It’s no surprise to see in new figures from the St. Louis Federal Reserve that ethnic Asian households in America, on balance, do better academically and have higher incomes. Their achievement phenomenon is one of the great U.S. stories of the last two generations. But this summer’s study breaks down such success into at leastContinue reading “Asian-American Recipe: Future-Oriented Parents, Less Borrowing”
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50 Years On, Is Caro’s Word on Robert Moses To Be the Last?
Robert Caro has gone on to greater national fame with his (still in the works) biographies of Lyndon Johnson. But in the New York area, particularly, he is renowned for his work, The Power Broker, about local planning czar Robert Moses. It is the 50th anniversary of the publication of that Pulitzer Prize-winning book, whichContinue reading “50 Years On, Is Caro’s Word on Robert Moses To Be the Last?”
War Has a Way of Inspiring Migration
The world migrant population continues to rise–clocked at 281 million in what is still the last (2020) U.N. measure. There’s no reason to think it hasn’t grown since. The causes are well known: escape from tyranny, fear of persecution, hunger (literal, or for a better life), and physical exposure or danger. Often the last ofContinue reading “War Has a Way of Inspiring Migration”
Review of ‘When the Clock Broke’ by Ganz
John Ganz is a trending young writer on the left with a history bent, and his new book from Farrar, Straus and Giroux, “When the Clock Broke,” is largely a political recapitulation of 1992 in the U.S. His angle is that the populist resentments of today’s MAGA America were present in that late-recessionary year, inContinue reading “Review of ‘When the Clock Broke’ by Ganz”
Home Prices Tend to Level Out, If Not Off
Wait long enough, and many difference in residential real-estate prices get arbitraged away. That’s one takeaway, at least down to the metropolitan area, from this week’s data release from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). It shows several instances of catch-up by areas of the country that have been less favored in recent decades. MaybeContinue reading “Home Prices Tend to Level Out, If Not Off”
Tipplers Tax: How NY Hamstrings ‘Big Grocery’
The antitrust-activist Federal Trade Commission (FTC) under the Biden administration and chair Lina Khan moved earlier this year to block a merger between grocery oligarchs Kroger and Albertsons. Its motivation is to preserve competition (such as it is) in traditional food shopping. There’s a whole debate about whether choice in supermarkets is so relevant whenContinue reading “Tipplers Tax: How NY Hamstrings ‘Big Grocery’”
Empty or Illicit? NYC Shops for a Solution
New York City, like many urban areas, has suffered vacant storefronts in recent years. The causes are likely many: online shopping, property crime, difficulty in hiring low-wage staff or paying the going rents. An article at politicsny.com this week notes that some city councilmembers are on the case and, as often, blaming landlords. Even aContinue reading “Empty or Illicit? NYC Shops for a Solution”
The Housing Issue Begins to Bite
As we’re reminded constantly, the U.S. is an increasingly polarized society, politically and otherwise. It is getting ever more so “otherwise” in the housing market, where many enjoy rising property values and easy mortgage payments while others are pressed for shelter anywhere near their desired locations. This affordability issue has gained steam, and is causingContinue reading “The Housing Issue Begins to Bite”
Ruptured Democracy? Add a Think Tank
A full-page advertisement (there are still a few!) in today’s print New York Times salutes an act of philanthropy but is full of ironies. The gift is $59 million from the HMO fortune of Leonard Schaeffer and his wife to the University of Southern California, for establishment of a (named for him) Institute for PublicContinue reading “Ruptured Democracy? Add a Think Tank”
A Twilight Strategy on Hong Kong
The grim progression of bloody autocrats in major as well as lesser quarters of the globe can make for personal and political paralysis here in the U.S. When Alexei Navalny is snuffed out in Russia and Vladimir Putin grinds on to occupy Ukraine, or when Xi Jinping stamps out dissent in greater China and pursuesContinue reading “A Twilight Strategy on Hong Kong”
Tim W. Ferguson 