Australia is the only country out of the world’s 20 most prosperous nations to experience a drop in prosperity since 2007:
That’s one of the findings of the Legatum Prosperity Index 2016 released this month and it is due to our ‘growing protectionism, falling economic diversity, and a more inflexible labour market’. The Index measures categories such as personal freedom, the economy and business environment.
But the Index isn’t all bad news. Global prosperity is 3% higher, global prosperity inequality is falling (page 11) and Commonwealth nations are more prosperousthan the global average (page 8). Full report here.
Former Special Assistant for Foreign Affairs in the Reagan administration, Chuck DeVore from the Texas Public Policy Foundation, is in Australia as a guest of the IPA. Watch him on The Bolt Report on Tuesday talking about the Trump transition team and (at 7:22) the IPA’s Criminal Justice Project:
Last week The Washington Post asked readers to share why they voted for Trump – their responses are compelling. Spiked on Monday detailed the temper tantrumsover Trump taking place on American college campuses, including a ‘cry-in’ at Cornell, a ‘primal scream’ at Yale and the cancellation of exams at the University of Michigan. (This video of the primal scream is pretty funny).
As reported on Reason on Tuesday, the US Libertarian Party just became the first nationally organised party in American history, apart from the Republicans and Democrats, to reach half a million registered voters.
What do Bruce Springsteen, Rosa Parks and Lech Walesa have in common? They are all recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Yesterday, President Obama’s list of the 21 new recipients of America’s highest civilian honour included Springsteen, Ellen DeGeneres and Robert De Niro.
Last week, the ruling party in Spain appeared to announce they wish to ban political memes. Lol! What kind of mature democracy censors political satire?…oh.
And CapX reported last Friday that gender-equal snow ploughing is causing chaos in Stockholm.
If you’re in Melbourne next Tuesday, the Australian Adam Smith Club is hosting free speech campaigner Peter Fenwick who will be discussing the Bill Leak case. Details here.
Article of the week
You may have noticed that many Americans are unhappy with the election of Donald Trump. Kevin Williamson in National Review on Sunday doesn’t refrain from saying ‘I told you so’ when arguing that ‘not liking the President’ may drive renewed support for limits on executive power from the left.
IPA Staff Pick
Each week an IPA staff member shares what they have enjoyed recently. Today: Scott Hargreaves
As a former staffer in the Kennett government, I can appreciate the ‘carpe diem’ theme of Victor Davis Hanson’s advice for Donald Trump in National Review on Tuesday.
Here’s what else the IPA said this week:
- Aaron Lane, Public service perks don’t pass the pub test – The Sydney Morning Herald
- Simon Breheny, 18C repeal the only solution on freedom of speech – The Australian
- Georgina Downer, Donald Trump will lead the US in the right direction. We should take note –The Sydney Morning Herald
- Brett Hogan, Ensuring a future for Australian coal fired power stations – Submission to the Senate Environment and Communications Committee
- Simon Breheny, Wanted: another Asia pivot – Wall Street Journal Video with Mark Kissel
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