News from the Network, Vol. 5, No. 38

According to Mohammed El-Erian, CEO of Pimco, Benjamin "Deer-In-The-Headlights" Bernanke (I mean, come on, have you looked at any of his recent photographs?), is trying to use the Federal Reserve to inflate the currency in order to stimulate growth because the alleged benefits outweigh the anticipated risks ("Fed Wants Inflation Now, Will Clean Up 'Mess' Later: El-Erian," CNBC, 09/21/12).

This is another instance of "Déjà vu all over again." We have inflation; it's a "statistical illusion" that we don't. Food and fuel, two of the most significant personal expenditures most people have, are not included in the Consumer Price Index. Combined with the Keynesian fantasy that inflation and unemployment are a necessary trade-off (a fixed and erroneous belief rooted in the past savings assumption that the only way to finance new capital formation is to cut consumption and save), the stage is being set for yet another Keynesian "Depression within the Depression," precisely as Harold Moulton predicted in 1935, and which took World War II to get us out of. It didn't work in the 1930s, it hasn't worked so far in the current "recession," so what are they going to do? The same thing that hasn't worked before!

Of course, they could go with Capital Homesteading, but it's never been done before! . . . . Okay, so it has, partially, with Lincoln's 1862 Homestead Act, but Bernanke isn't getting paid to risk his job. He's getting paid to, uh, hmm, well, uh, . . . . okay, I'm not sure what he's getting paid for, but his job is gone anyway, no matter who wins the election. If Obama wins, he has to blame Bernanke when things still don't work, and if Romney wins, he has to blame Bernanke for things not having worked. Either way, he's road kill.

• The Universal Peace Federation has posted the report of the roundtable discussion on "The Just Third Way: Rebirth of the International Market System." The report is being circulated and the link sent out to an estimated readership of 10,000 world leaders, scholars and thoughtful people from all walks of life.

• Tom Hoefling, presidential candidate of America's Party, this week endorsed the idea of an "Economic Manhattan Project". As posted on the campaign's website, Tom declared, "If elected, I will immediately launch what amounts to an economic Manhattan Project. I will get every one of our best minds in a room and not let them out until we have a workable plan, ready to implement. We must replace the socialist New Deal with the American Deal, with liberty at its core, and justice for all." When questioned on a blog talk radio as to who might be a candidate for this role, Tom answered, "Why people like [CESJ's] Michael Greaney and Dr. Norm Kurland if they would accept." Tom, also mentioned the audio recording of the conference call of August 28, 2012, when Norm Kurland explained the Capital Homesteading concept.

• On Thursday September 20, 2012, the guest on "America's Summit — Restore the Republic," was former Shell Oil CEO, John Hofmeister. John is currently with "Citizens for Affordable Energy", a group seeking America's energy independence. He was also asked to participate in the formation of an "Economic Manhattan Project."

• Dave H. in Georgia has been reaching out to a number of radio show hosts to sound them out on interviewing members of CESJ's core group to explain the potential of the Just Third Way to turn around the global economic and political mess.

• An initial draft business plan has been developed for Justice University. The second phase of development of the business plan will follow as soon as Bob Brantley, the Project Manager, and others finish their review.

• Wikipedia entries are currently being drafted. We hope to have the first five up on the Wikipedia by the end of September. A final selection of the initial five entries to be posted has not yet been made.

• Guy S. in Iowa and others have formed the OWN Team to surface social media activists to carry out at least one initiative a week to locate prime movers and gatekeepers.

• Russell W. in Connecticut has been reaching out to community, academic and church leaders in the Hartford area to get them interested in sitting down and discussing the Just Third Way.

• Monica W. in Cleveland has been making progress in arranging meetings for Norman Kurland to talk to key people in Ohio about the Just Third Way and the possibility of a pilot "Citizens Land Bank" and "Homeowners Equity Corporation" project to address the home mortgage crisis.

• As of this morning, we have had visitors from 46 different countries and 48 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 United Kingdom, India, Canada, and Australia. People in Romania, Hungary, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States spent the most average time on the blog. The most popular postings this past week were "Aristotle on Private Property," "Thomas Hobbes on Private Property," "Distributist Classics — and More!," "News from the Network," and "Own the Fed: Introduction."

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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