WHAT WILL THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION SAY ABOUT HONG KONG NOW?

I noted before that Heritage ranked Hong Kong #1 in the world for economic freedom yet it is still far from being a democracy. Here's a little more evidence that Heritage will have to spin.

China warns again against Hong Kong democracy push
Mar 7 03:24 AM US/Eastern
By MIN LEE
Associated Press Writer

HONG KONG (AP) - China has warned that a plan by pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong to use a special election as a de facto referendum on democratic reform is a threat to stability in the former British colony.

While Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997, it maintains a separate political system and enjoys Western-style civil liberties typically denied on the mainland. But Beijing has continued to deny full democracy. Hong Kong's leader is chosen by an 800-member committee stacked with pro-China figures and its legislature is half elected, half picked by special interest groups.

ACCORDING TO THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION,

Hong Kong has the freest market economy in the world.  Here' s the flip side:

Hong Kong's poor live in stacked metal cages
AP/ February 7, 2013, 6:07 AM

HONG KONG For many of the richest people in Hong Kong, one of Asia's wealthiest cities, home is a mansion with an expansive view from the heights of Victoria Peak. For some of the poorest, like Leung Cho-yin, home is a metal cage.

The 67-year-old former butcher pays 1,300 Hong Kong dollars ($167) a month for one of about a dozen wire mesh cages resembling rabbit hutches crammed into a dilapidated apartment in a gritty, working-class West Kowloon neighborhood.

In his inaugural policy speech in January, the chief executive said the inability of the middle class to buy homes posed a threat to social stability and promised to make it a priority to tackle the housing shortage.

"Many families have to move into smaller or older flats, or even factory buildings," he said. "Cramped living space in cage homes, cubicle apartments and sub-divided flats has become the reluctant choice for tens of thousands of Hong Kong people," he said, as he unveiled plans to boost supply of public housing in the medium term from its current level of 15,000 apartments a year.

REMEMBER HOW HERITAGE RANKED HONG KONG #1?

That was for "economic freedom" but there's another area where Hong Kong is also formidable: air pollution.

Hong Kong Air Kills More Than SARS, Pressuring Tsang
By John Duce - Oct 7, 2010 5:44 PM MT
Bloomberg News

Hong Kong’s record roadside air pollution is prompting health and business groups to step up pressure on Chief Executive Donald Tsang, saying the blight kills more people annually than the SARS outbreak did in 2003.

As Tsang prepares to give his annual policy address next week, figures updated daily by the University of Hong Kong’s School of Public Health show air pollution this year may kill more than twice the 299 who died during the SARS epidemic.

The obvious question: Why hasn't the "free market" taken care of this problem by now?

MONDAY TIDBITS

- It's a shame that we won't have miserable bitch Lynn Cheney to kick around as much because she's decided to drop out of the Wyoming Senate race against GOP incumbent Mike Enzi.  Although it was very likely, it would have been a big plus for the Democrats if this wackadoodle had beaten Enzi in the primary.

- Why is it that the banksters only get fines instead of prison time?  JP Morgan is reported to settle with the Feds over it's abetting of Bernie Madoff.  The amount is supposed to be about $2 Billion so total fines for banksters since 2007 is approaching $90 Billion and we haven't gotten the full impact of the LIBOR & FOREX fines.

- Hong Kong has been rated #1 by the Heritage Foundation for economic freedom but contrary to wingnut beliefs, that doesn't automatically mean political freedom:

Thousands march in Hong Kong in escalating battle for democracy
Wed, Jan 01 05:19 AM EST

By James Pomfret

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Thousands protested in Hong Kong on Wednesday pressing China to allow full democracy in the city as a battle intensifies over Beijing's attempts to control the outcome of a planned direct election for the city's leader in 2017.

Protesters at the annual New Year's Day democracy rally shouted slogans demanding full democracy in 2017, with a key condition being the open nominations of candidates so that anyone, including China critics, can run for office.

But Chinese officials and leftist newspapers have rejected that, citing the city's mini-constitution that states all nominees must be endorsed by a 1,200-strong election committee, which is stacked with Beijing loyalists.

