Heavy sigh. A few days ago, in response to the grim news about the economy, all the politicians and policymakers hastened to assure us that All Is Well, The Recession [sic] Is Over, Jobs Are On The Rise, etc., etc., etc. Keynesian print, borrow, and spend has again Saved The Economy. We have Nothing To Worry About.
Uh, huh. That's why this morning, in the wake of "weak jobs data" the powers-that-be are (again) hedging their bets. The "Eurozone," for example, is talking about increasing the bailout fund for countries that get (too far) into debt. China is raising interest rates to "curb inflation" (i.e., rising the price of the most critical input to production in order to forestall a price rise). And so on.
On the "good" side, consumer prices are up as jobs are down, the financial services industry is making mega profits, and the people responsible for shoveling money into companies "too big to fail" are congratulating themselves on how well they saved the economy.
Oh, yes, and did we mention that the experts are already predicting the "next recession" [sic] before we're out of the current one . . . to be caused by the massive debt incurred to bring us out of the current "recession." [sic] Not enough? In response to a "tepid" inflation report, stocks are moving up . . . in other words, inflation.
Is this making sense to anyone?
If it does . . . you're lying. If not, start working to get Capital Homesteading enacted by 2012. Consider penciling in the annual Fed Rally into your busy social schedule. Take a look at the Harris Neck project, and send a message of support (and we may have some more proactive suggestions later). Go to the "Just Third Way Bookstore" and buy a bunch of books. (Okay, that last doesn't really do anything to get Capital Homesteading enacted. It just generates a little money for CESJ through the fees that Amazon Affiliates pays for purchases made through the blog. Every little bit helps. And you might want to send the "Bookstore" link around to your network, or ask us for a copy of the press release you can send around. We'll be working one up for The Formation of Capital soon — i.e., as soon as we make $1 million on the other publications . . . )
In the meantime,
• We had a meeting on Wednesday with Mr. John Dondanville of Detroit and Mr. Robert Colangelo, executive director of the National Brownfield Association. The main topic was explaining how pure credit could be used to finance new capital formation for the rebuilding and right sizing of cities, but (more importantly) the critical need to get behind the Harris Neck initiative as a "fast track" to develop a pure credit/citizen ownership "proof of concept."
• Mr. Pollant "PJ" Mpofu of London has been making great strides in connecting with key figures in Éire and the UK. We understand that he has been invited to a meeting with the Hon. Grant Shapps, UK Minister of State for Housing and Community Planning, and recently received a telephone call from the Office of the Taoiseach (the Irish Prime Minister), asking if we have any dietary restrictions or have any difficulty going upstairs. Naturally, we informed them that we are on a strict caviar and tenderloin diet, along with whatever vegetables are expensive and out of season, and that we require sedan chairs carried by dozens of beautiful women to get up any staircase for fear we might slip on the perfumed rose petals strewn in our path.
• After many trials, traumas, and tribulations, we think we have straightened out the broken links and other minor problems connected with our temporary "Just Third Way Bookstore." You should now be able to order CESJ's publications in relative peace and security. If you are a CESJ member and want the member discount, however, you must order directly from CESJ; Amazon simply isn't set up to accommodate selective discounts of that nature. Also, please note that the books published by Universal Values Media, Inc., while occupying most of the "shelf space" in the "bookstore," do not qualify for the CESJ member discount. The wholesale/bulk discount, applicable to quantities of 10 or more of the same title, applies to both CESJ and UVM . . . but not to the books of other publishers. (If this is getting too complicated, send an e-mail to publications [at] cesj [dot] org, and we'll try to answer your question.)
•The bottom line to the above item is that you should immediately (if not sooner) go to the "bookstore" and purchase a copy of The Formation of Capital. We've been getting increasing questions that are clearly based on the past savings assumptions, and you probably won't understand our answer if you remain wedded to past saving as the only source of financing for new capital formation.
• As of this morning, we have had visitors from 46 different countries and 44 states and provinces in the United States and Canada to this blog over the past two months. Most visitors are from the United States, Canada, the UK, Brazil, and India. People in Croatia, Poland, South Africa, Venezuela and Canada spent the most average time on the blog. Yet again, and still possibly due to the growing perception that something is wrong with the basic assumptions of Keynesian economics (as well as other schools of economics based on the Currency School of finance), the most popular posting by far is one from a while back, "Thomas Hobbes on Private Property," that briefly explains the similarities in the way Keynes and Hobbes abolish private property. This is followed by a new entry, our "Just Third Way Bookstore" (which we probably shouldn't count, as it's not really a blog, but a way of having a storefront without having a storefront . . . ) We then have "Games People Play," "The Problem With Distributism," "Why Government Debt is Really Bad," and the discussion on "Pure Credit for Student Loans."
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.
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