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In Higher Taxes Wouldn’t End Some Deficits (Jan 20) the New York Times reported how a few state governors have timidly proposed small income tax increases. There’s a better alternative: undo the legal shackles that keep residents of towns or school districts from voting themselves higher property taxes. Property taxes are wealth taxes, intrinsically more progressive than . . . → Read More: To End Deficits, Allow Localities to Raise Property Taxes State and local officials propose drastic cuts in public services. There’s an alternative: restore the property tax. It’s the oldest wealth tax of all, the tax that financed Chinese civilization over 2000 years ago, the tax that until World War II financed most of government in the USA. The property tax? Our most hated tax? The tax . . . → Read More: To Save Essential Public Services, Restore the Original Wealth Tax! It had been a rainy summer in Colorado. No surprise to find mushrooms as we hiked the Andrews Glacier trail in Rocky Mountain National Park. But these mushrooms! Three inches across, deep crimson with white splotches, glowing in the mountain sunlight! Amanita muscaria, the original deadly toadstool, the mushroom of fairytales, Alice . . . → Read More: Magic Mushrooms On vacation in Colorado, we drive through the Littleton shopping mall. There it is, a two-story building, black and empty behind its glass facade. Mervyn’s Department Store. Founded in 1949, Mervyn’s grew to a chain of 189 stores in 10 Western states. But in 2008, Mervyn’s went bankrupt , laying off 18,000 employees without severance or . . . → Read More: The Buyout of America: How Private Equity Will Cause the Next Great Credit Crisis, by Josh Kosman As I wrote in Part I, the deficit hawks legitimately claim that huge deficits will hinder investment and kill jobs. But their solutions would make matters worse. What are those solutions? What are alternatives? A leading hawk, C. Fred Bergsten of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, proposes three control measures: containing Medicare and Medicaid costs, . . . → Read More: Deficit Hawk, Progressive Style, Part II Deficit hawks are justifiably concerned about ballooning national debt. But their solution–cutting social spending–would make matters worse. . . . → Read More: Deficit Hawk, Progressive Style, Part I REVIEW Unjust Deserts : How the Rich Are Taking Our Common Inheritance and Why We Should Take It Back Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz simultaneously invented calculus in the 1670′s. As Isaac Newton wrote, “If I have seen far, it is because I have stood . . . → Read More: Unjust Deserts: How the Rich Are Taking Our Common Inheritance and Why We Should Take It Back Mason Gaffney, Groundswell Nov-Dec 2008 (posted 1/29/09) During the Golden Age of Georgist Progressives, roughly 1890 to 1935, lower Michigan stands out as one of the great success stories. Detroit Mayor, then Governor, Hazen Pingree pushed single tax principles. He reformed assessments to emphasize land over improvements, and raised property taxes to provide . . . → Read More: What’s the Matter with Michigan? The Rise and Collapse of an Economic Wonder Louis Uchitelle is absolutely correct that President-elect Barack Obama’s spending plan may fail – or worse, backfire (“Maybe It Can’t: A Trap in Obama’s Spending Plan,” Week in Review, Dec. 21). Spending on infrastructure, even green infrastructure, is a relatively slow, low-return investment. To rebuild the economy right now, we need fast, . . . → Read More: To Rebuild the Economy, People are the Best Investment In The Great Crash of 2008, Mason Gaffney explained our current crisis as a manifestation of the roughly eighteen year real estate cycle–disastrously amplified by bad policy. Now he has published a sequel: How to Thaw Credit, Now and Forever. His solution may shock some readers, especially if they haven’t . . . → Read More: How to Thaw Credit, Now and Forever by Mason Gaffney |
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