I look forward with great anticipation to Philip Soos’ and Paul Egan’s upcoming definitive book about Australian real estate. It promises to be a beauty! ->
BRAINY QUOTES: HENRY GEORGE
HENRY GEORGE
He who sees the truth, let him proclaim it, without asking who is for it or who is against it.
How many men are there who fairly earn a million dollars?
That which is unjust can really profit no one; that which is just can really harm no one.
There is danger in reckless change, but greater danger in blind conservatism.
How can a man be said to have a country when he has not right of a square inch of it.
Poorly paid labor is inefficient labor, the world over.
Progressive societies outgrow institutions as children outgrow clothes.
WHY DO MOST GERMANS RENT ON LONG-TERM LEASES?
http://qz.com/167887/germany-has-one-of-the-worlds-lowest-homeownership-rates/
The German aint no backward economy!
BRUNO MOSER EXPOUNDS
Solving San Francisco Class War
REVERSING A 104 YEAR HISTORY
The Australian Valuation Office is to be closed. What a pity! For the social and economic health of Australia, we ought to be witnessing the closure of the Australian Taxation Office, and the capture of our economic rents for revenue managed by the Australian Valuation Office – as once they were.
TREASON (PART 2): THE CRUCIBLE OF TERROR
See Treason (Part 1) : Casino Capitalism
Not to forget Australia’s own “Real Estate 4 Ran$om“
HOWARD BLEW HIS CAPITAL ON WORK CHOICES
Dr Gavin Putland submitted this letter to The Australian Financial Review. The AFR has published it today with some editing that removes the option of a charge on unimproved land values.
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I see Oxfam has published statistics showing 85 people control as much wealth as the poorest half of the world. I’d be much more impressed with Oxfam were they to observe that as those 85 people control much of the world’s natural resources, a charge on the value of natural resources held, as an alternative to taxation, is the best way to remedy this obscenity.
Eslake slams housing policy
Eslake slams housing policy: report
Economist Saul Eslake has slammed Australian housing policy, saying government self-interest has led to the worst affordability problem in more than 50 years, The Australian Financial Review reports.
According to the newspaper, the chief economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch blamed government policies including cash grants to first home buyers and negative gearing for inflating the demand for housing without increasing supply.
“Politics – more than any other single factor – means that Australians are likely to have to live with a dysfunctional housing system for a long time yet to come,” he said in a personal submission to a senate inquiry into affordable housing.
Earlier, Antony Cahill, National Australia Bank’s executive general manager in charge of lending and deposits, outlined confidence house prices will continue to lift in 2014, according to The Australian Financial Review.
Mr Cahill said the sector, led by the largest market of Sydney, was performing “strongly” and we should see house price gains persist for a while yet.
“When you look at where we are in terms of values across the market place, affordability remains at good levels at this point in time,” he told the AFR. “We still believe there is room for house prices to grow.”
Mr Cahill pointed to low interest rates as a key to fuelling demand, while adding that Sydney could be in for more moderate growth this year given it outpaced most other markets last year.
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Comment
Saul Eslake’s heart is in the right place, but like most economists, he fails to understand high house prices–more correctly, high land prices–are mainly the result of local, state and federal governments capturing an inadequate portion of our site rents for public purposes via rates and taxes. Australians have become great rent-seekers. Were governments to capture a greater amount of site rents (and less taxation) there would be less rent to be capitalised into land prices. Simple.
On 2 September 2013, Eslake presented the Henry George Commemoration address “50 years of housing failure“. It’s worth reading.
LOCATION VALUE COVENANTS?
The late Dr Adrian Wrigley had a brilliant idea: opt into a location value covenant and be granted exemption from taxes!