34th Selected Links

Happy weekend! Here are some links to things I've been reading that you might also enjoy:

1. 'Who gets the urban surplus?', an underrated 2017 paper by Paul Collier and Tony Venables. The paper is effectively an update to Henry George's theorem about who gets the gains of agglomeration. For George, the answer to the question posed in the paper's title was, simply put, "landlords". For Collier and Venables, it has become "landlords and skilled metropolitan workers". The paper explains why.

2. '"2001: A Space Odyssey": What it means, and how it was made', a 2018The New Yorkerarticle about a great American film.

3. 'Can Hollywood Still Make Blockbusters?' a 2021National Reviewarticle by Ross Douthat about the disappearance of great American films.

4. 'Aggregate Land Rents, Expenditure on Public Goods, and Optimal City Size', the classic 1979 paper by Richard Arnott and Joe Stiglitz that proved what they graciously dubbed "The Henry George Theorem".

5. 'Quantitative easing: a dangerous addiction?', a recent report by the Economic Affairs Committee of the U.K.’s House of Lords. One of the report's authors is former Governor of the Bank of England and guest of the podcast Mervyn King.

Have a great weekend,  


Joe