timwferguson

Hamptons Hint: Bigger Is No Longer Better

Even in places that like to think they “live and let live,” it’s possible to get too much in other people’s faces. That’s basically where we are on the East End of Long Island, where the McMansion binge is leading to many new homes being built to the legal limits of size and footprint, oftenContinue reading “Hamptons Hint: Bigger Is No Longer Better”

Cast Your Political Eyes Past 2022, to Kentucky

We’ll soon know what the electoral verdict of 2022 is, but as this Kentucky political newsletter shows, underlying issues are going to carry forward into 2023 and beyond. Kentucky is a useful case study–a (Civil War) border state that in recent decades has trended Republican but where the loss of affluent suburbs has hurt theContinue reading “Cast Your Political Eyes Past 2022, to Kentucky”

Dwindling Ranks of the Unbanked

It turns out that getting a bank account in the U.S. these days is not so difficult after all. That was the news this week, after years of stories about the many unbanked among us and various possible government remedies for this, including having the Postal Service open deposit accounts. But, as this Associated PressContinue reading “Dwindling Ranks of the Unbanked”

When New York Emptied ‘Excess’ Jail Cells

For some time, many libertarians have joined reformers on the left in pushing various decarceration measures, out of conviction that too many people are behind bars in America and that this is both unjust and excessively expensive. In the last five years or so, this cause has led to changed policies in major jurisdictions, includingContinue reading “When New York Emptied ‘Excess’ Jail Cells”

Frequent Fliers, Please Report to the Counter

One acid test of the sincerity of those who want to seriously reduce carbon emissions to arrest climate change is whether they will support reasonable-cost nuclear power. The rapid onset of new atomic plants would be one way actually to come close to net-zero in emissions without drastically changing first-world lifestyles. The alternative acid testContinue reading “Frequent Fliers, Please Report to the Counter”

Consultants Fuel Costs of the College Cream

If one strained to find a core example of what has driven the widely-lamented rise in premium enrollment costs at America’s prestige universities, there’d be no better source than the rising-revenues chart of this Economist article on the big 3 U.S. management consultancies. This three-cylinder engine generated better than 10-fold nominal growth in the decadesContinue reading “Consultants Fuel Costs of the College Cream”

Fed’s Mary Daly Misses a Labor Component in Price Rises

It fell to me to ask the obligatory question about the strong dollar at this appearance of San Francisco Federal Reserve president Mary C. Daly at the Council on Foreign Relations today, and she gave the obligatory response that the currency’s forex value is not one of the Fed’s mandates. She elaborated a bit inContinue reading “Fed’s Mary Daly Misses a Labor Component in Price Rises”

If Only Your 401(k) Was in the NFL

Trillions of dollars of nominal global wealth have been wiped out in the current bear market for stocks and bonds. But, as this Bloomberg item notes, there’s at least one major exception to the asset-price declines: pro sports franchises. For reasons Gerry Smith describes here–and others such as Mike Ozanian and his crew at ForbesContinue reading “If Only Your 401(k) Was in the NFL”

Price of Practicing Journalism Is a Narrow ‘Social’ Window

Yesterday (9/8/22) I attended a panel discussion at the International Press Institute’s “World Congress” on the escalating dangers to journalists, including social-media assaults. The group at Columbia University included Washington Post editor Sally Buzbee and others from international publications, and none was too sure how to combat what all agreed were increasingly organized attempts toContinue reading “Price of Practicing Journalism Is a Narrow ‘Social’ Window”