Cathonomics: How Catholic Tradition Can Create a More Just Economy by Anthony M. Annett (review)

Reviewed by: Cathonomics: How Catholic Tradition Can Create a More Just Economy by Anthony M. Annett Fidelis A. Olokunboro Cathonomics: How Catholic Tradition Can Create a More Just Economy. By Anthony M. Annett. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2022. 344pp. 29. 95. The concern of Anthony M. Annett's book is that neo-liberal economics, either described as the free-market economy or democratic capitalism, inculcates and amplifies wrong values. It has caused economic, social, and environmental fractures, especially with its increasing prominence since the second half of the twentieth century. It damages societies' health, well-being, and environment and, in the process, billions of people have been excluded from the global common good, instigating the political risk of instability and/or new forms of political demagoguery. Considering this, Annett argues for a new economics. The new economics is centuries old, fashioned from biblical teachings, Aristotelian virtue ethics, the theology of St. Thomas Aquinas, and some church fathers. He argues that the new economics, which is that of Catholic Social Teaching (CST), is not a magic wand that would radically usher in utopia. Instead, it would eradicate the excesses and the worst outcomes of neoliberal economics: toxic individualism and fractured global common good. In eight chapters and a conclusion, Annett proposes a just, humane, and environmentally friendly economics, which he terms Cathonomics. In chapter one, Annett teases out the biblical, philosophical, and Christological foundation of Cathonomics which he grounds in the theology of End Page 86 the protection of the vulnerable and the virtue of ethics of human flourishing. Chapter two provides the history of CST, which Annett locates in Pope Leo XIII's social encyclical, Rerum Novarum. He outlines and discusses the ten principles of CST. The third chapter brings the economics of CST into conversation with that of the "dominant" economic paradigm, that is, the free market (neo-liberal) economics, concluding that the goals of CST economics align more with human nature than neo-liberal economic theory. Unlike neo-liberal economics, which sees the human person as autonomous, CST economics considers the person as being in relation. In chapter four, Annett discusses the problems of the neo-liberal, free-market economy, explaining that the market is not free. Historically, the market has been influenced and "protected" by political and military powers. Countries with superior military powers have more significant market advantages. In chapter five, Annett distances his critique of neo-liberal economics from a back-door endorsement of communist economics. He rejects the collectivism of communism and the individualism of libertarian economics. Instead, he endorses the organizational structure of civic economy, outlining the roles of the various sectors of the civil society. In chapter six, Annett re-engages the problem, the consequences, the regional and global scale of economic inequality, and their association with neo-liberal economics. The subsequent chapter advances the importance of integral ecology—that a just economy includes good relationships among the people, the environment, and God. The final chapter proposes the global dimension of Cathonomics. For Annett, to abate the political and human disaster, the world needs virtue economics of CST as well as its emphasis on solidarity and subsidiary, particularly given the depth of human vulnerability and interdependence revealed by Covid-19. Annett's book affirms CST's position that economic structures are neither value-neutral nor independent of contextual culture and politics. As such, "every economic decision has a moral consequence" (Caritas in Veritate, No 36–37). That Annett, a former advocate of neo-liberal economics (a former IMF official) makes a CST argument is instructive. Some neo-liberal economists have labeled the church's concerns about free-market-triggered economic alienation dubious and a strawman. (See Catholic World Report, October 20, 2020) This book will be of interest to economists, political economists, political and economic theologians, and those interested in the inadequacies of the current form of neo-liberal economics, for it engages some of the critical voices within the Catholic intellectual tradition and virtue ethics and neo-liberal economics. The book's accessible language advances its critique of the neo-liberal toxic individualism and solidifies its argument on the naturality of civic economics and economic solidarity. I align with Annett. . .