timwferguson

Making a Hash of Legal Cannabis

“Recreational” marijuana sales are legal now in nearly half the U.S. states, but the effort has gotten ahead of itself on the retail front–or at least, ahead of the regulation still imposed on it. The rollout of shops for legitimized selling of weed, which memorably suffered in early-adopting California, is continuing to give New YorkContinue reading “Making a Hash of Legal Cannabis”

All Sports, All the Time?

As the U.S. grows and diversifies, we can expect a wider range of diversions, including sports. Now cricket has caught on, at least in parts of the country, as this New York Times article discusses. (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/15/us/texas-cricket.html) Soccer, of course, has become established here after many decades of American absence from the “beautiful game.” And women’sContinue reading “All Sports, All the Time?”

Ken Fisher Got Another Call Right

As the bullish U.S. stock market of 2023–surprising to most of us–continues through mid-July, it’s appropriate to express kudos (so far!) to those who went against the grain and have made investors money. One is a prominent and controversial figure in financial circles, Ken Fisher. I knew Ken from his many years as a columnistContinue reading “Ken Fisher Got Another Call Right”

An Excise Tax That Fortifies Long-Island Wine

Some milestone anniversaries on the East End of Long Island have been easy to overlook but not so its start as a wine region. Fifty years ago, as the “Hamptons” south fork of the island was consumed with some of its earliest development battles, the north fork saw the planting of its first commercial vineyardContinue reading “An Excise Tax That Fortifies Long-Island Wine”

A Dry-Witted History of Dismally Easy Money

We’re never long or far from a reminder that interest rates have a powerful effect on the human economy. Nearly $700 billion has flowed into money-market mutual funds this year because they offer a decent yield–4+%–when many bank savings accounts pay next to nothing. In this inflationary period, that’s a financial no-brainer, as well asContinue reading “A Dry-Witted History of Dismally Easy Money”

Will Half a Billion Buy a B.A. in the Hamptons?

Word this week of a $500 million gift to Stony Brook University (a State University of New York branch on Long Island) can’t help but have East End residents wondering: Will this bring sustained academic life to town? For all its riches, the Hamptons does not have higher ed. The main Stony Brook campus isContinue reading “Will Half a Billion Buy a B.A. in the Hamptons?”

Summer Swells, Circa Hamptons 1957

The conceit of a series of posts here about the Hamptons is that, after a first rush of summer “colonies” that culminated in the Roaring Twenties, the East End of Long Island went through sleepy decades until a new wave of city money began to stir development again in the late 1960s. That is generallyContinue reading “Summer Swells, Circa Hamptons 1957”

Why Only a Few Fly to the Hamptons

If in 2023 we are commemorating notable anniversaries in the preservation of Long Island’s East End—the 40th of the Peconic Land Trust and the 30th of Southampton Town’s wetlands building restrictions—it may be time to look farther back, 75 years, to another pivotal sequence of events. These speak to why there is no commercial jetportContinue reading “Why Only a Few Fly to the Hamptons”

A Korean-American Crossing

Nostalgia is a powerful draw in photography–witness the many Facebook and other social-media groups centered on vintage pictures of this or that place. So it is with a compact new exhibit at the Korea Society on Madison Avenue in New York. “Koreatown LA/NY,” running through Aug. 17, features work by Emanuel Hahn (from midtown LosContinue reading “A Korean-American Crossing”

Population Hotspots of Texas

In the 20th anniversary issue of the Real Deal magazine this spring, the remarkable surge of Texas exurbs is described in an article (https://therealdeal.com/magazine/national-april-2023/sultans-of-sprawl/) focusing on local developers as well as major national builders such as Lennar. It’s headlined, “Sultans of Sprawl,” but don’t expect snark even in this entertaining real-estate publication. An even-handed accountContinue reading “Population Hotspots of Texas”