Here’s a story that might have got lost in the shuffle last week. For the 17th straight year, Hong Kong was named as the world’s fittest economy as ranked by the conservative leaning heritage foundation. Canada comes in at sixth spot, well ahead of the United States. With all this talk about how to compete with the rising tide in Asia; it is at least worth discussing some of the economic practices that make Hong Kong such a powerhouse. Here is how the legendary economist Milton Friedman concluded his essay on the rapid success of Hong Kong.
In the process, government tends to neglect its basic functions: as I once put it, “to protect our freedom both from the enemies outside our gates and from our fellow citizens: to preserve law and order, to enforce private contracts, to foster competitive markets.’’
Indeed the economic fortunes of the East seemed to be on the rise.
