Welcome to the November issue of The Georgist News.
Welcome to new subscribers: Richard Cook, who worked in the Carter White
House, NASA, and the Treasury Department, Ela Szymanska, Polish
economics professor (see below), and Iowan, Bob Willis. Read how cows
give more than milk, a snapshot of new price highs and lows,
opportunities to make a difference in Poland and in academia, reviews of
new books from Down Under, and a news feed from Nicaragua. A lot of
knowledge can be a powerful thing.
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CONTENTS:
1. Good Press: Pittsburgh Tribune, an Ontario paper, and Booker Rising
2. News: Cows keep down tax; Rep Dingell (the Congressman from GM)
offers bill to tax carbon emissions; Census shows where property
tax is high
3. Numbers: New lows are home starts, sales, ownership, lender profit,
and US dollar; new highs are oil, gold, and euro
4. Movement Progress: Next year's conference; Canadian Greens electoral
results; UK land-taxer stands to lead LibDem Party
5. Letters: Persuade Mankiw; Sue California; Define "Ask Henry" & visit
Ron Paul
6. Likable links: Progress Report news stories; The Guardian of October
7. What You Can Do: Advance Polish conference; Vote for HG; read Bryan
on bubble cost; read Philip on dollar Darwinism; Get Nica news;
Suggest solutions
8. At the Margin: Quips and Quotes
9. Publication affairs: Contributors, About the Georgist News
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1a. Good Press: Tax land, not buildings
By Herbert Barry III, Pittsburg Tribune-Review, Sunday, October 7, 2007
The city should obtain the needed revenues by a higher taxation rate on
land than on buildings. During recent years, the city's land has
increased in value much more than its buildings. The beneficial effects
of having a lower tax rate on buildings than on land are enjoyed by more
than a dozen cities in Pennsylvania.
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1b. Good Press: Fixing Ontario's broken property tax assessment system
By Jacqueline Lawrence, The Huntsville Forester, October 3, 2007
If voters aren't happy with the PC, Liberal or NDP platforms, the Green
Party, too, is proposing specific measures for property tax reform.
According to local Green Party candidate, Matt Richter, the party will
introduce a new, revenue-neutral taxation system called Land Value
Taxation that will tax buildings and land separately. Under LVT, the
only time an individual's residential assessment would increase is when
all the properties in the area go up in value. The goal of the system is
to encourage smart growth within municipalities, intensifying growth in
urban areas and maximizing current resources, Richter explained.
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1c. Good Press: Baby Bonds Vs. Citizens Dividend
By Shay at Booker Rising, a news site for black moderates and black
conservatives (http://bookerrising.blogspot.com/), October 4, 2007
Could part of the unpopularity of the Baby Bonds proposal come from its
status as a '"tax-and-spend'" add-on to existing social programs,
instead of a citizens dividend proposal that would replace existing
social programs?
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2a. News: Cows keep site's taxes low
By Jeff Long, Chicago Tribune staff reporter, October 7, 2007;
via Sue Walton
A talk-radio station in Chicago bought a studio and four towers as well
as a pair of cows. NewsWeb officials say someone with Pride
Communications started the bovine tradition sometime in the 1990s
because the land was zoned for agriculture. The cows remained through
the shifts in ownership.
Sue Walton: The article did not explain it's an example of tax
avoidance.
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2b. News: Michigan Rep. John Dingell unveils a carbon-tax bill
By Alan Ridley, weprosper2 at hotmail.com, September 29, 2007
Text from Grist: "Michigan Rep. John Dingell (D) has drafted a
carbon-tax bill and solicits public feedback. In its current form,
Dingell's legislation would phase in over five years a $50-per-ton tax
on carbon emissions and a tax of 50 cents per gallon on gasoline and jet
fuel. After five years, the tax would be indexed to inflation. The bill
would also phase out tax deductions for homes over 3,000 square feet. A
carbon tax is beloved by economists and other wonks as the most
transparent, efficient means of cutting greenhouse-gas emissions.
