Economics Actually by Terrance Quinn and John Benton, Second Edition (Island House Press, 2023)
Economics Actually: Today and Tomorrow. Sustainable and Inclusive. by Terrance Quinn and John Benton is an excellent and accessible introduction to the foundational insights into the structure of any economic activity. These insights were the ideas that Bernard Lonergan developed in response to the call of Catholic social encyclicals to redeem modern economic activity. Lonergan was deeply disturbed by modern catastrophes like the Irish Famine and Great Depression and believed that a prime reason for failed experiments in human well-being on such a massive scale was the absence of theoretical control. I am not an economist and write only as an ardent admirer of Lonergan and of those who have undertaken to communicate his penetrating insights into the structure of the human good. Economics Actually is a pedagogically effective presentation that draws on concrete examples, including the actual experience of a small painting business which Quinn established with a group of young people. The result is an accessible introduction to Lonergan's analysis of a double-flow of expenses, goods and services in basic/consumer and surplus/capital cycles. The payoff for economists and the public is the long-term goal of a theoretical science of economy implemented by an army of practical economists capable of making accurate judgments about a local situation and recommendations for responsible action. The advantage in the shot run is an enrichment of one’s understanding of the structure of the human good.
The human good is constituted by values that inform and organize social practices in diverse domains of human living from technology, economy and politics, to culture, education and religion. While no one person can understand in any depth the exact nature of those patterns of cooperation in all areas of living, there are several reasons to take seriously Lonergan’s invitation to devote some time to this area of study. First, to understand the human good in broad outline is to understand that universal and normative patterns of cooperation constitute the institutions and social practices at each point in the scale. Quinn and Benton argue persuasively that a two-fold structure of basic and surplus goods and services are the invariants in any economic event. The current stage of cultural development and crisis imposes upon us the obligation of discovering verifiable norms within patterns of social living that can serve as guardrails in navigating the plurality of forms of cooperation on offer in contemporary society. Economics Actually prepares readers to make the experiments on their own and validate Lonergan’s insights across an unlimited range of economic activity from the most primitive forms of production and exchange to small businesses to international trade and global economic development. Core insights gained and verified in the simplest examples of how businesses actually work preserve their explanatory power even at scale.
A second reason for spending some time with a book like this is that it serves as a model for seeking explanatory patterns of cooperation in other areas of human living. This is not to say that all of human life is reducible to verifiable insights in economics. It is to say that communal living and the common good are matters of recurrent patterns of cooperation, institutions and social practices. What is common among the domains of meaning and value that constitute the human world is their mode of intelligibility. To understand institutions and social practices is to make sense of the operations and cycles that create and sustain them. This simple book provides a template for “making sense of situations” (thanking Michael Stebbins for that formulation) and for understanding what it would be like to understand a family, school, corporation, political body, religion, etc.
A third reason to read the book is an extension of the second. Lonergan’s work in economics is a species of natural law, which seeks universal and normative patterns in human living. But it is a species of natural law that is not prey to the treacheries of conceptualism or reductionism. Natural law here means the achievements of human reason and not the invariant operations of impersonal forces or the application of comprehensive concepts to particular scenarios. Lonergan’s economics provides a template for what a natural law account of X might look like. It is rooted in acts of understanding verified in concrete instances and is applied by practical knowledge. In this promotional video, the authors highlight the long term goal of Lonergan’s economic project. It is not to equip any one person with the comprehensive knowledge to serve as an expert analyst or consultant. It is to develop the scientific apparatus that would guide applied economic dynamics. The authors imagine the future, as Lonergan did, in which the “the practical economist [will be] as familiar a professional figure as the doctor, the lawyer, or the engineer.” They add, “Some economists will have their attention on needs and possibilities for specific communities. Others may look to regional or global issues.”
Finally, Economics Actually serves as five-finger exercise in understanding insight. The book proceeds slowly and concretely. The data given in the case studies are simple and uncluttered. What is grasped is therefore easily referable back to the illustrations and expressed as such in the diagrams and formulas. The core insights are into the images and are transferable to any other examples readers might care to generate for themselves. To read Economics Actually is to make an investment in understanding oneself as an intelligent and rational being.
Lonergan offered his circulation analysis as an intelligent account of universal and normative patterns verifiable in any economic process. Economics Actually bears this out through its insightful analysis of concrete examples. In addition to the two-phases and the five functions in Lonergan’s circulation analysis, the authors briefly discuss the stock market, trade, and supply chains. They offer critiques of standard measures of economic health and development and provide ample evidence from the worlds of leading economists that something as foundational as this is necessary to set economics on a rational and reasonable path. The book includes but is not overloaded with mathematical equations. It therefore serves as a good introduction for non-math majors.
The Second Edition. This review was written for the first edition of the text, no longer in print. A communication from the authors adds this about the second edition: “The new edition includes significant revisions, as well as additional content on, in particular, money.”