Society

Bounty: Porcelain Economics—look, don’t touch

Is economics a hopeless case, utterly useless to knowing the size of rent?

Jeffery J. Smith

Bounty: The Federal Rsrv—The Vault of the Stat?

Inside the Santa’s workshop for all the needy banksters.

Jeffery J. Smith

Bounty: Scouting Stats, Ahead of the Curve

Caution is called for when exploring ahead of the cutting-edge.

Jeffery J. Smith

The American Common Market - Gone!

A new Supreme Court ruling may require all companies to charge a sales tax when selling goods to residents in every state.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

Bounty: Staking Claims on Field of Knowledge

The realm of the possible physical laws is part of nature, too.

Jeffery J. Smith

Smart Talk with Ed Dodson & Fred Harrison

Georgists need to seize on economic disenchantment, explain rent-seeking behavior on full display in the White House, and craft messages that resonate with younger generations.

Henry George School of Social Science

Bounty: Eco-librium Repatriates Rents

Our degrading land converts rents into other expenses—then vice versa.

Jeffery J. Smith

Bounty: Utilities--A Natural Resource Spouting Real Rent

What are utility networks doing in the category of natural resources?

Jeffery J. Smith

The Dog in the Manger

The expression “dog in the manger” from Aesop’s fables, where a dog refused to let other animals eat, is an apt description of land speculators in economics.

Bounty: Salute the Specialists Who Aid This Soloist

Some insiders extend assistance to the one seeking a total for all land’s value.

Jeffery J. Smith

Why the Purpose of Henry George’s “Single Tax” Changed After the Coinage Act of 1965

If taxes no longer fund government operations after the Coinage Act of 1965, why are taxes still necessary?

Bounty: True Total Trillions Yanks Spend on Land

A best guess—minus the politicizing that goes into minimizing all rents.

Jeffery J. Smith

2018 CGO Conference: Will Land Value Tax Turn Baltimore Around?

Schedule of events and speakers at the 2018 Council of Georgist Organizations Conference in Baltimore, Maryland.

Bounty: They Censor Rents, Colluding Or Not

Tuning out our spending for land was gradual, then worsened. Now it’s complete.

Jeffery J. Smith

A Just and Practicable Income Tax

Thomas G. Shearman before the Ways & Means Subcommittee on Internal Revenue (1893)

Bounty: Figures for Land--From a Fun House?

Those rubber rulers when measuring rents work like wavy mirrors.

Jeffery J. Smith

Bounty: Even the US Fed Rips Official US Stats

If you can’t count on their counts, then count only on doing “freak-onomics.”

Jeffery J. Smith

The German Land Policy Success and Failure

The landed aristocracy of Prussia was unable to borrow funds for reconstruction. Cooperative mortgage credit associations were created to deal with the crisis.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

Bounty: Even a World Banker Rips Other Economists

Criticism of the field comes not only from rebels but also big name academics.

Jeffery J. Smith

Bounty: Land--the More Pristine, the Less Pricey

Oil makes some rich, topsoil not so much, but every trillion counts.

Jeffery J. Smith

Bounty: Mining Numbers at Official Stockpiles

Academic guesses are based on public records based on private sales.

Jeffery J. Smith

From Capitalism to Rentierism?

With nary a whimper, capitalism has been permitted to morph into rentierism and is suffering consequences warned by Adam Smith and Henry George.

Bounty: Scholars Guess: How Many $ In This Market?

Since land is so crucial, some can’t resist estimating its worth.

Jeffery J. Smith

Give me your tired, your poor...

When trying to understand the economics of sustainability and immigration, we must ask : Can a nation go it alone?

Georgism and Globalization

Globalization decreases the barriers around the world and also within a country. Such changes also include the flows of pollution, people, and trade from one place to another.