Voters, however, tend to hate that whole 'tax' idea and, thus, most
politicians do as well. The 81-year-old Dingell, who has served in
Congress for 52 years and chairs the powerful House Committee on Energy
and Commerce, has been accused of pushing 'political poison' in order to
torpedo other climate bills that include boosts to auto fuel-economy
standards, which could have a big effect on Dingell's Michigan
district."
What do you all think of this carbon tax proposal? I agree we should
reduce taxes on earned income and gradually replace it with, among other
things, a gradual carbon tax. We already tax gasoline, but not aviation
fuel. This is like a subsidy for air travel, which has a large carbon
footprint and many public services for which the flying public does not
reimburse the government or the public treasury. I would appreciate your
thoughts on this. Thanks so much!
Editor CWD replies: Carbon taxes are a step in the right direction, but
would impose a harsh burden on poorer people who need to use
hydrocarbons. A rationing system, as proposed in Monbiot's Heat would be
both more effective and more fair. Incidentally, air travel is the only
major use of hydrocarbons for which Monbiot was unable to find a
solution that would enable us to lower CO2 emissions by 90% without
seriously impacting our quality of life. Much air travel, he concludes,
will have to go. I would add that military operations constitute a major
but seldom considered component of greenhouse gas emissions.
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2c. News: Where Property Taxes Hit Homeowners Hardest
by Gerald Prante in Fiscal Fact No. 103 (Sept 12, 2007);
via Wyn Achenbaum
The Census Bureau has released new housing numbers courtesy of the 2006
American Community Survey (ACS), which includes real estate taxes paid
on owner-occupied housing units. Data is included for many geographical
units, including states and high-population counties.
The Tax Foundation has long published historical data on property tax
collections compiled by the Census Bureau's Government Finances
division. However, such data includes not only taxes paid by individual
homeowners, but also property taxes paid by businesses, as well as some
special types of property pertaining to minerals or fuels found mostly
in a handful of states, such as Texas, Wyoming and Alaska. When people
want to know where property taxes are the highest, though, they
typically wonder about property taxes levied specifically on homeowners.
This is where the ACS data is useful.
The Northeast, mainly New Jersey and New York, remains the area with the
highest property taxes on homeowners. These states also have high per
capita income, and the highest property tax bills, in terms of dollar
amounts, are usually found in the areas with the highest incomes. As for
the percentage-of-home-value measure, counties in New Jersey and New
York still dominate, as they tend to impose the highest property tax
rates on homeowners as well.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/22607.html
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3a. Numbers: Housing starts skid, inflation flares
By Mike Blake and Patrick Rucker, Reuters, October 17, 2007
Groundbreaking for new U.S. homes and permits for future building both
hit a 14-year low in September. Housing starts tumbled 10.2%, the
slowest since 1993 March. Permits for future building fell 7.3% last
month, the sharpest drop since 1995 January, to an annual rate of 1.226
million, the lowest level since 1993 July. While mortgage applications
rose, it may show that potential borrowers were being turned down for
loans and were applying more frequently. Over the past 12 months,
consumer prices have risen 2.8 percent, the largest year-on-year gain
since March.
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3b. Numbers: Sales of single-family homes sink, inventories highest in
20 years By Rex Nutting, Washington bureau chief of MarketWatch, October
24, 2007
Sales of existing homes and condos fell 8% in September to the lowest
level since at least 1999, when the real estate group began tracking
combined single-family and condo sales, as inventories of single-family
rose to a 20-year high. Nationwide sales of existing homes were down
19.1% in September 2007 compared with September 2006. Sales fell in all
four regions. The median sales price for homes and condos was $211,700,
down 4.2% in the past year. Median sales prices have fallen in 13 of the
past 14 months.
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3c. Numbers: U.S. home price drop worst since June '91
Text from Reuters, October 31, 2007
In August, prices of existing U.S. single-family homes fell 0.8%, their
fastest pace since 1991, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case Shiller
national home price index, a composite of 10 major metropolitan areas.
It fell 0.5% in July from June. The year-over-year drop was 5%. The
worst annual decline in the index was a 6.3% drop in 1991 April. The
index of 20 metropolitan areas fell 0.7% in August from July, bringing
the measure down 4.4% from a year-ago. Tampa at 10.1% and seven other
regions including Miami, Las Vegas, San Diego and Washington had their
lowest recorded annual returns in August.
