Should both these governments succeed merely in freeing new rentals (leaving old tenancies rent-controlled), the benefits will be huge.

ECONOMIST: Housing finance in India

But many of the displaced tenants of formerly rent-controlled buildings have simply disappeared.

ECONOMIST: Rent control

He occupies four rent-controlled apartments in New York, courtesy of a developer.

ECONOMIST: Those who write laws should obey them

Rent-controlled flats in New York or Santa Monica are available only to those with connections, creating corruption in the housing market and a border tax on newcomers who must pay higher rents.

ECONOMIST: Climate of change

Back in 1997, the then free-market-friendly Republican state Senate and the then free-market-friendly state governor, George Pataki, tried to get rid of rent restraints, but ran into fierce resistance from the Democrat-controlled assembly.

ECONOMIST: Housing in New York City

But nothing made Gore and his allies dig in as much as the roving "rent-a-rioters, " some of them Bush campaign operatives, who were controlled by radio from a mobile home.

CNN: Bush's Contested Lead