> From Sydney to Sydenham, fiddly regulations protect an elite of existing homeowners and prevent developers from building the skyscrapers and flats that the modern economy demands. The resulting high rents and house prices make it hard for workers to move to where the most productive jobs are, and have slowed growth.

Following this logic from the ancient Greek times, by now we would have thousand stories skyscrapers in Athens - because that's where all the jobs were - and an empty Europe around it.