Welcome to the May issue of The Georgist News, whose news this month
is huge, if you count the world's second hugest spectacle as huge.
Other arbiters of good taste and common sense are turning to
Georgists, too, for insight and recommendations. I won't delay you a
moment longer, but do, dear reader, get your friends and co-workers
to subscribe, too, eh? May your May Day and Mother's Day be
Memorable.
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CONTENTS:
* CGO conference chooses 2008 theme
1. News: Cannes picks poverty flick; Amy Goodman broadcasts
land-tax past; Counterpunch prints Georgist
2. Good Press: Financial Times; Guardian online; UK Arts blog
3. Numbers: See articles published at the Progress Report
4. Movement Progress: David Cay Johnston writes; Nicaragua's IHG;
UN site nears completion
5. Letters: RSF moved; Book editor pleased
6. Likable links: Take the audiobook test
7. What You Can Do: Attend CGO conference; Attend monetary seminar
8. At the Margin: Quips and Quotes - For mom's day
9. Publication affairs: Contributors, About the Georgist News
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* CGO conference chooses 2008 theme
By Sue Walton, sns at swwalton.com, April 24, 2008
The 2008 CGO annual conference will be in Kansas City Missouri, this
July 9-13. The conference brochure was mailed on 4/17 to all members
and affiliates as well as prior conference participants. Need an
extra hard copy? Contact Sue or Scott Walton. To see it on the web,
visit http://www.cgocouncil.org
A web-quality version and a print-quality version are on line at:
http://savingcommunities.org/cgo/conference08/
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1a. News: RSF Film Selected for Cannes
By Cliff Cobb, RSF Projects Director, cliff.cobb at gmail.com
April 27, 2008
The movie being jointly produced by the Robert Schalkenbach
Foundation and Cinema Libre Studio, "The End of Poverty?" is "An
Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival," the most
prestigious film festival in the world. (After the Olympics, Cannes
is said to be the second most watched event in the world.) The film
was the only documentary chosen as part of Critic's Choice week and
the only one that will be granted extra time for a post-screening
panel discussion. Only two other documentaries (of thousands
submitted to the jury) will be screened at the festival. The mere
fact of being selected is the "award." (In other words, the film
will not be entered for specific awards at Cannes, such as the Palme
d'Or.)
As a result of being selected by the Cannes Film Festival jury for
presentation, "The End of Poverty?" is almost guaranteed serious
consideration at other film festivals. That means it will probably
be submitted to other film festivals over the next three to eight
months rather than being released to theaters this summer.
The film, produced with financing from RSF and directed and edited
by Philippe Diaz of Cinema Libre, is approximately 1 hour 45
minutes. It traces the history of poverty in the developing nations
to colonial policies that imposed European land tenure arrangements,
deprived peasants of their land and created plantation economies,
displaced internal trade with an economy that relied solely on
exports of a few raw materials, attacked indigenous cultural
practices, and destroyed industries that might have competed with
European factories. Those historic practices have been perpetuated
in the era of political independence with differential tariffs on
processed goods that are four times higher on former colonies than
on former colonizers.
Private banks and the World Bank and IMF have encouraged developing
nations to take on large amounts of debt to finance large projects
that disproportionately benefit foreign companies engaged in
resource extraction. Land tenure arrangements that grant privileges
to American and European companies are sustained not only by corrupt
governments, but also by the use of American military power in
overthrowing governments that seek to extricate themselves from the
system of neo-colonialism. Thus, poverty is revealed as the result
of an extreme imbalance in the world, which allows those with power
to extract economic surplus from nations with little power.
The film tells the story by interspersing interviews with American
and European analysts with interviews with poor families and workers
in Africa and Latin America. Thus, this film combines theoretical
explanations of poverty with testimony by the poor themselves.
To clarify a question raised by many Georgists, this film was never
intended to be an explication of Georgist philosophy. In early
discussions with the director, Mr. Diaz explained that he could make
an explicitly Georgist film that would be viewed by hundreds of
people in educational settings, or he could make a non-didactic film
with much subtler Georgist themes (unjust colonial land tenure, the
role of power in determining the beneficiaries of resource
extraction, and trade imbalances plus debt that permanently keep
poor nations in a state of underdevelopment).
