Bankless Land: The $180 Trillion Asset That Runs the World | Mike Bird, The Economist
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Nov 4, 2025 
Mike Bird, Editor at The Economist and author of The Land Trap, explores the intriguing world of land as a $180 trillion asset. He discusses how superstar cities struggle with underbuilding, leading to skyrocketing housing costs. Bird reveals how mortgages link banks to land, amplifying credit cycles. The conversation dives into historical property records, Japan's land bubble, and China's unique land markets. He also offers solutions for the land trap, suggesting policy remedies like taxing land-value uplift to fund essential infrastructure.
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Superstar Cities Drive Housing Unaffordability
- Economic geography shifted: superstar cities now concentrate demand and push up land prices.
- Failure to build enough housing in those places is central to unaffordability.
Land Powers Banking And Credit Cycles
- Land acts as the primary collateral in mortgage-driven banking systems and amplifies credit cycles.
- Rising land values loosen collateral constraints and fuel more lending until it reverses violently.
Monopoly Began As A Georgist Protest
- Lizzie Magie's Landlord's Game inspired Monopoly as a critique of land rent capture.
- The game models rapid wealth concentration that Georgists warned would freeze economic dynamism.
