Welcome to the June issue of The Georgist News.
To solve an email quandary, I phoned tech support who proceeded to give
me instructions for the most efficient way to -- tah-dah -- erase most
of my saved email. If you like shorter newsletters, lucky you. Maybe
less is more. You will read how people turn down jobs to avoid the
housing bust, and cites of three poignant essays by Henry George, and
where his name pops up in the media, still after all these years, and
the results from the selection of a name for a new e-zine. Turn the
page!
CONTENTS:
1. Movement Business: 2007 conference hotel deadline this month
2. Good Press: Scots mainstream on Greens on land tax;
LA on carbon tax
3. News: Oil $ corrupts Alaska; home prices preclude moving;
Florida to recede
4. Numbers: Debt up, Down be homes, indicators, and confidence.
5. Movement progress: Ask Henry anything.
6. Letters to editor: Subsidies a geoist issue? GN's new name?
7. Obituaries: Dr. George W. Dana
8. Likable links: FLOW; Nican IHG; letters by HG on labor and Marx
9. What You Can Do: Name that zine! Attend Freedom Fest
10. At the Margin: Quips and Quotes
11. Publication affairs: Contributors, About the Georgist News
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1. Movement Business: 2007 conference hotel deadline this month
By Sue Walton, sns at swwalton.com, May 22, 2007
Interested in attending the 2007 CGO Conference? The second deadline for
registering is June 29th, 2007. Register by phone at 888-/262-9015 or
847-/475-0391 or by fax at 775/-248-8630. Or go to the CGO website,
www.progress.org/cgo then click on "conferences." Also, hotel
reservations must be received by June 29th, 2007. Our hotel is the
Scranton Hilton, whose phone is 570/343-7000 or 800/445-8667. You must
mention the CGO conference to get our special $89/night rate.
The Executive Committee of the Council of Georgist Organizations is
accepting proposals for seminars for its 2008 Conference. Proposals must
be sent to Ted Gwartney no later than September 1, 2007. This is a firm
deadline and can not be extended. It is Council policy not to repeat
topics done within the last four years.
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2a. Good Press: Scots mainstream press on Greens' on land tax proposal
By Douglas Fraser, The Herald, May 8, 2007
Amid the council taxation debate, the Scottish Green Party wants to tax
land value rather than property price for both homes and businesses. The
tax shift is part of radical changes in planning law to spur owners to
bring unused shops and brownfield sites into use.
By Antony Akilade, Deputy Business Editor, the Sunday Herald
The Greens propose a land value tax. As such, it compensates the
community for the private gains made from public investment in the
infrastructure and financial assistance to attract development.
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2b. Good Press: SoCal wants a new tax on using nature
By opinion editor, The Los Angeles Times, May 28, 2007
While all the added costs under cap-and-trade go to companies,
utilities, and traders, the added costs under a carbon tax would go to
the government, which could use the revenues to offset other taxes. So
while consumers would pay more for energy, they might pay less income
tax, or some other tax. That could greatly cushion the overall economic
effect.
Editor's note: Al Gore urges this tax shift, most recently in the cover
story of Time Magazine (May 28 via Heather Remoff). Dr. Fred Foldvary
notes that a tax on carbon output works better than one on carbon
inputs, since different engines and factories can use the same amount of
fossil fuel but pollute by different amounts.
Either way, when people pay a tax for using some part nature -- i.e. for
emitting carbon into the atmosphere -- they begin to see the underlying
principle of paying for what you take, not what you make. Then people
can more easily hear Greens proposing to shift taxes from buildings to
exclusive use of land.
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3a. News: Petrol-dollars corrupt Alaskan politics
By AP, May 4, 2007
One current and two former Alaska legislators (Rep. Victor Kohring of
Wasilla, Pete Kott of Eagle River and Bruce Weyhrauch of Juneau, all
Republicans) pleaded not guilty to charges they accepted bribes to
support legislation for an oil services company. An attorney for VECO
Corp. said it was the company involved.
The tax passed, but the contract for the pipeline negotiated by former
Governor Frank Murkowski and BP PLC (BP), ConocoPhillips (COP) and Exxon
Mobil Corp. (XOM) was never approved.
Editor's note: While in this case the bribes included a job in Barbados,
businesses routinely favor politicians with perks and campaign
contributions. It's how the most important bills (permits, taxes, and
subsidies) get passed.
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3b. News: Recruits refuse jobs to not lose home site value
By Amy Hoak, CBS Market Watch, May 11, 2007
With homes in many markets around the country taking longer to sell and
prices either flat or declining, employees being asked to relocate are
starting to balk in greater numbers. Some companies are losing prized
recruits or paying higher relocation costs for people who feared they'd
lose money on the sale of their existing home. It's not unusual for a
relocation package to cost as much as $100,000.
