POLITICS & SOCIAL SCIENCES
Rethinking Money and Finance:
Economics, Morality, and Common
Sense
Richard G. Patterson
218p, trade paper, $10, ISBN 979-8-824-05161-2
Making the case that economics is less a science than a branch of moral philosophy, this clear-eyed treatise from Patterson (author of
Understanding Thomas Sowell) dissects economic orthodoxies and truisms at both theoretical and practical levels, taking aim at societal abuses that come at the hands of capitalism—namely a lopsided wealth distribution that puts most of the power and the benefits that come with it into the hands of a lucky few. “Exploring the way we conceive of money,” he writes, “is one way to free our minds from the prison cell of dogma.” Rethinking Money and Finance urges readers to not accept as “inevitable” or ““divinely mandated” market outcomes like an increasingly greater number of people forced to choose between life in abject poverty or working ever harder simply to “keep their head above water,” without opportunity to accumulate real wealth.
Patterson, like many of the philosophers, economists, and other heavyweight thinkers he cites, is a long-term thinker facing a world of finance dominated by short-term interests. As he notes in his clarifying discussion of the broad-based mortgage collapse now known as The Big Short, economies are subject to the will of many whose relatively quick grab for profits and/ or power tend to help a few get rich at the expense of the many. Rethinking Money and Finance calls for recognizing this as a human choice rather than a natural law of markets.
In his sharp-elbowed, well-researched considerations of Modern Monetary Theory, “the fetish of liquidity,” the messages peddled by “financial ‘news,’” globalization trends, and more, he argues, with persuasive power, that substantive reform can only come after establishing a vision, a clear and shared sense of what economies themselves should do. That’s the vital societal step to change, Patterson argues, and his thorough examination of economic terms, policy, crises, and above all else assumptions proves both pained and heartening.
Cover: A- | Design & typography: A | Illustrations: – Editing: A | Marketing copy: A