Comment - Land Value Tax Campaign

Wrong sort of land value tax

Written on 16 April 2009. Posted in Taxation.

There has been a bit of mention of land value taxation in the press recently, though not in any coherent way. In an article in the Guardian a couple of days ago, Prem Sikka, Professor of Accounting at the University of Essex, said, amongst other things, that, “A land value tax should be levied that so that when house and office values increase due to adjacent road, rail and public investment...

Ongoing spat with Tax Justice Network

Written on 15 April 2009. Posted in Tax Justice Network.

This is ongoing… please join in discussion here! As regular readers of the LVTC website know, the Tax Justice Network (TJN) has been running a campaign against tax havens for some while now. One might have expected it to have come out in active support for LVT but they seem to have a blind spot about it. TJN takes the view that the tax system just needs to be tightened up – a bit more...

Economics a must for students in recession

Written on 12 April 2009. Posted in General.

According to an article in the Guardian today, economics is a must study for students in recession. A surge in sixth-formers applying to study economics at university is being attributed to the global recession awakening a public thirst for knowledge about how the financial system works. Applications for degree courses beginning this autumn or next were up by 15% this January, according to UCAS,...

What is the Tax Justice Network?

Written on 8 April 2009. Posted in Taxation.

The Tax Justice Network (TJN) is an international consortium of organisations which claim to be concerned about injustices in the tax system. Their main focus has been on tax havens. It should not be difficult to understand that if taxation is levied on people and moveables, then they will move if they can to reduce their tax liability. But suggest to TJN – as many LVT advocates have –...

What will be the shape of the recession?

Written on 8 April 2009. Posted in Economics.

The recovery will look like “an inverted square root sign,” said billionaire investor George Soros said on Monday. Soros, speaking to Reuters Financial Television, said. “You hit bottom and you automatically rebound some, but then you don’t come out of it in a V-shape recovery or anything like that. You settle down—step down… The healing of the banking system and housing...

The G20 Communique

Written on 6 April 2009. Posted in Banking.

For our readers’ information, we provide a summary of the G20 communique. We, the Leaders of the Group of Twenty, met in London on 2 April 2009.

The life you can save

Written on 30 March 2009. Posted in General.

Peter Singer, professor of bioethics at Princeton University, has written a new book about world poverty which looks set to grab wide attention. In “The Life You Can Save,” he writes, “On a planet full of so much obvious and widespread suffering… there is something deeply askew with our widely accepted views about what it is to live a good life.” I would suggest that...

Inflation is the real threat

Written on 29 March 2009. Posted in Economics.

We have argued from the start that the policy of lowering interest rates and loosening monetary policies could lead to inflation. This is compounded by the state of the British government’s finances, with falling tax revenues and rising welfare costs as the economy shrinks down. Damian Reece in the Daily Telegraph writes,

End of road in sight for fiscal policies – part 2

Written on 26 March 2009. Posted in Economics.

Bond sale flops – fears are growing on the financial markets that Britain may not be able to repay the billions of pounds in debt it is amassing to rescue banks and revive the economy. The Government admitted yesterday that, for the first time since 1995, investors had been unwilling to buy the full complement of its so-called gilt-edged bonds at one of its official auctions. Gilts are the...

Unhappy Feast Day

Written on 25 March 2009. Posted in Economics.

Today, 25 March, is the Feast of the Annunciation. It is also a Quarter Day, when the rent must be paid. The British Retail Consortium is calling on the property industry to end the historic practice of quarterly rents.

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