Mike Solana

what might be some second order effects of banning citizens of economically illiberal nations like china from buying property in the US as a store of value?

More work for accountants and lawyers to get around the restrictions. More houses owned in the names of people's kids. More demand to make sure their kids get citizenship in an economically liberal country. Less privacy as the government will need transparency from everyone.

these all sound like extremely useful barriers of entry for (increasingly) the chinese middle class, which is now competing with our own middle class for affordable homes in florida, texas, georgia

It would be better to make housing a mediocre store of value by building way more of it. People panicked over the Japanese buying landmark real estate in the 90s, but in the end they sold a much of it for a loss. Let's do the same thing this time.

1) china’s economy is dwarfing japan’s - so way bigger scale - and 2) japan’s gov didn’t incentivize holding onto property abroad. japanese economy tanked, ppl needed money and sold. if china tanks, their gov will start stealing, and property abroad will be the only safe asset.

there’s no amount of housing you can build in the US that would make it a less attractive store of value than chinese currency in a chinese bank

And building enough to take away the expectation of appreciation, when combined with a negative yield/holding costs, should destroy its perception as a store of value. The problem is we lack the political willpower to actually build more. Even YIMBY people don't want sprawl.