From Free to Fair Markets: Liberalism after Covid

A new vision of liberalism that is fair and capable of responding to the challenges of a post-COVID worldLiberalism--and its promise of market-led prosperity--was in crisis well before COVID-19. Recent decades have seen a rise in concentrated unemployment and long-term stagnation in real wages in many of the world's leading economies. At the same time, the world has witnessed a dramatic rise ofcorporate power, concentration of wealth. and the failure of liberal societies to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. To survive, liberalism will need a radical reboot-to find new ways of tackling the current challenges posed by corporate power, inequality, and climate change.In this book, Rosalind Dixon and Richard Holden argue this reboot means moving beyond recent neo-liberal versions of liberalism toward a more truly democratic form-from the idea of free markets to a vision of fair markets. The book offers a new vision of fair markets as well as the concretepolicies and practical steps to make this ideal a reality. It proposes a universal green jobs-guarantee, a significant increase in the minimum wage and government support for wages, universal healthcare based on a two-track model of public and private provision, a new critical infrastructure policyfor nation states to sit alongside a commitment to global free trade, and universal pollution taxes, with all proceeds returned directly to citizens by way of a green dividend. All of these policies combine a commitment to markets with democratic commitments to dignity for all citizens, and theregulation of markets in line with majority interests. By addressing underlying systemic problems of liberal societies and simultaneously emphasizing the importance of markets in ensuring the efficiency and sustainability of these policy solutions, Dixon and Holden present a vision of markets thatare free, fair, and well-functioning, not simply free.With clear-headed analysis of how to pay for these ideas and the kind of democratic politics needed to make them a reality, From Free to Fair Markets is an accessible articulation of a new economic path for liberal societies coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Business & Money

Dixon, Rosalind

Holden, Richard

Economics

Oxford University Press

A new vision of liberalism that is fair and capable of responding to the challenges of a post-COVID world\nLiberalism--and its promise of market-led prosperity--was in crisis well before COVID-19. Recent decades have seen a rise in concentrated unemployment and long-term stagnation in real wages in many of the world's leading economies. At the same time, the world has witnessed a dramatic rise of corporate power, concentration of wealth. and the failure of liberal societies to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. To survive, liberalism will need a radical reboot-to find new ways of tackling the current challenges posed by corporate power, inequality, and climate change.\nIn this book, Rosalind Dixon and Richard Holden argue this reboot means moving beyond recent neo-liberal versions of liberalism toward a more truly democratic form-from the idea of free markets to a vision of fair markets. The book offers a new vision of fair markets as well as the concrete policies and practical steps to make this ideal a reality. It proposes a universal green jobs-guarantee, a significant increase in the minimum wage and government support for wages, universal healthcare based on a two-track model of public and private provision, a new critical infrastructure policy for nation states to sit alongside a commitment to global free trade, and universal pollution taxes, with all proceeds returned directly to citizens by way of a green dividend. All of these policies combine a commitment to markets with democratic commitments to dignity for all citizens, and the regulation of markets in line with majority interests. By addressing underlying systemic problems of liberal 
societies and simultaneously emphasizing the importance of markets in ensuring the efficiency and sustainability of these policy solutions, Dixon and Holden present a vision of markets that are free, fair, and well-functioning, not simply free.\nWith clear-headed analysis of how to pay for these ideas and the kind of democratic politics needed to make them a reality, From Free to Fair Markets is an accessible articulation of a new economic path for liberal societies coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

KIRKUS REVIEWS — A group of residents in a senior living facility face a host of obstacles in Holden’s inventive collection of vignettes.  Norris Mae Ledbetter is a resident at the Wicklow Senior Living Center, also known as La Belle Residence. While her caregiver, Janice, tends to her, Norris Mae conducts her own inner dialogue, reliving the classic books she once memorized in her days as a librarian. Though Janice and Norris Mae are usually inches apart, they’re worlds away in their communication. That’s just one of many scenarios Holden explores in this creative assortment of short stories, each taking place at Wicklow. Various residents grapple with their afflictions: Claudia McCormick is haunted by her late husband’s barrage of insults, which play in an endless loop in her head; the 10-year “warranty” on Alvin DeGrand’s coronary bypass surgery has just expired; Jacob Walterman, a talented artist, has had a stroke and can only draw half his subject’s face.  Holden dodges the clichés a lesser writer might have employed when conjuring the rather obvious ailments that could befall a senior. Even when he addresses stroke, Alzheimer’s or emotional abuse, he adds a twist to avoid banality. He also tackles lesser-known maladies such as agnosia (the inability to recognize familiar objects, usually faces) and aphasia (the loss of speech). Holden’s characters are aware of their failings and often suffer privately, as caregivers placate them in babyish tones, oblivious to the patients’ quiet screams. Fortunately, humor throughout adds levity and helps avoids the melancholic note these stories could easily have adopted. Some stories offer more of a punch than others, while a few end too early, leaving readers wanting more. Nevertheless, each boasts a sharp, tight ending on a fleeting glimpse into the rooms of Wicklow.  New finesse on an old theme, sure to grab readers’ attention.

