Prospect Weekend Reads Week of May 15th Stories from the week you don’t want to miss!
J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AP PHOTO
Economists Hate Rent Control. Here's Why They're Wrong: To solve the housing crisis, the U.S. will need to embrace policies to increase the number of affordable housing units, encourage more construction, and build millions of units of social housing. As Mark Paul writes, rent control is a commonsense solution that would make a huge difference.
The Access Journalism—House Republican Mind Meld: For X-Date, our daily newsletter on the debt ceiling, David Dayen wrote about the thinly-disguised relationship between Punchbowl News and Kevin McCarthy, which has distorted the debt ceiling fight by laundering House Republican wishes through "objective" journalism.
Rahm Emanuel's Gas Pipeline: The Alaska LNG Project, long viewed as a commercially nonviable liquefied natural gas complex, is now receiving support from Biden administration officials—including U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel. Lee Harris has the story. What Happens if President Biden Caves on the Debt Ceiling?: What would the White House caving to the GOP on the debt ceiling mean for the American people? Ryan Cooper found out.
Curtailing Starbucks' War on Its Unionized Baristas: Starbucks is denying benefits and raises to its unionized workers, making organizing new shops tougher than ever. This is almost certainly illegal, Steven Greenhouse reports, but the NLRB still has not yet taken action.
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