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-I’m here today to meet
with the authors

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of the Economic Freedom
of the World report

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report and to find out
about their process

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of measuring countries like Zambia.

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-Good to see you!

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-Good to see you!
-Thank you!

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-Gentlemen, thank you for joining me!

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What is this report
and how does it work?

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-Well, it’s really an effort
to view the world

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through the lense of opportunity
and control over one’s life.

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Essentially, institutions and policies
influence the opportunities

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that individuals have in terms of
choosing their own occupations,

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choosing entrepreneurial activities,

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engaging in trades with people,

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and perhaps most importantly,

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the opportunity to keep
what they earn.

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And we thought it would be
interesting to see how those changes

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affect the economic
freedom of people.

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-So, the idea was to try
to quantify this

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so we had to collect data
on a lot of countries,

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data from the World Bank, the IMF,
other reputable sources

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and then we put it all
into the computer,

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we worked on it for many many years.

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Jim had some health problems
and lost his eyesight so

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that set us back a little bit
but we persevered

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and after almost 7 or 8 years

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we finally came out
with a good report.

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-So, you are basically looking at
the kind of things

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that would give people
power over their incomes,

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their wealth, their jobs, the freedom
to start a business, to trade?

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-Precisely, precisely.

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-Guys, you’ve been using this report

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to rank countries
for the past 17 years.

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What have you learned from
the analysis of the data?

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-Well, one of the most important
things we learned is that

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countries that are
economically more free,

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grow more rapidly and achieve
higher income levels.

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And in fact, not just a little bit
higher income levels,

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but a lot higher income levels.

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For example, the per person income
of the highest quartile,

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the highest 1/4 of
economically free countries,

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is 7 times what the figure is
for the lowest group.

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So, that’s a huge difference.

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-But it’s not just about
rising incomes overall.

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It’s also about
the poorest of the poor.

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If we look at that bottom quartile,

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the poorest 10% of those societies

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have average incomes
of about $1,200 per capita.

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If we look at the upper quartile,
the most free quartile,

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they have average incomes
of over $11,000.

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Now, that’s not a lot to live on

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but it’s a whole lot
more than $1,200.

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-Since people work
their way out of poverty,

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that’s substantial improvement
in their quality of life.

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-It’s not just about
the quality of life.

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It’s about the quantity of life.

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If we look at the most free countries

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and compare them
to the least free countries,

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the most free countries have

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substantially higher life
expectancies … 18 years.

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-You know, a lot of that relationship
is probably driven by

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the fact that more free countries
have higher incomes,

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better sanitation, nutrition,
things like that.

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-You know, if you live
to be 80 versus 60,

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that’s the difference between
getting to know your grandkids,

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see your grandkids grow up,
see your great grandchildren.

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Economic freedom is… sure, it’s about
income, it’s about growth

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but it’s also about quality of life

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and knowing your grandkids or not.

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And if you have more
economic freedom,

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you have a better chance
of knowing your grandkids

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and that’s more important,
or as important,

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as how many cars are in the driveway
and things like that.

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-For over 30 years, the United States
was around 3rd place

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but in this latest report
the US is at 19.

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[music playing]

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-Why, what happened?

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-Well, the biggest single factor
contributing to the US decline

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is the decline in
the legal structure area

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and protection of property rights,

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from the wars on drugs and terror

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to the more widespread
use of eminent domain

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to take property from one party
and transfer it to another,

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to the auto bailout

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which tended to undermine
the property rights of bondholders.

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-Well, generally,
the economic freedom index

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is showing a rise of economic
freedom around the world

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but only a handful
of countries are decreasing.

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-Some people object
to economic freedom

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because they think it’s
just freedom for the well-off,

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for the big businesses and for those
who already have power.

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What’s your take on that?

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-I think if you look at the US

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in response to, kind of,
the financial crisis, what did we get,

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we got greater concentration
in the banking industry,

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it’s harder to be a local bank,
local Savings & Loan.

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The banking interest
and banking lobbyists

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used the opportunity
of the financial crisis

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to solidify their position
in the marketplace.

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So, that’s not economic
freedom, right…

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That’s antithetical
to economic freedom.

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-All those lobbyists
that those corporations hire

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and they send
to the national capital,

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they’re not arguing
for more economic freedom.

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They’re arguing for less, they are
arguing for special privileges.

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-Oppression of economic
freedom...it’s kind of subtle

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and it goes under the radar,
and fewer people notice it,

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and that’s what makes it
very difficult to defend.

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-That’s the beautiful
thing about this

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Economic Freedom of the World report.

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It makes these trends visible,
it tells us where to look,

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it gets us talking about it,
and that’s why we do this.

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-That’s why you do this.

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That’s why I write about it
and that’s why we talk about it.

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Guys, thank you so much

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for sharing your thoughts
and your work on this.

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-Thank you.