After eight years of the regulation-happy Obama administration, the United States has undergone a huge slide into the 17th most economically free country in the world, according to the Heritage Foundation’s 2017 Index of Economic Freedom.
Under president Obama, the federal government issued over 600 major regulations, costing the U.S. economy hundreds of millions of dollars. Those regulations were placed on top of the 426 regulations introduced under eight years of George W. Bush.
Although Obama left the Oval Office confident in his legacy as a positive attribute to the U.S. economy, the proof which lies in the pudding couldn’t be anymore contradicting.
For the 9th time in past ten years, the United States has become less economically free.
According to the Heritage Foundation’s 2017 index, the U.S. ranks 17th out of 180 rated economies, trailing behind economies such as Switzerland (4th), Australia (5th), Chile (10th), and the United Kingdom (12th).
The “land of the free” was placed into the “mostly free” category, the second-tier economic freedom status into which it dropped in 2010.
In 2016, the U.S. ranked 11th in economic freedom.

As political and business elite gather at the Swiss ski resort of Davos, a new report is shining light on the shocking reality of the wealth gap between the very rich and poor that is “pull our societies apart.”
A report by Oxfam released ahead the World Economic Forum in Davos shows the gap between the ultra-wealthy and the poorest half of the global population is starker than previously thought, with just eight men owning as much wealth as 3.6 billion people. And since 2015, the richest 1 per cent has owned more wealth than the rest of the planet.
The report urges the elite to address the problem, warning that public anger against this kind of inequality will continue to grow and cause more political firestorms such as the election of populist Donald Trump as U.S. president or Brexit.
“From Brexit to the success of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, a worrying rise in racism and the widespread disillusionment with mainstream politics, there are increasing signs that more and more people in rich countries are no longer willing to tolerate the status quo,” Oxfam said in its new report.