The United States has fallen from the top 10 of economically free countries according to the 2014 Index of Economic Freedom.
The Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal released the results of the report that evaluated countries in 10 categories including fiscal soundness, property rights, government size and freedom from corruption.
The United States has peaked in 2006 when it was considered economically free but has fallen into the “mostly free” category of the report. The U.S. tumbled to 12th behind Denmark and Estonia. The drop was attributed to the Obama administration’s continuing shackling of large parts of the economy with regulations and the onerous health care law. Runaway government spending was also cited as a big reason for the decline of the U.S.
Hong Kong continued their run at #1 on the list followed by five other countries that are considered “economically free”: Singapore, Australia, Switzerland, New Zealand and Canada.
The bottom five in the rankings were Eritrea, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Cuba and North Korea.
