Bias, Farmland, and Trade Advantage

Rob at Business Pundit perhaps slights the world of bloggers, but then again, he is right. Read and study his outline for the search for cognitive bias. He uses the word ‘Disconfirm’; something which is really hard to realize and act upon without the creation of an alternative model. Nature despises a vacuum, and if the replacement model is not as well-thought out as the original, then again you are in hazard. Here is the proper vindication of blogs, a matrix where a several themes can be explored concurrently, without real bias attributed to the work based upon position, wealth, or Public Relations funding (fancy term for financed propaganda). The downside to blogs lie in their proliferation inciting confusion by saturation, with the suppression of dissent by countervailing mass. One suggestion is choice of Liberal and Conservative bloggers for comparison, and for presentation of the greatest number of views on any issue.

Here is a long article which explains the current attempt to exempt farmland in total from Estate taxes. It might seem a Joke to Those long associated with other forms of labor, but the threat reported by the article is real. I myself go to a Dentist who came to town some 40 years ago, possessing not one acre of land, and today is one of the largest landowners in town; the rationale being land is a good appreciating asset alongside the already great Estate tax grants to landownership. There is great differential in land prices throughout the Country, due to climate and soil compositions, and therefore much variation in land prices; still, I would estimate that liberal Estate tax law for farmland would already have raised the price of farmland anywhere from $200-400 per acre by sketch estimate. Complete annulment of Estate taxes for farmland could raise that Cost by up to $500 per acre.

Dani Rodrik has a good discussion of the potentiality for both Good and Bad outcomes from the external discipline of Trade treaties. Consistent Readers of this blog know I almost universally oppose multi-national treaties, seeing them as basic instruments to discount real Trade advantages in the first place, by forbidding the horse-trading of bilateral Trade agreements. The later are renegotiable Contract agreements where both Parties can play to their Strengths, and away from their Weaknesses in Trade advantages. The demand for multi-national provision strips them of their ability to maneuver judicious allotments. Multinational Trade agreements also rob Trade partners of the very ability which Dani discusses, where future Governments can alter Trade policy to conform to future Trade advantages from altered economic conditions. There are Those who suggest this later released freedom of movement would be a basic disadvantage to poorer Trading partners, but I would challenge Anyone to prove that on-going Trade ever hampered either Trading partner. lgl