I'm sure you know this already, but let me say it anyway. Cities have become really popular

all over the world. An ever larger share of the US and global population lives in cities

and that large shares expected to get even larger. As demand for city living grows, the

supply of housing often can't keep up, which results in, and you know this too, arise in

prices. In the US, median rent is doubled since the 1990s outpacing inflation by quite

a bit. In many cities, this makes it hard for people who already live there to stay and

hard for people who'd like to move there. I'm sure you've heard the horror stories about

rents in cities like London and Hong Kong, Seattle and San Francisco where the median one

bedroom apartment costs about $3,700 a month. The problem is so bad in New York City that

it inspired a new political party. I represent the rent is too damn high-party. People

working eight hours a day and 40 hours a week or so, I'm a third job. New York, like

many cities, has over time put in place various affordable housing policies. One time honored

tradition is some form of rent control. That might mean setting a price cap on what a landlord

can charge or limiting the amount the rent can be raised. Here's the Stanford economist

Rebecca Diamond. For an economics point of view, it provides insurance against getting

priced out of your neighborhood. And rent control seems to be having a moment. It already

exists in a number of places. The most expensive cities in the US, they almost all have rent

control. And the appetite is spreading. You see rent control popping up politically when

housing prices and rents are going up. Among the cities currently considering some form

of rent control are Chicago, Philadelphia, Providence and Denver. Oregon recently became the

first state to pass a rent control bill. A statewide proposition in California failed,

but some cities there are moving ahead on their own. A recent report by a consortium of

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