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3d. Numbers: U.S. homeownership rate falls to 4-year low
By Rex Nutting, Washington bureau chief of MarketWatch, October 26, 2007
Fewer Americans live in their own home than did a year ago. The
seasonally adjusted homeownership rate fell by a tenth in the third
quarter to 68.1%, the lowest in four years, and down from the peak of
69.2% in the first quarter of 2006. The number of housing units occupied
by owners fell by a half million over the past year to 75.2 million. The
number of vacant housing units has increased by 1.3 million in the past
year to 17.9 million, 2.1 million of which are for sale. Nationwide,
110.3 million housing units were occupied. In the third quarter, the
vacancy rate for units typically occupied by owners rose to 2.7% from
2.6%, while the vacancy rate for rental units rose to 9.8% from 9.5%.
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3e. Numbers: US mortgage firm sees $1.2bn loss
By BBC News, October 26, 2007
U.S. mortgage giant, Countrywide Financial, has reported $1.2bn in
losses during the third quarter. The loss, the first for the firm in 25
years, comes after profits of $647.6m a year earlier. The latest quarter
included $2.9bn in credit losses. "We view the third quarter as an
earnings trough, and anticipate that the company will be profitable in
the fourth quarter and in 2008," said CEO David Sambol. To help those
struggling to make payments, Countrywide promised to set new terms or
refinance $16bn worth of mortgages. The turnaround comes after the firm
fired 12,000 workers in September.
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3f. Numbers: Pound hits 26-year US dollar high
By BBC News, October 30, 2007
Money dealers anticipate that the Federal Reserve will be cut US
interest rates and UK interest rates will be left unchanged. When UK
rates are higher than US rates, investors exchange dollars for pounds to
benefit from better rates of return. The pound rose as high as $2.066
before paring gains to $2.064. It also gained versus the euro. The last
time the pound was at these sorts of levels was 1980 November, when it
reached $2.446. While the cheap dollar is good news for British
travelers planning trips to the US, it makes the reverse trip for
Americans much more expensive. The number of visitors from North America
fell in the first six months of 2007. The spendy pound is also
inconvenient for British firms exporting goods across the Atlantic.
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3g. Numbers: Gold at 28-year high, oil hits record, dollar tumbles to
all-time low By Polya Lesova, MarketWatch, Oct 26, 2007
Gold surged to a new 28-year high Friday, as gains in the metal were
fuelled by record-high crude-oil prices as well as the tumbling of the
dollar to a new all-time low against the euro. Gold for December
delivery rallied $10.10 at $781.10 an ounce on the New York Mercantile
Exchange. Earlier Friday, gold hit $783 in regular trading, its highest
level in nearly 28 years. The all-time high for a benchmark gold
contract on Nymex stands at $875, set on Jan. 21, 1980. The euro rose as
high as $1.4375, and recently was trading up 0.3% at $1.4368. The dollar
index, which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of
other major currencies, fell 0.3% at 77.055. Gold, as a dollar-
denominated commodity, benefits from dollar weakness. Crude-oil futures
rallied to a new record high past $92 a barrel a day after the U.S.
slapped new economic sanctions on Iran.
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4a. Movement Progress: 2008 conference to have debate and steamboat tour
By Sue Walton, phone 847-475-0391; efax 775-248-8630; email sns at
swwalton.com, October 19, 2007
The 2008 Council of Georgist Organizations Conference Program Team
members (Greg Young, Paul Justus, John Huebert) and the members of the
CGO Executive Committee (Ted and Toni Gwartney, Pia DeSilva, Ed Dodson,
Lindy Davies, Dan Sullivan) and its staff (Sue and Scott Walton) are
hard at work on what they hope will be a unique conference in 2008. It's
to be held July 9-13 in Kansas City MO, and will feature concurrent
sessions on Sustainability, Theory and Practice, Assessment Practices,
and Affordable Housing. Lindy Davies and Cay Hehner will be squaring off
for Point/Counter Point, and a bus tour featuring the National Trails
Museum and the Arabia Steamboat is also planned. For more information,
please contact Sue Walton at sns at swwalton.com or by phone at 847/
475-0391.
