Unlearning History
Three decades after Massachusetts ended its disastrous experiment with rent control, voters are considering giving the policy another shot.
Policy
Is Zohran Mamdani Coming Around to Housing Deregulation?
New York's new mayor has moved away from some of his far-left beliefs, acknowledging that private businesses play an important role in homebuilding.
Bail Reform Faces Backlash as Policymakers Move To Require Cash Bond for Pre-Trial Defendants
Critics of cash bail say it creates a two-tiered justice system: Those who can pay maintain their freedom, while those unable to pay remain behind bars.
Mamdani's $6 Billion Child Care Expansion Would Be a Handout to Wealthy New Yorkers
The more the government intervenes in the market, the more New York parents pay for child care.
The Data Center Price Myth
Rising electricity prices are being pinned on data centers, but demand isn’t what makes power expensive.
Would Star Trek's Transporter Destroy Cities or Save Them?
What a speculative technology can tell us about the demands for urban density and sprawl
Mamdani Needs a Maximalist Vision of Mayoral Power To Achieve His Goals. Lina Khan Has a Plan.
As one of Mamdani's top advisers, Khan has been making a list of all the "authorities that the mayor can unilaterally deploy."
A Bipartisan Push to Revive a 1930s Law Could Make Grocery Prices Even Higher
If the government revives the Robinson-Patman Act to force suppliers into charging small and large retailers the same price for vastly different quantities of the same product, that will mean higher prices.
Zohran's Inner Circle: Meet the Radicals on Mamdani's Transition Team
The new mayor's advisers include people who have praised antisemites and called for defunding the police.
Is It Time To Break Up Big Tech?
Matt Stoller and Geoffrey A. Manne debate antitrust law and Big Tech.
The House Just Passed a Bill To Curb Environmental Lawsuits and Speed Up Construction Projects
The SPEED Act is unlikely to pass the Senate, but hopefully it will initiate sorely needed bipartisan reforms.
Trump Blames Illegal Immigrants for High Housing Prices. Blame Zoning Instead.
Low-skilled immigrants would expand the supply of housing more than they increase demand, if local governments would just allow new construction.
Brennan Center Symposium on "2025's Most Significant State Constitutional Cases"
Contributors include Eugene Volokh and myself, among many others.
Bernie Sanders Wants To Pause New Data Centers To Stop the Economy From Growing Too Much
The socialist senator wants a moratorium on new data centers to slow the AI and robotics industries down.
Thanks to Antitrust Officials, iRobot Will Be Acquired by a Chinese Robotics Firm Instead of Amazon
The only thing the Federal Trade Commission and European Commission succeeded in doing was transferring ownership of iRobot from an American company to a Chinese one.
Localism and the Limits of Regulating What We Love
When the perceived emotional harm from new development becomes a justification for state intervention, the law gets really arbitrary really quickly.
17 Ways Politicians Can Make Things Cheaper, Starting With Food, Health Care, and Appliances
A real affordability agenda would unleash free markets, not constrain them.
Donald Trump Tries To Override State AI Regulations via Executive Order
Only time will tell if the president's order achieves its stated purpose of checking state laws that threaten to stymie innovation.
Netflix and Paramount Will Fight for Trump's Favor
Which is what progressive fans of antitrust want, no?
Sweating the Little Things
The freedom to build in-law suites and home additions is crucial, even if it doesn't get us all the way to housing "abundance."
Ignore the Entertainment Companies
Plus: Lost Vegas, Gen Z listlessness, Kushner mystique, Nvidia goes to China, and more...
Why Elizabeth Warren and Donald Trump Hate the Netflix Deal
Plus: Trump’s economy shows new signs of strain, Congress pushes a $900 billion defense package, and Kalshi stirs backlash over “financializing everything”
Our Amicus Brief in the Pung v. Isabella County Home Equity Theft Takings Case
I wrote it (with help from others) on behalf of the Cato Institute and a group of takings and property scholars.
