by Mason Gaffney
We begin with the Pecora Hearings of March 1933 — ten days that shook Wall Street.
These were the dying days of Herbert Hoover’s Administration and the Republican Congress. Hoover was desperate to hold back safely short of challenging the cartelization of American industry he had sponsored. Continue reading
From The Freeman, November, 1942: “The writer of this article, Mason Gaffney, is a young Chicago Georgist who recently matriculated at Harvard. Perusal of the piece suggests that Freshman Gaffney’s chances of becoming teacher’s pet in the economics class are decidedly slim.” Continue reading
review by Lindy Davies
“The new Mason Gaffney book” is a major event – well, among Georgists, anyway – and I’m going to rave about it. It’s as clear a statement as one is likely to find of a message that desperately needs hearing. Continue reading
by Mason Gaffney
We have lost a Great Georgist who was also a Great Man, rating a two-column obit in the Los Angeles Times, a newspaper he had often excoriated because it “never met a sales tax it didn’t like”. Stan Sapiro was Great as a Lawyer, as a Scholar, as a Family Man and as a Generous Friend. Continue reading
by Mason Gaffney
When we lower taxes, the revenue base is not lost, but shifted to land rents and values, which can then yield more taxes.
This is most obvious with taxes on buildings. When we exempt buildings, and raise tax rates on the land under them, we are still taxing the same real estate; we are just taxing it in a different way. Continue reading
by Mason Gaffney
Our latest Nobelist in economics, Professor Thomas Schelling, offers the following advice about New Orleans: “There is no market solution to New Orleans. It is essentially a problem of coordinating expectations….” By that he meant simply that each person’s incentive to move home and rebuild depends on his or her confidence that others will do likewise. Continue reading
by Mason Gaffney
(Adapted by Lindy Davies from Prof. Gaffney’s lecture notes for a college course of the same name. The full notes can be found here.)
The Amount of Money
There is about $1.37 trillion of checking deposits and currency in circulation, 2006. Deposits and currency constitute “M1.” That amount is about 14% of the GNP. Continue reading
by Mason Gaffney
Over many centuries we can observe that major peace and disarmament treaties have kicked off land booms by lowering taxes — all kinds of taxes. We also often observe that the booms lead to busts. A few examples follow: Continue reading
by Mason Gaffney
Henry George foreboded that landowners might take a growing wedge of the national “pie”, or product. Labor’s wedge might grow absolutely, as the whole pie grows, but still fall as a fraction.
It might even shrivel. In our times, George’s grimmer scenario is coming true. Continue reading
by Mason Gaffney
Thomas Jefferson is said to have introduced the dandelion in this country. No one’s perfect. It’s a shame, though, how some people seize on TJ’s other lapses when his name is invoked, especially the rumor that he, an early widower, retained a slave-mistress. Continue reading