The hope was that this broader interpretation of the Georgist
message could potentially reach an audience of millions in
commercial theaters. After deliberation, the RSF board chose the
latter, recognizing that (for some) this represented an ideological
compromise that was made in order to reach a large audience. (In
previous decades, RSF made several explicitly Georgist films about
municipal tax reform that reached small audiences.)
The selection of "The End of Poverty?" by the Cannes Film Festival
vindicates the idea that it is possible to make a film about the
broad countours of Georgist philosophy that can reach a large
audience. Its value will eventually be judged by audiences in the
US, Europe, and other continents when it is distributed to theaters.
Ultimately, the test of its effectiveness is whether it can move
audiences to begin considering how to approach poverty in ways other
than traditional foreign aid and development projects.
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1b. News: Amy Goodman interview cites LVT in history
"The Hidden Battle to Control the World's Food Supply"
By Amy Goodman, http://www.democracynow.org/
Democracy Now!, posted on AlterNet,
www.alternet.org/ts/archives/...
April 19, 2008, noted and forwarded by Alanna Hartzok (among others).
Raj Patel, interview subject, is author of Stuffed and Starved: The
Hidden Battle for the World Food System: In the twentieth century:
The poster child for corporate malfeasance is the United Fruit
company. The United Fruit Company controlled vast swathes of Central
America, and it's for their control of that part of the world for
growing bananas that we have the term "banana republic." And "banana
republic" is a sort of abject case of blaming the victim. These
banana republics existed because the tin-pot dictators who ran them
were in the thrall and responsible to the United Fruit Company,
rather than actually to the people over whom they ruled.
Now, the United Fruit Company found itself in Guatemala, where a
democratically elected president wanted to institute just a basic
fair system of taxation. And so, he wanted -- this was Jacobo
Guzman, I believe, who wanted to tax the land at a fair market
value. Now, rather than allow that, the United Fruit Company called
its friends in the CIA, who instigated a coup. And as a result of
that coup, there was a bloody civil war for forty years; 200,000
people died; and also, we could have cheap bananas. Now, that kind
of utter manipulation of international economies is something that
isn't just happening in the global south; it's happening right here
in the United States.
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1c. News: CounterPunch posts Georgist for national political
commentary
By Michael Hudson, michael.hudson at earthlink.net, Apri1 17, 2008
The article is titled, "Resurrecting Greenspan: Hillary Joins the
Vast, Rightwing Financial Conspiracy". It ran the day after
Obama/Hillary debate in Pennsylvania.
http://www.counterpunch.org/hudson04172008.html
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2a. Good Press: UK's Financial Times prints letter pro-LVT, April 9
"Don't forget, economists: land is a separate factor from capital"
By Ms Carol Wilcox, carol.wilcox at talktalk.net Labour Land Campaign
Sir, If Alan Greenspan is arguing that monetary policy is
ineffective in controlling asset bubbles, I agree with him. He also
asserts convincingly that the model structures from which many (I
would say most) derive their simulations have been consistently
unable to foresee the onset of recessions or financial crises.
Perhaps the reason for this is that economists have forgotten that
land is a separate factor from capital. Fluctuations in property
values derive almost entirely from land values and not the man-made
element. It is the fact that there is no cost to ownership that
makes the land market function so poorly and this can be corrected
only by fiscal means.
Editor's Note: For other positive citations by notables, such as the
National Association of Home Builders, of the public recovery of
natural rents, please visit The Progress Report daily for such
articles as:
Property bubble leads to crash landing
http://www.progress.org/2008/kavanagh.htm
We post this 2008 op-ed from The Age, Australia's major paper, of
March 28, by Bryan Kavanagh.
Car exhaust alters climate, kills kids, and is cut by taxing land
http://www.progress.org/2008/victoria.htm
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2b. Good Press: Guardian online posts pro-LVT op-ed "The 12-step
programme"
By Prem Sikka, April 21
Institute a land value tax: Projects such as the Jubilee line in
London, the building of motorways, roads, parks and other publicly
funded amenities have resulted in vast increases in the value of
land in adjacent areas. Almost all of it is due to public
expenditure rather than any activity by the owners. A land value tax
should claw back some of the increase and provide much needed
funds."