THE WORLD BANK AGREES WITH THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION

The Heritage Foundation has regularly rated Hong Kong's economy as the freest in the world and that points out that democracy and free markets don't really have that much in common. 

Now, the World Bank has done an analysis of the best countries for business and Hong Kong is near the top.  Here's the entire list, courtesy of the WSJ:

Country	2015	2014	Change since prior year
Singapore	1	1	0
New Zealand	2	2	0
Hong Kong SAR, China	3	3	0
Denmark	4	4	0
Korea, Rep	5	5	0
Norway	6	6	0
United States	7	7	0
United Kingdom	8	9	1
Finland	9	8	-1
Australia	10	10	0
Sweden	11	12	1
Iceland	12	11	-1
Ireland	13	17	4
Germany	14	13	-1
Georgia	15	14	-1
Canada	16	15	-1
Estonia	17	16	-1
Malaysia	18	20	2
Taiwan, China	19	18	-1
Switzerland	20	22	2
Austria	21	19	-2
United Arab Emirates	22	25	3
Latvia	23	21	-2
Lithuania	24	24	0
Portugal	25	23	-2
Thailand	26	28	2
Netherlands	27	26	-1
Mauritius	28	29	1
Japan	29	27	-2
Macedonia, FYR	30	31	1
France	31	33	2
Poland	32	30	-2
Spain	33	32	-1
Colombia	34	53	19
Peru	35	34	-1
Montenegro	36	42	6
Slovak Republic	37	35	-2
Bulgaria	38	36	-2
Mexico	39	43	4
Israel	40	38	-2
Chile	41	39	-2
Belgium	42	40	-2
South Africa	43	37	-6
Czech Republic	44	47	3
Armenia	45	49	4
Rwanda	46	48	2
Puerto Rico (U.S.)	47	41	-6
Romania	48	50	2
Saudi Arabia	49	44	-5
Qatar	50	45	-5
Slovenia	51	46	-5
Panama	52	55	3
Bahrain	53	53	0
Hungary	54	58	4
Turkey	55	51	-4
Italy	56	52	-4
Belarus	57	57	0
Jamaica	58	85	27
Luxembourg	59	59	0
Tunisia	60	56	-4
Greece	61	65	4
Russian Federation	62	64	2
Moldova	63	82	19
Cyprus	64	62	-2
Croatia	65	67	2
Oman	66	60	-6
Samoa	67	61	-6
Albania	68	108	40
Tonga	69	63	-6
Ghana	70	69	-1
Morocco	71	68	-3
Mongolia	72	70	-2
Guatemala	73	71	-2
Botswana	74	66	-8
Kosovo	75	81	6
Vanuatu	76	75	-1
Kazakhstan	77	76	-1
Vietnam	78	72	-6
Trinidad and Tobago	79	91	12
Azerbaijan	80	88	8
Fiji	81	73	-8
Uruguay	82	74	-8
Costa Rica	83	78	-5
Dominican Republic	84	84	0
Seychelles	85	87	2
Kuwait	86	79	-7
Solomon Islands	87	97	10
Namibia	88	80	-8
Antigua and Barbuda	89	83	-6
China	90	93	3
Serbia	91	77	-14
Paraguay	92	92	0
San Marino	93	89	-4
Malta	94	90	-4
Philippines	95	86	-9
Ukraine	96	112	16
Dominica	97	94	-3
Bahamas, The	97	96	-1
Sri Lanka	99	105	6
St. Lucia	100	95	-5
Brunei Darussalam	101	98	-3
Kyrgyz Republic	102	99	-3
St. Vincent and the Grenadines	103	101	-2
Honduras	104	100	-4
Lebanon	104	102	-2
Barbados	106	103	-3
Bosnia and Herzegovina	107	104	-3
Nepal	108	109	1
El Salvador	109	106	-3
Swaziland	110	111	1
Zambia	111	107	-4
Egypt, Arab Rep	112	113	1
Palau	113	110	-3
Indonesia	114	117	3
Ecuador	115	115	0
Maldives	116	114	-2
Jordan	117	116	-1
Belize	118	119	1
Nicaragua	119	126	7
Brazil	120	123	3
St. Kitts and Nevis	121	120	-1
Cabo Verde	122	118	-4
Guyana	123	121	-2
Argentina	124	124	0
Bhutan	125	122	-3
Grenada	126	125	-1
Mozambique	127	142	15
Pakistan	128	127	-1
Lesotho	128	128	0
Iran, Islamic Rep	130	132	2
Tanzania	131	130	-1
Ethiopia	132	129	-3
Papua New Guinea	133	131	-2
Kiribati	134	133	-1
Cambodia	135	134	-1
Kenya	136	137	1
Yemen, Rep	137	135	-2
Gambia, The	138	144	6
Marshall Islands	139	136	-3
Sierra Leone	140	140	0
Uzbekistan	141	149	8
India	142	140	-2
West Bank and Gaza	143	139	-4
Gabon	144	138	-6
Micronesia, Fed. Sts	145	145	0
Mali	146	143	-3
Côte d'Ivoire	147	158	11
Lao PDR	148	155	7
Togo	149	164	15
Uganda	150	152	2
Benin	151	167	16
Burundi	152	150	-2
São Tomé and Príncipe	153	160	7
Algeria	154	147	-7
Djibouti	155	154	-1
Iraq	156	146	-10
Bolivia	157	151	-6
Cameroon	158	148	-10
Comoros	159	156	-3
Sudan	160	153	-7
Senegal	161	171	10
Suriname	162	159	-3
Madagascar	163	157	-6
Malawi	164	163	-1
Equatorial Guinea	165	162	-3
Tajikistan	166	177	11
Burkina Faso	167	161	-6
Niger	168	165	-3
Guinea	169	169	0
Nigeria	170	175	5
Zimbabwe	171	172	1
Timor-Leste	172	174	2
Bangladesh	173	170	-3
Liberia	174	168	-6
Syrian Arab Republic	175	165	-10
Mauritania	176	173	-3
Myanmar	177	178	1
Congo, Rep	178	179	1
Guinea-Bissau	179	176	-3
Haiti	180	181	1
Angola	181	180	-1
Venezuela, RB	182	183	1
Afghanistan	183	182	-1
Congo, Dem. Rep	184	184	0
Chad	185	185	0
South Sudan	186	187	1
Central African Republic	187	186	-1
Libya	188	188	0
Eritrea	189	189	0

