IL43: The Land Trap: How Property Shapes Power ft. Mike Bird
Top Traders Unplugged
Why land dominates modern collateral
Mike traces how land became core to banking, explaining the rise of mortgage lending and its regulatory drivers.
In today’s episode we talk about the world’s oldest, and still most important asset: land. Our guest is the Economist’s Wall Street Editor Mike Bird. Mike is the author of a newly released book The Land Trap: A New History of the World’s Oldest Asset. We discuss the properties that make land unique as an asset and why it serves as collateral for almost two-thirds of all bank loans, making it the backbone of the world’s money supply. Mike explains what the “land trap” means and why China is caught in its grip like no other country. We also discuss the one country in the world that seems to have escaped the trap and whether their lessons can be applied elsewhere.
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Episode TimeStamps:
00:00 - Opening and setup
00:00:49 - Disclaimer and show introduction
00:01:45 - The premise: land as humanity’s oldest asset
00:04:18 - Defining the “land trap” through Hong Kong’s model
00:09:01 - Three defining traits: scarcity, immovability, endurance
00:18:17 - Why technology can’t replace geography
00:23:29 - Land as collateral and the rise of mortgage finance
00:28:31 - Lazy banking and the limits of innovation
00:35:17 - Dead capital, human potential, and access to credit
00:39:37 - China’s land machine and the politics of stasis
00:46:37 - Evergrande, reallocation, and what “collapse” really means
00:52:28 - Singapore’s experiment: broad ownership, stable prices
00:58:17 - Can others follow Singapore’s path?
00:59:33 - Closing reflection
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