Non-Paywalled Version of My Washington Examiner Article on "Foot Voting, Housing, and Affordability"
The Cato Institute has posted one on its website.
Donald Trump Says He'll 'Be Involved' in Choosing Who Gets To Merge With Warner Bros.
Paramount Skydance is banking on the Ellison family's relationship with Trump following Netflix outbidding the company to acquire Warner Bros.
Trump's Tariffs Were Supposed To Cut the Trade Deficit and Boost U.S. Manufacturing. They're Not Working.
For Trump, tariffs are a solution to every problem, and his trade war is more about the vibes than the economics.
Virginia's New Blue Trifecta Puts Right-To-Work on the Line
Democrats retook full control in Richmond and are already advancing right-to-work repeal, testing whether incoming Gov. Abigail Spanberger will stand by her campaign promise.
Warner Bros. Accepts Netflix's $83 Billion Bid, but Antitrust Threats Still Loom
If antitrust regulators allow the deal to go through, consumers stand to benefit from a less expensive Netflix–HBO Max bundle.
What America Can Learn From Japanese Housing
On housing policy, America needs to be less fascist King Kong and more free-market Godzilla.Â
My New Washington Examiner Article on "Foot Voting, Housing, and Affordability"
We can make housing more affordable and empower people to "vote with their feet" by curbing exclusionary zoning. Left and right should support that instead of counterproductive snake oil like rent control, tariffs, and deportations.
New Car Prices Hit $49,766 in October. Rolling Back Fuel Economy Regulations Could Bring Relief.
Here's a Trump reform that could actually make something more affordable.
The Horseshoe of Doom: Populists Left and Right Say America Is Failing. The Facts Don't.
When voters believe they're living through an economic apocalypse, they're willing to embrace the very policies that would create one.
Federal Trade Commission Staff Endorses Proposal to End American Bar Association Monopoly on Law School Accreditation
FTC staff support the proposal by the Texas Supreme Court to allow for alternative means of accreditation.
In Connecticut, Zoning Reform Is Back From the Dead
Plus: A challenge to the Trump administration's shift away from "housing first" and reflections on the West's "Great Downzoning"
The Poverty Line Isn't a Vibe
A more robust welfare state won't change the fact that tradeoffs exist, even for relatively wealthy Americans who choose to have kids.
Republican Socialism: Trump Is Taking Federal Stakes in Private Companies
The Trump administration's pivot toward socialism did not come without warning.
Knitters Need Free Trade: Trump's Tariffs Are Making Crafting Supplies Harder To Get
"Every supplier I have, minus one, from major to minor, has had a price increase," a Tennessee yarn shop owner tells Reason.
Trump Slammed Biden's $52 Billion CHIPS Act. Then He Used It To Buy a Federal Stake in Intel.
Biden said "companies are investing in America again." Instead, America is investing in companies—and getting little in return.
Uncle Sam Makes Thanksgiving Worse
We have many things to be grateful for this time of year. The government isn't one of them.
Muriel Bowser Was a Flawed Mayor. We'll Miss Her When She's Gone.
Bowser's apathetic pragmatism sustained D.C.'s turnaround success while keeping a hard-left approach to city government at bay.
D.C. Circuit Upholds Energy Department Ban on Non-Condensing Furnaces and Water Heaters
After this decision, rescinding this Biden Administration rule may be more difficult.
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass Says You Can Defeat NIMBYism by Building Less
Plus: The DOJ and RealPage reach a settlement, the ROAD to Housing Act hits a speed bump, and Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani talk housing policy.
A Dirge for DOGE
The Department of Government Efficiency didn't accomplish much. We still have cause to mourn its official closure.
Trump's Tariffs Are Likely To Make Toys More Expensive This Christmas Shopping Season
In Trump's first term, he exempted many Chinese toys and household items from tariff hikes. This time, they're subject to a 30 percent import tax.
Can the Government Mandate a Vaccine for Your Own Good? This Federal Court Says Yes.
The 9th Circuit made a ruling this year that could allow far-ranging government interference with private health decisions.
