After the Fall: Capitalism and a Just Way Forward

This conversation, part of a daylong workshop asking "Is the Internet a Realm of Creativity and Freedom or Corporatization and Control?", responds to and build upon Yochai Benkler’s talk, and considers how the Internet is a truly free space and how it’s controlled and corporatized. The discussion is moderated by Daniel Klinghard, associate professor of political science, and features Yochai Benkler of Harvard Law School and Holy Cross faculty Alexander Duff, Aaron Herold, and Carly Herold of the Department of Political Science, and Jorge Santos of the English Department.

Yochai Benkler, the Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard Law School, and faculty co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, gave a keynote address as part of a daylong workshop, held September 18, 2015, asking, "Is the Internet a Realm of Creativity and Freedom or Corporatization and Control?" In his address, Benkler explores how the set of ideas that have emerged around the commons challenge the individualistic account of late-20th century market society.

Jonathan Gruber is one of the Democratic party's most influential advisors on healthcare reform. He is director of the Health Care Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a key architect of Massachusetts' health care reform, and professor of economics at MIT.

Ellen Ruppel Shell, professor of journalism and co-director of the Graduate Program in Science Journalism at Boston University, talks about her book Cheap and the history and psychology of our discount culture.

Sr. Catherine Cowley, R.A., Ph.D., a former banker and now religious sister and associate director of the Institute for Religion, Ethics and Public Life at Heythrop College, University of London, speaks about the ethical value of money and achieving "the good life."

Daniel Barbezat, professor of economics at Amherst College, discusses behavioral economics and argues that a deepened awareness can reduce our wants and habits of consumption without compromising our personal well being.

Aaron Levine, the Samson and Halina Bitensky Professor of Economics and chairman of the department at Yeshiva University, has focused his research on the interface between economics and Halakhah, or Jewish religious law, especially as it relates to public policy and modern business practices.

David A. Spina '64, retired chairman and CEO of State Street Corporation, the world's leading provider of services to institutional investors, and a Holy Cross trustee, shares lessons learned from the collapse of the financial markets and changes that would improve the banking system.

William D. Nordhaus, Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University, is one of the main economists working on climate change models. He recently chaired a panel of the National Academy of Sciences that produced a report, Nature's Numbers, recommending approaches to integrate environmental and other non-market activity into the national economic accounts.

Caner Dagli is assistant professor in the Religious Studies department at Holy Cross. He was an interfaith affairs consultant at the Royal Hashemite Court of Jordan, providing consultative support to HM King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein and his special advisor HRH Ghazi bin Muhammad.

Jacob Hacker, the Stanley Resor Professor of Political Science at Yale University, reports on the broad-based risk-shift from society to individuals — across healthcare, pensions, and job security — as a result of philosophical pressure in the political arena, increased opportunity for private industry, and economic pressures.