Whatever one thinks of Heritage (or Naomi Klein), there's useful data there. There's also a lot of opinion diguised as data. For example, the choice of formula

Whatever one thinks of Heritage (or Naomi Klein), there's useful data there. There's also a lot of opinion diguised as data. For example, the choice of formula from which to determine, say, trade freedom can reflect the prejudice of the person making that choice. Thus, it looks fair and objective, but you nor I have any idea of the manipulations in those choices to influence the outcome. One observation that stuck me was the large negative correlation between goverment spend score (where higher spending gives a lower score) and freedom from corruption score. The conclusion is that the more the government spends, the lower the incidence of corruption. I suspect this isn't a well loved relationship by those at Heritage.