If you think it’s crazy in the United States, what with
people attributing mystical powers to government and the stock market, at least
you’re not in Papua New Guinea. There’s
been a spate of sorcerer-burnings and cannibal lunches featuring local witch
doctors. We have yet to be setting fire
to stockbrokers or making that special soup from a politician’s unmentionables.
Still, it might not be too long before such things become
run-of-the-mill here. After all, a while
back we demonstrated the similarities between Keynesian economics and the Cargo
Cults of the South Pacific . . . and John Frum Day
is February 15. . . .
So, in case you can’t wait for John Frum America to come and
save the world by bringing plane-loads of Coca Cola and Spam, here’s what we’ve
been doing in the Just Third Way to bring about a Capital Homestead Act:
• The annual Rally at the Fed, to take place on April 26,
2013 in Washington, DC, is starting to look very interesting. You should consider coming and demonstrating
in support of Capital Homesteading to celebrate the end of tax season — and to
gain a little inspiration for the effort to reform our tax and monetary systems
so that you don’t get stuck that way again.
• We are starting to look into the possibility of a project
to republish some of the works of Fulton Sheen.
Catholic Charities in New York is looking at a shift in emphasis from
direct charity, to economic development to decrease the need for charity and
enhance human dignity by helping people help themselves. A number of Fulton Sheen’s earlier books give
encouragement for a shift along these lines.
• Gary Reber and Dave Hamill are doing yeomen work in
spreading word about the Just Third Way.
It’s an uphill battle, as most people are locked into a paradigm in
which fundamental principles of banking, money and credit are sealéd books to
most people, and they don’t understand that, since the purpose of production is
consumption (as Adam Smith pointed out), it is far better to finance new
capital formation with the present value of future increases in production,
than with past cuts in consumption.
• CESJ friend Dr. Robert Ornelas has said that he and his
musical group (S.O.G. Crew) plan to be at the annual Fed Rally on April 26,
2013 in Washington, DC. He has outreach throughout the U.S. to grassroots
groups, and is planning to run for governor of California in 2014.
• Rev. Dr. Virgil Wood is trying to organize a conference of
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s supporters. He wants to combine the “Jubilee” concept
with the Just Third Way, and has asked Norm if he would make a presentation on
the Capital Homestead Act.
• As of this morning, we have had
visitors from 61 different countries and 49 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, Canada, the Philippines, and India.
People in Columbia, Sweden, South Korea, the United States, and the United
Kingdom 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,” “News from the Network, Vol. 6, No. 2,” “Who Owns Social Security,”
and “How to Redeem Economics.”
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.
#30#