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/...
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2c. Good Press: UK arts blog is pro Citizens Dividend
By David Thompson, david at dt-online.co.uk March 25, 2008
"Culture, Ideas, and Comic Books" is the name of the site by this
loquacious critic who writes, to much reader response, "I believe in
no subsidy and a Citizens Dividend that would allow people to choose
who to support."
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3. Numbers: Crash on course
Editor's note: For up-to-date news and numbers, please visit
www.progress.org. One recent title: Don't worry, be happy; housing
prices, actually land prices, are falling, as scheduled, as needed,
despite the media's uniform negativity.
http://www.progress.org/2008/cycle.htm
(A MorganChase memo pushes cheating but the cycle turns regardless)
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4a. Movement Progress: David Cay Johnston writes movement leader
By Richard L. Biddle, Director, Henry George School of Social Science
& Birthplace Museum, HGSPhila at gmail.com
David Cay Johnston, New York Times reporter on tax matters and
best-selling author, wrote me, even signing off with his return
phone numbers: "Thanks for the Schwab item. I hope you have read
Free Lunch, which is full of dozens of examples of much greater
abuses than this, running into many billions of dollars of giveaways
and favors for the super-rich.
David Cay Johnston's books include: Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest
Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You
With the Bill); Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax
System to Benefit the Super Rich -- and Cheat Everybody Else Book of
the Year, 2004; Investigative Reporters and Editors New York Times
and Wall Street Journal best seller Temples of Chance: How America
Inc. Bought Out Murder Inc. To Win Control of the Casino Business.
The Schwab item is "Billionaire Gets Handout from Taxpayers! PLUCKED
AGAIN" by Jim Hightower. "The bottom line here is that you and I,
Mr. and Ms. Joe Schmoe Taxpayer, fork over some $500,000 a year in
federal crop-support funds so Schwab can be sure that guests at his
exclusive hunting club have plenty of ducks to kill. The farm
program was originally meant to help struggling small farmers -- not
a pleasure-seeking Wall Streeter with a net worth of some $4
billion. With program-perverters like Schwab, we taxpayers are
sitting ducks.
Let's see, 6 years X $500,000 per year = more than $3,000,000 plus
interest, plus untaxed land value appreciation ...
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4b. Movement Progress: Nicaragua to tax a natural resource
By Paul Martin, nssmga at ibw.com.ni, April 3 2008
An article in the Nicaraguan newspaper tells of the Nica government
taxing water extraction from private wells. A translated article
includes my analysis of the situation. Email me for a copy.
The current IHG course is going well, as is the construction of the
IHG building. Nicaragua continues to inch deeper into recession. I
went to buy something the other day and had to visit many stores
before I found what I was looking for. All of the stores looked like
they were in trouble with pitifully low inventories and laying off
people. As an example of general cutbacks, the truck that delivers
dirt to the building site, which normally comes with two or three
men to offload the dirt, had only one skinny youth this time. And so
it goes. There are so many signs each day of the trend toward
economic crisis. On the upside, I feel that the Georgist message, as
our ability to better communicate it improves, is becoming more and
more recognizable to the people and even to the government.
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4c. Movement Progress: UN website on public recovery almost up
The UN website, "Habitat Program on Land Rights and Land Value
Capture", is nearly finished after 16 months of work. Its articles
are organized into SWOTs (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and
Threats) and was produced by Alanna Hartzok with help from Georgists
around the world. The drafts are now all in the hands of the
director of the Global Land Tool Network and the UN Habitat Capacity
Building team. One can reach Alanna at earthrts at pa.net.
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5a. Letters: Major NYC foundation moved
By Mark A. Sullivan, Secretary & Administrative Director, Robert
Schalkenbach Foundation, Schalkenba at aol.com, April 7, 2008
Robert Schalkenbach Foundation and The American Journal of Economics
and Sociology moved their offices from Midtown to Downtown
Manhattan. Accordingly, expect RSF & AJES to re-open on May 12,
2008. Book orders and similar requests received after April 11 will
be handled after May 11. We thank you for bearing with any
inconvenience this may cause you. The new address will be announced
after the move is completed.
