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Spreading
the Wealth?
Brian
Trumbore
President/Editor, StocksandNews.com
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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