Lawrence D. Brown (2)

An interesting book, that punches above its page-count. The title is a bit misleading, as it is considerably more balanced than it lets on, and I'm glad of this (also the title probably helped it to shift a few more copies). Most interesting is its idea of there being a market-policy cycle of five stages, and working through each of these. It looks at interactions of market policies and these markets by using three main examples: transport, healthcare, and education.

It's the authors' level-headed, political economy approach that leads them to conclude that a new kind of pragmatism (they refer back to Adam Smith's own "realism") is emerging in policy. This is a movement away from ideological arguments about the legitimacy or otherwise of market mechanisms (I'm looking at you neoliberalism and globalisation). Maybe with the advent of the likes of Piketty et al. and their specific policy recommendations, rather than overly general handwaving, Brown and Jacobs might be on to something there. Hopefully.… (altro)