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4b. Movement Progress: The Green Party Ontario (GPO) election results
By John Fisher, jmfisher at execulink.com, October 13, 2007
Editor's Ante-script: Canada's leading source for online news,
globeandmail.com, covered the nation's only Georgist-leaning party in
"Green party increases vote, but fails to win a seat." Party triples its
popular vote, though electoral reform, which would have helped it, is
defeated.
http://tinyurl.com/29joyz
John Fisher: GPO had candidates in all 107 ridings/constituencies. GPO
popular vote rose from 2.8% in 2003 to 8.3% in 2007 but was not elected
in any riding. The highest riding vote was 33.1% in Bruce-Grey-Owen
Sound, where Green Shane Jolley ran second to a Progressive Conservative
populist. (Provincially, Liberals at 42% took 71 seats, Conservatives at
32% took 26 seats, New Democratic Party at 17% took 10 seats). The
dominant issue in the election became the funding of faith-based
schools, a proposal of the Conservatives. Liberals and NDP continued to
support present funding of public and Catholic schools only. The Green
Party campaigned on one publicly-funded system which, polls showed,
about 60% of Ontarians agreed. Leader Frank de Jong was excluded from
the leaders debate. Most media attention was on the three parties with
elected MMP's but Greens got some good media including 25% of the front
page of the Toronto Star on election day.
Students in 2,100 schools across the province took part in a mock
election. Results were Libs. 31% (63 seats), Greens 24% (18 seats), P.C.
20% (10 seats) and NDP 19% (16 seats). Ontario also had a second ballot
asking whether future elections should keep the present
'"first-passed-the-post"' (FPP) system or adopt a "mixed-member
proportional representation system" (MMP). Future parliaments would have
had 90 seats FPP and 39 seats MMP for a total of 129 seats. It was
defeated 2 to 1. Most people did not understand what was proposed
because the province withdrew the materials explaining the
recommendation of the provincially funded Citizens Commission after
opponents claimed that it was unfair to explain the proposed changes!
If MMP was applied to the 2007 results, the seats would have been
distributed as follows: Libs. 60, P.C. 38, NDP 20 and Greens 11 (total
129). The next provincial election is set four years from now! However
we have a minority federal government, and an election could happen as
early as this week, when the throne speech is read. Elizabeth May
(federal leader) and the Greens are ready to roll again.
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4c. Movement Progress: The Liberal Democrats ALTER Update
By Tony Vickers, tonyvickers at phonecoop.coop, October 19, 2007
ALTER (a Georgist outfit) President stands for Leader of UK's Liberal
Democrats. http://libdemsalter.org.uk/
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5a. Letters: Critique of Mankiw textbook
By Carol Wilcox, October 2, 2007
Gregory Mankiw co-wrote (with English economist, Mark Taylor) the
standard textbook for UK university economics. If you have this contact
with him, why not suggest that the land issue be given more
consideration in his works? The coverage on Henry George and land value
taxation is the usual, woefully lazy and inaccurate repetition of
previous texts. There isn't even a proper definition of land in its
economic sense, let alone consideration of the special attributes of
land which we Georgists know so well. I've just attended the annual
Labour Party Conference, where I got the chance to speak to treasury and
housing ministers directly (again). Their ignorance of the reason for
house price inflation is amazing, but given the sort of texts they were
brought up on, is it really? Thanks for all you do.
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5b. Letters: A court case could move us forward
By Tom Sherrard, sherrbrt at aol.com, October 2, 2007
Thanks for the news and information you are providing. As a retired
lawyer, I am especially keen on a major California rip-off which should
be corrected by a court action. Years ago an unenlightened electorate
enacted into law a major change in the real property tax system, called
"Proposition 13." Under it, both improvements and land are assessed
according to their respective values on the date of their acquisition.
In other words, assessors are required to ignore great increases in
market values due to inflation, population shifts and improved public
services, and simply freeze their valuations as of date of acquisition.
