Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Bad ideas never die

As a textbook author, I am grateful for rent control, because it is a perfect case study of how pernicious price controls can be. This recent news from Albany shows that the example is not about to become dated:
The Democratic-led Assembly passed a broad package of legislation designed to restrain increases on rent-regulated apartments statewide. The legislation would essentially return to regulation tens of thousands of units that were converted to market rate in recent years. In addition, the legislation would reduce to 10 percent, from 20 percent, the amount that a landlord can increase the rent after an apartment becomes vacant.