During these times of rampaging predatory capitalism, one is tempted to dwell on the details; the endless new scams and instruments to generate profits from debt, and always new creations:

• Blythe Masters (who gave us the credit default swap) hard at work on carbon derivatives,
• JP Morgan Chase’s q-Forwards,
• Goldman Sachs and their collateralized risk obligations (CRO) and convoluted public-private partnership configurations,
• Morgan Stanley and their Pinnacle Notes,
• Citigroup’s crisis derivatives,
• and ELX Futures’ (Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley et al.) exchange of futures for futures (EFF) gambit,

but sometimes examining the fundamentals is recommended.

A long time ago, Henry George, the great political economics thinker, came to the conclusion that the concentrated land ownership – or the monopoly of land – was the chief cause of poverty.

The free-thinking economist, J.W. Smith and his elegant economic democracy philosophy elaborated this to the monopolization of land, capital and knowledge. While in logical agreement with Dr. Smith, the second two categories are always dependent upon the primary monopoly of land.

Adam Smith, in his Wealth of Nations so very conveniently avoided a confrontation with the land owner hegemony of his day; instead writing to the status quo and avoiding the obvious concentration in land ownership.