United States Ranks 17th in Sixth Annual Human Freedom Index
The United States ranks 17th in the sixth annual Human Freedom Index (HFI), the most comprehensive measure of freedom ever created for a large number of countries around the globe. The U.S.‘s overall freedom score decreased from the previous year of 2017, from 8.55 to 8.44 on a ten point scale. “After recent years in which the United States started to regain higher levels of overall freedom, it, unfortunately, began falling again in 2018, with the drop in economic freedom exceeding the decline in personal freedom,” says co‐author Ian Vasquez.
- “Human Freedom Index,” by Ian Vásquez and Fred McMahon
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An Unnecessary Proposal: A WTO Waiver of Intellectual Property Rights for COVID-19 Vaccines
In a sign of their increasing frustration with global efforts to ensure that all people everywhere will have access to COVID-19 vaccines, several developing countries have asked other members of the WTO to join them in a sweeping waiver of the intellectual property rights relating to those vaccines. Their waiver request raises anew the recurring debate within the WTO over the right balance between the protection of IP rights and access in poorer countries to urgently needed medicines. But in a new paper, Cato scholar James Bacchus says that the last thing the WTO needs is another debate over perceived trade obstacles to public health.