Daily Policy Digest
International Issues
| PROPERTY RIGHTS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH There is a direct correlation between the economic well being of a country and its commitment to physical and intellectual property rights... |
| ICELAND: NORDIC TIGER By opening up the economy and reducing taxes, revenues in Iceland have more than tripled since 2001... |
| BRITISH PAY £7.9 BILLION IN UNNECESSARY, AVOIDABLE TAX Some 82 percent of adult citizens in the United Kingdom will waste as much as £7.9 billion (about U.S. $15.2 billion) by paying unnecessary and avoidable taxes in 2007... |
| SWEDEN'S PENSION ANTIDOTE Sweden's pension program could be a model for reforming the U.S. system... |
| RUSSIA'S OIL WOES Between 1999 and 2004, Russian private sector oil production grew by 47 percent, while state-owned companies extracted a mere 14 percent... |
| TAXING WAGES The "tax wedge," or the percentage of total labor costs that never reaches employees, averaged 42.6 percent in the European Union last year... |
| INFORMAL ECONOMY PROVES HARD TO CONTROL It takes about 72 days to set up a business in Peru, compared to only five in the United States... |
| WEALTH AND ECONOMIC FREEDOM GO HAND IN HAND The more economically free people are, the more wealth they generate, says Rebecca Hagelin... |
| WETTBEWERBSSTÄRKUNGSGESETZ Germany's new health care plan would require private insurers to cap premiums at a certain amount, regardless of a customer's risk profile... |
| THE POOR GET RICHER Incomes of poor individuals around the globe are rising... |