I HOPE THIS GOES VIRAL

I have previously used the Heritage Foundations annual ranking of countries by "economic freedom" to show that socialism and economic freedom are compatible (here, here, and here) and now Think Progress has taken the same approach:

1. Hong Kong: The semi-autonomous city inside China has a universal, publicly run health care system: about 80 percent of Hong Kong hospitals are government owned and operated. While private supplemental insurance is available, it’s more expensive than public services.
2. Singapore: Singapore is often cited as a free-market health care system that works. But one of the centerpieces of the Singaporean model, as conservative David Frum notes, is a government mandate requiring citizens to place a certain percentage of their income in “medical savings accounts” to ensure they can pay for routine health care costs out of pocket (when their income is inadequate to pay, the government pays direct subsidies a la Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion). Hardly seems consistent with DeMint’s point that health care mandates are “slippery slopes” towards the death of freedom.
3. Australia: Australia has a single-payer system in which, like Canada, doctors are privately employed but all Australians are eligible for insurance coverage through a government-run provider called Medicare.
4. New Zealand: The Kiwi government has made most services free or nearly free to all residents; the government covers roughly 80 percent of national health care expenditures and directly owns and operates about half of all health care services in the country.
5. Switzerland: This Swiss system is closer to the American health plan post-Obamacare than most other national systems; Switzerland has both privately owned health care and privately-provided insurance together with an individual mandate to purchase health insurance. Interestingly, Swiss insurers are legally prohibited from profiting on the basic, mandatory insurance package.
6. Canada: Our northern neighbor is, of course, the most famous example of a single payer system in the United States.
7. Chile: Like Singapore, Chile mandates that individuals pay into health savings accounts to cover health care costs and supplements the accounts of poor Chileans. It also has both publicly and privately run health care services.
8. Mauritius: A tiny island nation in the Indian ocean, Mauritius has government-run health services that cover roughly 70 percent of the country’s health expenditures, with private supplemental practices making up the remainder. All government health services are provided free of charge to Mauritian citizens, which has helped the country improve quality of life for its citizens markedly in the past two decades.
9. Denmark: As in Mauritius or the United Kingdom, the Danish government owns and operates the vast majority of the health care system.