La Belle Residence: Stories of Aging and Alchemy in Assisted Living

Literature & Fiction

Richard Holden

A vexing problem in contract law is modification. Two parties sign a contract but before they fully perform, they modify the contract. Should courts enforce the modified agreement? A private remedy is for the parties to write a contract that is robust to hold-up or that makes the facts relevant to modification verifiable. Provisions accomplishing these ends are renegotiation-design and revelation mechanisms. But implementing them requires commitment power. Conventional contract technologies to ensure commitment - liquidated damages - are disfavored by courts and themselves subject to renegotiation. Smart contracts written on blockchain ledgers offer a solution. We explain the basic economics and legal relevance of these technologies, and we argue that they can implement liquidated damages without courts. We address the hurdles courts may impose to use of smart contracts on blockchain and show that sophisticated parties' ex ante commitment to them may lead courts to allow their use as pre-commitment devices.

Can Blockchain Solve the Hold-up Problem in Contracts? (Elements in Law, Economics and Politics)

Cambridge University Press

The Autism Job Club is a groundbreaking book for bringing adults with autism and other neuro-diverse conditions into the work world. This second edition of The Autism Job Club includes a new Foreword by Steve Silberman, author of the best-selling NeuroTribes, along with an Afterword by the authors. The Afterword covers the many employment initiatives for adults on the autism spectrum launched just in the three years since the book was originally published. The book has its basis in the autism job club that the authors have been part of in the San Francisco Bay Area, the job-creation and job-placement efforts the club has undertaken, and similar efforts throughout the United States. The authors review the high unemployment rates among adults with autism and other neuro- diverse conditions more than two decades after the ADA. Bernick and Holden also outline and explain six strategies that, taken together, will reshape employment for adults with autism: the art of the autism job coach; the autism advantage in technology employment; autism employment and the internet economy; autism employment and the practical/craft economy; autism and extra-governmental job networks; autism and public service employment. The Autism Job Club is a vital resource for adults with autism, their families, and advocates who are committed to neuro-diverse employment, not unemployment. But it also speaks to a far broader audience interested in how to carve out a place for themselves or others in an increasingly competitive job world.

The Autism Job Club: The Neurodiverse Workforce in the New Normal of Employment

Biographies & Memoirs

Bernick, Michael

Community & Culture

Skyhorse

The Autism Job Club is a groundbreaking book for bringing adults with autism and other neuro-diverse conditions into the work world. The book has its basis in the autism job club that the authors have been part of in the San Francisco Bay Area, the job-creation and job-placement efforts the club has undertaken, and similar efforts throughout the United States. The authors review the high unemployment rates among adults with autism and other neuro- diverse conditions more than two decades after the ADA. National data on autism employment and unemployment with the individual employment searches of job club members. Bernick and Holden also outline and explain six strategies that, taken together, will reshape employment for adults with autism: *The art of the autism job coach. *The autism advantage in technology employment. *Autism employment and the internet economy. *Autism employment and the practical/craft economy. *Autism and extra-governmental job networks. *Autism and public service employment. The Autism Job Club will be a vital resource for adults with autism, their families, and advocates who are committed to neuro-diverse employment, not unemployment. But it will also speak to a far broader audience interested in how to carve out a place for themselves or others in an increasingly competitive job world.

Job Hunting & Careers

Australia's Pandemic Exceptionalism: How we crushed the curve but lost the race.

Hamilton, Steven

Industries

NewSouth

At All Times in All Places: A Vet's Life

The Pentland Press

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