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Wall Street History
https://www.gofundme.com/s3h2w8
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06/02/2006
Spreading the Wealth?
With OPEC in the news as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez hosts the latest meeting among the eleven members of the oil cartel, I thought we’d take a look at some relevant statistics, none of which are particularly positive for OPEC nations.
Index of Economic Freedom
Put out by The Heritage Foundation [heritage.org], ‘economic freedom’ is defined as “the absence of government coercion or constraint on the production, distribution, or consumption of goods and services beyond the extent necessary for citizens to protect and maintain liberty itself. In other words, people are free to work, produce, consume, and invest in the ways they feel are most productive.”
The Heritage Foundation then equally weights ten factors:
Trade policy Fiscal burden of government Government intervention in the economy Monetary policy Capital flows and foreign investment Banking and finance Wages and prices Property rights Regulation Informal market activity
Following are 2006 selected rankings (161 countries)
1. Hong Kong 2. Singapore 3. Ireland 4. Luxembourg 5 (tie). Iceland United Kingdom 7. Estonia 8. Denmark 9 (tie). Australia New Zealand United States
Rank of OPEC’s 11 member states
50. Kuwait 62. Saudi Arabia 65. United Arab Emirates 78. Qatar 119. Algeria 134. Indonesia 146. Nigeria 152 (tie). Libya Venezuela 156. Iran Unranked Iraq
The rank for leading non-OPEC oil ‘exporters’
5. United Kingdom 12. Canada 30. Norway 60. Mexico 122. Russia
GDP per capita [2005 est.]
G-7 [Russia further below]
United States ..$42,000 Canada .........32,900 United Kingdom ..30,900 Japan 30,700 France ..30,000 Germany ..29,800 Italy ..28,400
World .....9,300
OPEC
UAE ....$29,100 Qatar .....26,100 Kuwait ..22,800 Saudi Arabia .....12,900 Libya .......8,400 Iran ..8,100 Algeria .....7,200 Venezuela ....6,500 Indonesia .3,700 Iraq ..3,400 Nigeria .....1,000
Others (major producers or users of oil)
South Korea .$20,400 Russia 10,700 Mexico ...10,100 Brazil ....8,400 China ....6,300 India .....3,400
So you look at all this and it’s pretty easy to draw some major conclusions; most oil producing nations have failed to take advantage of soaring revenues the past few years and there is a crying need to reform their economies, which should then lead to the needed diversification and a better life for the people.
[Source for the above statistics: CIA World Factbook / cia.gov; Energy Information Administration]
Wall Street History will return next week.
Brian Trumbore
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