The Biden Administration Flirts With Imposing Nationwide Rent Control Via Executive Action
The White House's idea of using Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to adopt rent control faces numerous legal and practical hurdles.
Supply and demand
Robert Reich Is Wrong: 'Corporate Greed' Isn't To Blame for Egg Prices
The former labor secretary ignores the avian flu epidemic that devastated the supply of egg-laying hens.
2022 Proved That Governments Can't Improve on Good Economic Principles
We’d all be better off if politicians spared us their experiments in subsidies, wages, and trade.
Drug Shortages? Ham-Handed Pandemic Interventions Deserve Much of the Blame
You can’t turn lives and economies off and on without inflicting lingering harm.
A GOP-Led Congress May Focus on Owning the Libs. Instead, It Should Focus on Owning Inflation.
If the midterms favor Republicans, their top priority needs to be the fight against inflation—whether or not they feel like they created the problem.
The 'Experts' Were Never Going To Fix Inflation
The idea that the Fed has the knowledge necessary to control the economy with perfectly calibrated policies was always an illusion.
Here's What the Media Get Wrong About Hurricanes
No, a big storm does not require big government.
The U.K.'s New 'Free Market' Prime Minister Is Fighting Inflation With Price Controls
This fiscal irresponsibility throws gasoline on the country's already raging inflation fire.
Selling a Home? The D.C. Down Payment Assistance Program Will Give You Up to $202,000.
The city's expanded down payment assistance program is a recipe for increasing home prices.
Freedom Was Giving Us Prosperity and Full Bellies. Political Leaders Squandered What We Had.
Government officials broke the world, and we’re all paying the price.
The Pandemic Home-Building Boom Is Over
Builders are starting fewer new housing projects but housing construction rates remain steady. Experts say it's a product of inflation catching up with persistent supply chain problems.
America's Meat Shortage Is Self-Inflicted and Fixable
How can it be that with so much cattle in America, we sometimes can't buy meat?
There's No Political Solution to the Baby Formula Shortage
Governments can't plan economies, but can disrupt them.
No, Gas Prices Didn't Spike Because of 'Corporate Greed'
Corporations were just as greedy when prices fell in 2019 and early 2020.
America's Trade and Regulatory Policies Have Contributed to the Baby Formula Shortage
Why do we have tariffs on imported formula in the middle of a shortage?
The Case for Uber Surge Pricing After a Mass Shooting
In criticizing the move, the New York Post got basic economics wrong.
Annual Inflation Hits 8.5 Percent, Highest Rate Since 1981
Plus: China's unsustainable COVID lockdowns, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's performative anti-immigration antics snarl supply chains, and more...
California's Terrible Price-Gouging Law Puts Markets at Mercy of Ambitious Prosecutors
Higher egg prices are not a crisis in the middle of a pandemic full of supply problems.
Blame Insane Government Spending for Inflation
Some want to solve the problem with subsidies for gas, housing, child care, and more. That only risks greater stagnation.
Rent Control Is Fashionable Again. It's Still a Bad Idea.
Even supposedly well-designed rent control policies come at the expense of new supply while creating a class of renters opposed to necessary zoning reforms.
Where's My Stuff?
Supply chains are struggling, but they're not as fragile as you think.
Gavin Newsom Has Been Absent as California Port Crisis Drives America's Supply Chain Problems
Perhaps Newsom doesn't want to do anything because the real solutions will anger his union and environmental allies.
Joe Biden Invoked 'I, Pencil' To Explain Supply Chains, but He Seems To Have Missed the Point
"Even products as simple as a pencil have to use wood from Brazil and graphite from India before it comes together at a factory in the United States," Biden said.
No, Joe Biden Can't Save Christmas
We've turned the presidency into an omnipotent office, and we expect that our gifts and government checks will be delivered on time.
Opium Suppression in Afghanistan Was a US-led Failure
The basics of supply and demand still applied.
COVID-19 Industrial Policy Fails Again
A Connecticut company got a $138 million government contract in order to break America's supposed "dependence" on foreign-made syringes. It has yet to produce even a single one.
Wartime Rationing Changed How America Ate for a Century. The Pandemic Will Do the Same.
The government tried to stabilize the nation's food supply 80 years ago. Its efforts backfired.
No, Stimulus Spending Wouldn't Be an Economic Vaccine Against the Coronavirus
If it works at all (and it usually doesn't), a fiscal stimulus is meant to boost demand. The biggest potential economic problem from coronavirus has to do with supply.
California Passes Statewide Rent Control Despite a Massive Housing Shortage
Economists have long warned that rent control only limits housing supply and drives up prices in the long-run
How 'Price Gouging' Can Help Floridians in Hurricane Dorian's Path
High prices can bring much-needed supplies into a disaster zone.
Heads Up, California: Sydney Has Figured Out How to Get the Rents Down
It's by building lots more housing, obviously.
'Price Gouging' Is Supply and Demand at Work, Even in a Polar Vortex
Price signals ultimately mean more supplies for disaster-struck areas.
State AGs in Michael's Path Agree to Stop the Flow of Needed Goods
Price gouging is not the evil many officials make it out to be.
Stossel: These Students Know More Than Politicians
Politicians condemn price gougers, but students explain why "gouging" is good.
Laws Against 'Gouging' Are Simplistic and Wrong
So-called price gouging helps send important signals to buyers and sellers.
Why the USDA Shouldn't Be Buying Up Surplus Cheese
The feds are bailing out dairy producers. Here's why that's a terrible and wasteful mistake.
Mandated Biofuels = More Greenhouse Gases
Politicians adopt a policy that does the opposite of what they supposedly intended to do.
Good News: Global Energy Intensity Continues to Decline
Energy demand projected to increase by nearly 50 percent by 2040
$15 Minimum Wage Could Kill Up to 5 Million Jobs
Forward comrades to the unemployment lines and soup kitchens!
Paul Krugman Blames Over-Regulation for Urban Unaffordability
Progressive economist gets supply-and-demand, to a point.
'The poor are better off when we build more housing for the rich,' reports Washington Post
Says the notion that expanding the housing market benefits both poor and rich sounds "counterintuitive"
Oil Prices to Fall to $20 Per Barrel?
Surprise: Oil production did not peak on Thanksgiving Day 2005
No, a New Uber-Like App for Yellow Taxis Won't Save This Dying Industry.
Arro was designed to solve the problems of taxi drivers, not customers.
Ronald Bailey Debunks New Minimum Wage Hocus Pocus
Magical thinking that hurts job seekers