Bahrain ranked highest for economic freedom in Arab world, Kuwait and Lebanon tied for second

The Economic Freedom of the Arab World: 2009 Annual Report compares and ranks Arab nations in five economic freedom areas: size of government; commercial and economic law and security of property rights; access to sound money; freedom to trade internationally, and the regulation of credit, labour, and business.

This paper explores the question of whether mineral resource wealth is an economic blessing or curse, particularly for developing nations where growth and reduction of poverty are vital. It does this by examining the relationship between natural resources and economic growth and the interaction between institutions and natural resources.

Since 1990, Canada's annual rate of immigration has been extremely high-the highest in the world, averaging 0.75% of the population-and has had a significant impact on the size of the population, adding, between 1990 and 2006, 3.9 million (14.2%) to the 1990 level of 27.4 million. Such mass immigration has profound effects on economic, demographic, social, and political conditions in Canada that affect the well-being of all Canadians, including past immigrants. Unfortunately, Canadians are insufficiently aware of these effects partly because a code of political correctness tends to identify any examination of immigration policies with racism and partly because Canada's electoral system rewards politicians who are in favor of the current high intake. As a result of these conditions, during the 2008 federal election, politicians typically promised to maintain or even raise this rate of immigration without any public discussion of the consequences of such policies or any significant input from Canadians affected by them.