April 2018

The Mortgage Interest Deduction: Smaller, but even more unfair

Tax changes cut the Mortgage Interest Deduction sharply–but not for the rich The 1.2 percent of households with incomes over $500,000 get 20 times as much tax relief from the mortgage interest deduction as the half of all households with incomes under $50,000. Every year, the federal government spends about $250 billion on subsidized housing–not

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Gerontopoly: Homeownership, wealth, and age

Is the “dream” of homeownership really just a massive, intergenerational wealth transfer?  Recently, that’s just how it has worked out. The takeaways: Homeownership is a gerontopoly. Most housing wealth is held by older Americans. Inequality in the US is increasingly intergenerational. The old get richer and the young get poorer. Most of the growth in

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City as theme park

There’s no critique more cutting than saying that development is turning an urban neighborhood into a theme park.   The irony of course, is that cities like Dubrovnik and Venice represent a profoundly obsolete, pre-industrial technology.  They were built without machines, without computers, designed for walking and and most animal powered travel.  They provide a

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