At a time when most everyone has an opinion about the state of the U.S. economy and the quality of decision-making in Washington, D.C., the voice of esteemed economics professor and former TIME magazine journalist Mason Gaffney is an important one. Currently teaching at the University of California, Gaffney has been publishing vital contributions . . . → Read More: Interview on After the Crash, 2009
 Comments are closed  Essay, Publication  Land Economics - Macroeconomics, Macroeconomic stability, Speculation The writer acknowledges the role and value of abstract reasoning in economics. He has done his share of it, and is not reacting against rationalism or marginalism. Abstract, however, should not mean abstruse or obscure; theoretical should not mean irrelevant or impractical; ideal should not mean intolerant or imperialistic. Theorists are increasingly scorning those rules . . . → Read More: Logos Abused: The Decadence and Tyranny of Abstract Reasoning in Economics History has imposed a curious double standard on deliberations of tax alternatives. Most taxes are adopted because they raise revenue. Land taxes are rejected because they are no panacea. If they simply raise revenue without doing much damage they are a great improvement over what we have now. If they offer additional benefits, so . . . → Read More: Property Taxation and the Frequency of Urban Renewal Comments are closed Essay Land economics -- urban, Property taxation, Tax policy, urban development, urban expansion How did San Francisco do what a top economist says New Orleans cannot?
Our latest Nobelist in economics, Thomas Schelling, offered the following advice in the wake of Hurricane Katrina: “There is no market solution to New Orleans. It is essentially a problem of coordinating expectations… . . . → Read More: Repopulating New Orleans Comments are closed Essay, Publication Land economics -- Environment, urban development, urban infrastructure, urban renewal 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 “Stimulus” is the buzzword du jour of domestic policy, but its old metaphors ring with sad satiety: kick-start the motor, jump the battery, prime the pump, shot-in-the-arm, wake-up call, jolt, multiplier, ripple effect, … . Fact is, “we’ve been there and done that” several times for generations back. We have been doing it again . . . → Read More: Stimulus: the False and the True Comments are closed Essay, Publication Land Economics - Macroeconomics, Macroeconomic stability, Macroeconomics, Politics There is a strong movement afoot to tax just consumption rather than all income. The “good reason” for this is to promote saving and investment, and thus enhance domestic capital formation, said to be the main force for economic growth, poorly defined but assumed to be a good thing. A battery of . . . → Read More: Tax Reforms to “Promote” Saving would Backfire This paper deals with an anomaly one meets when seeking to teach and apply the ideas promoted by Henry George. How does one forward the interests of labor by untaxing capital? George left some unanswered questions, and later writers and activists have not met them. Mason Gaffney, 2004, in Lindy . . . → Read More: The Danger of Favoring Capital over Labor Comments are closed Essay, Publication Tax policy, Tax Shift, Unemployment, urban development, Urban Economics Vampire #1 is public debt. Vampire #2 is land value. Vampire #3 is housing and land values conjoined. Vampire #4 is the corporation.
Land and Liberty, Summer 2009
. . . → Read More: The Four Vampires of Capital |