NYC Ban On Airbnb Created Massive Black Market In Home Rentals

Oct 10 2023

When you make a product or service illegal that doesn’t mean it goes away, it’s just no longer legal. See also drugs, prostitution. And that brings with it a whole host of other problems. New York City’s housing supply issues have nothing to do with Airbnb in any case. The problem is that it is too costly and cumbersome to build new housing! While other cities are looking at New York City’s Airbnb ban as a model they’d love to emulate – and hotel lobbies are pushing them to do so! – it should be a cautionary tale.

Continue Reading »

Regulation Is Good For Incumbent Airlines

Oct 08 2023

Legendary Silicon Valley investor Bill Gurley (GrubHub, Nextdoor, Open Table, Stitch Fix, Zillow, Nordstrom.com, The Knot and Uber, and played by Kyle Chandler in Showtime’s Super Pumped) gave a talk recently about regulatory capture – that government regulation almost always benefits incumbent businesses. It’s a great talk in its own right, but also perfectly encapsulates what’s happening to upstarts like JSX.

Continue Reading »