ROGUE IRS AGENTS ATTACK HONG KONG WITH N. KOREAN SUBMARINE

Well, why not?

Giant Rubber Duck Found Deflated Under Mysterious Circumstances

The world-famous 54-foot-tall "Rubber Duck" that's been seen floating in bodies of water all around the globe has met an untimely, albeit temporary demise in the rough waves of Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour.

ECONOMIC FREEDOM AND SOCIALISM

I've noted before that the Heritage Foundation ranks Hong King and Singapore #1 and #2 in economic freedom and pointed out that for Hong Kong, this means that economic freedom does not imply political freedom.  I also pointed out that 6 of the top ten countries are modern welfare states  and that contradicts the standard conservative argument that socialism reduces economic freedom.

Thanx to Matt Yglesias, I can now add Singapore to list of welfare states that have a high economic freedom rank.  Singapore has a mandatory government run program for retirement savings called the Central Provident Fund , which is an enhanced version of our own Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs.

THE NEXT TIME CONSERVATIVES COMPLAIN ABOUT COLLEGE STUDENTS

Remind them that the students in Hong Kong and Tiananmen Square did more to support democracy than the entire conservative movement since 1980.

THE COST SO FAR...

In addition to the $510 billion the banks have written off, the U.S. government has also pumped in 100s of billions:

Fed rescues AIG, Barclays buys Lehman U.S. unit
Wed Sep 17, 2008 5:26am EDT
By Tony Munroe

HONG KONG (Reuters) - U.S. authorities engineered an $85 billion rescue of insurance giant American International Group Inc, staving off bankruptcy and bringing a measure of calm to shell-shocked global markets.

The bailout, made amid a cataclysmic week for the financial sector, marks a reversal of Washington's vow not to step in and calls for the U.S. Federal Reserve to lend up to $85 billion to AIG for two years in exchange for a 79.9 percent equity stake.

AIG's bailout brings to about $900 billion the total of U.S. rescue efforts to stabilize the financial system and housing market.

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER BANKSTER SCAM IS REVEALED

(h/t Atrios)

The system of modern high-finance needs a complete overhaul.

Leaked files show that the HSBC chief executive was a client of the bank’s Swiss subsidiary at the centre of the scandal.

James Ball, Juliette Garside, David Pegg and Harry Davies
Sunday 22 February 2015 16.03 EST
THE GUARDIAN

Stuart Gulliver, the HSBC chief executive who has vowed to reform the crisis-hit bank, sheltered millions of pounds in a Swiss account through a Panamanian company and remains tax domiciled in Hong Kong.

Leaked files show that the Derby-born Gulliver, who is due to present HSBC’s annual report on Monday in the wake of the international controversy over its Geneva-based private bank, was also one of its clients, holding about £5m in a Swiss account.

The bank executive was listed as the beneficial owner of an account in the name of Worcester Equities Inc, an anonymous company registered in Panama, containing a balance in 2007 of $7.6m. It was through this entity that Gulliver’s HSBC bonuses were paid until 2003. He also held a second account in the name of Worcester Foundation, which had been closed before 2007.

The documents, covering 2005-07, detailed how the private bank was complicit in tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance, doled out bricks of cash in mixed currencies to clients, and provided banking services to criminals, drug smugglers, and friends and families of dictators.

HERITAGE'S TOP 10 COUNTRIES FOR ECONOMIC FREEDOM

You can find the entire list here and the top 10 here.  The U.S. is ranked 9th and the first 8 are Hong Kong and Singapore followed by Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Canada, Ireland and Denmark.

