How high rents hurt the economy

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Hour 1

Most of us expect to pay more for housing in New York or San Francisco than we would in Birmingham or Omaha – two, three, even four times as much.  But Slate business and economics correspondent MATTHEW YGLESIAS says there is something wrong with that fact and it’s having a negative effect on the economy.   In his new e-book, The Rent is Too Damn High, Yglesias argues that the  cost of housing is hurting low and middle income workers.  We’ll talk to Yglesias about unaffordable housing and also about the new job growth numbers from February that show that the economy may be improving.

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[audio: 031212_100630.mp3]

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