Peter Smith

Robin Harding in the FT today article explains Economic Rent. What beats me is why it is seen as radical - economic rent is the key to the problems of our economy.  Economics and society: Barrier to a breakthrough But Harding downplays the role of economic rent from its classical source land with no evidence, land & natural assets still accounts for about 80% of economic rent. My favourite Keynes Qoute: “First, let's euthanize all the rentiers” John Maynard Keynes in The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money from the comments section: "The failure of government to collect rent in lieu of taxes leaves a huge imputed income stream to the owners of nature, which is capitalized by market forces into a selling price (this selling price driven upward by the use of credit as leverage as fuel to an inherently speculation-driven market dynamic). Thus, the most important -- critical -- change in public polic...

Professor Joshua Farley Explains Ecological Economics - Excellent Interview that covers all the issues very well - well worth watching. Ecological economics provides us with insights into the relationship between economic activity and the capacity of the Earths resources to sustain us. In this video Joshua Farley one of the visionary thinkers in this discipline, provides an overview of some these critical relationships, and gives examples of how responsive policy measures can be applied in an urban setting.

Cap & Enslave - Or.... Don't put a cork up your donkey's bum, just give it less carrots Cap and trade is something I have blogged about for a few years as a travesty of an economic policy designed to enrich the rich and impoverish the poor while not helping reduce carbon emissions. This great YouTube video has been produced by Annie Leonard and explains the problem to non-economists. The only issue with the video is that  Annie does not fully understand just how the Cap & Trade system would enslave humanity. This is because we would create new energy monopolists (a bit like today's landowners) that would own nearly all of production in perpetuity, owning the right to pollute and renting it out to humanity who would have to pay them for the privilege of economic activity and prevent a free market in energy and manufacturing. Today's large polluting companies  (or to be more precise their...

Mark Drakeford, Labour AM for Cardiff West, led a short debate on the subject 'A Land Value Tax for Wales'