Notice that 3 through 8 are all Social Democracies in the Western European sense, something the wingnuts say would destroy America's economy.

MORE BONUS PROBLEMS

Nomura bought part of Lehman Bros. and somehow the American MOTU managed to snooker Nomura just as AIGFP snookered the American tax payer. Here it's not the case that they are in the same corporate culture, so how do these people do it?

Tension simmers at Nomura as Lehman bonuses loom
Fri Mar 27, 2009 3:14am EDT
By Michael Flaherty

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Things are getting tense at Japanese brokerage Nomura Holdings. ...Nomura, which bought Lehman's Asian, European and Middle Eastern divisions in a bid to raise its global profile and get instant access to places like China, Dubai and London.

Nomura offered a lucrative incentive plan just as the financial industry hit its worst downturn in recent memory.

The plan: a guarantee they would earn their 2007 bull market salary and bonus. That would add up in many cases to more than $3 million apiece, depending on which department they worked in, sources said.

Some guarantees were offered for 2-3 years, they added.

SEN. GREGG NEEDS A NEW PHRASE

and probably a few courses in macro-economics.

Gregg: U.S. could be on path to a 'banana republic' situation
Posted: October 18th, 2009 03:08 PM ET

From CNN Associate Producer Martina Stewart

WASHINGTON (CNN) – A leading fiscal mind on Capitol Hill and a one-time Obama Cabinet pick sounded the alarm Sunday over the projected long-term financial challenges the country faces.

The figures, Gregg told King, “mean we’re basically on the path to a banana-republic-type of financial situation in this country. And you just can’t do that. You can’t keep running these [federal] programs out [into the future] and not paying for them. And you can’t keep throwing debt on top of debt.”

According to the CIA's World Fact Book, in 2007 our national debt was 60.80% of GDP and in 2008, Mexico's was 19.30%. Who do you think has the better economy?

Here's the complete table:

1 Zimbabwe 259.40
2 Japan 173.00
3 Lebanon 164.30
4 Jamaica 109.60
5 Italy 105.90
6 Singapore 99.20
7 Greece 97.40
8 Sudan 93.50
9 Belgium 89.10
10 Egypt 85.90
11 Seychelles 82.10
12 Bhutan 81.40
13 Iceland 80.90
14 Israel 78.00
15 Sri Lanka 76.70
16 Hungary 68.60
17 France 68.10
18 Portugal 66.40
19 Germany 64.40
20 Canada 63.80
21 Ghana 62.30
22 Jordan 62.30
23 India 61.30
24 United States 60.80
25 Cote d'Ivoire 60.30
26 Austria 60.20
27 Morocco 59.70
28 Uruguay 59.70
29 Kenya 58.30
30 Netherlands 58.20
31 Mauritius 56.60
32 Philippines 56.30
33 Nicaragua 53.20
34 United Kingdom 52.00
35 Albania 51.90
36 Pakistan 49.80
37 Cyprus 49.10
38 Malawi 48.90
39 Argentina 48.40
40 Tunisia 48.40
41 Croatia 46.80
42 Aruba 46.30
43 Vietnam 45.50
44 Panama 45.30
45 Poland 45.20
46 Norway 44.20
47 El Salvador 42.90
48 Colombia 42.80
49 United Arab Emirates 42.30
50 Costa Rica 42.20
51 Ireland 41.80
52 Malaysia 41.20
53 Bolivia 41.00
54 Switzerland 40.90
55 Spain 40.30
56 Bosnia and Herzegovina 40.00
57 Turkey 40.00
58 Montenegro 38.00
59 Thailand 37.90
60 Dominican Republic 37.30
61 Papua New Guinea 37.20
62 Serbia 37.00
63 Brazil 36.90
64 Sweden 36.70
65 Cuba 35.80
66 Bangladesh 34.50
67 Yemen 34.40
68 Ethiopia 34.10
69 Finland 33.40
70 Denmark 33.30
71 South Africa 31.60
72 Macedonia 30.60
73 Taiwan 29.80
74 Zambia 29.50
75 Bahrain 28.90
76 Slovakia 28.70
77 Indonesia 28.60
78 Czech Republic 26.80
79 Ecuador 26.70
80 Syria 26.70
81 Trinidad and Tobago 26.10
82 New Zealand 24.60
83 Korea, South 24.40
84 Peru 24.00
85 Guatemala 23.60
86 Tanzania 23.60
87 Paraguay 23.20
88 Slovenia 23.00
89 Namibia 22.70
90 Moldova 22.50
91 Honduras 21.60
92 Mozambique 21.40
93 Venezuela 20.40
94 Gabon 19.80
95 Iran 19.70
96 Latvia 19.50
97 Mexico 19.30
98 Saudi Arabia 18.90
99 Uganda 17.40
100 Senegal 16.40
101 China 16.20
102 Gibraltar 15.70
103 Lithuania 15.60
104 Bulgaria 15.20
105 Nigeria 14.70
106 Romania 14.70
107 Cameroon 14.30
108 Australia 13.90
109 Hong Kong 13.90
110 Uzbekistan 10.80
111 Ukraine 10.30
112 Luxembourg 10.20
113 Algeria 9.90
114 Kazakhstan 8.90
115 Angola 8.70
116 Kuwait 7.50
117 Russia 6.70
118 Azerbaijan 5.90
119 Botswana 5.90
120 Wallis and Futuna 5.60
121 Chile 5.20
122 Estonia 4.80
123 Qatar 4.80
124 Libya 4.20
125 Oman 2.70
126 Equatorial Guinea 0.90

