Bad Housing Policy

When I was at Morgan Stanley, I came across a paper by one of our guys in Singapore who was consulting the Thai government.

He had read De Soto's The Mystery of Capital and completely misunderstood the research. Long story short, he and others like him were pushing for huge housing subsidies under the notion that simply giving people the deed to a home they would immediately become more productive, prosperous citizens.

He had read De Soto's The Mystery of Capital and completely misunderstood the research.

Crap, the reading policy hasn't worked either? Energy policy, health policy, foreign policy, fiscal policy, trade policy...where and when does it all end? And why even bother having personal insurance policies when the federal government says it will 'take care of you'?

DeSoto's research did not support government intervention, but made a very strong case for the positive results of private property rights.

The financial analyst that I wrote about completely missed the point about allowing people to legally own their property. It's been awhile since I've read it, but they showed some place like Egypt and Haiti where it took decades to obtain a deed for a house that a person had been "owning" for those same years.