News from the Network, Vol. 4, No. 16

Although the volatility of the stock market suggests a very shaky economic position to anyone familiar with the gyrations that took place in the months preceding the 1929 Crash, the powers-that-be seem convinced that over-inflated values on the stock market are a Sure Sign Of Economic Recovery. Of course, that little matter of a weak currency, high unemployment, low production, mounting government debt, etc., etc., etc. . . . picky, picky, picky. Despite our morose-colored glasses (or, actually, because of them), we continue to work toward introducing the Just Third Way and implementing a Capital Homestead Act by the end of 2012 (note that we didn't say where we would try and implement it . . .):

• Principally as a result of the informal discussions following the Rally at the Federal Reserve by the Coalition for Capital Homesteading and CESJ's annual meeting and celebration (two discrete organizations and events, in case you're in any danger of getting them confused), a number of key and potentially key politicians have been targeted for outreach initiatives.

• Efforts were also initiated for regular follow-up with Federal Reserve Chairman Benjamin Bernanke to persuade him to read the letter hand-delivered to him every year after the rally outside the Federal Reserve.

• Pollant Mpofu is making continuing efforts to put spokesmen of the Just Third Way in touch with the governor of the Bank of England and the head of the central bank of South Africa. Pollant's efforts in this initiative have been untiring. As a result, key figures in British and African political circles are becoming aware of the possibilities offered by Just Third Way reforms.

• The first draft of CESJ's paper on the legal and accounting understanding of money and credit, and how it relates to the need to reform our money and credit systems to open up democratic access to the means of acquiring and possessing capital, is finished. At over 100,000 words it might seem a bit verbose for a mere article, but the subject is burdened with so many misconceptions and misunderstandings that it would be fatal to treat the subject in less depth. The paper provides the essential backup to the projected revision of Capital Homesteading for Every Citizen which, while the current edition is still valuable, contains information that requires updating. The principles remain unchanged. Fear not, however — while the paper goes into great depth on a very limited topic, we anticipate that what appears in the revised Capital Homesteading for Every Citizen will be no more than a paragraph or two at most as a brief summary . . . assertions, really, but fully supported in the paper.

• Sales of In Defense of Human Dignity increased significantly in April, possibly as a result of "Income Tax Day," or perhaps as a measure of the increased introspection accompanying the "High Holy Days" of a number of different religions. The compendium is written from a Catholic orientation, but from a natural law perspective that makes it applicable to Aristotelians of any faith (with a little mental editing for language and terminology, of course).

• As of this morning, we have had visitors from 44 different countries and 46 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, India, and Australia. People in Kenya Venezuela, Germany, Ireland and Saudi Arabia spent the most average time on the blog. The most popular posting this past week was once again "Thomas Hobbes on Private Property," followed by "Aristotle on Private Property," "De Tocqueville on Wage Slavery in America," "The New Manifest Destiny," and "Why Own the Fed Not End the Fed?"

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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