Unstable and rising fuel prices are leading to upheavals in the airline industry, with collapses of large companies such as that which occurred on Thursday becoming more common. This will lead to cuts (or an end) to cheap flights to distant places like Bulgaria and to obscure destinations nearer home. Only a couple of years agon, people were being urged to buy holiday homes in Bulgaria, where prices...

Nearly every day brings a fresh twist to the housing market crisis. Stock exchange response to the US government’s action on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has been positive but that was an immediate reaction. As the implications sink in, sentiment is likely to change. Reports suggest that the UK government is also about to do something to “kick start” the housing market. Meanwhile,...

Henry Law has made a comment about this on the LVTC blog.

It is curious how people with an absolute faith in the free market have suddenly turned into socialists now that things have turned nasty. But the market points to a reality – that US housing values (in reality, the price of the land that houses stand on), was just a bubble value. Either the price must adjust to reality or the currency must be debased to the point that inflation has the same...

The Halifax Building Society reports that “house prices” were falling at the fastest rate since it started its monthly survey in 1983. This has been widely reported, for example in this Daily Telegraph article.  Elsewhere, comparisons are now being made with the collapse in the 1930s. Of course, what is falling is what had been bubbling up until 2007 – land prices. But nobody seems...

What is the public’s level of understanding about economics? Following the Chancellor’s comments and predictions about the state of the British economy, a BBC discussion forum invited members of the public for their suggestions. There are over 100 pages to be viewed, but it is only necessary to scan through a few in order to get the flavours. They are worth looking at since they provide...

An article in The Times today reports that “the deteriorating employment outlook is emphasised by a survey today from the Royal Bank of Scotland, which suggests that numbers in work fell in every region of the UK last month, and at the fastest rate since late 2001, as most parts of the country suffered a fall in economic activity. The steepest falls in employment levels were in Wales, the...

“Foundations of bricks and mortar boom are shifting” announces another article on the drop in house prices. This one is in The Times. However, too much notice should not be taken of particular sets of results, as the different indices are collected in different ways giving slightly different pictures. The Financial Times has an article explaining why the various sets of data do not agree;...

A report in today’s Times reports that property stocks have fallen as land values dip. You can read the article here There is an important lesson here for advocates of land value taxation.

It becomes increasingly difficult to keep track of all the ramifications of Britain’s unfolding economic disaster.Reposessions rise by 40% Northern Rock hits taxpayer for £3bn as losses mount None of this would have happened if the Labour government had introduced LVT at some time within the first five years of its coming to power. The Campaign was amongst those urging this on Labour’s...