Obama’s Former Chief Economist Explains the Rent Control Trap | The Brief

NYC Mayor Mamdani just froze rents on approximately one million apartments — the first time in history a freeze has applied to both one and two year leases simultaneously.

Professor Jason Furman — Harvard economist and President Obama's chief economist — says it's going to backfire. Not because he doesn't care about renters. Because he does.

The problem isn't just historical. It's structural. Freeze rents and you reduce the incentive to build. Reduce the incentive to build and you get less supply. Get less supply and the non-rent-controlled market gets even more expensive. The people who end up hurt are the ones who didn't have the connections or the luck to get into a rent-controlled apartment in the first place.

Excerpt from The Brief with Shabbos Kestenbaum — watch the full episode at the link below.