The 2014 Index of Economic Freedom published by the Heritage Foundation marks 20 anniversary of this important piece of economic analysis. The index measures economic freedom based on 10 quantitative and qualitative factors. More economic freedom correlates with better economic performance, less economic freedom correlates with poorer economic performance. The index calculates the relative economic freedom of 186 different countries. Russia ranks 140th out of the 186 countries.

When sports journalists descended on Sochi to report this year’s winner Olympics they found some of their hotel accommodations not completely ready for habitation. Having journalists with cell phones and Twitter accounts has given us an interesting picture of what it was like for the journalists upon arrival in Sochi. While no one would expect everything to be perfect, the degree to which some of the hotel accommodations were not complete is much more likely to happen in an economic system like Russia that is rife with corruption rather than a system where there is more economic freedom. What follows are couple of the pictures that have come out of Sochi  in the last week.

In addition to the lack of preparedness for some of their guests, there is other interesting information coming out of Sochi other than who won which medals.