Taxing More from the Rich Is Difficult. This Is How to Do It.

In the March 1 UK Prospect, economist James Galbraith offers the Brits, and us, two proposals to repair a broken economy. The first, unsurprisingly, is a heavy tax on estates, with a high exemption. The second is a land tax. Yes! This was the preferred tax of the classical economists, the one Adam Smith called “the most equitable of all taxes.” This tax—at the extraordinary rate of 4 shillings to the pound or 20%—launched the British Empire in 1692, by funding the British fleet. A land tax is already part of the ordinary property tax. It could be applied to other publicly-created property rights, such as mineral rights, electromagnetic spectrum, corporate charters, and patents. The One Percent own the bulk of such valuable rights, directly or through corporate shares. . . . → Read More: Taxing More from the Rich Is Difficult. This Is How to Do It.

Review of “Liberty from All Masters,” by Barry C. Lynn

Fifty years ago, my husband and I volunteered to work for Ralph Nader. Unwittingly we helped enable the monopolists who rule America today. . . . → Read More: Review of “Liberty from All Masters,” by Barry C. Lynn

The Dissing of Henry George

Henry George (1839–1897) was a journalist, self-educated economist and philosopher, and eventually prominent politician. In 1879 he published Progress and Poverty, which soon became a worldwide bestseller. His followers played a major role in the early 20th Century Progressive movement. How could it happen that if he is remembered at all today, he’s considered a crackpot? . . . → Read More: The Dissing of Henry George

Where Did The Wealth of Nations Come From?

Adam Smith (1723-1790) published The Wealth of Nations in 1776, also the year of the American Revolution. Both the Wealth of Nations and the Declaration of Independence sprang from a context, the so-called “Enlightenment.”

The Enlightenment in turn has a history, traced in the lectures of Alan Charles Kors, on “The Birth of the Modern . . . → Read More: Where Did The Wealth of Nations Come From?

Economan Captures the Knowledge Economy: David Warsh on Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations

David Warsh’s engaging new book Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations tells two stories. One story, beginning with Adam Smith, covers the history of thought about the relationship of economic growth and economies of scale. Warsh finds in Smith a contradiction between the huge technical economies of the pin factory, which should create monopolies, and . . . → Read More: Economan Captures the Knowledge Economy: David Warsh on Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations

Wealth of Nations, Wolf on Jacobs, Krugman on Warsh

Martin Wolf of the Financial Times, calls Jane Jacobs, who died last week, “a self-educated intellectual of astonishing originality.” He devotes most of his article, “National wealth on city life’s coat tails” (5/2/06) to a review of one of his and my favorite books, Jacob’s 1984 Cities and the Wealth of Nations — which he . . . → Read More: Wealth of Nations, Wolf on Jacobs, Krugman on Warsh