We can have one without the other
The term frozen capital is used mainly to refer to any capital stock, unused or underused, that thereby reduces productive enterprise from operating at its optimum potential. In most instances, it is an accounting or bankers’ term,[1] often referring to inventory which is shelved or… Read More »Taxing Rent Thaws Frozen Capital
Henry George’s central insight is remarkable in the way that other breakthroughs in thought are remarkable, and maybe more so. His insight? Poverty persists and deepens as civilizations advance in their ability to produce wealth because land then increases in value; where land is allowed… Read More »Asking The Right Question
As the (delayed) tax day approaches, it is worth remembering that the income taxes coming due are largely a product of the early 20th century progressive movement to replace tariffs with income taxes. The arguments put forth by the progressives included the fact that tariffs… Read More »Protection or Free Trade Pt.2
Simon Winchester begins his new book, “Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World” by giving the history of the first land parcel he ever bought -123 acres of a forested and rocky mountainside in rural New York. When English explorer Henry Hudson… Read More »Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World – Book Review
After the signing of the Bretton Woods agreement and the creation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade after World War II, global free trade began a decades long period of expansion, dramatically increasing the role of international trade in the global economy by… Read More »Applying the lessons of George’s Protection or Free Trade, pt 1
There’s a lot to love about RSF, but the thing I appreciate most is its fundamental autonomy. Having spent most of my career with much larger organizations, many of which were baked into almost inconceivably large matrices of federal and state grants and regulations, or… Read More »No Brainer
“No army can stop an idea whose time has come” — Victor Hugo Hugo was referring to the French Revolution, but his quote also nails the unstoppable logic of carbon pricing. Recently, the Supreme Court of Canada wrote, “Climate change is a real and existential… Read More »Pricing carbon is a magic job machine
Why can’t the economy have steady growth and prosperity instead of cyclically falling into recessions and depressions? We can have sustainable growth if we eliminate the cause of the bust. There is one fundamental, though mostly unrecognized, cause of the boom and bust economic cycle:… Read More »How to Prevent the Boom and Bust Cycle
Inspired by a proposal in Martin Adam’s book, “Land: A New Paradigm for a Thriving World”, the Minnesota chapter of Common Ground USA partnered with the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) to explore the feasibility of starting a Municipal Land Trust (MLT) in… Read More »Municipal Land Trusts
The current economic life of New York City is almost unrecognizable when compared to that of just a year ago. Faced with the collapse of the tourist and business travel industries, hotels that reported second quarter occupancy rates surpassing 90% in 2019, failed to hit… Read More »A New But Familiar Vaccine for New York’s COVID Economy
