About this episode

Joseph Salerno discusses the economics of price controls and their long-term effects on society.

With New York reviving a citywide rent freeze, Joseph Salerno returns to the economics of price controls. Following Mises and Rothbard, he shows how a single cap—on milk, say—triggers shortages that pull in control after control until the state is planning everything. He tells the story of postwar Germany, starving under price controls until Ludwig Erhard abolished them in a stroke, and then traces the surprising long-run damage of rent control: not just housing shortages, but frozen mobility, decaying buildings, black markets, and even more discrimination. Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 21, 2026. Mises University is the world's leading instructional program in the Austrian School of economics, and is the essential training ground for economists who are looking beyond the mainstream.

People in this episode

Guest: Joseph Salerno

Topics covered

• price controls
• economics
• housing
• rent control
• shortages
• Austrian School

Keywords

• price controls
• rent freeze
• housing shortages
• black markets
• Austrian economics

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Mises Institute

Books & works: Mises University

Places: New York, Auburn, Alabama

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