HOW CLOSE WERE WE WHEN LEHMAN WENT BYE-BYE?

Real close, according to the German finance minister:

London Suicide Connects Lehman Lesson Missed by Hong Kong Woman
By Mark Pittman and Bob Ivry

Sept. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Munich-based Hypo Real Estate Holding AG received 102 billion euros ($143 billion) in debt guarantees and credit lines from the German government after its Depfa unit was stuck without short-term funding following Lehman’s bankruptcy. Like Lehman, Hypo funded long-term real estate assets with short-term loans such as commercial paper.

German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck defended the bailout of the lender because the global financial system was just “millimeters from the abyss.”

RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY BY COUNTRY

I expected that Western Europe would have the most religious diversity but I was terribly wrong.  Here are the top 20 countries for diversity according to Pew Research:

Country	RDI	Percent Christian	Percent Muslim	Percent Unaffiliated	Percent Hindu	Percent Buddhist	Percent Folk Religions	Percent Other Religions	Percent Jewish
Singapore	9.0	18.2%	14.3%	16.4%	5.2%	33.9%	2.3%	9.7%	< 0.1%
Taiwan	8.2	5.5%	< 0.1%	12.7%	< 0.1%	21.3%	44.2%	16.2%	< 0.1%
Vietnam	7.7	8.2%	0.2%	29.6%	< 0.1%	16.4%	45.3%	0.4%	< 0.1%
Suriname	7.6	51.6%	15.2%	5.4%	19.8%	0.6%	5.3%	1.8%	0.2%
Guinea Bissau	7.5	19.7%	45.1%	4.3%	< 0.1%	< 0.1%	30.9%	< 0.1%	< 0.1%
Togo	7.5	43.7%	14.0%	6.2%	< 0.1%	< 0.1%	35.6%	0.6%	< 0.1%
Ivory Coast	7.4	44.1%	37.5%	8.0%	< 0.1%	< 0.1%	10.2%	0.2%	< 0.1%
South Korea	7.4	29.4%	0.2%	46.4%	< 0.1%	22.9%	0.8%	0.2%	< 0.1%
China	7.3	5.1%	1.8%	52.2%	< 0.1%	18.2%	21.9%	0.7%	< 0.1%
Benin	7.2	53.0%	23.8%	5.0%	< 0.1%	< 0.1%	18.1%	< 0.1%	< 0.1%
Hong Kong	7.2	14.3%	1.8%	56.1%	0.4%	13.2%	12.8%	1.5%	< 0.1%
Mozambique	7.0	56.7%	18.0%	17.9%	< 0.1%	< 0.1%	7.4%	< 0.1%	< 0.1%
Macau	6.8	7.2%	0.2%	15.4%	< 0.1%	17.3%	58.9%	1.0%	< 0.1%
Mauritius	6.7	25.3%	16.7%	0.6%	56.4%	< 0.1%	0.7%	0.3%	< 0.1%
Cuba	6.5	59.2%	< 0.1%	23.0%	0.2%	< 0.1%	17.4%	< 0.1%	< 0.1%
Mongolia	6.5	2.3%	3.2%	35.9%	< 0.1%	55.1%	3.5%	< 0.1%	< 0.1%
Netherlands	6.4	50.6%	6.0%	42.1%	0.5%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%
Malaysia	6.3	9.4%	63.7%	0.7%	6.0%	17.7%	2.3%	0.2%	< 0.1%
Burkina Faso	6.2	22.5%	61.6%	0.4%	< 0.1%	< 0.1%	15.4%	< 0.1%	< 0.1%
Japan	6.2	1.6%	0.2%	57.0%	< 0.1%	36.2%	0.4%	4.7%	< 0.1%

