The Appreciation Constituency: Land, Credit and the Politics of Protected Assets
The article discusses the intricate relationship between land, credit, and politics as explored in Mike Bird's book, "The Land Trap." It highlights how land serves as a critical asset in financial systems, influencing economic cycles and political stability. The author critiques Bird's historical narrative for not fully addressing the causal relationship between credit expansion and land value protection.
- ▪Land has been a central asset in financial systems, creating cycles of economic exuberance and collapse.
- ▪The book traces the historical significance of land from early America to modern-day financial practices.
- ▪Bird argues that the concentration of land value leads to political fractures and necessitates government intervention.
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Summer 2026 / Volume X, Number 2 May 20, 2026 The Appreciation Constituency: Land, Credit, and the Politics of Protected Assets By Hunter Hopcroft REVIEW ESSAY The Land Trap: A New History of the World’s Oldest Asset by Mike Bird Princeton University Press, 2026, 296 pages Land’s unique features have continually proved irresistible to financiers both public and private. The credit that land creates sits at the center of financial bubbles that form at a regular, if not always predictable, cadence. Repeatedly, the permanence of land finds its mirror in our cyclical patterns of financial exuberance and collapse.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at American Affairs Journal.
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