The Brain Worms Behind the Institutional Investor Ban
How did Warren and Trump end up in the same place?
Congress is working on an affordable housing bill that may end up making housing less affordable. That’s Orwellian even for Congress, which has a long tradition of giving bills names that describe the opposite of what the bill does, e.g. a bill to breed mutated pterodactyls that feast on children’s brains will be called “The Safe Playgrounds Act”.
The part of the bill that turns an otherwise-good-effort into a possible net negative is a provision that restricts investment in single-family homes built for renters. The logic is that big companies shouldn’t own houses, because…well, the “because” is what this article is about. The argument that investors shouldn’t invest is unique to houses; you never hear someone say “companies shouldn’t invest in restaurants” or “you should only have a car if you whittle it yourself out of a log”.
And the bizarre fact is that the two main proponents of this viewpoint are Elizabeth Warren and Donald Trump. Here are the two putting partisanship aside to agree on a dumb aphorism that could worsen our housing crisis:
TRUMP AT THE STATE OF THE UNION: “We want homes for people, not for corporations.”
WARREN ON CNBC: “Homes should be for families, not giant corporations.”