THE MOTHER COUNTRY OF TAX HAVENS

(h/t Barry Ritholtz)

Once again, the Brits are behind a lot of nonsense.

A Tale of Two Londons
By Nicholas ShaxsonPhotograph by Dylan Thomas
APRIL 2013
VANITY FAIR

It comes as a surprise to most people that the most important player in the global offshore system of tax havens is not Switzerland or the Cayman Islands, but Britain, sitting at the center of a web of British-linked tax havens, the last remnants of empire. An inner ring consists of the British Crown Dependencies—Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man. Farther afield are Britain’s 14 Overseas Territories, half of them tax havens, including such offshore giants as the Caymans, the British Virgin Islands (B.V.I.), and Bermuda. Still further out, numerous British Commonwealth countries and former colonies such as Hong Kong, with deep and old links to London, continue to feed vast financial flows—clean, questionable, and dirty—into the City. The half-in, half-out relationship provides the reassuring British legal bedrock while providing enough distance to let the U.K. say “There is nothing we can do” when scandal hits.

ECONOMIC FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY?

Despite what the wingnuts tell is, they don't seem to be a necessary fit and even the Heritage Foundation admits it. Heritage ranks Hong Kong #1 for economic freedom despite the fact that it is only a limited democracy.

WTF IS THE MATTER WITH CHRIS CILLIZZA?

He goes sticky wet over Giuliani's appearance on Meet the Press, "Giuliani's Virtuoso Performance," when a sober person might instead question Giuliani's sanity. Steve Benen at TPM was all over this appearance and provided this transcript of "Giggles" Giuliani:

RUSSERT: Why would you do business with someone who helped Khalid Sheikh Muhammad?
GIULIANI: (Laughter) [...]
RUSSERT: People are calling into question your judgment, they also cite that your law firm did work for Hugo Chavez, the head of Venezuela.
GIULIANI: (Laughter)
RUSSERT: They've now quit that, but they did represent Citgo, which is run by Hugo Chavez.
GIULIANI: (Struggling to speak through enthusiastic laughter) Tim, that's a stretch.
RUSSERT: It's not. One more and then I'm going to give you a chance on this. One more, a Las Vegas developer that you worked with who had a close relationship with a Hong Kong billionaire who was close with Kim Jung Il.
GIULIANI: (Laughter)
RUSSERT: These are all accusations being made, in a very serious way, about your business. In order to deal with all of this, why not say to the American people, "These are all my clients, this is who I work for, so you can know who I've been involved with and who might be trying to influence me if I ever became president."

Here's the video clip so you can judge for yourself (provided by Ben Craw at TPM):

I HOPE A LOT OF PEOPLE TAKE THIS ADVICE

I heard a re-broadcast of Neal Boortz's show and to one young (24) caller who was worried about the direction of the economy under the Democrats, Boortz suggested that he move to another country and mentioned Singapore and Hong Kong as more desirable locations.

Let's hope millions of wingnuts take this advice.