Writing on the moral foundations of economic life
Political economy, democracy, and the question of what an economy is for.
Anthony Annett is an economist and author whose work sits at the intersection of political economy, democracy, and moral philosophy.
He spent two decades at the International Monetary Fund, including as speechwriter to two Managing Directors. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University and a B.A. (first class honors and gold medal) and an M.Litt from Trinity College Dublin. He is also a member of the College of Fellows of the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology.
He helped organize Ethics in Action — an initiative that met regularly at the Vatican and brought together representatives of the major world religions alongside economists, development experts, philosophers, business and labor leaders, philanthropists, and activists to formulate a shared moral framework for addressing major global problems.
He is the author of Cathonomics: How Catholic Tradition Can Create a More Just Economy (Georgetown University Press, 2022) and Bread and Ballots: Why Democracy Needs Economic Justice to Thrive (forthcoming, Georgetown University Press, 2027). He is also a co-editor of Ethics in Action for Sustainable Development (Columbia University Press, 2022) and a contributor to The Age of Fraternity: An Economy for the Common Good (forthcoming).
He has published in numerous outlets including the Financial Times, the Washington Post, and Commonweal. He is also the cohost of the Moral Revolution podcast.
An argument that liberal democracy and economic justice are not merely allies but constitutive of the same project — tested across a century and a half of crisis and renewal, from the long depression of the 1870s through the Great Depression to the aftermath of 2008.
A guide to Catholic social teaching as living economic wisdom — and a challenge to the assumptions of mainstream economics about self-interest, markets, and the common good.
A multi-tradition dialogue — across religious and secular ethics — on the moral commitments underlying the Sustainable Development Goals, drawn from the Ethics in Action initiative.
Anthony writes and speaks on the political economy of democracy, Catholic social teaching, social democracy, and the dialogue between economics and ethics. His work has appeared in scholarly and public venues.
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