Avoid resource curse through Permanent Funds – Brookings

The Brookings Institute has recommended that US states Pennsylvania and Ohio establish Permanent Funds from their taxes from oil & gas fracking. This is similar to our proposal relating to the Goenchi Mati Permanent Fund. Devashree Saha & Mark Muro in their report titled “Permanent trust funds: Funding economic change with fracking revenues” advance five elements of good fund governance and management …

The automation of mining

In recent months, great strides have been made in automation of parts of the mineral chain. Rio Tinto now has two iron ore mines in Australia where all trucks are automated, and controlled from 1,200 km away. They are also on the verge of automating their trains. And at the other end of the world, APM has started its almost completely automated Maasvlakte 2 …

March roundup on Basic Income

With the exploding interest in Basic Income, Scott Santens sends out his first monthly update. Scott is one of the more thoughtful writers on the subject. Interestingly, Scott has created his personal basic income (through Patreon), so that he can focus on advocating the idea.

India Network for Basic Income

We are proposing that the real income from the Goenchi Mati Permanent Fund be distributed equally to all as a right of ownership over the commons, a Citizen’s Dividend. The Citizen’s Dividend is actually a form of Unconditional Basic Income. A group of concerned citizens have formed the India Network for Basic Income, to examine all varieties of Basic Income. Like …

UK loss of North Sea Oil

UK & Norway largely share the North Sea Oil. While similar amounts were extracted, UK received some GBP400 billion less than Norway. “Given political stability and competent institutions, a state can have both a relatively high tax burden on its industry and direct ownership of assets, and deliver more revenue for its citizens and still attract investment” – this is the lesson that …