* “Trying to Solve the L.E.D. Quandary:” How can one build a business selling items that last for decades?
* Mr. Money Moustache: “So I Bought an Electric Car…”
* “Non-materialistic millennials and the Great Stagnation,” or, how the smartphone in particular has replaced a lot of “stuff.” In 2007 Paul Graham wrote “Stuff,” which seems even truer today. Oddly, though, average dwelling size in the U.S. keeps increasing. Part of the reason involves parochial zoning that distorts markets, however. Seattle, for example, in effect banned popular, affordable micro-housing developments.
* “The High Cost of Residential Parking: Every time a new building includes space for cars, it passes those costs on to tenants.” A timely reminder for affordable housing advocates.
* Too many old people may explain stagnant economies and innovation, at least according to one analysis.
* “Reading Jane Jacobs Anew,” an excellent piece and don’t be discouraged by the title.
* “Comprehensive new data challenges the cultural consensus on public housing. For all their flaws, housing projects can have remarkable positive effects on the children who grow up in them.” Don’t believe the consensus on public housing.
* “The Publishing Gamble That Changed America: The Late Barney Rosset on Fighting for Lady Chatterley’s Lover,” and the fight against censorship in general (still ongoing in a few quarters).
* How an enormously clever landlord gets rid of rent-controlled tenants in NYC, or, yet another example of rent control’s perverse outcomes. There is a comic novel in here, though.
* “The Unintended Consequences of Law: How did the entire state of California price itself out of the market for entry-level home buyers?”
* “Teams don’t write grants: individual writers do, one word at a time.”
* Parking Lots Are an Incredible Waste of Space. Here’s How to End Them.
* “Will the United States become a nation of renters?” I find the relentless focus on property ownership bizarre, given all the drawbacks it entails, and indeed most of the people who seem to think it a good idea cannot even articulate the (many) drawbacks.
* “Canada’s cities call for $12.7-billion federal fix for housing crisis;” bizarrely, the word “supply” never appears in the article, yet supply limits are likely making the rent too damn high.