News from the Network, Vol. 4, No. 30

The outreach continues. Particularly in light of the ongoing deadlock in the debt ceiling discussions — and the seeming inability of anyone in or out of power to consider the merits of Capital Homesteading as a possible solution that would not simply contain the D&D (Debt 'n Deficit) controversy — we probably need to redouble our efforts to bring Capital Homesteading to the attention of anyone who will listen. You might even try your local newspapers. It's a bit easier to get something in to them than into the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, or the Washington Post. That being the case, here's what we've been doing:

• CESJ's publication, Supporting Life: The Case for a Pro-Life Economic Agenda, is, as we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, now available on Kindle in a special 99¢ edition. It's beginning to sell, but we need more reviews. If you can't do anything else, you can at least go to Amazon, sign in, and post a review of a CESJ publication. As Bluto blabbered in Animal House, "Don't cost nothin'." If 99¢ is too much for an e-book, you can always get the hardcopy trade paperback for $10.00.  (Okay, $9.00.  Amazon is adjusting the price again.  They must see some sales potential there or something.)

• Universal Values Media, Inc., a for-profit CESJ supporter, has published three works (two "novellas" or short novels and a collection of short stories) in Kindle and that are currently available on Amazon, all three for 99¢ each. The author, Matt Gray, is donating all royalties from the sale of these books to CESJ. They are The Missteps of Melanie: A Chapter Play (novella), There's One Reborn Every Minute (novella), and Diamonds in the Sky with Lucy and Other Stories (short stories). They now have cover images up. CESJ will receive approximately 35¢ for every sale. These are not available in hardcopy, and you'll have to settle for the e-book.

• This week Norman Kurland has been attending the Caux International Roundtable on Ethical Capitalism. As Just Third Wayers (is that a word?) know, we're all for ethics. We don't like the word "capitalism," signifying as it does a system in which ownership of capital is concentrated in private hands. The only thing worse than capitalism, of course, is socialism, in which the necessary, if limited tool of the State is expanded far beyond its legitimate scope and tries to ensure equality of results. Anyway, Norm has been making a number of interesting contacts with businessmen and social leaders from all over the world. Especially interesting are the meetings he's been having with people from Japan, the U.K., and Turkey. We've been discussing ways to follow up on these contacts, and persuade participants in the Roundtable to join the Coalition for Capital Homesteading to, one, get us out of the current economic malaise, and, two, to build a sound and sustainable economic order for everyone.

• On Monday we sent a letter to the "Lancaster [Pennsylvania] Newspapers," as the combined "left" and "right" journals are now called, attempting to present both conservative and liberal opinions at the same time. The point of the letter was to alert people to the possibility of something that could break the stalemate over the debt ceiling: Capital Homesteading. The letter was not published. We will publish it in this blog next week.

• Today we sent out a letter to Anthony Flood, a "Catholic libertarian" who leans toward the Austrian school in economics. We just happened to come across one of his websites, and — since he asked for comments and questions as well as criticism (constructive, presumably) — we suggested that he take a look at the CESJ website and, if he liked what he saw, to get in touch with Norman Kurland. Of the three mainstream schools of economics adhering to the Currency Principle, we're probably closest to the Austrians, so we suggested that there might be a chance for some interesting dialog. Mr. Flood replied, and in a polite note explained that he's pretty much up to his ears in alligators, but thanked us for the invitation.

• Also today (and, yes, believe it or not, we have other things to do besides sending out letters to people who have never heard of us), we sent a missive to George Melloan, c/o the Wall Street Journal, in response to his comment in an article in today's Journal that "The U.S. is busted . . . . because America's political leaders have overburdened the productive sector with social obligations that cannot be fulfilled." We agreed, but pointed out that this is only part of the problem. If we don't hear from him (we're holding our breath, of course), we'll publish that letter, too, next week.

• As of this morning, we have had visitors from 43 different countries and 45 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 Philippines, the UK, Canada, and India. People in Slovenia, Mauritius, Canada, the United State and Serbia spent the most average time on the blog. The most popular posting this past week was "Aristotle on Private Property." "Why the Old Jobs Aren't Coming Back," was next, followed by "Nader Kindles Fires of Revolt," "History of Binary Economics . . . Sort Of" and "I'm Against It."

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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