All knowledgeable people know that this is a great windfall for
landholders.
Highly improved land, such as land in subdivisions, changes hands, and
is, therefore, re-assessed every five years, while valuable, vacant or
poorly improved land rarely, if ever, changes hands. Thus, improvements
are taxed much more on average than is land of equal value. This
inequitable fact was never mentioned in the ballot arguments when Prop.
13 was voted into law. As a former member of the San Diego County
Assessment Appeals Board -- and a Georgist -- I am quite aware of it. By
going to court, we could probably generate a great amount of public
interest, win converts and, if we win, we would take a major step in
improving basic economic justice throughout the State of California.
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5c. Letters: Meaning of "Ask Henry"
By Bruno Moser, International Land Economics, Hanoi, Viet Nam,
October 6,2007
As you reach many people unfamiliar with Henry George sites, you might
want to say that what you mean by "Ask Henry" is the search engine,
www.askhenry.com. Hope this helps.
Bruno Moser, October 17, 2007: How come I have not heard any Georgist
talking and youtubing Ron Paul? What about Aaron Russo's movie, "Freedom
to Fascism"? I just ordered 99 copies for Viet Nam officials and one for
the Swiss Ambassador. Are we sleeping or daydreaming? (See
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG2PUZoukfA.) Ron does not much talk
about the land: that is a bit dangerous because the citizen's dividend
has to come from somewhere. The dollar is gone; call it Black Friday or
Housing Bubble. They already have the gold. And they've got the land.
Nothing to worry about; let the next Hitler/Saddam/Bush-Regime crash.
The Morgan plan of a century ago still works unless we get to Paul. The
Vietnamese are watching. Good luck and good night (please pass it on).
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6a. Likable link: Each day, The Progress Report
By Bob Willis, October 11, 2007
"I want to subscribe to Georgist News. I have been reading your
excellent writing in Progress Report online."
Editor: The Progress Report daily is a great way to keep up-to-date with
news from sources everywhere. Some articles from September include:
* "What Was Behind the Honey Bee Wipeout?"
* Europeans lose more lifetime to air pollution than to car crashes;
a US court mulcts a polluter heavier than upon Exxon at Valdez.
"Smog shortens lives; will big fines lessen smog?"
* A banking senior executive who remains anonymous predicts house,
actually home sites, to fall 50%; they've done so before. Before
that helps, how much must it hurt? "Housing+credit crisis crunches
jobs, incomes, and looks to worsen."
Read them and more at www.progress.org.
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6b. Likable link: Guardian November
By David Brooks, radical at aapt.net.au , Oct 26, 2007
The November issue of Guardian is below. I trust you enjoy the reading
and appreciate how informative the paper is. Comment and feedback are
always welcome. http://people.aapt.net.au/~radical
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7a. What You Can Do: Deadline for proposals for USBIG extended to
November 5th By Karl Widerquist, University of Reading, UK, Karl at
widerquist.com
The 7th Congress of the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network is planned
for March 7-9, 2008, Park Plaza Hotel, Boston MA. The Congress provides
a forum for considering alternative frameworks for addressing poverty.
The Basic Income Guarantee would unconditionally guarantee at least a
subsistence-level income for everyone. Philippe Van Parijs, of Harvard
University and of the Catholic University of Louvain, will be the
keynote speaker. Other featured speakers include Sean Healy, Brigid
Reynolds, and Senator Eduardo Suplicy. Healy and Reynolds' book, Social
Policy in Ireland, has become a standard textbook on social policy in
Ireland. Suplicy is a third-term Senator representing the state of Sao
Paolo in the Brazilian Federal Senate and one of the founding members of
Brazil's ruling workers party. Scholars, activists, and others are
invited to propose papers, and organize panel discussions. Contact
Michael A. Lewis: mlewis at notes.cc.sunysb.edu.
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7b. What You Can Do: Help bring off a conference in Poland
By Ela Szymanska, Oct 27, 2007
Hallo Jeff! I talked with my boss yesterday. She thinks it is a very
good idea to organize the conference or seminar. (I am very happy
and.... sooo afraid of this!) You have great experience, I am sure. Our
questions are:
When? What do you think about spring, which is my suggestion?
