News from the Network, Vol. 2, No. 10

The stock market appears to have settled into a pattern: a sharp drop followed by a pep talk from the administration, a brief rally, and then a sharper drop in share values. This possibly reflects the lag in perception as people react positively to Mr. Obama's optimism and shifts in emphasis before realizing that he hasn't effectively addressed yesterday's problem before leaping to the next one. Each crisis seems to be treated as an island, entire of itself, and not a part of the main problem. The principles of the Just Third Way, that we have demonstrated can be applied in a holistic fashion to address not just the series of seemingly new crises, but the structural flaws in our institutions causing the crises, continue to receive short shrift from the powers-that-be. Nevertheless, we are making slow but steady progress in presenting these ideas into circles where they might start receiving serious consideration.

• Early this week, following a minor flood of e-mails consisting mostly of forwards of a brief article by Dr. Robert Moynihan, editor of Inside the Vatican, on an upcoming encyclical on justice, we sent a note to Dr. Moynihan. We briefly explained the basic principles of the Just Third Way and how we think it fits into the framework of Catholic social teaching based on the natural law. Within an hour, we received a reply from Dr. Moynihan, who said our response was just what he had been hoping to surface, and that he would be looking over the recommended web sites and giving CESJ a call. Dr. Steven White, past president of the Catholic Medical Association, has commended CESJ for its outreach efforts in this area.

• The Reverend Cassian Yuhaus, C.P. ("Congregation of the Passionists," a Catholic religious order), Rector of the Shrine of St. Ann's Basilica in Scranton, Pennsylvania, put us in touch with Father Kevin Dance, head of the Passionist Non-Governmental Organization ("NGO") at the United Nations. Among other matters, Father Dance is concerned with the situation in the Holy Land. Father Yuhaus is setting up a meeting, and Norman Kurland and Michael Greaney will be traveling to New York City later in March to meet with Father Dance to discuss the Abraham Federation as a possible solution to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, as well as other matters relating to a wider understanding and acceptance of Capital Homesteading and the Just Third Way as a viable answer to the tsunami of economic disasters that have swept the world. A native of Australia, Father Dance is co-editor of Compassion magazine.

• While we received no reaction or response from our e-mailing on Capital Homesteading and the Just Third Way to every member of the Icelandic Althing (the legislature), the blog postings commenting on the situation in Iceland have suddenly surged in our informal ratings (below). Most of the viewings come not from Iceland, however, but from countries that have economic and financial interests in Iceland. This might indicate some serious concerns in the international arena as to the ability of the current Icelandic government to handle the situation, and bafflement as to why they aren't willing even to consider something truly different, rather than a rehash of traditional Keynesian neo-socialism.

• Similarly, while the economic news from Ireland continues to worsen, we haven't heard back from any more members of the Dáil or Seanad (the two houses of the Irish legislature) regarding Capital Homesteading. While postings on "Irish economics" have gone down a little in our "ratings," they are still among our most frequently viewed. It may be that the Irish government is preferring to take the "safe" way of implementing accepted Keynesian solutions that are virtually guaranteed to fail, rather than run the risk of implementing bold new initiatives that run the risk of succeeding.

• As of this morning, we have had visitors from 49 different countries and 50 states and provinces in the United States and Canada to this blog over the past two months. Over the same period we have experienced over 30% increase in total readership, according to the statistics counter of "Google Analytics." (The apparent drop in readership from last week's 80% is deceiving — the 30% is in addition to the 80%, making the increase in the neighborhood of 110% since the beginning of the year.) Most visitors are from the United States, with Canada, the UK, Poland, and Ireland rounding out our "top five" countries where we're read the most. The top spots for the average time spent on the blog, however, go to Venezuela, Croatia, Poland, Austria, and Brazil, in that order. Our general comments on the flaws in Keynesian economics have nudged out related commentary on the stimulus package as our most popular postings, which are now in "second place" — by one "vote." Of the remaining "top ten," 1 is on Abraham Lincoln and the 1862 Homestead Act, 1 is the weekly news roundup, and one is on Iceland. Most readers are using keyword searches indicating they want to learn about the serious flaws in Keynesian economics.

Those are the happenings for this week, at least that we know about. If you have an accomplishment that you think should be listed, send us a note about it at mgreaney [at] cesj [dot] org, and we'll see that it gets into the next "issue." If you have a short (250-400 word) comment on a specific posting, please enter your comments in the blog — do not send them to us to post for you. All comments are moderated anyway, so we'll see it before it goes up.