I was in Oman for the Economic Freedom of the World Network meeting, which inaugurated the Economic Freedom of the Arab World, a new study that rates 16 of the 22 member countries of the Arab League on the degree of economic freedom enjoyed by their citizens. Rather than a stick approach (offering criticisms), the study and conference offered a carrot approach, whereby states that performed well (or better than others) were recognized. Thus, the conference included a very glitzy and professional awards banquet at which ambassadors from the various countries received the awards. (The results are not yet available on the Free the World web site, but will be very soon; overall, the best performers in the five categories were Lebanon and the various Gulf states.) A series of very enlightening conference papers and presentations examined topics concerning how to obtain objectively comparable measurements, how to communicate the ideas of freedom, the relationship between economic and political freedom, the connections between economic freedom and widespread prosperity, and more.
I am full of admiration for the work of the Fraser Institute of Canada, which has spearheaded this project for some years. I was deeply impressed by the meeting itself, but much more, by the combination of intellect, hard work, and entrepreneurship that the Fraser team put into the effort. The scholarship is first rate, the objectivity unassailable, and the effect undeniable.
If all goes well, I’m off to Iraq, to which I will be taking copies of the study (as well as other materials) to meetings with economists, students, and elected officials. I don’t know how much internet access I’ll have, but I’m taking advantage of a short stay in Jordan to post this.
UPDATE: The Economic Freedom of the Arab World report is now available in English and in Arabic here.
Apart from your upcoming trip, how many times have you already been to Iraq? Good luck, Tom.
Well, I made it. Getting a visa turned out to be quite difficult, since the embassy in D.C. has no ambassador at the moment. But I spoke with the Iraqi ambassador to Jordan, who made arrangements for me. I had some meetings this afternoon (after a very unusual trip from the airport — I’ll tell you later) and give a lecture tomorrow morning.
I’ll not blog any details until after the fact. But I think I may make some headway on various projects for spreading libertarian scholarship and policies in this part of the world.
OOOPS! Sorry, Matt, but I didn’t answer your query. This is my third trip to Iraq. I’m going to visit a major university tomorrow molrninng and give a talk. I’m scheduled to be at three different universities in three different cities this time.
Hi Tom,
Does Islam and its prohibition on “interest” come up a lot, and if yes, what do you say and how do they respond? Thanks.
Sucked any Arab dicks in your travels?
What kind of sick person writes that kind of thing? But why ask? I know the answer already. It’s what I’ve come to expect from the Raimondoite scum at antiwar.com, from Raimondo to his dirtbag sicko editor Jeremy Sapienza. You hate Tom because he loves liberty and is willing to risk his life to help people. And since you are so obsessed with sleezy sex, you can’t imagine anyone going someplace for any other reason. It’s a case of pure projection, of your own sick fantasies on to other people. You people are worse than disgusting – you should look in the mirror sometime and see why you make the rest of us sick.
I doubt he hates Tom for any of those reasons, Tony. Let’s be realistic here. It probably isn’t any of those people, though it could be.
And whomever wrote that is probably some immature asshat who wants to provoke Tom’s ire. It was distasteful to be sure. But giving him that long of a response dignifies his stupidity and gives him reason to do it again.
Sorry about the above. Had I had opportunity to get on the net, I would have deleted the offensive comments, but they’ve already been commented on, so I’ll let them stand.
LB’s question is an interesting one. The issue doesn’t, in fact, come up that often. I rarely encounter it. There are those who oppose interest, but I’d not count them as very numerous. And for those who do oppose the payment of interest, there are other (albeit somewhat cumbersome) options. What Iraq faces is the virtual absence of a functioning banking system. (One way that I bump into that is that credit cards are unknown, which makes so many things much more of a hassle than they would present elsewhere.)
I’ll post later on some of the meetings I had yesterday, including a lecture on the political economy of freedom and meetings with people at the ministry of education to discuss pluralism and private education.