The Best Inflation News This Week Actually Came Out of Congress
Inflation fell to 6.5 percent in December, but new House rules ensure that Congress will have to consider the inflationary impact of future spending bills.
Policy
Zoning Police Continue To Find New Ways To Punish the Poor
Multiple factors contribute to housing shortages, but zoning constraints are mostly to blame.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's Housing Plan Avoids Common Mistake of Other YIMBY Reforms
The governor would let developers route around local zoning codes and get housing projects approved directly by state officials.
With Jordan Peterson, Occupational Licensing Becomes a Way To Censor
New mechanisms to threaten liberty are brought to bear on those who need the government's permission to do their jobs.
Help the Working Class by Deregulating Housing Construction
Economist Bryan Caplan explains how cutting back on zoning and other restrictions could create millions of new jobs for workers - on top of other beneficial effects.
Is There a Future for the City of Tomorrow?
The consequences of our obsession with urban dystopias and utopias
New York Times Blames 'Deregulation' for Regulated Electric Costs
Deregulated states may spend more on transmission, but that part of the market is still heavily regulated.
'Working Class' Reps Say They Can't Afford D.C. Rents While Earning $174,000 a Year
Progressive politicians are irritated they have to make the same tradeoffs in their living situation as other high-income professionals.
Illinois City Agrees To Stop Fining People for Resisting Warrantless Home Inspections
Zion’s attempts to push out unwanted renters collides with Fourth Amendment protections.
Canada Welcomes the New Year by Banning Foreign Home Ownership
Taxes and bans on foreign home ownership haven't arrested home price increases where they've been tried. There's no reason to think Canada's policy will be more successful.
The Pandemic Was a Disaster for Housing Affordability. 2023 Might Be a Little Better.
Rents and home prices skyrocketed almost everywhere over the past two years. There's some hope new supply will bring costs down in the new year.
New York's Ultra-Broad Definition of "Blight" Continues to Enable Eminent Domain Abuse
In this case, it enables the state to declare the area around Penn Station in New York City "blighted" and thereby authorize the use of eminent domain to take property for transfer to private interests.
Psychiatrists Do Not Know What They Are Treating
The mysteries of the mind are harder to unravel than psychiatrists pretend.
Los Angeles County Extends Its Eviction Moratorium Again, Citing Rising COVID, Flu, RSV Cases
Landlords say that nearly three years of eviction moratoriums is forcing some property owners out of the rental business entirely.
What 2022 Taught Us About Freeing American Alcohol Markets
Reformers had two years of unprecedented victories—and then protectionists started using scare tactics to block them
How To Empower Millions of Independent Workers
Deregulation can help the millions of people who prefer flexible, independent jobs.
New HUD Report Shows Steady Pandemic-Era Increase in Unsheltered Homeless Population
The overall homeless population stayed basically flat from 2020 to 2022. But the number of people sleeping on the streets increased 3.4 percent.
Richmond Wants To Limit New Convenience Stores Because There Was a Shooting at an Old One
The Richmond City Council unanimously approved a resolution to study applying tougher zoning restrictions to new shops as a way of cutting down on crime.
City That Forced Landlords To Evict Tenants Suspected of Crimes Will Pay $1 Million To Settle DOJ Lawsuit
Plus: Elon Musk bans Twitter account that tracks his private jet, Iong permit waits to build new apartment buildings in San Francisco, and more...
California's Ban on Gas-Powered Cars Could Wreak Havoc on Its Energy Grid
If all Californians bought E.V.s tomorrow, it would be a nightmare.
Why In the World Is the FTC Trying to Block Microsoft From Buying Call of Duty?
Antitrust regulators don't seem to understand how the video game industry works.
California's Landmark Environmental Law Finally Comes for the Legislature Itself
Golden State lawmakers have refused to fix the California Environmental Quality Act. Now it could cost them a brand new office building.
