Capitalism, business and Sweden

To me, it's rather shocking that Sweden manages to be Number One in Forbes’ annual list of the best countries for business.

I thought that Sweden was number one in socialism, and why it might still very well be true, over the past two decades the country has undergone a genuine metamorphosis built on deregulation and budget self-restraint with some apparent cuts to its famous welfare state.

This year, the U.S. falls one spot to 23rd place, continuing a decade-long slide from its No. 1 ranking in 2006. Falling scores on trade and monetary freedom, along with rising levels of red tape and bureaucracy are behind our decline.

Forbes has graded 139 countries on 11 factors including property rights, innovation, taxes, technology, corruption, freedom (personal, trade and monetary), red tape, investor protection and stock market performance. Trump's potential plans to impose tariffs on foreign imports is not a recipe for improving the U.S. ranking.

Where's France? A few spots behind at number 26.