Editor's note: People expect to make money from land. It's not even
considered speculation any more. It's part of the American psyche -- and
it's what any tax on land is up against.
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3c. News: Writer predicts Florida recession will not spread
By Dean Foust, Business Week, May 18, 2007 (via Ed Dodson)
Jan Hatzius of Goldman Sachs believes the housing drag on GDP will only
be 3-4 percentage points spread out over 2-3 years. Not enough to cause
a recession because higher exports will help pick up the slack. But he
predicts a recession in Florida with growth down six to eight percentage
points.
Florida has the largest amount of excess housing supply: twice the
percentage of the nation as a whole. Inventories of unsold homes are as
high as 30 months in some counties vs. a national average of 7.3 months.
Homebuilders have cut the pace of new construction by half. That will
trim two percentage points from Florida's economic growth; the residual
cutbacks in related services will trim another two points.
Nationally, Hatzius calculates that the average homeowner is paying 23%
of their income on housing vs. 20% in the 1990s. Hence, he believes
housing values nationally will have to fall 15% to get back to
equilibrium. In Florida, the average mortgage eats up 31% of incomes vs.
18% in the 1990s. Hence, Hatzius calculates that house prices have to
fall more than 40% to get back to fair value. He expects a decline of
10-15% this year and further declines thereafter. Hatzius figures
falling home prices will trim consumption by another two percentage
points, as consumers feel poorer.
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4a. Numbers for 2006:
Each US household owes over half million in public debt
By Dennis Cauchon, USA Today, May 29, 2007
The federal government recorded a $1.3 trillion loss last year -- far
more than the official $248 billion deficit -- when corporate-style
accounting standards are used. Modern accounting requires that expenses
be booked when a transaction occurs, even if the payment will be made
later. The federal government does not follow the rule, so promises for
Social Security, Medicare, and retirement programs for civil servants
and military personnel don't show up when the government reports its
financial condition. The loss -- equal to $11,434 per household -- is
more than Americans paid in income taxes in 2006.
Taxpayers are now on the hook for a record $59.1 trillion in
liabilities, a 2.3% increase from 2006. That amount is equal to $516,348
for every U.S. household. By comparison, U.S. households owe an average
of $112,043 for mortgages, car loans, credit cards, and all other debt
combined. The administration argues that their programs are not true
liabilities because government can at any time back out of them.
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4b. Numbers for Q1:
Existing homes price hit 16-year low (almost 18)
By Alan Zibel, AP, May 15, 2007
Sales of existing homes were down 6.6% from a year ago, even though they
were up 2.4% the last quarter of 2006. The price of a national median
existing single-family home was $212,300, down 1.8% from a year ago,
when the median price was $216,100.
Editor's note: These official figures align with the results of the
Case-Shiller index which uniquely tracks multiple sales on the same
property; it concluded prices fell 1.4% in the first quarter compared
with a year earlier, the first year-over-year decline in national home
prices since 1991 (Rex Nutting, MarketWatch, May 29, 2007). As soon as
the Northwest, where prices still rise comfortably, and a few cities in
the South catch up -- or down -- to the rest of the country, expect
prices to fall farther.
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4c. Numbers for April:
Prices inflate, Indicators drop
By Martin Crutsinger, AP, May 15, 2007
Consumer prices rose by 0.4% last month following a 0.6% jump in March;
gasoline prices surged for a second straight month. Through the first
four months of this year, consumer inflation is rising at an annual rate
of 4.8%, almost double the 2.5% increase for all of 2006. Energy prices
have been rising at an annual rate of 25.3% so far this year, compared
with a gain of 2.9% for all of 2006. Food costs, which have been pushed
higher by the increased demand for corn to use in ethanol production,
were up at an annual rate of 6.7% in the first four months of this year
compared with a 2.1% rise for all of 2006.
Editor's note: Higher costs, mainly for food and energy, spread
throughout the economy as central government and central bank continue
to issue too many new notes -- which does workers no good. After
adjusting for inflation, the average weekly earnings for non-supervisory
workers fell by 0.5% in April compared to March.
By Candice Choi, Associated Press, May 17, 2007
The index of leading economic indicators dropped 0.5%, nearly reversing
the previous month's gain of 0.6%, which came after two months of
declines. The reading tries to forecast economic activity over the next
three to six months by tracking ten economic activities. Two of them
were positive in April: stock prices and real money supply. The negative
ones, beginning with the largest, were building permits, weekly
unemployment claims, manufacturers' new orders for non-defense capital
goods, consumer expectations, vendor performance, average weekly
manufacturing hours, and interest rate spread.
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4d. Numbers for April for housing:
Lenders foreclose, Prices fall
By Alan Zibel, AP, May 15, 2007
Mortgage lenders foreclosed on 62% more U.S. homes in April than a year
ago; 147,708, compared with 91,168. The April figure was 1% lower than
in March, when foreclosures hit a two-year high.
