Podcast Summary: New Books Network

Episode Overview

Title: Interview with Mike Bird: "The Land Trap—A New History of the World’s Oldest Asset"
Host: Reed Schwartz
Guest: Mike Bird (Wall Street editor, The Economist)
Air Date: December 14, 2025

In this episode, Reed Schwartz speaks with financial journalist Mike Bird about his newly published book, The Land Trap: A New History of the World's Oldest Asset (Penguin, 2025). The conversation traces the evolution of land as an asset from the Bronze Age to the present, focusing especially on the financialization of land, the influence of land reformers such as Henry George, and how land systems have shaped economies from colonial America to East Asia. They discuss the pitfalls of high land prices—coined the "land trap"—and what lessons might be drawn from the divergent paths taken by places like Hong Kong, China, and Singapore.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Mike Bird’s Journey to Financial History & Book Genesis

• Educational & Professional Background: History, not economics or finance, at university. Fell into financial journalism during the post-2008 crisis era, working at City A.M., Business Insider, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, with stints in London, Hong Kong, Singapore, and New York.

  • “I got into it by accident, more or less, but it's a very, very fun job.” [03:50 — Mike Bird]

• Inspiration for Book:

  • Initially sparked by issues of housing affordability in London post-GFC.
  • Moving to Hong Kong catalyzed a shift from thinking about “housing” to “land” given Hong Kong’s unique fiscal use of land and sky-high prices.
  • Interest further deepened examining Japan’s land bubble and cross-country comparisons.
  • “Noticing that some of [those themes] were relatively little discussed, but seemed quite prevalent, quite important. That was probably the genesis of the book.” [05:32 — Mike Bird]

2. The Historical Financialization of Land

Land in Colonial America and Beyond

• Open Frontier and Asset Creation:

  • Early American settlers encountered a radically different land regime: abundant land, limited aristocracy, high labor costs, and a shortage of cash/coin.
  • Colonists experimented with using land as the basis for local currencies, inspired by thinkers like William Potter and his Key of Wealth (1650)—theorizing banking against land (the proto-mortgage).
  • British authorities resisted these innovations, preferring the colonies remain resource exporters.
  • “If you can have a gold based currency, why can't you have a land based currency? … He’s essentially spitballing the modern system of banking that exists in the world today.” [09:23 — Mike Bird]

• Land and the Roots of Revolution:

  • Tensions over control, valuation, and use of land contributed to colonial friction with Britain, playing a subtle role in the American Revolution.

3. The Henry George Era and the “Closing Frontier”

Psychological and Economic Effects of the End of American Expansion

• Frontier Closes, Discontent Rises:

  • By the 1870s-1880s, the American “frontier”—a safety valve against European-style stratification—closed, fueling a sense of exclusion and loss of opportunity for new immigrants and urban workers alike.

• Henry George's Radical Solution:

  • George’s 1879 Progress and Poverty rocketed him to international fame; he linked recurring economic crises to land monopoly and advocated a 100% land value tax—taxing the unimproved value of land to capture “unearned” rents.
  • “He’s probably the most popular political thinker in the world at this point... He is really an international superstar.” [16:06 — Mike Bird]
  • George’s ideas contributed to the US’s comparatively high property taxes, even though constitutional barriers blocked pure land value taxes.

Land Value Tax vs. Traditional Property Tax [18:44]

• Key Difference:
  • Land value tax targets only the value of land excluding improvements; property tax covers both land and structures.
  • “People found it constitutionally very difficult to pass land value taxes in the USA. … Property tax is seen as a decent enough replacement.” [19:37 — Mike Bird]

4. Decline of Georgism and the Rise of Other Movements

The Movement Spreads and Fizzles

• Influence in UK and Ireland:

  • Georgism captured the British Liberal Party by the early 20th century, leading to a dramatic (and ultimately unsuccessful) push for land value taxation.
  • Implementation proved administratively difficult and was derailed by WWI and larger emerging political crises.

• Why Did Georgism Fade?:

  • The post-WWI surge of socialism and communism eclipsed Henry George’s “progressive populism,” pushing land reform to the margins.
  • “There’s no room in the middle for this movement anymore... From the peak of everything to relative insignificance.” [25:52 — Mike Bird]

The Technological “Reopening” of the Frontier

• The expansion of commuting zones via rail, streetcars, and especially the automobile effectively counteracted the closing of the frontier in the U.S., temporarily diffusing urban land pressures. [27:00-28:00]

5. Global Land Reforms and the “Land Trap” Concept

Georgist Ideas and Postwar Land Reforms

• Developing World Experiments:
  • Direct influence of George on post-WWII land reform is less clear than often claimed, but his ideas filtered indirectly into influential figures and movements (e.g., Sun Yat Sen in China).
  • US policymakers like Wolf Ladejinsky promoted land redistribution as a bulwark against communism, most successfully in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, less so elsewhere.

