Comment - Land Value Tax Campaign

Interest rates and the threat of mass unemployment

Written on 24 September 2008. Posted in Economics.

David Blanchflower of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee has repeatedly argued for a cut of interest rates to fend off mass unemployment. But the underlying assumptions are wrong because they are based on defective economic theory. It is not possible to get an economy to function properly just by adjusting interest rates. A low interest rate will cause a fall in the value of the...

Cowboy roofers

Written on 24 September 2008. Posted in Politics.

Speaking at the Labour Party conference, Gordon Brown claimed that they did fix the roof while the sun was shining. Obviously they didn’t make much of a job of it. We in the Campaign know they used faulty materials out of choice.

Swedish budget – skattesänkning

Written on 23 September 2008. Posted in Taxation.

The Swedish budget was announced yesterday. The theme is “skattesänkning” – tax cuts and credits designed to stimulate employment as well as a reduction in taxes on business. The tax cuts mainly benefit those on higher incomes. There are also small tax cuts for pensioners. The Social Democrat’s economics spokesman, Thomas Östros has criticised the finance minister, Anders...

After New Labour

Written on 23 September 2008. Posted in Marxism.

Polly Toynbee is again writing in the Guardian, saying that Labour still has a chance if it changes its ways. Too late. By the time another Labour government comes to power in Britain, she will probably be too old to care anyway. Britain and the Labour Party are going to go through the toughest of times in the next few years. Labour may not even survive as a party. Nobody knows how the financial...

Brown plans crackdown on world markets

Written on 22 September 2008. Posted in Politics.

The Guardian, reporting on the Labour Party conference with opens today, writes… “Gordon Brown yesterday pinned hopes of reviving his premiership on a package of measures designed to tackle the economic crisis, including a drive for tighter international controls of the global money markets and a crackdown on the culture of irresponsible City bonuses. However, the prime minister also...

Stock market roller-coaster

Written on 21 September 2008. Posted in Economics.

Stock markets bounced back on Friday with record rises following the US “rescue plan”, which involves the government taking on the mass of bad debt, backed by “assets” – in reality, land, that is worth substantially less that the money advanced in loans. We said then that the Paulson scheme did not sound convincing and predicted that the enthusiasm was likely to be...

Speaking up for LVT

Written on 20 September 2008. Posted in Taxation.

As a pleasant change, someone is speaking up for LVT, in a review of Brian Hodgkinson’s Book “A New Model of the Economy”, published by Shepherd Walwyn. The comments are revealing – in fact it is worth registering with the Guardian and adding to the discussion. There are some bizarre notions around.Article by Mark Braund in the Guardian

Labour can win – here’s how

Written on 19 September 2008. Posted in Politics.

There is still a belief in the possibility of a Labour win. A few policy changes will suffice. Peter Tatchell has a programme which he outlines in The Guardian, that he thinks would do the trick. A few of the suggestions have a certain merit, others are worse than useless. Labour’s problem, the Conservative’s problem, the LibDem’s problem, Britain’s problem, is that they...

Who or what to blame?

Written on 16 September 2008. Posted in Marxism.

Who or what is to blame for the present economic crisis? How about sloppy thinking? Such as using the phrase “Capitalist System” without being precisely clear what the terms Capital and Capitalism mean. So in a sense, we have nobody to blame but ourselves. Most supporters of the movement for land value taxation – I will call it the “Single Tax movement” as shorthand...

US election

Written on 16 September 2008. Posted in General.

Republican candidate McCain says he will clean up Wall Street. His opponent Obama says that he does not subscribe to the Republican economic philosophy which has led to the unfolding economic disaster. So what are they going to do about what now looks as if it will be the worst economic dislocation since the 1930s. And would they do to prevent a recurrence? They aren’t saying, are they? But...

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