Henry George proposed that land speculation creates boom-bust cycles. I propose a real-assets model of economic crises, loosely based on George’s theory, in which land prices play a central role. Swings in land prices affect the entire economy by three mechanisms: construction on marginal sites, partial displacement of circulating capital by fixed capital investment, and . . . → Read More: A Real-Assets Model of Economic Crises: Will China Crash in 2015
 Comments are closed  Policy Paper, Publication  Capital theory, Henry George, Land Economics -- General, Macroeconomic stability, Macroeconomics The California Constitution says the water belongs to the people. Yet the state gives water almost free to agriculture–resulting in enormous waste and dire “shortages” during droughts. If the state were to charge for water, that would end the water crisis–and solve California’s fiscal crisis too. . . . → Read More: Whose Water? Ours! How to End California’s Water Crisis A tax based on land value is in many ways ideal, but many economists dismiss it by assuming it could not raise enough revenue. Standard sources of data omit much of the potential tax base, and undervalue what they do measure. The purpose of this paper is to present more comprehensive and accurate measures of . . . → Read More: The Hidden Taxable Capacity of Land: Enough and to Spare Comments are closed Publication Land Economics -- General, Land Rent, land value tax, Property taxation, Public finance, Tax policy Wending a Way Through the Stumbling Blocks between Georgism and Catholicism This essay surveys the issues between Georgists and Roman Catholics in three classes: issues that are not peculiarly Roman Catholic (RC) but play out across faiths and denominations, issues that are peculiarly RC, and points of similarity and agreement. Addressed in this fashion are . . . → Read More: Going My Way? Happy 4th! To appreciate a bit of our country, here is a Travelogue, St .Catharines to Albany, June 2012. I was searching for my dad through his childhood homes in Wayne County, east of Rochester, NY; I found him. I got my grades in on Wednesday, June 20 – only one day late! There are . . . → Read More: Travelogue, St. Catharines to Albany, June 2012 Paper delivered at Annual Meetings, Association for Evolutionary Economics (AFEE), Chicago, January 8, 2012 Major Outline The Pecora Hearings, 1933. Another 10 days that shook the world. Hearings sponsored by a dying Republican Congress. Role of Hoover, seeking scapegoat. Role of Senator Norbeck of S.D., an echo of earlier progressive Republicans of the Bull Moose . . . → Read More: Reverberations between Immoderate Land-Price Cycles and Banking Cycles Comments are closed Essay Banking, Land Economics - Macroeconomics, Macroeconomic stability, Politics Coasians and other defenders of “property rights” have captured mainstream economics to the detriment of public interest in our shared environment.. A personal story: Sleeping with the Enemy (Presented at History of Economics Society Annual Meeting, Syracuse, New York, June 2010) Religious upheavals have generally preceded waves of radical reform and reaction in U. S. history, thus serving at least as leading indicators, and perhaps as causative explanations. As these waves rise and swell, crest, crash and ebb, they sweep and tumble most . . . → Read More: How Religious Awakenings Presage Radical Reforms Dear Georgist historians, and other good people We have lost former Cal state Senator Al Rodda, senate leader and Georgist stalwart. Perhaps it was time: he lived his 3-score years and 10 plus 27 more, but he left footprints in the sands of time. Anyone caring to write him up, start with www.thebackbench.blogspot.com. Al graduated . . . → Read More: Al Rodda, RIP |
Review of Donald Stabile, The Living Wage
Professor Stabile’s main thesis is that most classical economists cared about social justice, which he equates with a living wage…
By the end, however, it becomes clear that Stabile is pushing a viewpoint after all: he is invoking classical political economy on the side of labor unions. This is not the same as a ‘pro-labor’ . . . → Read More: Review of Donald Stabile, The Living Wage