The Optimal Distribution of Income

We don’t need fancy equations to analyze the optimal distribution of income. We simply divide income into earned income from wages and unearned income from economic land rent.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

Bounty: Money Talks … And Silences? (pt 3 of 3)

Spend a little rent to guarantee receiving a lot of rent.

Jeffery J. Smith

Bounty: Money Talks … And Silences? (pt 2 of 3)

Spend a little rent to guarantee receiving a lot of rent.

Jeffery J. Smith

The Great Crash of 2008

We’ve “been there and done that” so many times before. Yet, the endogenous cycle keeps returning, as soon as we find peace, and economic life returns to its even tenors.

Mason Gaffney, Ph.D.

Bounty: Money Talks … And Silences? (pt 1 of 3)

Spend a little rent to guarantee receiving a lot of rent.

Jeffery J. Smith

Private Property?

It’s quite amazing how the term ‘private property’ has come to mean to some people the land over which we have been granted title.

Bounty: Media Report “Official” Land Values

Enough readers want to know Earth’s worth that mainstream articles do pop up with “answers.”

Jeffery J. Smith

Co-existing with Rent-seekers

A misunderstanding among Georgists revolves around the degree that rent-seeking should be allowed. Exactly how do we co-exist with hardcore rent-seekers?

Bounty: Data—Quantity, Lots; Quality, Hmm

Finding tons of articles is no problem; finding the nuggets amid them is.

Jeffery J. Smith

One of the most controversial and confusing topics in economics is interest. The payment of interest has been condemned and misunderstood.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

Bounty: Our Turn With the Torch

Those who went before must not have labored in vain; we honor economia’s trailblazers.

Jeffery J. Smith

Labor-saving Robots?

Land is a factor when there are abundant workers chasing scarce jobs being made more scarce by advancing technology while those who have jobs are hanging on to them for dear life.

Bounty: The Call of the Riled

Hear that call? Officially calculating the worth of Earth in America is way past due.

Jeffery J. Smith

Basic Income’s Third Wave

The drive toward a basic income isn’t new. It’s a 100-year-old movement that has gotten stronger each time inequality has returned to the public discussion.

Karl Widerquist, Ph.D.

Bounty: Missing Link Would De-Mystify Economies

It’s not just another pretty fact; Earth’s worth is really something special.

Jeffery J. Smith

It’s time to call the housing crisis what it really is: the largest transfer of wealth in living memory

Most of today’s ‘wealth’ isn’t the result of entrepreneurialism and hard work – it has been accumulated by being idle and unproductive.

Bounty: Our Ignorance Is Whose Bliss?

Americans remain unaware of the worth of Earth in America. Who’d ever favor not knowing Earth’s worth?

Jeffery J. Smith

Bounty: Official Stamp of Insignificance

Officials do post a number for the worth of Earth in America. It’s so tiny. That’s the best Earth’s biggest economy can do?

Jeffery J. Smith

Bounty: Why Don’t Professors Profess the Figure?

As fewer can afford a home, might they nudge the experts to tally up what everyone pays to live where they love?

Jeffery J. Smith

How important is "Understanding Economics?

Sprawling development degrades human communities, worsens the decline of urban centers, and places ever-greater stresses on the environment.

Bounty: Knowledge Worth Knowing

Right under our collective nose is a way to divine economic performance—we just need to do some accounting first.

Jeffery J. Smith

Why Research Farmland Ownership And Values? (Presented Paper Excerpt 9)

On Publicizing Public Land Records. (Final excerpt)

Mason Gaffney, Ph.D.

Why Research Farmland Ownership And Values? (Presented Paper Excerpt 8)

Farmland assessment: Amenity values, expected rising cash flows, tax shelter values, mineral rights, and entitlement values.

Mason Gaffney, Ph.D.

Why Research Farmland Ownership And Values? (Presented Paper Excerpt 7)

Major biases in land assessment: Radio spectrum, rights of way, and severed property.

Mason Gaffney, Ph.D.

