Not unexpectedly, the antics of the stock market bear little relation to what is happening in the real economy that produces marketable goods and services . . . or to the principles that should govern the secondary market in debt and equity. The name, "secondary market," gives you a good clue as to how to view it: a second-hand shoppe. That's for high-class establishments. Lesser places sell "pre-owned" items and "junque," while everyone else sells "used." At least the Just Third Way doesn't peddle "used" ideas. Since they've never been implemented as a total package -- although every piece has been tried and tested and not found wanting -- all it needs is a leader with vision. To surface someone (or several someones) like that, here's what we've been doing for the past week:
• Michael D. Greaney, CESJ's Director of Research, is currently on vacation in Lancaster Country, Pennsylvania. It is interesting to see how, even in those areas where the Amish congregate, there is still a heavy reliance on advanced technology to keep things running. The key is not to eliminate advanced technology, but put it directly under the control of the people who use it through ownership.
• Norman Kurland was interviewed on blog radio this past week. The host, who had never heard of the Just Third Way ideas before, was enthusiastic.
• Monica W. and Norm met with a city council member in Cleveland via telephone. We don't have a full report of the meeting yet, but we assume it went well. The hard part is not getting people to understand the social and economic principles of the Just Third Way. The hard part is getting past the "gate keepers" who decide what prime movers will and will not hear.
• On November 4, Monica, Jackie and Norm met with the people from the "ESOP" organization, "ESOP" in this case meaning "Empowering and Strengthening Ohio People." They have expressed interest in the concept of people becoming rent-to-buy tenants in the homes they formerly owned before foreclosure.
• CESJ recently launched its "twitter" campaign. It's small right now, but as soon as we become familiar with the technology and the techniques, we'll be expanding.
• On Wednesday we began promoting William Thornton's book, A Plea for Peasant Proprietors. If you'd like an e-copy for comment or review -- or to pass around to others who might want to comment or reivew -- let us know by sending an e-mail to publications [at] cesj [a dog goes here] org.
• As of this morning, we have had visitors from 56 different countries and 50 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, Bulgaria, and the Philippines. People in Australia, Egypt, Germany, the United States, and Sweden spent the most average time on the blog. The most popular postings this past week were "Thomas Hobbes on Private Property," "Aristotle on Private Property," "The Perils of Ignoring History," "The Paradox of Thrift," and "Zombie Bot Slaves from Mars."
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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