Indiana shouldn't get distracted by Zohran Mamdani's bad ideas

Indianapolis Star

14-07-2025

I have the very good fortune to be living amid a veritable golden age of economic columnists. There is such an informational cascade of policy debacles, silly ideas and mesmerizingly idiotic claims that the hard part of writing this column lies in picking the ripest fruit from the cornucopia of ridiculous.
The newest of these comes to us from New York's mayoral primaries. The Democratic winner is 33-year-old democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, who won by defeating former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
There are many reasons why Mamdani might have won. Cuomo is a serial sexual harasser, who had to resign as governor in the wake of a criminal investigation. That sort of behavior seems more acceptable for a federal cabinet position these days, not the mayoral race of the world's greatest city.
Mamdani has a compelling personal story. He is young, dynamic and optimistic about the future. This is a significant departure from the vitriolic anger of the GOP and likely resonated with lots of voters in New York and elsewhere.
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Mamdani identifies common problems—housing costs are high in New York, as are food prices. However, he made the frequent error of mistaking the cause of these problems, leading to silly policy prescriptions. Some of his ideas blow right past the threshold of ridiculously bad.
To fix high housing costs and food prices, Mamdani proposes rent controls and government-owned grocery stores. The folly of rent controls is something every economics professor teaches in college introductory economics. The key lesson to this is that price controls lead to long-term shortages.
Ironically, the only place where the U.S. has had any long-term price controls is New York. The shortages that resulted from rental price controls dating to World War II continued to plague the city at least through the 1990s. Indeed, apartment shortages were a staple gag of nearly every other episode of 'Friends' and 'Seinfeld.'
Much of the high costs of housing in New York can be explained by the city's popularity and productivity. For example, worker productivity in New York City is about 40% higher than in Indiana. But, a large part of the problem lies in government restrictions. Zoning, in particular, has restricted new housing expansion for decades. If Mamdani was serious about fixing the housing problems in New York, he'd unleash the free market, not hobble it with more regulation.
As silly, counterproductive and misguided as a rent control policy might be, it is downright sensible and clever compared to the notion of a city-run grocery store providing an antidote to high food prices.
A staple of Cold War reality was a photograph of Boris Yeltsin confronting an American grocery store for the first time—his face showing shock at the selection and price.
New York is the world's greatest city, abuzz with entrepreneurs who, as Adam Smith noted, are possessed with the natural human 'propensity to truck, barter and exchange.' Food in New York is always going to be more expensive than in Peoria, Illinois, but the existence of food deserts and exorbitant prices is not the fault of free markets. It is the fault of government interference in free markets.
If Mamdani was serious about bettering life for New Yorkers, it would be through unleashing the entrepreneurs among his constituents. Dear reader, if you imagine a city-operated grocery to be competitively priced, have a better array of choices or offer more compelling service, you are on par with those who imagine that tariffs are paid by foreign importers or will result in increased factory production here at home.
This abundance of poor policy ideas in today's economic universe is a great gift to this scribbler.
I know Fox News will soon make much hay of Mamdani's bizarre policies, as well they should. But I have some advice for readers on how to deal with the economic folly of others. It is a military dictum from my youth.
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We Hoosiers should be glad for a Mamdani candidacy—somewhere far, far away. As Americans, we live in a large and glorious laboratory of ideas. We should watch thoughtfully as someone else sprints out and draws the proverbial fire of bad economic ideas—as is Mamdani. Be certain that the rest of the U.S. is doing the same with us, and getting plenty of lessons as well.
In the meantime, we should be far more focused on policies that hamper our freedom and economic progress. We have plenty of those problems here at home and in our national policy environment. Let other folks, be they New Yorkers or Chicagoans, struggle with their own folly.