This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, September 18, 2012.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Today marks the release of the Economic Freedom of the World Index, and once once again it has bad news for the

United States. The US has fallen from among the very top nations in economic

freedom to an overall 18th. James Guartney helps prepare the report.

We spoke yesterday.

The United States is the country that of course we care about most in terms of economic

freedom because it is the country that has for so long

been sort of a beacon of economic freedom around the world.

Where is the United States as of this latest report?

Well, interestingly, the U.S. has been in a decline since 2000s over the last decade.

And we had fallen by 2005, had fallen to 8th place, and by 2008 to 10th and in this most recent report the

US has fallen to 18th and by putting that in context in the period 1980 to 2000 the US ranked third all during that

period behind only Hong Kong and Singapore. We moved foul to where countries like Canada and New Zealand and Australia were ahead of us for a period of time, but now we've followed where countries like Finland and Denmark

for example European welfare states now rank ahead of the United States.

Now the United States is as I I understand it, following a general trend of declining economic liberty.

Is that the case?

That's correct.

And over the last decade, that actually economic freedom in the United States increased in the 1980s and the 1990s and

and since 2000 it's it's fallen quite really quite dramatically and particularly in terms of the rating has fallen a full point.

Now that may not sound like very much but it's our components are on a 0 to 10 scale

and the summary index in which we fall in nearly a full point in the last decade ranges

...