The Closer

Repeat after me, class: Growth does not cause inflation. Write it on the blackboard 100 times. For decades, the economics profession has been trying to tell us all just the opposite. They keep shoveling out...

A lot of people still expect the U.S. to fall into a recession. But for the housing market, the recession could already be in the rearview mirror. Builders are sounding less downbeat than they were...

On Halloween, 2022, some elected officials held a performative press conference to talk about “Zombie Apartments.” They claim property owners are engaging in a mass conspiracy to keep rent-stabilized apartments vacant in an attempt...

The U.S. is in the midst of a crisis of masculinity. According to a new study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, men without four-year college degrees, ages 25 to 54, have left...

Livermore National Laboratory’s announcement is certainly a breakthrough, but it’s a commercially limited one. Nuclear fusion has long been hailed as the next great energy source, capable of providing nearly limitless power without the...

In 1985, British rock band Dire Straits complained, “They ain’t workin’, that’s the way you do it; Money for nothing and your chicks for free.” The lyrics criticized the excesses of nouveau riche rock...

At one time or another, every politician—local, state, and federal—promises to help create “affordable housing.” The issue has become especially critical of late with rents and housing prices rising and higher interest rates making...

President Biden’s release in May of a “Housing Supply Action Plan” represents a commendable effort to bring much needed quality, affordably-priced housing to communities throughout the country. In taking steps to “ease the burden...

On the 50th anniversary of the demolition of  Pruitt-Igoe, it’s nearly impossible to understate the failure of the St. Louis public housing project. Famed architect Minoro Yamasaki, who would go on to design the World...

Inflation has reached its highest level in nearly 40 years, and everyone is looking for answers. Before fiscal and monetary authorities can muster a policy response, we need to understand what is causing inflation....

Multifamily owners and operators are the single largest dispenser of utilities in the nation. An electric grid failure would be catastrophic for operations and to residents, many of whom currently work from home. The clock...

I am a small landlord, and the government has put me and millions of other small landlords through hell for the past 18 months. Politicians always say they support small business, but they rarely...

The Biden administration was in a box in late July. They desperately wanted to extend the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s controversial eviction moratorium. But the judicial writing was on the wall. They...

As the Supreme Court’s recent Obamacare case illustrates, the justices no longer enforce most of the Constitution’s limits on the federal government. But a new property rights decision demonstrates how they are super-enforcing the...

The deregulation of real estate markets doesn’t just make economic sense. It is also a moral imperative. In the early twentieth century, known as the “progressive era,” the United States embarked on a spree of...