Urban sprawl threatens destruction of much valuable farm land. Bob Jene will look at data from one of the leading national organizations seeking to mitigate this damage, the American Farmland Trust (AFT). Among other things, they buy development rights from farmers to insure the land’s continued use in agriculture and facilitate community supported agriculture which …
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May 16, Wed, Political Economy Book Club discusses Bastiat’s “Essays on Political Economy”
This work was selected to coincide with the G8 meetings the subsequent weekend (which were to have been in Chicago but have been relocated). Bastiat was “indeed a lucid and superb writer, whose brilliant and witty essays and fables to this day are remarkable demolitions of protectionism and all forms of government subsidy and control,” …
April 12, Thursday, 6 PM: High Cost of Government Revenue
Take a break from preparing “your” income tax returns to attend this Power Point® presentation looking at the real cost of collecting the income tax. IRS overhead itself represents the direct cost to the government of generating this revenue. Beside that there is the burden put on the taxpayer in filling out his return, the …
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April 10 Tuesday 6 PM: How I made $1,000,000 in Chicago real estate: I $tole it from you
Successful land speculation is really a matter of capturing for yourself the gains that belong to the community. George Menninger is one of many who have done it. Far beyond any need to earn a living, George now spends some of his time explaining how the bad public policy he exploited not only made him …
POSTPONED: They’re Both Wrong!
The presentation “They’re Both Wrong,” scheduled for March 21, has been postponed indefinitely.
Sat. March 10, 2012 – 2 p.m. “The American Ruling Class”
The American Ruling Class Lewis Lapham, editor of Harper’s Magazine, wrote this “cleverly contrived non-fiction film” (New York Press) that follows two fictional Yale grads around as they ask some of America’s cultural, political, and economic elite (Walter Cronkite, James Baker III, Robert Altman, Pete Seeger, Lawrence Summers, Kurt Vonnegut, Bill Bradley, Howard Zinn) to …
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Feb. 22, 2012 – Political Economy Book Club continues with Wealth of Nations
Our Political Economy Book Club continues its discussion of Book I of Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations”. This session covers the second half of Book I (chapters 10 & 11). “The Wealth of Nations” is available for free download at http://www.gutenberg.org/. Feel free to participate even if you haven’t yet read the book and …
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Thursday, January 12: Republican Presidential Candidates and their Economic Advisors
On Bob Jene will look at eight Republican presidential candiates, analyzing their proposals to “fix” the economy. (Yeah, there used to be more than eight, and by the time of the talk there probably will be fewer than eight, but Bob is working with eight.) He’ll also consider the views of their advisors, and evaluate …
Wednesday: The Political Economy Book Club reads Adam Smith
An inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, generally referred to by its shortened title The Wealth of Nations, is the magnum opus of the Scottish economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith. First published in 1776, it is a reflection on economics at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and argues …
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Poverty will end when people think
[The following, originally posted in December, 2011, remains relevant and has received minor edits.] The mission of the Henry George School is to make available to everyone an education in political economy and social philosophy, based primarily on the works of Henry George. Anyone who understands George’s ideas knows the cause of poverty, and knows …