CONTENTS
1. Announcement: Change of Venue for CGO Conference
2. News: EEA Conference and AMI Event Held in New York City
3. News: Alanna Hartzok Delivers Address at World Bank Conference
4. Opinion: Austerity Is a War on Prosperity
5. Research: Mason Gaffney’s EEA Presentation
6. Research: Alanna Hartzok’s EEA Presentation
7. Research: Bill Batt’s Address at AMI Cooper Union Event
8. Likeable Link: Why Have You Never Heard of Henry George?
9. Likeable Link: Back to the Classics
10. Video: This Land Is Your Land
11. Video: How Protectionism Hurts Hawaii
12. Video: When Did World War III Begin?
13. What You Can Do: Left Forum 2013—Mobilizing for Ecological\Economic Justice
14. What You Can Do: Seventh Biennial USSEE Conference
15. What You Can Do: CASLE International Conference July 2013
16. What You Can Do: 28th IU Conference
17. Requests: Appeal for LVT Awareness Project in the UK
18. RSF News: 2013 Mini Catalogue
19. At the Margins: Quips and Quotes

About The Georgist News

The CGO was notified on April 26th, that the Holiday Inn Pittsburgh Airport would be closing on July 15, 2013. The hotel was bought by Robert Morris University who will be converting the hotel into dorm rooms. The CGO officers and staff have actively been seeking a replacement hotel for the past 3 weeks and now we are pleased to announce that we have found a replacement:

THE SHERATON FOUR POINTS PITTSBURGH AIRPORT
One Industry Lane
Pittsburgh, PA 15275
Tel: 724-695-0002
Toll-free: 1-888-627-8968

The conference program remains the same. However, the hotel rate will be $95 and will include breakfast. The new hotel is $4 less per night and includes a morning breakfast. The hotel has complimentary Wi-Fi and airport shuttle as well as shuttle to service to the close-by Robinson Town Center shops and restaurants. There is a seasonal outdoor heated pool and a 24 hour fitness center, as well as a Business Center. The hotel is closer to downtown Pittsburgh and can be reached from downtown by taking the same 28X Bus to the airport and call for the hotel shuttle. Please mention that you’re attending the Georgist Conference in order to receive the special discount pricing.

You must make your CGO reservation before July 10th. (Please call the hotel at 724-695-0002 or toll-free at 1-888-627-8968.)

Sincerely,
The CGO Officers and Staff

This past week I attended the Eastern Economic Association (EEA) annual conference and an American Monetary Institute (AMI) event in NYC. At the EEA, I was able to see the Stand Up Economist Yoram Bauman, and get free copies of his comic book guides to macro and microeconomics. I also did a great deal of networking with leaders of the Basic Income Grant (BIG) Coalition. Proponents of a BIG believe that we should simply give everyone in society at least a small amount of money. The basic income is entirely unconditional. The rich and poor alike receive the same amount. BIG proponents favor funding such programs through land and other natural resource taxation.

In 2011, I stayed for a couple days in the village of Omitara/ Ojtivero, the site of the Namibian Basic Income Grant. Most households in the village pool their BIGs under an elder matriach, or “big mamma” as she is called. Each big mamma would allot part of the family funds to schooling, medical care, and small business ventures. Contrary to skepticism over whether the poor villagers would misuse their BIGs on drugs and alcohol, I saw a community that made extremely prudent financial decisions. My hosts were also overwhelmingly generous, serving me several meals and offering me their only bed.

The land the village is on is government owned, and the villager’s rent does not increase with the increasing living standards brought about by BIG. However, the village is very isolated. I asked my host “Where would you like to live?”. She replied “In Windhoek [the capital], but the rent is too high.” If there was a land value tax, without taxes on buildings and other forms of production, there would be a greater supply of living space closer to public amenities for these people. In the absence of a land value tax, communities enjoying no rent or fixed rent can quickly realize a significant increase in living standards. This is because the rent does not increase with the BIG in these situations. I suggested that BIG programs prioritize situations in which the rent will not increase.

Jake during his stay in Namibia.

The AMI event was scheduled to be held at the great hall at Cooper Union, but due to protests over a decision to start charging tuition, it was moved across the street. In brief, the problem addressed at the event was that of privately appropriated seigniorage, seigniorage being the difference between the value of money and the cost to produce and distribute it. Representatives of AMI believe that the interest obtained by private banks from loaning newly created money is an unearned privilege. Therefore, they propose that we move to a full reserve banking system and endow an independent monetary authority to determine the congressional budget limit. The government would then be allowed to spend up to that limit. It is an issue that many Georgists feel strongly about and it is one that perhaps we all should become at least somewhat familiar with. Overall, I had a very pleasant and productive experience this week.

During the annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty, 700 leaders from around the world came to discuss “innovative approaches to follow up on recent global and regional initiatives…that contribute to poverty reduction, gender equality and sustainable economic growth.” One of the speakers was Alanna Hartzok of The Earth Rights Institute, who spoke in part on the value of untaxing production.

http://www.examiner.com/article/world-bank-hears-lecture-on-aiding-poor-stimulating-business

To read Alanna’s presentation click here and here.

“Austerity” is a policy of reducing beneficial government spending and raising harmful taxes. The taxes that have been increased in the name of austerity have been on goods, wages, value added, and the profits of entrepreneurs. The spending cuts are often on the infrastructure that make the economy more productive, or on the services that the poor depend on: education, medical services, housing, and food aid.

http://www.progress.org/2013/fold816.htm

Mason Gaffney EEA Presentation

Alanna Hartzok EEA Address

Bill Batt AMI Cooper Union Speech

Okay, maybe you have heard of him, but until very recently, I had not. Not while earning my bachelor’s degree in business administration (major in accounting) from Arizona State. Not from labor leaders, though I was a member of the United Telegraph Workers in the 1970s; nor from AFSCME, though I was a member in the 1990s.

http://stevemuratore.blogspot.com/2013/04/why-have-you-never-heard-of-henry-george.html

In the beginning, there were the classical economists—most famously Adam Smith and David Ricardo—who wrote about a mostly preindustrial economy. A little bit unfortunately for them, the Industrial Revolution turned out to be far and away the most important thing to ever happen in economy history.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/05/10/back_to_the_classics.html