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Tax Reforms to “Promote” Saving would Backfire

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

Tax-Induced Slow Turnover of Capital

PRESENT DOLLARS are heavy dollars; future dollars are light dollars. The effort of taxpayers to retard tax liabilities and advance tax write-offs follows as the night the day, and economists understand the rudiments of this game: taxes deferred are taxes denied. The economics profession has lagged in developing capital theory and more so in . . . → Read More: Tax-Induced Slow Turnover of Capital

Taxation and the Functions of Urban Land Rent

MANY, IF NOT ALL economists now agree that the fisc may tax away rent without impairing any economic function. It is only necessary that the tax be independent of landowner behavior. What is less widely understood is that not taxing rent obstructs its proper functioning. Untaxed landowners through the centuries have manifested a propensity . . . → Read More: Taxation and the Functions of Urban Land Rent

Taxes, Capital and Jobs

We hear a lot these days about the need for more capital to make jobs. Some of what we hear and read we may discount as self-serving, lobbying for more preferential tax treatment of profits. Yet there is a case argued by sincere and public-minded people on objective grounds which we must take seriously. . . . → Read More: Taxes, Capital and Jobs

Taxes, Capital and Jobs – Revised

We hear a lot these days about the need for more capital to make jobs. Some of what we hear and read we may discount as self-serving, lobbying for more preferential tax treatment of profits. Yet there is a case argued by sincere and public-minded people on objective grounds which we must take seriously. . . . → Read More: Taxes, Capital and Jobs – Revised

The Benefits of Farm Programs: Incidence, Shifting, and Dissipation

I write as one who has spent half his career inside and half outside agricultural economics. That makes me less familiar than many agricultural economists with the details of farm programs, and this will be the kind of treatment where you cannot see the trees for the forest. What I had in mind when . . . → Read More: The Benefits of Farm Programs: Incidence, Shifting, and Dissipation

The Danger of Favoring Capital over Labor

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

The Four Vampires of Capital

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

THE GREAT CRASH OF 2008

This crash is The Big One; it has signs of becoming a Category 5. How do we know? We’ve “been there and done that” so many times before, roughly every 18 years over the last 800 or more. Major wars and, rarely, plagues have broken the rhythm, along with the little ice age, reformation . . . → Read More: THE GREAT CRASH OF 2008

The Hidden Taxable Capacity of Land: Enough and to Spare

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