Why Research Farmland Ownership And Values? (Presented Paper Excerpt 6)

Major biases in land assessment: Tax exempt land, minerals, and water.

Mason Gaffney, Ph.D.

Why Research Farmland Ownership And Values? (Presented Paper Excerpt 5)

Major biases in land assessment: Slow-turning classes of property, different assessment methods, and preferential assessment.

Mason Gaffney, Ph.D.

Why Research Farmland Ownership And Values? (Presented Paper Excerpt 4)

Major biases in land assessment: Regressive assessment and raw land.

Mason Gaffney, Ph.D.

Why Research Farmland Ownership And Values? (Presented Paper Excerpt 3)

The many important functions and implications of land data: Forecasting from past cycles, finding the real interest rate, assessment discrimination, and planning public works.

Mason Gaffney, Ph.D.

Why Research Farmland Ownership And Values? (Presented Paper Excerpt 2)

The many important functions and implications of land data: Land as a credit base, raising consciousness of latent values, and protecting federal revenues.

Mason Gaffney, Ph.D.

Why Research Farmland Ownership And Values? (Presented Paper Excerpt 1)

The many important functions and implications of land data: concentrated holding and property taxation.

Mason Gaffney, Ph.D.

Bounty: Modern Man Can’t See Land

The worth of Earth and the human brain are a bad match. Sure, some humans don’t want the total known. But also, brains aren’t fully conscious.

Jeffery J. Smith

The Case Against the Case Against the Single Tax

Alvin Johnson, an American economist at several universities, denigrated the logic and evidence for land-value taxation in an anti-scholarly manner.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

Bounty: Is Trillion the New Billion?

The worth of Earth is not just another pretty number. It's proof that nature and markets love us.

Jeffery J. Smith

Food, Clothing, and Shelter

The "invisible hand" of the market works wonders when it comes to food and clothing. So why does shelter demand more of what we earn every year?

Bounty: Worth Counting

One number—absent from mainstream economics for some unknown reason—could inform us of the health of the economy, our ecosystem, even our future.

Jeffery J. Smith

Socialize the Rent

We need to capture the economic rent of our natural resources in order to, finally, put paid to this incredibly counter-productive period of economic retrogression.

The American Infrastructure

The best way to pay for a road and its bridge is from the land rent that gets generated by that infrastructure.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

Why Land Value Tax and Universal Basic Income Need Each Other

Land Value Tax can generate and recoup the funds needed for a Citizen's Dividend Basic Income, while a Citizen's Dividend Basic Income makes a clear case for taxing land values.

There is a way-of-thinking that understands the key role that land, earth, and other opportunities of nature play in resolving society's deepest economic problems.

How much does UBI cost?

Some “back-of-the-envelope” estimates and important findings.

Karl Widerquist, Ph.D.

Empty Sovereignty

Debating about sovereignty lost to climate regulations or trade pacts really amounts to squabbling about the crumbs that are left. No land means no sovereignty.

Norway's Resource Rent Sharing Fund Reaches 1 Trillion USD

The Fund was established only 20 years ago as a means for Norway to store and invest the oil and gas revenues in a responsible manner for the benefit of future generations.

Monopoly was Invented to Demonstrate the Evils of Capitalism

Monopoly was invented to demonstrate the evils of capitalism. Is it time to reinstate the original rules of Monopoly?

Equifax Moving Forward

An organization of such influential magnitude that affects so many people must act with integrity and be held accountable. It is clear that changes are needed.

Naming Things Right

Many people seek clarification of economic definitions -- and it's no wonder, for the glossaries offered in most Economics courses aren't the least bit consistent or clear.

The BIG Misunderstanding About the Cost of Universal Basic Income

The cost of a UBI is often greatly exaggerated, because people are tempted to think the cost of UBI is the size of the grant multiplied by the size of the population.

Karl Widerquist, Ph.D.

Sharing the artificial resources openly and the natural resources that we all have as a birthright is a step towards equity and justice in labor.

