Rent control creates a shortage of housing, which makes it hard to find a place to live.

In a price-controlled market, people have to waste a lot of time trying to find these scarce, artificially cheap products. Yet Congressman Charles B. Rangel, the chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, lived in four rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem. Why are powerful individuals often able to “find” price-controlled goods much more often than the nonpowerful? What does this tell us about the political side effects of price controls? (Source: Republicans question Rangel’s tax break support, The New York Times, November 25, 2008.) ju7