Recently Kevin Price, Host of the nationally syndicated Price of Business Show, interviewed John D. O’Connor.
There is no doubt that affordability and inflation is the major concern of voters in 2024, and that both presidential candidates recognize this. While Donald Trump does not directly address the issue other than talking of the “black gold” of oil and gas drilling, Kamala Harris had directly taken on prices, suggesting governmental action against food price gougers. She is proposing $25000 subsidies for down payment on houses for first time buyers and tax credits to encourage 3 million new housing starts. While these policies at first blush appear to address the housing cost issue, in fact they will cause dramatic rise in the price of homes. Increased oil drilling, counterintuitively, will lower all prices, including borrowing costs, helping builders to build and buyers to buy, by decreasing interest rates and upward pressure on prices. But will the media intelligently and honestly portray these issues. We fear not, again doing disservice to the body politic.
