 6 and Ireland at number 7 at the tail end of the ‘free’ countries and the highest ranked in Europe (Hong Kong keeps the top spot again with its near neighbours Australia, Singapore and New Zealand all doing very well).

Over the world, the general trend is still towards greater freedom and the regions are increasing at about the same rate. There is increased wealth and a decrease in poverty and inequality across the globe. This is the achievement of poverty reduction ever,

There is more evidence that increased economic freedom increases wealth whatever your starting point, and that globalisation is not harming the world’s poor as many claim.

There is a need to be cautious - the new US congress is much more protectionist and illiberal on economic terms and the Doha round is deadlocked over the CAP and other farm subsidies. There is still a possibility of a reversal in the trend towards freedom, but overall I am cautiously optimistic.

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