Abstract
Modern capitalism has failed to deliver two pre-requisites for the enjoyment of economic freedom—affordable housing and good-quality money. The present monetary regime plays a large role in that failure. Strong human emotions regarding “the home” combine with mental flaws inflamed by unsound money to make residential real estate vulnerable to the plague of asset inflation. Manipulated long-term interest rates, perverse tax incentives, and zoning laws add to the heat of highly speculative residential real estate. The issue of real estate “bubbles” can be particularly acute in small economies importing monetary inflation from the US or Europe; they could declare an economic emergency and pursue monetary defiance with good prospects of success, but in practice none have chosen to do so under the 2% regime.
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Bibliography
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Brown, B. (2018). Unaffordable Housing and Poor-Quality Money. In: The Case Against 2 Per Cent Inflation. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89357-0_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89357-0_9
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Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-89356-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-89357-0
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