Unwinding Fannie and Freddie
We have previously written on the difficulty of accounting for the costs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the federal budget. If you look at it from a purely [...]
New Research: Exploitation in Housing Markets
“Rent,” as in “rent-seeking,” refers to above-normal profits not attributable to productive activity (as opposed to normal profit or producer surplus). Because rents are considered to be unearned or ill-gotten, [...]
The Sites are Going Out All Over Europe: EU Copyright Directive Passes
Nearly three years after the announcement that the EU would be modernizing its copyright regulations and a year after the dreaded Articles 11 and 13 were initially passed, a revised [...]
Millionaires Will Eat San Francisco Only if NIMBYs Keep Starving It
Imagine a doctor who can accurately predict the consequences of an ailment you have, but won’t give you the diagnosis or tell you the treatment. To do this would be [...]
Here’s How Bernie Can Still be Right on $1 Trillion Bailout
Last week, Senator and Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders made the claim: Not one major Wall Street executive went to jail for destroying our economy in 2008 as a result of [...]
Apple Loses Patent Infringement Case Against Qualcomm
This Friday, a jury awarded Qualcomm $31 million in a patent infringement suit against Apple. Report Edvard Pettersson and Bill Callahan of Bloomberg: Qualcomm Inc. won the first U.S. jury [...]
Bad Arguments On Parade in Texas
A few months ago, we critiqued an essay that gave a critical look at the arguments against occupational licensing. We wholeheartedly disagreed with the authors’ analysis, but they made serious [...]
Not at All Quiet on the Western Front: SB 50 Updates
We’ve previously covered California SB 50, Sen. Scott Wiener’s second crack (after last year’s SB 827 died in committee last April) at a move to increase density in areas near [...]
This Week in Land-Use Regulation, March 14th
Happy Pi Day! Rent Check Daniel Shoag has an excellent review of the current debate on housing supply published by Brookings Institution's Hamilton Project. Knowing what doesn't work is just [...]
Should Law Subsidize Driving?
A century ago, captains of industry and their allies in government launched a social experiment in urban America: the abandonment of mass transit in favor of a new personal technology, [...]