By Reuters, May 16, 2007
The pace of home construction gained 2.5%; housing starts were at the
highest pace since December 2006, but they were down 16% from a year
ago. Building permits, which signal future construction plans, sank 8.9%
to the lowest pace in nearly a decade.
By Reuters, May 24, 2007
Sales of new homes rose 16.2% in April, the sharpest climb in fourteen
years, while prices fell a record 11%. The jump in sales was the biggest
increase since a 16.4% surge in 1993 April. Only one region of the
country, the Northeast, pumped up the number, by 43.1% from last April.
The median sales price of a new home fell $28,500 to $229,100 from
$257,600 in March. Builders are slashing prices to move their huge
surplus of unsold homes.
By Martin Crutsinger AP, May 25, 2007
Sales of existing homes fell 2.6% in April from March, and 10.7% from a
year ago. This was the slowest sales pace since 2003 June. Sales fell in
all parts of the country. The number of unsold homes on the market
climbed to a record of 4.2 million. It would take 8.4 months to exhaust
that supply. Housing has depressed overall economic activity, which
slowed to a growth rate of just 1.3% in the first three months of this
year, the slowest economic growth rate in four years. The median price
of a home sold fell 0.8% from a year ago to $220,900 -- the ninth
straight month of decline. During the five boom years that ended last
year. prices of homes rose 50%.
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4e. Numbers for May: Builders' confidence, good indicator, down
By Lynn Adler, Reuters, May 15, 2007
Home builder confidence dropped three points to 30 in May, matching the
15-year low set last year in September, as lenders made it more
difficult for borrowers to qualify for mortgages and order cancellations
mounted. The index stood at 46 last May. Builder confidence has eroded
each month since reaching 39 in February.
Editor's note: For the last decade, builders' confidence has presaged
economic performance in general rather accurately.
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5. Movement progress: Ask Henry anything
By Hanno Beck, April 29, 2007
A reader wrote that the search engine "AskHenry" is great, but it doesn't
include all the Georgist websites." Oh yes it does! So long as it is
technically feasible, the Banneker Center policy has always been for
www.askhenry.com to include all Georgist websites. The Banneker Center
invested in a search functionality that gives a lot of speed and power;
it's the same system that powers searches at eBay, for example.
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6a. Letter to editor: Subsidies a geoist issue?
By Mary Lehmann, May 7, 2007
About subsidies and how Georgist or not they may be, here's an excerpt
from HG JR's biography (section 2, p.202) that is not in P and P:
"Railroad subsidies, like protective duties, are condemned by the
economic principle that the development of industry should be left
free to take its natural direction.
"They are condemned by the political principle that government
should be reduced to its minimum -- that it becomes more corrupt
and more tyrannical, and less under the control of the people,
with every extension of its powers and duties.
"They are condemned by the Democratic principle which forbids the
enrichment of one citizen at the expense of another; and the
giving to one citizen of advantages denied to another.
"They are condemned by the experience of the whole country which
shows that they have invariably led to waste, extravagance and
rascality; that they inevitably become a source of corruption and
a means of plundering the people.
"The only method of preventing the abuse of subsidies is by
prohibiting them altogether. This is absolutely required by the
lengths to which the subsidy system in its various shapes has been
carried -- by the effects which it is producing in lessening the
comforts of the masses, stifling industry with taxation,
monopolising land and corrupting the public service in all its
branches."
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6b. Letter to editor: GN stands for what?
By Alan Ridley, weprosper2 at hotmail.com May 3, 2007
I like all the Good News. That might work as an alternative name for GN!
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7. Obituaries: Dr. George W. Dana
By Nadine Stoner, May 7, 2007
(via Sue Walton and Wyn Achenbaum and The Oregonian, last Sept 19th)
Dr. George W. Dana, 87, of Portland, OR died August 24, 2006 in his
sleep at his home. Dana: joined Portland Clinic in 1951; taught
pediatrics at OHSU; and was Medical Director of Reed College until
retirement in 1987. Degrees: A.B. Harvard, 1940; M.D. Harvard
Medical School, 1943. George Dana was the widower of the late Betsy
Dana who died of pancreatic cancer in 1990. Betsy had started the
World Federalists Registry as well as the Georgist Registry." (The
Georgist Registry Report is still being published every other year
in GroundSwell.)
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8a. Likable link: Georgists cited at FLOW site
By Michael Strong, CEO and Chief Visionary Officer FLOW, Inc.
"Liberating the Entrepreneurial Spirit for Good", May 10, 2007
This month we are running some Georgist-flavored material on our
site. Most of it is by Peter Barnes, who counts as Georgist. But
there is also an article I wrote, "Sustainability in a Bright Green
Future," in which you and other Georgists are mentioned in a section
on "green tax shift":
www.flowidealism.org/Downloads/TFP-BrightGreenFuture.pdf
As always, feel free to recommend improvements.
