The Fraser Institute has released its annual "Economic Freedom of the World" index, and the news is not good for the United States.

Washington Examiner:

The United States, ranked second in worldwide economic freedom as recently as 2000, has plummeted to 16th, according to a new report of world economies.

The Fraser Institute's annual report, Economic Freedom of the World, showed that the country's drop started in 2010, the second year of the Obama administration.

The world-recognized report showed that the U.S. fell in several areas, including legal and property rights and regulation.

"The United States, once considered a bastion of economic freedom, now ranks 16th in the world after being as high as second in 2000," said the report issued Monday morning.

The top 10: Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, Jordan, Ireland, Canada, with the United Kingdom and Chile tied at 10.

The analysis uses 42 variables to create an economic freedom rating of 157 countries based on the "size of government, legal structure and security of property rights, access to sound money, freedom to trade internationally, and regulation of credit, labor and business."

In a statement, Fred McMahon, Dr. Michael A. Walker Research Chair in Economic Freedom with the Fraser Institute, said, "A weakened rule of law, the so-called wars on terrorism and drugs, and a confused regulatory environment have helped erode economic freedom in the United States, which remains behind Canada and other more economically free countries such as Qatar, Jordan and the U.A.E."

"A weakened rule of law" points the finger directly at the president of the United States.  But if you were to ask President Obama for a comment on economic freedom and the preciptious slide in the U.S. ranking, he would no doubt tell us that there are more important things than "economic freedom."  There's "diversity, "fairness," "inclusion," and other catchwords of the left that have nothing to do with economics but everything to do with "transforming America."

Our plummeting rankings are not an accident.  It is a deliberate effort to give government more control over the economy so that various redistribution schemes can be implemented.  In the Obama economy, government is increasing its control of capital while giving free rein to departments and agencies to regulate business into the ground. 

Can you have any kind of freedom without economic freedom?  There are several authoritarian and monarchical governments ahead of us, so you can apparently have economic freedom with political oppression.  But political freedom and economic freedom usually walk hand in hand, and the fact that we have fallen from the second most economically free country in 2000 to the 16th today speaks volumes about what we're losing under this president.  Because at bottom, economic freedom allows the individual to live his own life, to care for his family according to his own lights.

There is no greater freedom than that.  And we're losing it under this president.