In my book, The Affordable Housing Crisis: Causes and Cures, I show how a century of policies attempting to provide affordable housing have failed. Indeed, those policies have made the housing crisis worse. Yet, politicians and housing activists clamor for more of the same policies. The wrong framework leads to bad decisions. Minneapolis provides us…
In Canada, as in the United States, single-family zoning is under attack. Canadian columnist Terence Corcoran (who labels himself as a member of the “libertarian school of economic thought”) argues, “Zoning should be treated as a fundamental aspect of property rights.” In truth, zoning is a fundamental violation of property rights. The right to property…
In my book, The Affordable Housing Crisis: Causes and Cures, I examine many different policies that have impacted the affordability of housing in the United States, including single-family zoning and federal highway policies. One policy that I did not examine, but which has a significant impact on housing, is minimum parking requirements. CNN reports that…
A recent opinion piece at CNN.com addresses several bills that were introduced in the 2023 Texas legislative session, including a requirement that the Ten Commandments be posted in every government school classroom. The article correctly notes that this is part of a decades long battle by religionists to impose Christian ideas through the schools. The…
Many rural Texans oppose school choice because they fear what might happen to their government schools in the future. A story from Marlin, Texas shows that they would be well advised to be concerned about the present. Marlin’s high school delayed its graduation ceremony because only five of the thirty-three seniors met the requirements to…
A little-known aspect of property rights is the concept of adverse possession, sometimes called squatters rights. Founded in common law, the concept holds that a non-owner of property may acquire ownership of that property after use or possession for a specified amount of time. NPR reports of a recent case involving adverse possession. For many…
An editorial by the New York Daily News Editorial Board provides an example of the nonsense that can be written when principles are abandoned. In the piece, the board agrees with the idea that rent control exacerbates the problems it is allegedly intended to remedy. It then cautions the Supreme Court, which may be considering…
Howard Husock, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, uses data from the Census Bureau to illustrate how rent control is “shabbifying” New York City’s rental housing. The bureau’s data shows: The bureau’s report states that housing quality declined across all housing types, but it is too “early to know if this was a…
Few people care about property rights until it is their property that is threatened. For example, when the federal government began using eminent domain to seize property in south Texas, property owners objected. They correctly claimed that their property rights were being violated. However, they said nothing about rural Texans being threatened at the same…
Today, the United States Supreme Court announced two unanimous rulings in cases that had been filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF). This follows another successful ruling from the Court in April (Wilkins v. United States). In Sackett v. EPA, the Court significantly narrowed the EPA’s authority under the Clean Water Act. The ruling will…
On Monday, we examined Elon Musk’s claim that working from home is “morally wrong.” Such a claim derives from a lack of conceptual clarity. Musk is hardly alone. Today, we will examine a claim that a home mortgage is a form of rent control. Mark Paul, an assistant professor of economics at Rutgers, writes, Some…
Last week, Elon Musk declared that working from home is “morally wrong.” He went on to say that it isn’t fair that those who deliver food or work in construction can’t work from home. Musk may be a very astute businessman, but he demonstrates a lack of conceptual clarity in making such a statement. Conceptual…