What kind of subject do you propose?
Is it possible to publish the book after the conference seminar?
What would be the cost of this affair and who can participate in it?
What do we have to prepare before?
How many participants do we need?
Who would be likely to come?
How big an audience and what kind of audience would we prefer?
Oh, there are sooooo many questions...
It will be very kind of you to answer them and to give me some
suggestions ... please
Editor: As for when, whenever it would be most convenient for you, since
you and your university would be hosting it. The topics we could cover
are geonomics, post-transition prosperity, tax reform, public spending
reform, rent flows, economy/ecology harmony, reversing inflation,
maximizing wages. Perhaps you could propose some issues popular with
Polish academics and students? Other conferences I've presented at have
been able to find publishers; I suppose it would depend upon whom we
could identify as possible customers for the book, for example, if it
could be used as a textbook. The cost would have to be in line with
other conferences hosted in Poland. Unless we could find a famous person
to participate, I doubt if we'd pay any of the presenters directly.
To make up the difference between the overall cost and how much those
attending would pay, we would have to receive co-sponsorship from such
as foundations, institutions, government, and business. First, we should
secure a place (your university) and a time (next spring). Next, we need
a program of at least eight presenters and their topics. Then some
co-sponsors with money. We should hope for about 200 to attend and last
at least two days and two nights, including a public event and an event
to which politicians will be invited, besides all the scholarly
presentations. I would apply to American foundations to pay my expenses.
Another suggestion: could you offer grade credit to students who attend?
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7c. What You Can Do: Vote for top economist
By Fred Foldvary, fred at foldvary.net, October 01, 2007
Attention! Vote for your favorite economist! For those who favor free
markets, Mark Skousen, organizer of the FreedomFest conference, has
established a Free-Market Hall of Fame
(http://www.freedomfest.com/halloffame/). If you think Henry George was
a free-market economist, you can vote for him in the past-economists
category. You can also vote for your favorite, current, free-market
economist, writer, etc..
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7d. What You Can Do: Read Unlocking the Riches of Oz - a new report by
Kavanagh
By John Massam, john.massam at multiline.com.au, October 15, 2007
Unlocking the Riches of Oz: a case study of the social and economic
costs of real estate bubbles (1972-2006), 2007, is by Bryan Kavanagh.
"Economic rationalism" has been the mantra for a little more than 30
years of government acquiescence in the private plunder of Australia's
natural resources. The environment has suffered greatly as a
consequence. Land price is now the greater part of residential property
values in Australia.
A "property" bubble is really a land bubble. The capture, for public
purposes, of the rental value of land (a gift of nature) would permit
the reduction of taxes that feed into commodity prices, thereby reducing
inflationary tendencies and allowing more accommodating monetary policy
and lower internal interest rates. The elimination of land price
"bubbles" would eliminate the slowdown of the economy that occurs during
and after the collapse of these bubbles. Property owners, too, could
gain additional spending power because of the cuts to other taxation and
if the resultant envigorated commerce raises the income earned by their
buildings. When people had cheap access to land, and paid the then-new
federal land tax, Australia experienced the highest standard of living
in the world. http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/books.htm
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7e. What You Can Do: Read Hijacked Inheritance: the Triumph of Dollar
Darwinism?
By John Massam, john.massam at multiline.com.au, October 20, 2007
Hijacked Inheritance by Philip Day (2005) is an angry expression of
concern at the decline of mateship and community and the pervasive
greed, self-interest and inequality of wealth and influence in our
increasingly violent society. Dr Phil Day, a lawyer, town planner, and
respected public administrator and academic, challenges the mindless
consumption of the planet's resources in the frenetic pursuit of
development and economic efficiency, regardless of the social and
environmental consequences.
Hijacked Inheritance compares the public revenue potential of charges on
the consumption of natural resources with the punitive taxation of labor
and capital, and the production of goods and services. It exposes the
enormous revenue forgone through the private appropriation of the
unearned increment in community land values. Dr. Day gives an excellent
history of how humanity had moved from instinctively knowing that land
was a community asset, to allowing it to become a mere commodity that
can be "cornered" and sold or leased for whatever inflated price its
scarcity value will bring.
