July 3, 2023
Smart Talk: A Game Designer Meets Henry George
This edition of Smart Talk features Lars Doucet, Director of Outreach at Common Ground USA. Mr. Doucet is the author of Land is a Big Deal, a fascinating summary of the Economics of Henry George. In this captivating conversation, Mr. Doucet explains how his work as a computer game designer allowed him to observe the principles of political economy at work as predicted by Henry George in Progress and Poverty.
June 5, 2023
Smart Talk: Why is your Rent so Damn High?
Mark Mollineaux, host of the Henry George Program at KZSU is our guest for this edition of Smart Talk. The conversation highlights the widening gap between incomes and housing costs which makes homeownership an unattainable dream for many hard working American families. According to Mark, this phenomenon is driven by the “law of rent” as espoused by Henry George. Mark also discusses alternative pathways to affordability such as limited equity co-ops, a solution that met with great success in Singapore and Europe.
May 20, 2023
Smart Talk: A Conversation with Marc Morial of the National Urban League
In this edition of Smart Talk, Dr. Marty Rowland speaks with Marc Morial, former mayor of New Orleans, President and CEO of the National Urban League. The conversation covers a broad range of issues, ranging from housing discrimination through redlining to policies aimed at reviving American cities.
April 25, 2023
Smart Talk: How Henry George Shaped Modern Liberalism
Land and Liberty: Henry George and the Crafting of Modern Liberalism is the newly published book by Dr. Christopher England, professor of history at Georgetown University.
In this edition of Smart Talk, Ed Dodson speaks with Dr. England about George’s greatest contribution to the liberal movement: his popularization of the notion of social value via his emphasis on land value. They discuss how George re-contextualized liberalism in a way that builds off early Lockean ideas on the right to own what one produces.
February 24, 2023
Smart Talk: Congestion Pricing – Lessons from London’s decade long experience
In this episode, Ed Dodson speaks with Dave Wetzel, former vice chair of Transport for London. This local government body was tasked with designing and implementing London’s first congestion pricing system to address the city’s intractable traffic problems. Dave draws several interesting connections between Georgist philosophy and congestion pricing which he refers to as “a land value tax on wheels.” He also discusses the initial expectations of the plan, what went right and the things that need to be improved.
December 26, 2022
Smart Talk: Solving Toronto’s Housing Problem – Could LVT be the Solution?
In this edition, Ed Dodson speaks with Chloe Brown, policy analyst with the Canadian government and candidate in Toronto’s 2022 mayoral election. The conversation centers around urban issues such as housing and highlights the promises of LVT as a solution.
June 22, 2022
Smart Talk: A conversation with Jeff Smith
In this episode, Edward Dodson speaks with Jeffrey Johnson Smith, Georgist scholar and social justice activist, about his work promoting the ideas of Henry George. While the discussion highlights historical milestones achieved by Georgism, it also stresses the challenges it faces re-building a social movement with a lasting impact on public policy.
May 6, 2022
Is Georgism Relevant today?
This edition of Smart Talk features a conversation between Edward Dodson and Nicolaus Tideman; professor of Economics at Virginia Tech. The discussion highlights the relevance of Henry George’s philosophy as well as its potential for addressing some of today’s public policy challenges.
December 7, 2021
Tackling Climate Change – The Case for Carbon Pricing
In this episode of Smart Talk, Edward Dodson speaks with Yoram Bauman, the world’s first ( and only ) stand-up economist about the benefits of carbon pricing and his efforts for its adoption in the United States and Canada. Dr. Bauman has authored many books and written extensively on tax reform. His new book, The Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change, has been translated in many languages.
October 29, 2021
Basic Income and How to Pay for it
In this episode of Smart Talk, Ed Dodson and Floyd Marinescu, founder of UBIWorks Canada and CEO of C4 Media, discuss the challenges to our social safety nets posed by the combined effects of labor displacement by technology and the private appropriation of the commons. According to Marinescu, the collection of economic rent, which he sees as the technological inheritance of humanity, is not only the most equitable, but also the most effective method for funding a basic income for all.
