MIT economist: Rent control will only worsen state housing crisis

MIT economist and department head Jonathan Gruber spoke with NPR’s Morning Edition about a Massachusetts ballot question that would cap annual rent increases at 5% across the state. “It’s against basic economics, and basic economics says that there’s supply and demand,” Gruber says. “We’ve all heard those terms. And when [prices are] too high, either you need to lower demand or raise supply. We don’t want to lower the demand.”