The United States, long considered a champion of economic
freedom, plunged to No. 18 in new rankings published in the 2012 Economic
Freedom of the World, an annual report co-authored by Florida State University
economics Professor James Gwartney.
The report is published by Canada’s Fraser Institute in
cooperation with institutes in 78 other nations and territories. The U.S.
publisher is the Cato Institute. The 2012 report, released on Sept. 18, uses 42
different variables derived from sources such as the World Bank and International
Monetary Fund to measure the degree to which the institutions and policies of
144 countries are consistent with economic freedom.