[qarlow]

Honestly it doesn't really matter. The title is even factually incorrect, rent control worked in Sweden for much of the 20th century producing a better standard of living at a lower cost and very likely contributing to probably the most successful startup scene in Europe. Vienna would probably be another example, regularly ranking as the most livable city in the world. But the economist is a political publication. They are in support of free markets and against government intervention. That is why they see no problem with foreign investments, cheap credit or private interests. They don't mention the relation between rents and property values, or anything to do with how to actually lower rent. That you can't keep up with rapidly increasing demand by supplying a hard to come by resource like housing isn't weird from an economic perspective. Which is exactly what we have seen repeatedly in the cities that have tried. But it is of course from a political one where markets can never be free enough. So that is what their anonymous author is going to tell us. They should really call themselves the ideologist at this point.