Sepetember 7, 2021
Smart Talk with Jack Rasmus
Jack Rasmus is back on Smart Talk to discuss the state the of the US economy after the pandemic-induced recession.
March 15, 2021
Smart Talk with Fred Harrison
Fred Harrison is back on Smart Talk to discuss his new trilogy “Hashtag We are Rent” where he presents a new approach to spreading George’s message. According to Harrison, the marketing of the message is just as important as the message itself and there is an urgent need for a narrative to captivate public imagination and influence behavior and policy.
March 9, 2021
Snapshot with Edward Harrison
In this Snapshot, I had the pleasure of speaking with Edward Harrison, a banking and Finance expert and also a trustee at the Henry George School about the current economic recovery.
December 7, 2020
Smart Talk with Frances Chiu
In this episode of Smart Talk, Ed Dodson speaks with Frances Chiu, professor of history and literature at the New School of Social Research, New York about a her newly released book – The Routledge guide to Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man. This interesting exchange reveals the inestimable but often unacknowledged influence that Paine had and continues to have today on the progressive movement in the United States and beyond.
November 16, 2020
Smart Talk with Charles Marohn
In this breathtaking interview, Edward Dodson speaks with Charles Marohn, Executive Director of Strong Towns, a Minnesota based non-profit organization that advises communities throughout the United States and Canada on how to build better and financially resilient cities.
September 15, 2020
Welcome to Snapshots
Welcome to Snapshots, our new short video series where we look at current events through a Georgist lens. My guest today is Edward J. Dodson, a former financial sector professional and Georgist scholar with many years of teaching experience at various academic institutions.
August 17, 2020
Smart Talk with Dr. Charles Clark
In this interview, Aleksandr Gevorkyan of the Henry George School speaks with Dr. Charles Clark, professor of Economics at St. John’s University on Universal Basic Income in the light of Catholic social thought.
June 25, 2020
Smart Talk with Peter Doyle
In this edition of Smart Talk, Ed Dodson speaks with Former IMF economist Peter Doyle on why slavery, arguably the biggest wealth transfer in history has been a complete blind spot in the discipline of Economics. According to Peter, not only did classical economists get the issue of slavery wrong, but so too did heterodox economists. The problem, he argues lies with what he calls the “agency problem” which provided cover for some people to own and appropriate the labor of others.
May 18, 2020
Smart Talk with Phil Anderson
In this edition, Ed and Phil Anderson of Economic Indicator Services, explore in detail the tendency of capitalist economies to experience periodic cycles of booms and bust. The conversation reveals an intimate relationship between business cycles and what Georgists have identified as the “18-Year land cycle”. According to Phil, every major business cycle since the 1800s has been preceded by a rise and fall in land prices, so that the most effective way to predict and prevent major fluctuations in the economy is to tame the land cycle through land value taxation.
March 27, 2020
Smart Talk with Alanna Hartzok
In this episode of Smart Talk, Ed speaks with Alanna Hartzok, co-founder and co-director of Earth Rights Institute on how to fund the Green New Deal, America’s radical plan to decarbonize its economy and address climate change.
December 4, 2019
Smart Talk with Dr. Robin Gaster
Amazon’s stunning rise from a garage-based operation to retail and technology colossus is by now well-known. Much less known however, is the fact that Amazon is on the verge of extending its dominion over the entire American book industry – including publishing. In this edition of Smart Talk, Alan and his guest, Economist Robin Gaster discuss the epic story of Amazon’s momentous rise and its wide-ranging implications.
July 22, 2019
Smart Talk with Fred Foldvary
In this edition of Smart Talk, Ed Dodson speaks with Professor Fred Foldvary, one of the few economists who predicted the 2007 financial crisis, on the state of the US Economy. This interesting exchange reveals the main flaws of policy responses offered by Progressives, which are well-intended but fundamentally misguided for they treat the effect of bad outcomes rather than eliminating their cause.
