What do you think about Seattle's law aimed at landlords? Here's your chance to weigh in.
Seattle is the first city in the nation to implement a so-called first-come, first served renter’s law. Landlords will be required to rent units to the first qualified applicant.
As my colleague Daniel Beekman reported, “The goal is to ensure prospective renters are treated equally, according to Councilmember Lisa Herbold, who championed the policy. When landlords pick one renter among multiple qualified applicants, their own biases — conscious or unconscious — may come into play, she says.” Here’s how the law would work.
Critics say landlords must already abide by federal, state and local anti-discrimination laws. That small property owners will face an additional burden. And the unintended consequences haven’t been adequately studied (for example, pushing landlords to convert apartments to condos, shrinking supply and driving up rents).
What do you think?
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This Week’s Links:
• Big Wall Street firms make lame excuse for Volcker Rule non-compliance, ask for five-year extension | Naked Capitalism
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• What did voters learn from a week of economic promises from Trump and Clinton | The Atlantic
• So far, the Seattle minimum wage is doing what it’s supposed to do | Jared Bernstein
• Gold has never been a great hedge against bad economic times | Royal Economic Society
• Which candidate can recapture robust American growth? | Robert Gordon
• Think Amazon’s drone delivery is a gimmick? Think again. | Farhad Manjoo
Today’s Econ Haiku:
Christmas comes early
Longshore contract extension
Would light up West Coast