The Tatler Award for Astute Political Commentary goes to...

…Boston.com’s Edward Glaeser, for this stunning revelation:

The release of the 2010 Census results in December was accompanied by all the usual hand-wringing. Massachusetts has plenty to love, so why did the state’s population grow by only 3.1 percent over the last decade, less than a third of the national average? Given that our population growth has badly lagged the nation since the 1960s, Bay State boosters have grown adept at making excuses for the problem. We need more jobs, they say, or it’s just too cold here. But our slow growth actually reflects something else: our decision to highly regulate the building of new homes.

Fewer houses, fewer people. Who’d-a thunk it?