The “Land Trap” Defined [32:51]

• Core Concept:
  • A mature land economy is stuck: rising prices exacerbate inequality; falling prices destabilize the financial system (as land is used as loan collateral).
  • “When land is a large proportion of national wealth, it's very, very difficult and dangerous for land prices to go in either direction.” [33:02 — Mike Bird]

6. East Asian Case Studies: Hong Kong, China, Singapore

British Colonial Legacy and the Chinese Land Trap

• Hong Kong and China’s Model:

  • Both inherited a system of 50-to-99-year land leases as the foundation of government revenue—simple to administer and attractive to colonial authorities.

  • Modern China (post-Deng reforms) adopted Hong Kong’s government land-ownership/lease model: encouraged local governments to push land prices higher, with limited investment alternatives for households.

  • Led to staggering house price-to-income ratios (20–30x, compared to 8–10x in NYC/London) and both housing surpluses (vacancies) and shortages.

  • “China has, in many ways, the worst symptoms of a housing glut and the worst symptoms of a housing shortage.” [37:57 — Mike Bird]

  • “More than any other country today, I'd say China is sort of land trapped.” [40:46 — Mike Bird]

Singapore’s Escape from the Trap [42:18]

• Lee Kuan Yew’s Strategy:

  • Upon independence, Singapore expropriated most privately held land using the Land Acquisition Act and built a hybrid market/administrative housing system (HDB).

  • Emphasis shifted from maximizing land lease revenue to maximizing homeownership, with strict government controls preventing speculative bubbles.

  • Today, ~90% of Singaporeans live in subsidized public housing; prices remain controlled and homeownership is broadly distributed.

  • “If Hong Kong has gone for a high land price policy, Singapore has gone for a maximized home ownership policy with this extremely managed system that has meant that house prices in Singapore are far, far lower than they are in any other international financial center.” [45:30 — Mike Bird]

  • Caveat: This model would be extremely hard to implement retroactively in Western countries due to the scale of expropriation required.

7. Renewed Interest in Land Reform & Concluding Thoughts

Return of Georgist Scholarship

• Recent academic and popular works are reviving interest in Henry George and land value taxation, with studies exploring its historical, global, and current-day relevance (notable works cited at [47:41]).

What’s Next for Mike Bird? [48:54]

• Bird plans to take a break from book-writing but is interested in further exploring the dynamics of financial systems, especially differences between land-heavy bank-based and capital markets-based economies.

Parting Words

• “I think people should spend a lot of time thinking about how could we get something closer to [the Singaporean] model… Even just looking at it and saying, okay, this works really well would I think be a good starting point.” [47:23 — Mike Bird]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the central paradox of the "land trap":
  “Once land becomes an important part of national wealth, it's very, very difficult to move in any direction. And there are huge drawbacks to doing so.”
  — Mike Bird, [33:10]

• On the international oblivion of Henry George:
  “Despite the fact that he was, I think for several decades, probably the most important...political economy thinker in the world, he has just collapsed from public knowledge.”
  — Mike Bird, [25:24]

• On Singapore’s unique approach:
  “Again, if you're a Singaporean citizen, it's basically a country that has decided to treat land as a distinctly different form of asset to other assets.”
  — Mike Bird, [45:45]

Timestamps of Important Segments

• [01:59] — Mike Bird’s background
• [04:12] — Genesis of interest in land and the book
• [06:29] — The uniqueness of land as an asset in colonial America
• [13:04] — Henry George, Progress and Poverty, and the closing of the US frontier
• [18:44] — Land value tax vs. property tax explained
• [20:35] — Georgism’s rise and fall in UK/Ireland
• [29:30] — Georgist influence and postwar land reform in Asia
• [32:51] — Defining the “land trap”
• [35:17] — British colonial land systems and their legacy in Greater China
• [42:18] — The Singaporean turn: Homeownership vs. revenue maximization
• [47:41] — Recent scholarship and the revival of Georgist ideas
• [48:54] — What’s next for Mike Bird

End of Summary.