The Government Hasn't Learned a Thing From the Baby Formula Shortage
With the FORMULA Act soon to expire, the U.S. baby formula market is about to return to the conditions that left it so vulnerable to a shortage in the first place.
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin Seeks to Expand Housing by Curbing Zoning
The move is a step in the right direction. It also highlights how the issue cuts across ideological lines.
Will Eric Adams' 'Get Stuff Built' Plan Actually Get Stuff Built?
The mayor is proposing a long list of helpful, but marginal, reforms that would speed up the city's approval processes for new housing.
The FTC Has No Business Trying To Stop Video Game Company Mergers
It’s one of the most competitive industries in the world, and there’s no good reason to stop Microsoft from acquiring Activision Blizzard.
Elon Musk Isn't the Only One Fighting Regulators for Turning Offices Into Bedrooms
The rise of remote work has piqued developers' interest in converting empty downtown offices to apartments. Zoning codes and building regulations often make that impossible.
California Bill Would Exempt Church-Sponsored Housing Projects From Hellish Zoning Laws
S.B. 4 would let religious institutions and nonprofit colleges skip the typical environmental review and red tape when building low-income housing on their property.
Semiconductor Manufacturers Don't Need More Subsidies. They Need Less Government.
Fixing federal permitting rules and easing immigration policies would help companies like the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which are interested in building more plants in America.
Cronyist Journalism Measure Could Prompt Facebook To Ban News
Plus: ACLU sides against religious freedom, abortions after Dobbs, and more...
Ron DeSantis Admin Says in New Lawsuit That the Free Market Won't Produce Affordable Housing
Florida's Department of Economic Opportunity is suing the city of Gainesville to block its legalization of small "missing middle" apartment buildings in single-family neighborhoods.
D.C.'s 'Green New Deal for Housing' Is Doomed Before It Begins
Social housing supporters hope that the city can get city-owned, city-operated housing right with a new office, a more expansive mission, and different branding.
Review: Try and Fail To Build a Virtual City in Sim Nimby
Eventually the player realizes nothing is getting built and quits.
A Lame-Duck Congress Should Reject the Extended Child Tax Credit
The policy has some bipartisan support, despite the fact that it has mostly been a failure since its inception.
Be Thankful for Low-Skilled Workers
These are the people who showed up when the economy was shut down by the government, working in jobs labeled "essential."
Cities Switch From Requiring Too Many Parking Spaces To Banning Too Many Parking Spaces
Nashville is the latest city to eliminate minimum parking requirements while simultaneously capping how much parking developers are now allowed to build.
Oregon's Newly Legal Magic Mushroom Industry Could Be Strangled by Restrictive Zoning Regulations
Local governments are considering rules that could force "psilocybin service centers" to locate near highways and go through expensive, discretionary permitting processes.
New York Is Setting Up Legal Marijuana Merchants for Failure
Nearly 20 months after the state legalized recreational use, no licensed pot shops have opened, but the black market is booming.
Colorado Voters Rejected Booze To-Go and Expanded Alcohol Delivery
Alcohol-related ballot measures were in play in several states last week. The results were lukewarm.
Republicans Need an Actual Plan To Grow the Economy
The biggest beneficiaries of economic growth are poor people. But the deepest case for economic growth is a moral one.
Landlords Sue Over City-Mandated 15 Percent Rent Cut
Property owners in Kingston, New York, argue the city is vastly underestimating its vacancy rate in order to justify ruinous rent cuts.
Biden's 'Made In America' Plan Is Bullying Homeowners Off Their Land to Build a Taxpayer-Subsidized Chip Plant
The president has touted a factory jobs boom. In practice, that means forcing people out of their homes to benefit corporate projects that rely on billions of dollars of subsidies.
To Fight Human Trafficking, Police in Texas Town Endorse Zoning Restrictions on Massage Parlors
City officials in Nederland, Texas, are kicking around the idea of limiting new massage parlors to industrial areas of town.
