Random thoughts on Mamdani and the future of New York II

What are the reasons for believing that Mamdani, even if he wins the mayor's office, will find that it is for him a dead end?

There is his rent freeze thing, to begin. My old anarcho-cap instincts kick in here. Markets are very useful things -- it is precisely in the valuation of assets (and of transferable liabilities) that they most directly prove their worth, and rent control in all its forms is a direct attack on this function.

New York City's history with "rent stabilization" is a solid illustration of this point. The history is not happy. And intensifying the war on the discovery of value will do a good deal of harm to actual values.

Brenda Richardson wrote a fine brief piece in Forbes on some of these issues two years ago.

The bottom line is that Mamdani seems likely to mess with the housing market in ways that effectively freeze new construction of livable spaces, force further skimping on maintenance, lead to longer waitlists and reduced mobility.

Let us move to another of his guiding ideas. City-owned grocery stores? to compete in low-end food pricing? Great. Be sure to tell the owners of neighborhood bodegas that they are going to be put out of business only for the best of reasons.

But you don't have to listen to me. Listen to a socialist, Brian Leiter, whose image I've offered you above. Disposed to agree with Mamdani's general view of the world, Leiter nonetheless says in a recent post on his blog: "while Mamdani's victory is satisfying ... I doubt it's going to lead to the realization of his agenda, and could lead to an economic collapse in NYC."

Producing that economic collapse there is not going to help defeat Trump or Trumpism on the national stage. Indeed, the former seems likely to feed the latter.

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