Wednesday 08-17-16

How Free Is Your State? Cato Releases List of States Ranked by Individual Liberty

We all know that some states provide more individual liberties to their residents than others, but have you ever wondered how free your state really is? The Libertarian think tank known as Cato, can give you an answer to that question. They recently published a list that ranks each state based on how free their residents are, which is updated annually.
Unsurprisingly, the most left leaning states were often found to have comparatively little freedom. New York was ranked the least free, followed by California, Hawaii, and New Jersey. However, several conservative states also ranked quite poorly, including Mississippi, Kentucky, and West Virginia.
This year New Hampshire lived up to its state motto, “Live Free or Die”. It was ranked as the most free state, followed by Alaska, Oklahoma, Indiana, and South Dakota.
The economic policies of these states seemed to have the most significant bearing on how the states were ranked. New York was criticized in the report for having a tax burden that is twice as high as the national average. Cato predicts it will remain the least free state for “many years to come.” New Hampshire on the other hand, had one of the lowest tax burdens, second only to Alaska.
Of course, the financial policies of our state governments weren’t the only metrics used to determine how free each state is. Personal freedoms like gun rights, marriage rights, and the right to indulge in drug use and gambling played a large role in the study. Regulatory policies involving health care, land use, and labor were also examined in each state

http://www.thedailysheeple.com/how-free-is-your-state-cato-releases-list-of-states-ranked-by-individual-liberty_082016

Global central banks are unloading America's debt.

In the first six months of this year, foreign central banks sold a net $192 billion of U.S. Treasury bonds, more than double the pace in the same period last year, when they sold $83 billion.

China, Japan, France, Brazil and Colombia led the pack of countries dumping U.S. debt.

It's the largest selloff of U.S. debt since at least 1978, according to Treasury Department data.
"Net selling of U.S. notes and bonds year to date thru June is historic," says Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst at the Lindsey Group, an investing firm in Virginia.

U.S. Treasurys are considered one of the safest assets in the world. A lot of countries keep their cash holdings in U.S. government bonds.
Many countries have been selling their holdings of U.S. Treasuries so they can get cash to help prop up their currencies if they're losing value.
The selloff is a sign of pockets of weakness in the global economy. Low oil prices, China's economic slowdown and currencies losing value are all weighing down global growth, which the IMF described as "fragile" earlier in the year.

Despite all the selling by these countries, private demand for the bonds has sky rocketed. Demand is so high that the U.S. can afford to pay historically low interest rates. The 10-year U.S. Treasury hit a record low of 1.34% earlier this year, before bouncing back to about 1.58%, currently.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/08/16/news/economy/central-banks-debt-dumping/index.html