The Heritage Foundation’s 2006 Index of Economic Freedom is out. Hong Kong and Singapore lead the way. Estonia comes in at seven, Chile at fourteen. These are the top 10 ‘worsened'.
In the Wall Street Journal Mary Anastasia O’Grady, one of the reports' editors, uses the contrasts between Estonia and Chile to claim that:
Countries that liberalize quickly and thoroughly achieve resounding successes, politically and economically. Conversely, gradualism risks stagnation and even reversals, because the benefits are not evident enough to impress the electorate and generate a momentum in their favor… Clearly, it's not the absolute income level that generates support for reforms but the growth in living standards that seems to hold the key. Halfhearted measures generate immense resentment from the "losers" of the old system but often don't yield large enough gains to create a constituency to support the changes.
Read the rest of the article, I am sure you will have some comments? They did.
See the press release, country profiles or downloads. (Ht to Division of Labour).
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