Fred Emanuel Foldvary (May 11, 1946 – June 5, 2021) was a lecturer in

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sys ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, and a research fellow at

The Independent Institute The Independent Institute is an American libertarian think tank based in Oakland, California. Founded in 1986 by David J. Theroux, the institute focuses on political, social, economic, legal, environmental, and foreign policy issues. It has more ...

. He previously taught at

Santa Clara University Santa Clara University is a private Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California. Established in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California. The university's campus surrounds the historic Mis ...

and other colleges. He was also a commentator and senior editor for the online journal '' The Progress Report'' and an associate editor of the online journal ''

Econ Journal Watch ''Econ Journal Watch'' is a semiannual Peer review, peer-reviewed electronic journal established in 2004. It is published by the Fraser Institute. According its website, the journal publishes comments on articles appearing in other economics journa ...

.'' He served on the board of directors for the

Robert Schalkenbach Foundation The Robert Schalkenbach Foundation is a private operating foundation dedicated to the social and economic philosophy of Henry George. History The organization was founded in 1925 to promote public awareness of the social and economic philosophy ...

Work

In his PhD dissertation (

George Mason University George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...

, 1992) titled "Public Goods and Private Communities", Foldvary applied the theory of

public goods In economics, a public good (also referred to as a social good or collective good)Oakland, W. H. (1987). Theory of public goods. In Handbook of public economics (Vol. 2, pp. 485-535). Elsevier. is a good that is both non-excludable and non-riva ...

and

Industrial organization In economics, industrial organization is a field that builds on the theory of the firm by examining the structure of (and, therefore, the boundaries between) firms and market (economics), markets. Industrial organization adds real-world complic ...

to refute the concept of

market failure In neoclassical economics, market failure is a situation in which the allocation of goods and services by a free market is not Pareto efficient, often leading to a net loss of economic value. Market failures can be viewed as scenarios where indiv ...

, including case studies of several types of private communities. His research interests included

ethics Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns m ...

governance Governance is the process of interactions through the laws, social norm, norms, power (social and political), power or language of an organized society over a social system (family, tribe, formal organization, formal or informal organization, a ...

land economics In economics, land comprises all naturally occurring resources as well as geographic land. Examples include particular geographical locations, mineral deposits, forests, fish stocks, atmospheric quality, geostationary orbits, and portions of t ...

and

public finance Public finance is the study of the role of the government in the economy. It is the branch of economics that assesses the government revenue and government expenditure of the public authorities and the adjustment of one or the other to achie ...

. His support of

geolibertarianism Geolibertarianism is a political and economic ideology that integrates libertarianism with Georgism. It favors a taxation system based (as in Georgism) on income derived from land and natural resources instead of on labor, coupled with a mini ...

libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...

ideology which embraces the

Georgist Georgism, also called in modern times Geoism, and known historically as the single tax movement, is an economic ideology holding that, although people should own the value they produce themselves, the economic rent derived from land—including ...

philosophy of property) and his

advocacy Advocacy is an Action (philosophy), activity by an individual or advocacy group, group that aims to influence decision making, decisions within political, economic, and social institutions. Advocacy includes activities and publications to infl ...

civil liberties Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties may ...

and

free markets In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ot ...

have gained him a place of high visibility in the

geolibertarian Geolibertarianism is a political and economic ideology that integrates libertarianism with Georgism. It favors a taxation system based (as in Georgism) on income derived from land and natural resources instead of on labor, coupled with a minim ...

movement. In

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, he ran for

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

in California's 9th District as a

Libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...

. He received 3.3% of the total vote to finish third among the four candidates on the ballot. Foldvary wrote on topics including ending slavery in chocolate plantations; a

green tax shift An environmental tax, ecotax (short for ecological taxation), or green tax is a tax levied on activities which are considered to be harmful to the environment and is intended to promote environmentally friendly activities via economic incentives. ...

to protect the environment while enhancing the economy; reforming

democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...

with small-group voting; and solving

territorial conflict A territorial dispute or boundary dispute is a disagreement over the possession or control of land between two or more political entities. Context and definitions Territorial disputes are often related to the possession of natural resources s ...

with

confederations A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a union of sovereign groups or states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

and the payment of rent for occupied land. Three central and recurring themes of Foldvary's writing are the universal ethic,

cellular democracy As developed by geolibertarian political economist Fred E. Foldvary, cellular democracy is a model of democracy based on multi-level bottom-up structures in either small neighborhood governmental districts or contractual communities. Councils I ...

, and public revenue from land rent. In 1998, he predicted there would be a real estate-related recession in 2008 and a tech bubble collapse in the year 1999 or 2000. In 2007, Foldvary published a booklet entitled ''The Depression of 2008''. In a 2011 paper,

Mason Gaffney Merrill Mason Gaffney (October 18, 1923 – July 16, 2020) was an American economist and a major critic of Neoclassical economics from a Georgist point of view. Gaffney first read Henry George's masterwork ''Progress and Poverty'' as a high schoo ...

, Professor of Economics at

UC Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on in a suburban distr ...

, criticized the economic community for excluding and ignoring Foldvary.

Personal life

Foldvary lived in the San Francisco Bay Area in California.

Death

Foldvary died, aged 75, on June 5, 2021.Adams, Martin (July 22, 2021
"In memory of Dr. Fred Foldvary"
Progress.org

Books

* ''The Soul of Liberty'' (1980) The Gutenberg Press. * ''Public Goods and Private Communities'' (1994)

Edward Elgar Publishing Edward Elgar Publishing is a global publisher of academic books, journals and online resources in the social sciences and law. The company also publishes a social science and law blog with regular contributions from leading scholars. About Edwa ...

* ''Beyond Neoclassical Economics'' (1996) Edward Elgar Publishing * ''Dictionary of Free Market Economics'' (1998) Edward Elgar Publishing * ''The Half-Life of Policy Rationales: How Technology Affects Old Policy Issues'' (ed., with Daniel Klein, 2003) * ''The Depression of 2008'' (2007) The Gutenberg Press.

Notes

References

Research Fellow, Fred E. Foldvary

External links

Scu.edu: photolink for Fred Foldvary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foldvary, Fred E. 1946 births 2021 deaths 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American economists 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American economics writers American male non-fiction writers American people of Hungarian descent California Libertarians Georgist economists Libertarian economists San Jose State University faculty Santa Clara University people Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area