The Best Countries For Business

[FCP Bob 1,312]

We're Number 1, We're Number 1http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhause...s-for-business/

Canada ranks No. 1 in our annual look at the Best Countries for Business. While the U.S. is paralyzed by fears of a double-dip recession and Europe struggles with sovereign debt issues, Canada’s economy has held up better than most. The $1.6 trillion economy is the ninth biggest in the world and grew 3.1% last year. It is expected to expand 2.4% in 2011 according to the Royal Bank of Canada.Canada skirted the banking meltdown that plagued the U.S. and Europe. Banks like Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Nova Scotia and Bank of Montreal avoided bailouts and were profitable during the financial crises that started in 2007. Canadian banks emerged from the crisis among the strongest in the world thanks to their conservative lending practices.Canada is the only country that ranks in the top 20 in 10 metrics that we considered to determine the Best Countries for Business (we factored in 11 overall). It ranks in the top five for both investor protection as well as lack of red tape which measures how easy it is to start a business....We determined the Best Countries for Business by looking at 11 different factors for 134 countries. We looked at property rights, innovation, taxes, technology, corruption, freedom (personal, trade and monetary), red tape, investor protection and stock market performance.Forbes leaned on research and published reports from the Central Intelligence Agency, Freedom House, Heritage Foundation, Property Rights Alliance, Transparency International, World Bank and World Economic Forum to compile the rankings...The U.S. ranked No. 10, down from No. 9 in 2010. The world’s largest economy at $14.7 trillion continues to be one of the most innovative. It’s patents per capita rank No. 6 among all countries (No.7 overall Sweden ranks tops for innovation).- -Bringing up the rear are three countries where the economies are smaller than $10 billion. No. 132 Burundi, No. 133 Zimbabwe and No. 134 Chad all fare poorly when it comes to trade and monetary freedom as well as innovation and technology. Chad has the highest GDP per capita of the three at $1,600, but scores last among all countries on both corruption and red tape.

[Balloon guy 158]

They left out the actual reason Canada rates number one.Direct access to American markets, infrastructure, and protection. And nearly non-existent military spending allowing taxes to flow to social programs that remove the responsibility of corporations to take care of their employees.Of course its also easier to monitor a smaller economy than CaliforniaBut other than that good for you. I know the greatest thing possible to the left is to rate high in world polls. President Obama was going to make us the best country ever by moving us up in these polls. I'm not sure what this did for us, but the left always told us that the world hated Bush and it was effecting our ratings in the polls.

[hblask 1]

Canada has been consistently moving up on the various freedom indices, and is ahead of the US on a couple of them.Freedom: it's good business.

[AmScray 355]

I could totally believe that Canada is a great place to do business. I'd still be interested to know what metrics they used to determine that. I'll give you an example of how that stuff can be manipulated... Once upon a time, there was a book called something like "Top 300 Places in the US". It compiled a bunch of metrics about different cities/metroplex areas, then resolved them into a 'ranking'. It had the usual stuff... Education spending, crime, etc, etc, etc... but then it had one that kind of nagged me. "Racial Diversity" as a positive metric. The reason it nagged me was because the book pretty clearly over-emphasized 'diverse' places I knew to be inferior to other, essentially all white places. There was obviously an agenda afoot. Deconstructing their ranking formula was pretty simple, since all the source data was open. Long story short, "ethnic diversity" accounted for about 15% (!!!!!) of their overall ranking, which was the same statistical weighting given to "crime". They were basically saying that living around minorities was of equal importance to someone than not getting raped/robbed/murdered (which is kinda ironic, seeing as one invariably tracks the other). So, what cities wound up getting overrated? The ones with heavy Asian populations, since they triggered the "diversity" criteria, but they don't commit crimes like other minorities. Fucking absurdI'd be interested to see how they determined this.

[FCP Bob 1,312]

I'd be interested to see how they determined this.

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2011/6/best-co...ada_CHI019.htmlTrade Freedom 7 Monetary Freedom 39 Property Rights 9 Innovation 15 Technology 15 Red Tape 3 Investor Protection 5 Corruption 6 Personal Freedom 1Tax Burden 9Market Performance 20 I don't know how they weighted things but those are the 11 criteria and where Canada ranks in their study for each of the criteria.Here's the link to the US page.http://www.forbes.com/lists/2011/6/best-co...tes_CHI004.htmlUS RankingsTrade Freedom 36Monetary Freedom 50 Property Rights 18 Innovation 6Technology 20 Red Tape 8 Investor Protection 5 Corruption 21 Personal Freedom 1 Tax Burden 45 Market Performance 19

[strategy 4]

their sources claim they used transparency international, which is supposedly pretty legitimate despite originating in germany.

[Balloon guy 158]

their sources claim they used transparency international, which is supposedly pretty legitimate despite originating in germany.

Cause when I think of transparent government models..I think of Germany

[AmScray 355]

So basically, the lower the number, the higher the ranking...They need to peg out monetary freedom to the absolute bottom... I mean, our government labeled Bernard von NotHaus a "domestic terrorist" for christs sake.

[mrdannyg 274]

I could totally believe that Canada is a great place to do business. I'd still be interested to know what metrics they used to determine that.

They left out the actual reason Canada rates number one.Direct access to American markets, infrastructure, and protection. And nearly non-existent military spending allowing taxes to flow to social programs that remove the responsibility of corporations to take care of their employees.

That seems about right. Geographical proximity to the biggest, most important market in the world. Local sources for water and oil that remove the necessity for us to go warring and politicking all over the world. Makes up for issues like half the country being frozen.As I always do when appreciating Canada's greatness, a heartfelt soulpound to the US for providing us with a giant military cushion, enormous market potential, and medical infrastructure such that our richest citizens can pay for better health care than the rest of us.

[FCP Bob 1,312]

http://video.forbes.com/fvn/best-countries...tries-countdown

[AmScray 355]

OK, so a perfect example of what I'm talking about...http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/illinoi...8b462395e5.htmlThe Pullman Neighborhood in Chicago was named a Top 10 Neighborhood in the US by the American Planning Association... and if Planning is your bag, it is. It was masterplanned from the outset, the architecture is great, there are a lot of white urban pioneers who live there lured in by the killer architecture. The catch?The "good part" of Pullman is a microscopic speck in the middle of the worst ghetto in Chicago. Unlike other downtown neighborhoods that are "border areas" with the scum but are mostly good, Pullman is quite literally 20 miles deep into Indian Country. Everything around it- in every direction- is beyond awful. Crime there is Sky. High. Great houses, great planning, a dedicated and hard-core community sentiment, but an AWFUL place to live by every other measure, unless your life revolves around owning a cool old house in a dangerous area.If you didn't know any better and were only reading internet articles about the place, you might think Pullman was a GREAT place to live. You could even quantify it with with a 'formula' but the reality of the matter is totally different.