Economists have ignored the land price bubbles which develop repetitively – at least, until after the event, at which time many seem to become all-knowing. Were they to follow the sequence of these bubbles, they’d discover that land prices tend to describe a cyclic pattern of nine and eighteen years, the latter being the more predominant.

As the eighteen-year sequence is invariable, it may be termed a consequence. That the bursting of these land price bubbles will generate financial recessions is also a consequence.

When land prices are permitted to develop into bank-financed bubbles, the consequences should be understood to be socially pathological. That is, the private debt generated by the land price bubble becomes impossible to sustain and financial recessions become the obvious consequence.

Instead of being ignored as they have been, these destructive socioeconomic consequences need addressing politically. They are far from being “the natural business cycle“.