Di Nick Ford. Originale pubblicato il 5 maggio 2016 con il titolo Airbnb isn’t Housin’ in Berlin. Traduzione di Enrico Sanna. Un recente articolo del Guardian cita un regolamento dell’amministrazione di Berlino che, dopo vent’anni di sonno, da alcuni anni viene applicata. La legge, chiamata “Zweckentfremdungsverbot” (!), limita le modalità di affitto di una proprietà immobiliare….

In invoking the need for stringent economic regulations, their proponents regularly bring up the case that without these regulations the dumb consumer would fall prey to food poisoning, faulty production and all other sorts of calamities and disasters. In effect, they are saying that the consumer is far too stupid to have the capacity to…

Amtrak is in legal trouble. The rail service provider has long enjoyed an anomalous legal status as a for-profit corporation created by the U.S. government. But in 2008, the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act, or PRIIA, heightened that anomaly by giving Amtrak a say in crafting and imposing the regulations that the entire U.S….

Ordinarily the word “housing” means a person’s shelter, lodging or place of dwelling. But shortened to “housin” it refers to, according to Urban Dictionary, a show of dominance or authority. And when it comes to the dispute between Airbnb and the Berlin government, it’s clear Airbnb isn’t housin’ anything. The Guardian recently reported that new…

We could use a radical in the presidential race — someone who really challenges the status quo — but Bernie Sanders isn’t it. Sanders of course calls himself a democratic socialist, but that tells us almost nothing. One gets the impression the socialist label was pinned on him and after resisting it, Sanders decided “socialist”…

The state often imposes enormous regulatory hurdles like licensing fees and time-consuming and expensive classes on people trying to carve out a basic living. And it’s all done by the state for our supposed safety. But this is time and money that Achan Agit, a hair-braider from Iowa, simply didn’t have. Her case is particularly…

C4SS Feed 44 presents Dawie Coetzee‘s “Dieselgate: Why VW Will Come Out Smelling Like Roses” read and edited by Tony Dreher. The last thing VW wants is their customers getting their hands dirty. A clue into VW’s real aspirations is given by the 1999 Audi A2 with its “service panel” in lieu of a conventional…

Details have been emerging this week of a clever trick pulled by Volkswagen in North America. The German-based automaker is alleged to have been using software to cheat EPA emissions tests for millions of its turbocharged direct injection (TDI) diesel engine Volkswagen and Audi cars dating back to 2009. New vehicles pretty much the world over are…