Recently Tyler Cowen has doubled and tripled down on the idea that congestion pricing in Manhattan would be inefficient. I respond to that in the section “A Strange Take on Congestion Pricing in New York City.” For it is, indeed, a very strange take, claiming that it is good for the surplus produced by Manhattan if everyone involved spends their time stuck in traffic, so as to not impose a minor tax that will in some portion fall on visitor cars.There also continues to be a lot happening in the ongoing struggle to build housing where people want to live, in order to let them live there, and to lower the cost of doing so, which is the main focus of this series and the rest of this post.I pay attention to housing and look to find ways to build more of it because I continue to be a believer in the Housing Theory of Everything. When housing where people want to live is scarce, people can’t move to where they are happier and more productive, and landlords and homeowners can capture a large portion, perhaps most, of the surplus value the best places generate.Balsa, whose website and other activities [...]

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