Five Cheers for Economic Optimism

• John Vandivier

This article presents three reasons the economy is doing better than most people realize, and will continue to do so on average over time.

  1. The Economic Freedom Index for the world is at an all-time high.
    1. And it's higher now than when it began on the world as a whole and in the US and Europe in particular.
  2. A good historical explanation for the deterioration of laissez faire communities is that they end up getting stomped on by a big army. A few excpetions spawned new countries, such as the USA. Weaponry is getting cheaper.
  3. Spain's government is doing nothing and Spain's economy is growing.
    1. A nice empirical point in favor of laissez faire.
  4. The economy is better than people think.