USA Down to 18th in Economic Freedom

[Habbaku]

You a verb.

[FunkMonk]

You a verb.

[Ed Anger]

Me Ed.

[Razgovory]

Great, a "roll back regulatory control" thread, complete with Koch Bros PowerPoints.  Haven't had one of those for a while.

I'll read up on it later, but given the Euro countries ahead of the US I'm not sure that's it. With US it could be issues of transparency, predictability and consistency? I'm just thinking that US regulators seem to change more with the political complexion than in many other countries.

Who knows?  The Cato institute is a bunch of crazies.

[Monoriu]

Why is the Hong Kong government so concerned with these rankings?  I am pretty sure nobody in the US Government is all that interested in what the Cato Institute thinks...unless Cato is making campaign donations or something.

I think it is for general PR, and to attract foreign investment.  Or so they think.  HK and Singapore are locked in permanent competition mode in beating each other in these rankings. 

[Ed Anger]

I'm waiting for the John Birch list of party colleges.

[The Brain]

I'm waiting for the John Birch list of party colleges.

Get bent.

[Martinus]

Great, a "roll back regulatory control" thread, complete with Koch Bros PowerPoints.  Haven't had one of those for a while.

No kidding. I find it funny that there are still people out there who sell the Cato Institute as an independent think tank. 

But then again, it's Habbaku - a working class redneck who thinks he is middle class riding on the same wagon as Romney, because they both love their god and guns.

Beats me how Berkut is able to spend more than 5 minutes with him. I mean, he can't be that good of a fuck.

[Habbaku]

Martinus' obsession with me is adorable.

What's the matter, did your boyfriends unionize and ask for a raise?

[katmai]

No justice, no feet!

[CountDeMoney]

You're safe, Hab.  He doesn't do anal.  Not that he'd be able to hold you down anyway.

[DGuller]

Martinus' obsession with me is adorable.

What's the matter, did your boyfriends unionize and ask for a raise?

 

[Sheilbh]

Great, a "roll back regulatory control" thread, complete with Koch Bros PowerPoints.  Haven't had one of those for a while.

No kidding. I find it funny that there are still people out there who sell the Cato Institute as an independent think tank. 

I like Cato. They are pretty independent and proud of it, see the whole Koch issue.

[garbon]

Martinus' obsession with me is adorable.

What's the matter, did your boyfriends unionize and ask for a raise?

 

It was a pretty good rejoinder.

[The Minsky Moment]

Habs did you actually look at these charts; they are asinine.

According to CATO, the UAE outscores the US on judicial independence, impartiality of courts, integrity of the legal system and reliability of police.   Would you honestly trust your freedom to the UAE justice system over the US?

The trends on the US scores are also so bizarre as to cast grave doubt on the validitity of the methodology.  In one year (2009 to 2010), the US "reliability of police" score plummeted by 30% but at the same time the "business cost of crime" score increased by about the same amount.  What the hell could have happened in 2010 that simultaneously caused a massive increase in police corruption while at the same time slashing the costs to business?   The report also claims that the impartiality of the US court system has nearly halved since 2000; I assume based on the source that this is not intended as some wise-ass comment on Bush v. Gore but is just the consequence of a grossly invalid methology.

The same problems recur all over the place.  The US "international trade" score is low due in part to a miserably bad score on "capital controls" which is rather odd since the US has no captial controls to speak of other than CFIUS which is treated under a separate category.  In the "regulation" section, the US actually improved in "hiring regulations and minuimum wage" to a perfect 10 (!) after scoring only 3.82 in 2000.     In in the area of "private sector credit" regulations, CATO has the Glass-Steagall era US at respectable 8.55 falling to under 1 in 2010.  Yet on "ownership of banks" the US gets a perfect 10 despite the government's acquistion of significant stakes in various large financial institutions in 09-10

The one thing that really made me     was the "sound money" category: the US ranked highest in this category in 2010 then any other and improved in that area notwithstanding the launch of Fed driven quantitative easing at a level totally unprecedented in history.

This is a classic example of garbage in, garbage out analysis.  What a waste of paper and effort.