Politics

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In "The War on Sex Workers" (page 30), Brooklyn-based writer Melissa Gira Grant, 34, decries "a war on women spearheaded…largely by other women," including feminists, conservatives, and human rights activists. Grant, a former sex worker herself, argues that if Backpage.com,
formerly owned by Village Voice Media, has "responsibilities vis-à-vis their sex work ads, they have the responsibility to not discriminate against sex workers." Grant writes about sex, politics, gender, culture, and technology for Slate, Jezebel, AlterNet, Jacobin, and other publications.

In "The Neoliberal Revolution" (page 56), economist Scott Sumner argues that Daniel Stedman Jones gives both too much and too little credit to the influential thinkers he considers in Masters of the Universe: Hayek, Friedman, and the Birth of Neoliberal Politics (Princeton). Sumner, 57, says he considers himself either a "pragmatic libertarian" or a neoliberal. "I am a utilitarian who has no principled objection to big government," he says, "although I think small government generally does better from a utilitarian perspective." An economics professor at Bentley University in Massachusetts, Sumner earned a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1985. He is best known for commentary on monetary policy at his blog, The Money Illusion, which has been credited as a key influence on recent policy decisions by the Federal Reserve.

Rachel Moran is reason's Fall 2012 Burton Gray Memorial Intern. A graduate of Selwyn College in Cambridge, she plans to work toward a graduate degree in political communication from Goldsmiths, University of London, beginning in 2013. Previously she interned with the Adam Smith Institute in London, where she "stumbled upon a copy of reason" and has "been hooked ever since." Moran, 21, describes herself as "a huge foodie and an avid baker and cook." While in the U.S., her plans include eating "as much calorie-laden American food as my stomach allows."