Executive Summary
Mason Gaffney’s formal academic review of Phil Anderson’s The Secret Life of Real Estate and Banking (2008), published as a University of California Riverside working paper in June 2009. Gaffney finds Anderson’s book “on the whole persuasive” — an important academic endorsement. He confirms Anderson “establishes the reality of an 18-year cycle in real estate prices, 1800 to date,” noting Anderson’s use of the term “enclosure” for privatization, his wealth of supporting data, his identification of leading/lagging indicators in each cycle, and his finding that other economic dips are “trivial” compared to real-estate-cycle-based ones. Gaffney notes flaws in specific particulars while endorsing the central thesis.
Key Arguments (from Abstract)
- Anderson establishes the reality of the 18-year cycle from 1800 to present, emphasizing the land element — “mainly urban land and subsoil resources”
- “Enclosure” framing: Anderson relates the cycle to privatization of land, using “enclosure” as his term — but does not trace it to the 16th century English enclosure movement, nor recommend undoing privatization
- Data-rich: “He supports his thesis with a wealth of data, surveying a wide literature of secondary sources”
- Consistent leading/lagging indicators: “He finds the same sequence of leading and lagging indicators in each cycle” — each cycle rhymes
- Other dips are trivial: Anderson “faults other economists for failing to notice this” pattern while overemphasizing minor fluctuations
- “On the whole persuasive” — Gaffney’s overall verdict despite “flawed in some particulars”
Significance
- This is the primary academic peer-review endorsement of Anderson’s book
- Gaffney (UCR professor for 33 years, author of The Corruption of Economics) is one of the most credible Georgist economists
- Published as a formal working paper (not just a blog post or review in a magazine)
- Anderson’s book was self-published/small press; Gaffney’s endorsement gives it academic credibility
- JEL classifications E30, N10, N90 confirm treatment as serious economics/economic history
Cross-References
- Phil Anderson — the reviewed author; this review is on his entity page
- Mason Gaffney — the reviewer; his most direct endorsement of PSE’s foundational text
- 18.6-Year Real Estate Cycle — the cycle Anderson claims to document 1800–present
- Economic Rent — Anderson’s Georgist framing
- Hoyt Chicago Land Cycle — the data lineage Anderson extends
Source Notes
- Handle: RePEC:ucr:wpaper:200905
- Published June 2009 (revised)
- No PDF of the full review is publicly available — only the abstract on IDEAS/RePEC
- The “flaws in some particulars” are not specified in the abstract; full paper needed for those details
- This working paper may have been written for the same American Journal of Economics and Sociology special issue where Gaffney’s “Role of Land Markets” paper appeared