Restoring America’s exceptionalism
Regulatory relief and reform
To restore incentive and encourage growth we must reduce the regulatory burden on our economy. There is a place for regulations that ensure safety and soundness and protect people from danger,...
Fusion wariness
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...
The death of the small apartment building
Developers in the U.S. built 358,000 units of new multifamily housing in 2017. That’s less than half the number of single-family homes built last year, but the gap between the two has narrowed a...
Home ownership may fall more than expected
Then JPMorgan CEO, Jamie Dimon, suggested that his bank could get out of the mortgage ownership business in the future. "Owning consumer assets may be something we don't want to do," Dimon said on...
Making Disparate Impact deliver fairness
HUD’s proposed revisions to our disparate-impact rule enhance our commitment to fairness for everyone.
Everyone agrees that discrimination has no place in society. But everyone also agrees that a city should be able to require...
Raising minimum wage hurts workforce
The Senate Budget Committee’s blog says, “Top economists are backing Sen. Bernie Sanders on establishing a $15 an hour minimum wage.” It lists the names of 210 economists who call for increasing the federal...
State of the multihousing union
As punditry is appropriately colorized by the perspective of the teller, our industry leaders may be the clearest sounding bell on how it affects not only to our own livelihoods, but the tipping point...
Gen Y buy in
Not long ago apartment living was an accepted rite of passage -- a years-long holding station between dormitory living and home-ownership. But with today's mortgage interest rates near historic lows, lenders offering more flexible...
Am I the only techie against net neutrality?
No, I am not a paid shill for the cable industry. I am no fan of Comcast or any other ISP I’ve ever had the “pleasure” of dealing with. I’m skeptical of large corporations...
Pre-pandemic economy was reaching unprecedented heights for Black and Hispanic Americans, new data show
The grim and isolated life many Americans have adopted during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis is often referred to as the “new normal.” But when it comes to the economic side of the pandemic, we...
Community opposition to multifamily
Overcoming community resistance to multifamily development
Community opposition to multifamily has become one of the top barriers to construction of accessible, sustainable housing in America. But there are strategies developers can use to build political...
Are there enough shovel-ready workers?
In a 9/15 campaign speech at the New York Economic Club, he predicted that his plan would increase employment by 25 million new jobs over the next 10 years. I looked at the 10-year...
The new housing problem facing low-income renters
There’s a new problem facing low-income individuals seeking affordable housing: Even if they have a housing choice voucher to subsidize rents in the private market, landlords do not want to accept voucher tenants. A...
What goes wrong when the government interferes with prices
Prices are a fact of life, and so is complaining about them. You probably prefer lower prices on just about everything, but especially when buying a house or paying for college, and you wish...
Challenging Disparate Impact
“No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without...
