Fred Foldvary

Fred Foldvary

Fred Emanuel Foldvary (born May 11, 1946) is a lecturer in economics at Santa Clara University, California, and a research fellow at The Independent Institute. He is also a commentator and senior editor for the online journal The Progress Report and an associate editor of the online journal Econ Journal Watch. He lives in Berkeley, California.

In his PhD dissertation (George Mason University, 1992), "Public Goods and Private Communities", he applied the theory of Public goods and Industrial organization to refute the concept of market failure, including case studies of several types of private communities. His research interests include ethics, governance, land economics and public finance.

His support of geoanarchism (a kind of Georgist economics) and his advocacy of civil liberties, anarchy and free markets have gained him a place of high visibility in the geolibertarian movement. In 2000, he ran for Congress in California's 9th District as a Libertarian. He received 3.3% of the total vote to finish third among the four candidates on the ballot.

Foldvary has written on topics including: ending slavery in chocolate plantations; a green tax shift to protect the environment while enhancing the economy; reforming democracy with small-group voting; and solving territorial conflict with confederations and the payment of rent for occupied land. The three basic themes of Foldvary's writing are the universal ethic, cellular democracy, and public revenue from land rent.

In 1998 he predicted there would be a real estate-related recession in 2008. In 2007 Foldvary published a booklet entitled The Depression of 2008.