Why Economies Are Failing

The Real Excess Burden: An Overarching Approach

My Own Private Basic Income

One person’s experience becoming a business owner shows how our economy is based on luck rather than merit and how it rewards people who own stuff rather than people who do stuff.

Karl Widerquist, Ph.D.

Basic Income as a Strategy to Promote the Georgist Movement

Basic Income is having its third and largest wave of support. Georgism had a peak wave of support over 100 years ago. Why is Basic Income taking off now while Georgism is not?

Karl Widerquist, Ph.D.

Dropped by Gatekeepers

An investigator takes two steps forward, one back, then steps where?

Jeffery J. Smith

Superbugs in Indian Chicken…and Global Property

Debt and the current property cycle continues

Trump Says: Let the Lords of Finance Rule

Why the property market, the real estate cycle and banks will really take off under a Trump Presidency

Deplorable Taxes

Deplorable taxes maket people poorer, yet few oppose them.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

The Fallacy of Excessive Premise Extension

The Fallacy of Excessive Premise Extension

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

The Blessings of Cash

Eliminating cash would deprive us of blessings. The problems with cash such as for tax evasion can be cured by taxing what cannot be evaded: land.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

Status Update, 2016: the real estate boom and bust

The real estate cycle continues, so we can benefit from seeing where we are on the timeline.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

Does a Tax on Land Imply Not Owning the Land?

The objection to land-value taxation because it denies ownership is rebutted.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

The Privatization of the Moon is Coming

Entry into commercial space travel could bring reduction in environmental damage costs, find new resources and unlimited related applications; productivity gains for next boom.

Markets: Getting Past the Debate

While there is a lot of discussion about whether to regulate markets or not, there is little talk about being outside of markets

Another Job Killer: Section 385

Yet another regulation is being proposed, to treat effects rather than cure the cause of capital flight.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

Replace Minimum Wages with the Earned Income Tax Credit

Minimum wage laws have a superficial appeal, but are much less effectie than the earned income tax credit.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

A Guide to the Economically Perplexed

People are puzzled by economic failure, but basic economics guides us to remedies.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

Earned Income and Unearned Income

Taxes distinguish between earned and unearned income, but tax definitions are different from economic meanings.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

When all your original strategies don’t pan out, better stop and take stock, figure out what went wrong and if anything can go right.

Jeffery J. Smith

All Creek, No Paddle

Is this the end of the line? Are there no more strategies for learning the worth of Earth? Has every stone been turned over?

Jeffery J. Smith

A tax on car milage?

A hidden purpose of proposals for vehicle distance taxes is the elimination of taxes on land value.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

Principles of an Optimal Tax Policy

The principles of a good tax system point to land value taxation as optimal

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

Review of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, by John Perkins

Conspiracy arguments are always suspect, since they typically have plausibility but no compelling proof.

H. William Batt, Ph.D.

American Wealth and Real Estate

The economic data collected by the Federal Reserve includes real estate but leaves out the importance of land value and rent.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

In the Belly of the Fed

Their silence and protestations of ignorance aside, logically, the Federal Reserve must know the value of US land.

Jeffery J. Smith

A New Model of the Economy, by Brian Hodgkinson

A New Model of the Economy presents a rational and clear theory of economic prosperity. I highly recommend it to anyone who wishes to gain an in-depth understanding of economics.

Land-Value Tax and the Timing of Development

Some environmentalists think that land-value taxation promotes too much development, but in fact LVT promotes an efficient use of land.

Fred Foldvary, Ph.D.

No Trespassing on Fields of Knowledge

Whether enclosing pastures or fields of knowledges, the legal enablers—patents and copyrights—generate fortunes, undue or not.

Jeffery J. Smith

The Sales Tax: History of Its Fallen Champions

The sales tax has a long and fractured history. It doesn’t make sense to repeat it.

Mason Gaffney, Ph.D.