In this opinionated monologue, Jason Hartman attacks progressive policies he sees as economically harmful. He begins by mocking the idea of "universal basic mobility" (UBM), arguing it clashes with environmentalists who want to make transportation more expensive, and blames President Biden for rising gas prices. Hartman then critiques a recent St. Paul rent‑control ballot initiative that, unlike other U.S. rent‑control laws, lacks exemptions for new construction. He claims the measure will halt new housing projects, exacerbate shortages, and punish developers. Citing Reason magazine and the Wall Street Journal, he links these policies to broader monetary trends: the creation of “fake money,” financial repression, and ultra‑low or negative interest rates that erode savers’ returns. He traces the origin of this regime to Nixon’s 1971 abandonment of the gold standard, pointing to a website (WTF1971) that tracks the ensuing inflation, housing price spikes, and the paradox of being paid to borrow money. Throughout, Hartman's tone is sarcastic, confrontational, and heavily partisan, positioning himself as a defender of free markets against what he calls socialist or “green” policies.
Chapters
The powers that be, the elites are talking about universal basic mobility, ubm and it all sounds good, right? I want people to be able to get around. And what's interesting is how this conflicts with the greenies and the environmental movement and how they want to make transportation more and more expensive. And hey, Joe, Biden's been extremely successful at that. Let's go, Brandon. You know, the gas prices have more than doubled. I filled up my gas tank the other day and the car hasn't changed. The number of miles I can drive on a tank hasn't changed, but the price has changed. Hey, it's Jason Hartman coming to you from a world where the craziness and stupidity just never ends, does it? The things that are going on in today's world are better than fiction. You just can't make this stuff up. I mean, look at this. So this is Minnesota Reason magazine, which by the way, excellent, excellent website. I don't know if they still have. Well, I guess they do have a printed magazine still, but they're great. Check out Reason. You know, their tagline is free minds and free markets. And this article in Reason, I mean, you know, you just, you could, you could predict this stuff so easily, right? Developers HALT Projects Mayor demands reform after St. Paul Minnesota voters Approve Radical Rent Control Ballot Initiative well, I guess the, the voters think that free housing is a right or, well, you know, free, free rent controlled, whatever is a right. And those evil developers will just keep on building, building new, new homes for them to live in, regardless of the return on investment. Yeah, it's, it's. You just can't make this stuff up. Unlike almost every rent control law in the country, the ordinance passed in St. Paul by St. Paul, Minnesota voters includes no exemption for new construction. So why should we build anything? Yes, let's just stop building. Yeah, so 52% of the voters approve this. And you know, it's only been a week since this passed and the developers have just said, you know, screw it, why should we bother? We'll just stop our projects right in the middle of them. And why should we keep building? You know, I mean, this is just insane, you know, and look at this. Both California and Oregon, which passed statewide rent control ordinances in 2019, exempt buildings that are less than 15 years old from their price caps. New York's long standing rent stabilization law mostly applies to apartments built before 1974 or to newer units that receive certain tax benefits. So I guess they were even. They, the socialist idiots in those places were, were smart enough to say, look, we don't want to disincentivize new construction. We got a housing shortage problem. We want to keep the construction going. Right. So we're not going to apply it to this new construction. But in St. Paul, they just think the builders will keep on building and supplying more housing regardless of the rent control laws. Yeah, yeah. Just, just, it's just amazing. So anyway, check that out in Reason magazine. All right, let's see here. What else? Oh, here's one for you. You know, more stuff you can't believe, right? So when you create a bunch of fake money out of thin air, what do you think's going to happen? More currency units, more dollars chasing a limited supply of housing? And here we go. Wall Street Journal. Homes now typically sell in a week, forcing buyers to take risk. Right? And we've talked many times on the show about something called financial repression. And financial repression. What it does, it basically eliminates return on investment for savers, for people who did the right thing, who saved money, who delayed gratification, who didn't take that extra vacation, didn't buy that bigger house, didn't buy that new car, didn't send their kids to that expensive private school, right? All these people that forego these, you know, life's luxuries, right? They didn't do that because they thought, you know, we got to be responsible, we've got to save for the future, We've got to save for a rainy day. Well, they got screwed because savers are losers. Remember, the game changed in 1971. And ever since 1971, it has been a progressive attack. And now with these very, very low interest rates. And by the way, there's a good website, I think it's called WTF. And you know what that stands for, 1971, right? And it's just got a whole bunch of charts and graphs, you know, right after every. How everything just happened. And after Nixon cut the last tie to the gold standard in 1971 when he said that over 50.
