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In regards to finance, the Georgists and Kelsoists
share the same antiquated ideas regarding the
seemingly familiar terms, "rent" and "interest." I'm
sure you have noticed. They regard the private
collection of either as evil ipso facto, something to
stamp out. The exception they support is collection
by government, where "rent" and "interest" is called
taxation. It is a rather fascist attitude, I think.

Ed Dodson here:

I must dispute your assertion that Georgists regard the private collection of interest as the same as rent. Interest is viewed in Henry George's analysis as the legitimate, market-derived return to capital goods invested in production. He argued (and, those who accept his analysis argue) that interest along with wages (i.e., what labor produces) are private property, the taxation of which is theft. Using the same moral perspective, George argued that rent associated with locations and what he called "natural opportunities" provided by nature belonged to the community, and that its private appropriation amounted to theft of community property. As to your reference to fascism, I offer the historical fact that Henry George's books were banned by the Nazi party in Germany.

As far as the political economy of Henry George being antiquated, the economic literature is fairly extensive in general support of George's analysis. Neither the neo-classical school, the Austrians nor Marxists are apt to admit their errors, as they have built careers and reputations espousing theory challenged by Henry George's writings. Perhaps one of the most noteworthy cases of an economist writing in support of George was the 1995 Nobel Prize winner, William Vickrey (Columbia), working on transportation infrastructure funding: "Full efficiency thus requires that all such land rents be devoted to the subsidy of these decreasing-cost industries, and the appropriation of these rents by landlords for other purposes precludes the achievement of full efficiency." Then, there is this, from former World Bank economist Joseph Stiglitz:

"Not only was Henry George correct that a tax on land is nondistortionary, but, in an equilitarian society, in whihc we could choose our population optimally, the tax on land raises just enough revenue to finance the (optimally chosen) level of government expenditures."

These are just two examples that reason and logic are finding their way back into economic analysis in competition with doctrinaire assertions inconsistent with reality. Mason Gaffney (University of California, Riverside), an economist even more friendly to George's work than either Vickrey or Stiglitz, writes (in the 1994 book The Corruption of Economics):

"George was system-minded and sought to unify the laws of production and distribuiton in a coodinated harmonious system. His theoretical framework foreshadows the margin productivity theory of wages, which he integrates with Ricardo's rent law." [p.64]

"Antiquated ideas"? I beg to differ.

But it is the availability of the home mortgage that
has transformed modern economies more than anything
else, in my opinion. And that has emanated from the
inherently "evil" financial sector, with governmental
assistance and oversight.

In the United States it is mostly a post World War 2
phenomenon, spurred by guaranteed low interest
mortgages for returning veterans of the armed forces.
Later came FHA guaranteed loans available to
everyone. Quasi-governmental entities like Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac played a part. Several states
also have grant and loan programs.

Ed here:

Yes. All measures that have mitigated to a degree the workings of a dysfunctional land market. For over 30 years I have observed up close the workings of the financial markets, with numerous speculative spirals driving up prices of land and housing until one or more variables caused the market to implode and crash. Not under I came across Henry George's writings and began to study them did the boom to bust nature of the market begin to make sense to me.

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