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5b. Letters: New book editor happy
by Martin Keough, MartinKeo at aol.com, April 17, 2008
I just received your piece -- I was about to write you to say that I
would get to read it in a couple of weeks when I read just the first
paragraph -- which led me to reading the piece all the way
through. It's a solid piece of writing. Thanks for the work you do
on behalf of all of us. Warmly, Martin
Editor's Note: If anyone would like a peek at this 1200 word summary
of geonomics, please just ask.
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6. Likable link: Take the audiobook test
By Chuck Metalitz, taxpayer at pobox.com, April 25, 2008
Some of you know that Bob Drake is working on an audio version of
his modernized and abridged Progress & Poverty. We now have three
chapters ready to go, and they're posted in the standard mp3 format.
Perhaps a few of us are regular users of mp3 files in our Ipods or
other devices. Please try our site and tell us if it is convenient.
What's most important now is to bug your friends, relatives,
acquaintances who are not Georgists but who do use mp3 files, direct
them to the http://hgchicago.org/mpp3.shtml download site, and ask
their opinion. Is the layout convenient? Can they easily find and
download the files they need (for three chapters, anyhow)? Is the
sound quality OK? Do they prefer the whole book in one file, or
chapter files, or subchapter files? There is a link on the site for
their feedback (and yours), or they (or you) can just email me.
The complete audiobook will be posted later ("Soon" says Mr. Drake)
Posting the entire book, when it's ready, will be a big job and I'd
like to do it only once. Feedback will guide this work. Thanks for
helping.
http://hgchicago.org/mpp3.shtml
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7a. What You Can Do: Register for summer CGO Conference
By Sue Walton, sns at swwalton.com, February 15, 2008
For more information about the 2008 CGO conference and/or to
register, please contact Sue or Scott Walton by email or at
847/475-0391.
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7b. What You Can Do: Attend Monetary Seminars
By Stephen Zarlenga, Director, American Monetary Institute,
ami at taconic.net
Why is Our Money System Broken Again? Why doesn't it work for
America? Learn more about money in 3 hours than some economists
learn in a lifetime! Attend free AMI Monetary Seminars in several
Western cities.
*Seattle: Tuesday May 6th, at the Columbia Library,
4721 Rainer Ave South, 5:30
*Portland Oregon, Wednesday May 7th at 2:30 PM Main Library
801 S.W. 10th Street
*Olympia Washington: Thursday May 8th, 5:30 PM, at the
Tumwater Library, 723 New Market Street
*Albuquerque New Mexico on Saturday, May 10.
Dress is informal; bring friends. Please confirm attendance at
224-805-2200 or email me. More at http://www.monetary.org
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8. At the Margin: Quips and Quotes (not too long before Mother's Day)
"As we grew to love South Australia, we felt that we were in an
expanding society, still feeling the bond to the motherland, but
eager to develop a perfect society, in the land of our adoption."
- Catherine Helen Spence, author, feminist,
in the era of Henry George
Answers given by 2nd grade school children to the following
questions:
Why did God make mothers? Mostly to clean the house.
What did mom need to know about dad before she married him? Does he
make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?
Who's the boss at your house? Mom doesn't want to be boss, but she
has to because dad's such a goof ball.
What does your mom do in her spare time? Mothers don't do spare
time. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.
If you could change one thing about your mom, what would it be? She
has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I'd get rid of
that.
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9. Publication affairs: Contributing to this issue
Along with those acknowledged above with each blurb,
Editor: Jeffery J. Smith
Assistant Editor: Caspar Davis
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 May 25.
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ABOUT THE GEORGIST NEWS
The Georgist News, a project of the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation,
is an email newsletter brought to you free of charge. Its purpose is
to keep you updated on the latest news, citations, events, and
initiatives of relevance to people who, like Henry George, seek a
world free from special privilege and the causes of poverty.
Do you know someone who'd enjoy reading the GN? Please forward them
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always, it's free. Thanks.
The Georgist News is also available on line at
http://www.georgist.com/
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The Georgist News, Volume Ten, Number Eleven, May 1, 2008