Six reasons America is only the ninth-most free economy in the world

From the Daily Caller.com - The Heritage Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based free market think tank, along with the Wall Street Journal, released its 17th annual Index of Economic Freedom. While the report contains a lot of good news for less-developed nations with emerging economies around the world, the picture isn’t so good for the United States. For the second year in a row, the U.S. has actually fallen in economic freedom, from a score of 78.0 to 77.8, at a time when more than half of the countries around the world experienced an increase in their economic freedom ranking. The U.S. currently ranks as the 9th freest country economically, but its score puts it in the “mostly free,” only the second best category to be in. According to the list, the U.S ranks behind Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Canada, Ireland and Denmark, in that order.According to the study’s authors, America’s response to the economic downturn is responsible for the U.S.’s poor performance. Below are six specific reasons the study cites for America’s decline in economic freedom.

1. Government Spending: As of November 2010, the national debt stood at about $14 trillion. Most of the increase in America’s debt level can be attributed to unprecedented levels of spending in recent years and government efforts to resolve the financial collapse of 2008.

2. Healthcare reform: “President Obama’s new health care law calls for massive new spending and vastly expanded regulatory powers for the federal government,” noted Terry Miller and Kim R. Holmes, both editors for the Index.

3. The Frank-Dodd Act: Widely hailed as the “sweeping Wall Street reforms” needed to prevent another financial meltdown, it is ironic the bill has actually contributed to the nation’s economic decline, at least according to the Index of Economic Freedom.

4. Bureaucratic Regulations: The study’s authors specifically cited regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for America’s economic ranking decline.

5. Corporate Tax Rate: The study goes on to warn that the U.S. has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world. And because of reforms in Japan, that could change to the U.S having the highest rates.

6. Failure to pass free trade agreements: Read more

Six reasons America is only the ninth-most free economy in the world