Why don't we just admit we're in a depression, and work to find a real solution instead of figuring out ways to make good the losses of gamblers in Wall Street's high stakes game? As Dr. Harold Moulton, first president of the Brookings Institution pointed out a few decades ago, there are two critical factors in a recovery. One is production. The other is employment. Neither of these appear to be given any weight at all when it comes to throwing more taxpayer money around or increasing the size of the deficit.
Of course, a good, hard look at Capital Homesteading would go a long way toward giving the politicians the idea that there is something better than Keynesian deficit spending to get the country (and the world) out of the hole. The problem is getting to the right people — and that means getting someone (like you) to open a door or two. Not that we've been remiss in trying to open a few doors ourselves, as can be seen from this week's happenings:
• On Wednesday Norman Kurland attended the annual global awards of the Buckminster Fuller Institute (http://www.bfi.org/). The unanimous winner was Project Hope, led by Allan Savory, who once served in the Rhodesian Parliament and now heads the Savory Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico. (See announcement at http://www.savoryinstitute.com/) The project (what he calls "the Brown Revolution") has 30 million acres of land whose soil and natural wildlife are being restored in many countries in Africa, with a significant project in South Zambia. He's an impressive speaker-scientist who has developed an approach called a "holistic resource management system" and he has a special love for Zambia. Norm spoke with him and exchanged cards, mentioning that there was a candidate for president of Zambia who has shown support for the Just Third Way and Norm's suggestion that all citizens should own all the land through a national Natural Resources Bank.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.
• This week CESJ sent suggestions for a revised mission statement to a politician who is running for office in Zambia (above). There were very few changes needed to get the statement to reflect all the principles of the Just Third Way. One addition concerned the need to reform the commercial and central banking system as well as the tax system to assist every citizen of Zambia in becoming an owner of a significant capital stake.
• Earlier today we had a follow-up meeting to discuss the results of the annual "Own the Fed" rally held this past April. Comments were very positive, with the most concern expressed for how to increase attendance.
• Father William Christensen, S.M., founder of the Institute for Integrated Rural Development in Bangladesh, will be meeting with CESJ's "core group" and other interested parties on Monday, June 7, 2010 at CESJ headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, at 9:00 am. If you are interested in attending (admission is free), please get in touch with CESJ via the contact information on the website.
• We have been engaging in some outreach to get in touch with the sponsors of the "ESOP Promotion and Improvement Act of 2010" in an effort to introduce them to the possibilities inherent in Capital Homesteading as a way of turning the economy around and reestablishing the financial system on a much more secure basis. The sponsors are Dr. Charles W. Boustany, R, of Louisiana's 7th district (shades of the late Senator Russell Long), and Earl Pomeroy, D, At-Large Representative for North Dakota. If you think you might be able to help, get in touch with CESJ via the contact information on the CESJ website.
• As of this morning, we have had visitors from 47 different countries and 40 states and provinces in the United States and Canada to this blog over the past two months. Most visitors are from the United States, the UK, Brazil, Canada, and India. People in Belgium, Egypt, Maldives, the United States and Brazil spent the most average time on the blog. The most popular posting is the "Prologue" to the current "Out of the Depths" series on French financial experiments. This is followed by the weekly "News from the Network" with two of the top five spots, followed by "Thomas Hobbes on Private Property," and the first part of the case for a more just tax.
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