Chart of the day

Source

Index of Economic Freedom of the World 2023: The ten top countries

Is it not curious how many small countries are among them?
Would you have expected to find Denmark among them?
Source

Singapore Takes Top Spot in Economic Freedom Report

Bravo Singapore!

"Hong Kong is no longer number one, according to the Economic Freedom of the World: 2023 Annual Report, released today by the Fraser Institute and co‐​published in the United States by the Cato Institute. As Hong Kong’s ratings declined, Singapore increased its score and edged the Chinese territory out for the top spot.

The report finds that the Chinese government imposed “new and significant barriers to entry” in Hong Kong and otherwise increased the costs of doing business there. The rule of law also saw a deterioration, contributing to the city’s decline.

Other countries ranked as follows:
United States (5),
Canada (10),
Taiwan (11),
Japan (20),
Chile (30),
France (47),
Mexico (68),
India (87),
Turkey (101),
Russia (104),
China (111),
Egypt (144),
Argentina (158),
Zimbabwe (164),
Venezuela (165). ..."

New Economic Freedom Report: Hong Kong Falls from Top Spot | Cato at Liberty Blog

Fraser Institute: Economic Freedom of the World: 2022 Annual Report released

Even within the countries of Europe economic freedom is not common!

The Fraser Institute also remarked in their introduction: "... Between 1970 and 2017, Canada ranked in the top 10 most economically free countries in the world every year except for one.

Unfortunately, we've remained outside of the top 10 since [2017].

In this year’s report, Canada ranks 14th based on 2020 data (the most recent available). ..."

That Hong Kong is still listed at No. 1 is a bit of a bad joke since Communist China annexed Hong Kong in 2020/21. Yes, this report is based on 2020 data, but ...

Economic Freedom of the World: 2022 Annual Report | Fraser Institute

Que Vadis Switzerland?

Posted: 6/23/2019  Updated: 7/1/2019

Update Of 7/1/2019

In my original post below, I overlooked to mention that the Swiss people apparently are also more willing to make severe and detrimental concessions to the gun control obsessed EU (S1). 

More recently, the EU is forcing its stricter capital markets and stock exchange rules on Switzerland. Unfortunately, it seems Switzerland is again caving in! 

Original Post

I have been in awe for decades about this little country Switzerland that managed so well to survive in peace for several hundreds of years. Stories like the famous Wilhelm Tell and the Rütlischwur are still resonating today.

Switzerland A Paragon In More Than One Way

Let’s briefly remind us again why Switzerland is so important to the world:

1. Switzerland is a paragon of limited and small government: E.g. Switzerland has consistently one of the lowest levels of government spending as a share of the economy among the OECD countries
2. Switzerland is a paragon of federalism and decentralized government power: The Swiss have genuine federalism and decentralized government
3. Switzerland is a paragon of self defense: Switzerland has one of the highest gun ownership rate in the world. It also has one of the lowest lowest homicide rate in the world 
4. Switzerland is a living laboratory of direct democracy. Referenda are frequent and the outcomes are in most cases very reasonable 
5. Switzerland has been for centuries a master of reason, common sense, and pragmatism in politics

Too Many Things Went Wrong

But all is not well in recent times with this small country to my great dismay.

Switzerland has succumbed to too many really bad compromises to please e.g. the U.S. or the European Union:

1. The famous Swiss bank secrecy law was watered down
2. The hegemon EU has directly or indirectly imposed lots of its burdensome regulations on Switzerland. Most recently, the Swiss voted for tighter gun control in a referendum

I have previously blogged about Switzerland here, here. I had planned a few more posts on Switzerland in the past, but never got around it. Therefore, e.g. some of my sources below are a bit dated.

Giving Up Economic Freedom For What!

Over the last two or three decades, Switzerland has unnecessarily given up substantial economic freedoms to conform with EU laws and regulations that are actually stifling economic freedom (see S3). It is totally incomprehensible that the citizens of Switzerland agreed to this subjugation! Wilhelm Tell is spinning in his grave!

“Dieses Recht [EU Recht] ist oft unternehmensfeindlich und schützt einseitig die Konsumenten, die Anleger und die Arbeitnehmer.” (S3; translated: The law of the EU is often adversarial to businesses and biased in protecting consumers, stockholders, and employees)

Abuse Of Direct Democracy

There are reports that the famous direct democracy in Switzerland has been perverted to promote the expansion of centralized government and a larger socialist welfare state in Switzerland (S2).

One of the reasons reported why it was possible to subvert the direct democracy in Switzerland is the low threshold of initiating a referendum, which used to be for many years 100,000 signatures (S2).

Swiss Bank Secrecy

Finally, it seems it dawns on the Swiss people how foolish they were to give in to pressure from the U.S. and Europe to relax the famous bank secrecy laws in Switzerland.

It appears it was in particular the most unlawful U.S. president since Nixon and the most socialist U.S. president since Franklin D. Roosevelt, i.e. Barack Obama, who pushed the Swiss over using means like extortion! What a disgrace for the Switzerland! (see S4). As the author of Source No. 4 points out this was a complete disaster for Switzerland! Not only that, e.g. the Isle of Man (a notorious tax haven) fought back much more effectively than Switzerland! It would have served Switzerland so much better to oppose this pretentious President Obama full force!

Apparently, Switzerland had several so called whistle blowers that purportedly exposed the illegal dealings of Swiss banks! Here again, the Swiss failed to defend their businesses!

Sure a significant number of infamous and lesser known, bloody dictators and their cronies have hidden their ill gotten money in Switzerland. On the other hand, many honest and reasonable people were able to protect their assets by moving them to Switzerland!

Sources (S):

1. Why the Swiss Voted for More Gun Control (published 6/19/2019)
2. Die Schweiz: Freiheit oder Mehrheitsdiktatur? (published Nov. 2018)
3. Verteidigung der freiheitlichen Wirtschaftsordnung Das internationale Recht beeinflusst zunehmend die Wirtschaftspolitik. Die Selbstbestimmungsinitiative gibt hier Gegensteuer (published 4/13/2015)
4. Geschichte eines kollektiven Versagens Zwar war der internationale Druck enorm, trotzdem ist die Schweiz am Ausgang der Affäre um das Bankgeheimnis selber schuld. Eine kritische Aufarbeitung tut not. (6/15/2015)
5. Die Schweiz spielt mit dem Feuer (7/1/19)