QCCOSTARICA – A report by the Cato Institute reveals that Honduras and Costa Rica are the countries with the highest rates of poverty in Central America and in the region. In South America, the most miserable countries at the end of 2014 are Venezuela and Argentina.
To prepare the report, Cato sums up figures such as inflation, rates of loans and unemployment, then subtract that total annual growth in per capita GDP.
Thus thee 10 most miserable economies in Latin America, according to these evaluation factors are: Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Guatemala.
According to the Global Poverty Index developed by Cato, Honduras and Costa Rica stand out as the most miserable economies of Central America with a percentage of 28.07 and 25.87 respectively, while Panama and El Salvador have the best for Latin America.
http://www.cato.org/blog/world-misery-index-108-countries#I4WG7W:gYGf
Wiki: “The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded as the Charles Koch Foundation in 1974 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the conglomerate Koch Industries. In July 1976, the name was changed to the Cato Institute. Cato was established to have a focus on public advocacy, media exposure and societal influence.”
If the Koch boys, thru their mouthpiece Cato, think Costa Rica is “miserable”, that’s a great recommendation in my book. Maybe he and his ilk will stay far away as a result.
Miserable economies don’t not necessarily mean miserable people. Anyone who believes the Koch brothers is nuts!
Actually, I usually enjoy what comes out of the Cato Institute, since even though I’m not a Libertarian I appreciate that line of thinking. But this ranking is just weird, and weirdly off. It’s not even clear from the link what the guy is trying to measure, since he lists muliple variables and then says he’s combining three. Which three and why those? Anyway, the ranking just misses the mark by a mile.