Blog – Tuesdays with Mary

Tuesday, May 12, 2026 Land, Title and Ownership in America at 250 series By the early 1800s, the United States was expanding faster than its legal system could comfortably manage. The Revolution had ended decades earlier, the Constitution was in place, and new territories were steadily opening to settlement and speculation. Americans increasingly viewed land ownership as central to both economic opportunity and the identity of the young republic. Yet beneath the optimism and momentum sat a problem that had not been fully resolved: who actually possessed the legal authority to transfer land ownership within the United States? A deed [...]

Tuesday, May 5, 2026 Last week, I wrote about the idea of knowing your elected representatives. There’s a parallel connection closer to home that’s just as important; knowing your state regulators. When elected officials set direction, regulators live in the details. They interpret, implement, and enforce. They’re closer to the day-to-day realities of the market (and ideally) they’re informed by them. At their best, these relationships aren’t inherently adversarial. They’re also practical.  A healthy marketplace depends on a few things happening at the same time: rules that are clear and workable, enforcement that is consistent, and communication that doesn’t break [...]

Tuesday, April 28, 2026 In the past week, I’ve heard from friends all across the political spectrum, each pointing me to Ben Sasse’s recent 60 Minutes interview.  The former U.S. Senator Sasse is purposefully sharing many of his thoughts with us; from the vantage point of his battle with terminal cancer.  Here’s a link to the extended interview, where he discusses citizenship, AI, human nature, and all manner of questions associated with the messiness of being a person on the planet today. If you don’t follow his podcast, Not Dead Yet, I’d recommend it, too. He speaks with a kind [...]

Tuesday, April 21, 2026 There’s a pattern that’s becoming harder to ignore, and it shows up in places that don’t seem connected at first. In driving, we’re starting to rely on systems that can take over enough of the task that you stop thinking about them. Mile after mile, everything works exactly as it should. And then, when something goes wrong, the expectation is that the human was paying close attention the entire time; and is responsible when they weren’t. The system performs well enough to change behavior…but not well enough to take responsibility for it. In the legal world, [...]

Tuesday, April 14, 2026 There are places you visit and enjoy, and then there are places that stay with you, that feel extra special.  Sometimes it’s because of the memories the place holds, sometimes it’s because of its beauty, and sometimes it’s because of how they’re designed.  Once in a great while, you find a place with all of those elements. For me, our National Mall is one of those amazing places. I found myself thinking about it over coffee this morning. Not about any one monument, but about the way they relate to each other. The spacing, the lines, [...]

Tuesday, April 7, 2026 There’s a story economist Russ Roberts tells; one that has stayed with me, even if the details blur over time. An economist travels to Russia shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union. He books a hotel conference space months in advance. Everything is agreed to. Contracts signed. Plans made.  And then, shortly before the event, the hotel cancels. Another group came along and offered more money, and the space was simply resold. There was no apology in the way we might expect. No real sense that anything improper had happened. No damages to pursue in [...]

Tuesday, March 31, 2026 Land, Title and Ownership in America at 250 series In 1803, the United States agreed to purchase a vast stretch of land from France; a transaction that would double the size of the young nation almost overnight. It is often remembered as a moment of vision and opportunity, and it was. It was also a decision made ahead of clarity. Even at the time, there were real questions about whether the Constitution allowed it, whether the United States could effectively govern it, and what, exactly, had just been acquired. What came with the Louisiana Purchase extended well [...]

Tuesday, March 24, 2026 I’ve been thinking about the conversation I recently had with Ed Pinto, Co-Director of the Housing Center at the American Enterprise Institute. It stayed with me longer than most; because it challenged something I think many of us have started to accept as a given. That the housing supply problem is so complicated, so layered, so multi-faceted that meaningful progress and repair is going to take decades, if it happens at all.  We hear versions of that everywhere. And over time, it starts to sound true. But as you can hear in our Keys to Real [...]

Tuesday, March 17, 2026 Sometimes, after years of seeming inertia, Washington moves in several directions at once. Last week the Senate passed the Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream to Housing Act, a/k/a the ROAD to Housing Act. The bill, introduced by Sen. Tim Scott of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs with participation from ranking member Sen. Elizabeth Warren, gathers together a wide range of housing proposals with bi-partisan support, aimed at addressing the country’s persistent shortage of homes. Many of the provisions focus on housing supply and the barriers that slow development. Others touch [...]

Land, Title and Ownership in America at 250 series Tuesday, March 10, 2026 When the American Revolution ended, independence solved one problem but created another.  If the King no longer ruled the colonies, what happened to the land he had governed? Under English law, vast amounts of land technically belonged to the Crown. Some parcels had already been granted to individuals or companies through colonial charters, patents, and deeds. But enormous areas, especially in the interior, remained “vacant” lands held in the name of the sovereign. When the colonies became states, those rights didn’t disappear. They had to go somewhere. For [...]