Amid recent GST distribution cuts of $400m p.a. (about 12% of revenue) and a flagging property market, the Northern Territory Government is facing severe fiscal challenges. The NT is the most stamp duty reliant government in the federation, and has…
In his paper American Government Finance in the Long Run: 1790 to 1990 (Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol 14, Number 1) John Joseph Wallis demonstrates that US government finance experienced three separate phases:- Asset Finance Phase 1790 to 1842, where state-driven infrastructure and…
by Jesse Hermans In an AFR op-ed this week , the Federal Member for Banks, David Coleman asks, “What Australian really wants lower house prices?” Australian’s are obsessed with housing, he writes. Everyone is piling into bricks and mortar. The value…
All the great social philosophers have held that land must be rented, not sold, if communities aren’t to implode. One of them put it into a formula, saying that if we were to capture the social surplus, then labour and…
This week the Renegade Economists radio show celebrated ten years on the 3CR airwaves. Much of the show was based on the following. Have a listen: Reverberations from Phillip Anderson’s presentation to the 126th Annual Henry George Dinner are still…
Turns out she is! She pays the rent …. In 2015 the Crown Estate delivered a record £328.8 million to the Exchequer from its thirty wind farms and central London assets. This was up 8.1% on the previous year,…
Adam Creighton was awarded the EJ Craigie Award for the best Georgist article at last night’s packed 126th Annual Henry George Commemorative Dinner. His article was a timely addition to the mounting call for greater land tax utilisation. Here…
Cross-posted from Alan Kohler’s The Constant Investor, the 2nd time he has written about Georgism in recent years. Saturday was the 178th birthday of Henry George, who, in 19th century America, worried about inequality and puzzled over why technology was not…
Economists are very strange people. Some of them say private debt doesn’t matter much, because banks simply act as intermediaries between people in the community who lend to each other, so that any private debt cancels out. More realistically, other…
Toorak has been in the news – only 5 properties are currently publicly advertised for sale in the exclusive suburb, ensuring scarcity delivers daunting prices. The Domain wrote in glowing terms about a $7m profit on a tennis court held…