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8b. Likable link: Latest from Nicaragua
By Paul Martin, Director, Instituto Henry George, May 14, 2007
The third "Comprender La Economia" course of the year began with 81
students. Limited to 60 students in the facility we rent, we trucked
in extra chairs. Our thanks to the HGS of NY for their continued
support. The IHG "Maestria" course continues with 18 students. New
teachers are needed as we have more solicitations for workshops than
we can handle. Finally we acquired the long awaited building permit
for the future IHG office and training center. We put an
advertisement in the newspaper asking for estimates for the
construction job.
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8c. Likable link: The Condition of Labor up and accurate
By Gavin Putnam, May 15, 2007
I have marked the 116th anniversary of "Rerum Novarum" by correcting
the HTML edition of HG's "The Condition of Labor" at
http://grputland.com/classics/hg-col.htm (see the "Revision
history").
The entire text has now been proofread against the 2004 audio
edition (thanks to http://associationforgoodgov.org.au/ for the
CDs), and in the process, "diligently compared" with various text
editions. While I did not see any point in producing a critical
apparatus on all the trivial differences between editions -- and
there were many such differences -- I did at least note the clear
omissions; see the last three endnotes. This HTML version may be the
most complete edition available.
David Brooks adds: Congratulations. It makes interesting reading
with all the notes and hyperlinks. The disks are available from
Richard Giles, Secretary, Association for Good Government, P.O. Box
251, Ulladulla, NSW, 2539 Australia. Listening to the disks is quite
an experience.
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8d. Likable link: Henry George's Letter at the Funeral of Karl Marx
By Bruce Oatman, oatmanb at hra.nyc.gov, May 15, 2007
(via Dave Wetzel)
Henry George once dismissed Karl Marx as "the Prince of
Muddleheads." Later, in a letter that was read at a memorial service
for Marx at New York's Cooper Union on March 20, 1883, George was
more flattering.
I was led to the letter by a chance conversation with Liz Mestres,
the director of the Brecht Forum in New York. She remembered having
read George's tribute to Marx years before. After some digging, she
found it in a compendium of comments at the time of Marx's death,
Karl Marx Remembered, P.S. Foner, editor, published in 1983 by
Synthesis Publications, San Francisco. The editor found the letter
in the March 25, 1883 issue of a labor newspaper, 'Voice of the
People', an organ of the group that sponsored the meeting.
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9a. What You Can Do: Name that zine!
By Jeff Smith
Last month I asked you to help pick a name for a new geoist e-zine.
Many of you voted, for which I am entirely grateful.
However, an email malfunction erased all saved returns but one.
Memory recalls the two most popular candidates plus some respectable
runner-ups. If you were to choose no more than three from this list,
which would they be? This should be the final narrowing. Thanks.
Renting and Raving Our Daily Rent Our Common Wealth
Our Space Nature's Pay Free Lunch
Privilege Report
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9b. What You Can Do: Attend Freedom Fest
By Fred Foldvary, fred at foldvary.net, May 18, 2007
The FreedomFest conference will take place July 5-7 at Bally's Paris
Resort, Las Vegas. Dr. Fred Foldvary of Santa Clara University will
present a lecture on Saturday, July 7th, 11:00a.m. to 11:50 a.m.,
"Why My Georgist Economics Predicts a Depression in 2008."
The conference creator is Mark Skousen, a free market economist and
author of a financial newsletter. Fred will also have copies of his
forthcoming booklet on the real estate cycle.
See www.freedomfest.com
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10. At the Margin: Quips and Quotes
Who first wrote, "More is given to us ... and, therefore, more is
required of us." JFK? Nope, too obvious. It was (of course) Henry
George, *Social Problems*, Chap. XXII, p.241, para. 1.
- Dr. Mason Gaffney, UC Riverside
"You are stuck with your debt if you can't budge it."
- Anonymous
"Every morning is the dawn of a new error."
- Anonymous
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11. Publication affairs: Contributing to this issue
Wyn Achenbaum, David Brooks, Lindy Davies, Ed Dodson, Fred Foldvary,
Mason Gaffney, Mary Lehmann, Paul Martin, Mark Monson, Bruce Oatman,
Gavin Putnam, Heather Remoff, Alan Ridley, Nadine Stoner, Sue Walton.
Editor: Jeffery J. Smith
Assistant Editor: Caspar Davis
Copy Editor: Enzo Piccone
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 June 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
an issue and ask them to subscribe, or send us their eddress. As
always, it's free. Thanks.
The Georgist News is also available online at
http://www.georgist.com/
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The Georgist News, Volume Nine, Number Twelve, June 1, 2007