Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
With New York reviving a citywide rent freeze, Joseph Salerno returns to the economics of price controls. Following Mises and Rothbard, he shows how a single cap—on milk, say—triggers shortages that pull in control after control until the state is planning everything. He tells the story of postwar Germany, starving under price controls until Ludwig Erhard abolished them in a stroke, and then traces the surprising long-run damage of rent control: not just housing shortages, but frozen mobility, decaying buildings, black markets, and even more discrimination.
Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 21, 2026.
Mises University is the world's leading instructional program in the Austrian School of economics, and is the essential training ground for economists who are looking beyond the mainstream.
0:00 Intro: Mamdani's NYC Rent Freeze
2:13 Rothbard's Three Types of Intervention
4:56 The General Effects of Price Controls
6:26 Mises's Milk Example: The Road to Socialism
11:13 Postwar Germany and the Erhard Miracle
14:27 Rent Control Case Study
18:02 How Rent Control Degrades Housing and Daily Life
29:45 Paris, Slumlords, and Abandoned Buildings
36:12 Rent Control vs. Bombing
38:56 Q&A
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With New York reviving a citywide rent freeze, Joseph Salerno returns to the economics of price controls. Following Mises and Rothbard, he shows how a single cap—on milk, say—triggers shortages that pull in control after control until the state is planning everything. He tells the story of postwar Germany, starving under price controls until Ludwig Erhard abolished them in a stroke, and then traces the surprising long-run damage of rent control: not just housing shortages, but frozen mobility, decaying buildings, black markets, and even more discrimination.
Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 21, 2026.
Mises University is the world's leading instructional program in the Austrian School of economics, and is the essential training ground for economists who are looking beyond the mainstream.
0:00 Intro: Mamdani's NYC Rent Freeze
2:13 Rothbard's Three Types of Intervention
4:56 The General Effects of Price Controls
6:26 Mises's Milk Example: The Road to Socialism
11:13 Postwar Germany and the Erhard Miracle
14:27 Rent Control Case Study
18:02 How Rent Control Degrades Housing and Daily Life
29:45 Paris, Slumlords, and Abandoned Buildings
36:12 Rent Control vs. Bombing
38:56 Q&A
Find free books, daily articles, podcasts, lecture series, and everything about the Austrian School of Economics at https://Mises.org.
X ► https://x.com/mises/
Facebook ► facebook.com/mises.institute
Instagram ► instagram.com/misesinstitute
SoundCloud ► soundcloud.com/misesmedia
Apple Podcasts ► podcasts.apple.com/us/artist/mises-institute/1280664810
Rumble ► rumble.com/c/c-2212754
Odysee ► odysee.com/@mises
Podcasts ► mises.org/podcasts
