What is economic progress? What is freedom?

Two research organizations rank countries by their economic competitiveness with quite different results. Based on these rankings address the following questions;
? Provide a brief (one paragraph) overview of this week?s material.
? Why do they do reach different conclusions?
? Explain which research organization’s ranking best describes the state of the world economy. Include support from course materials to support your explanation.

One ranking comes from the World Economic Forum, http://www.weforum.org/
It describes itself as follows:
The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. Incorporated as a not-for-profit foundation in 1971, and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the Forum is tied to no political, partisan or national interests.

The report on competitiveness is available at:
http://reports.weforum.org/global-competitiveness-report-2014-2015/

Another ranking, described in the textbook comes from the Heritage Foundation http://www.heritage.org/

It describes itself as follows:
Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a research and educational institute – a think tank – whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.