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7f. What You Can Do: Nicaragua recommendation and inquiry
By Paul Martin, Director, Instituto Henry George, nssmga at ibw.com.ni,
September 30, 2007
The IHG is moving ahead with the construction of our "Henry George
International Education Center" as well as our popular education and
advocacy project. We're also planning to offer a news feed service which
will take news stories from various international sources on economic
and social issues happening around the world yet relevant to the USA and
send them to IHG supporters in the form of pithy summaries much more
abbreviated than what you see below - that will include the original
source's web link. Our service will be like the "Georgist News" but will
focus on international and Nicaraguan news items that are relevant to
the Georgist perspective and the IHG effort here in Nicaragua. When we
get this free service going in a month or so, would you like to be on
the list to receive these bi-weekly e-mail feeds?
There is a group In Nicaragua that puts out a bi-monthly news summary
about Nicaraguan affairs. It has its own leftist perspective, but the
facts they report are pretty informative (see below). You may like to
subscribe.
Nicaragua Network Hotline, www.nicanet.org, Sept 26, 2007
SAMPLE: Topic 4. Gasoline shortage continues while economist warns of
dire effects of unprecedented oil price
The shortage of gasoline in service stations across the country
continued this week despite promises from government authorities and the
gasoline companies that distribution would be back to normal by now.
Both Sandinista and opposition deputies agree that the gas shortage is
not due to a lack of gasoline in the country but to in the inability of
the Nicaraguan Petroleum Distribution (DNP) company to distribute it,
now that Exxon-Mobil has pulled out. The DNP doesn't have enough trucks
to supply gasoline from Venezuela to all Petronic, Shell and Texaco gas
stations in the country.
On September 17 the National Consumer Defense Network demanded that the
government take steps to resolve the situation; that the details of the
debt Exxon-Mobil has with Nicaraguan customs be clarified; and that the
authorities take responsibility for the increase in the price of basic
products being caused by the crisis. Economist, Roger Cerda, warned of
the dire effects the ongoing increases in the price of oil will have on
the economy. Cerda says that, as always, the poorest will be hit hardest
as prices continue to rise and basic products become less and less
accessible to workers. He described the anticipated economic trends as a
"hurricane threatening to knock us to the ground."
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7g. What You Can Do: Suggest solutions
By Caspar Davis, September 30, 2007
I have undertaken to write a book on Democracy in Guy Dauncey's 101
Solutions series (see http://www.earthfuture.com/solutionsproject/). I
would welcome ideas on ways to increase democracy at any level, from the
family to the planet. People whose ideas are used will receive
acknowledgement in the book. The book will be a series of short essays
describing where we are, how we got here and what needs to be changed,
followed by the "101 solutions" which are presented on two facing pages
each.
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8. At the Margin: Quips and Quotes (not too long after Halloween)
What happens if you get scared half to death, twice?
- Larry the cable guy
The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn't get
worse every time Congress meets.
- Will Rogers
If you don't pay your exorcist you can get repossessed.
In a democracy it's your vote that counts; in feudalism, it's your Count
that votes.
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9. Publication affairs: Contributing to this issue
Wyn Achenbaum, Herbert Barry, Richard Biddle, David Brooks,
Caspar Davis, John Fisher, Fred Foldvary, Paul Martin, John Massam,
Mark Monson, Bruno Moser, Alan Ridley, Tom Sherrard, Ela Szymanska,
Tony Vickers, Sue Walton, Carol Wilcox, Bob Willis.
Editor: Jeffery J. Smith
Assistant Editor: Caspar Davis
Copy Editor: Enzo Piccone
Archivist: Stewart Goldwater
Owner: The Robert Schalkenbach Foundation
Founder: Adam Monroe
Send your news and other interesting material to the Georgist News at
jjs at geonomics.org or gn at progress.org. The deadline for the next
issue is November 25.
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The Georgist News, Volume Ten, Number Five, November 1, 2007