This week’s news items cover some items that you’ll never
see in other newsletters, from newly canonized saints to the “Greek world” of sororities
and fraternities. Of great importance
are the possible for-profit connections that are being made.
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| Pope John Paul II |
• On Sunday, April 27, 2014, Blessed John Paul II’s will be
officially recognized as a “saint.”
(N.B. canonization does not “make” anybody a saint. It’s an official certification, not a
creative act. The person makes him- or
herself a saint by doing whatever it is that makes people saints.) CESJ is not a Catholic or even a religious
organization, but Pope John Paul II is very important to the Just Third Way,
not the least because he met with a CESJ delegation and gave his personal
encouragement to the work of CESJ.
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| Pope John XXIII |
• While John XXIII did not meet with CESJ, his canonization
is also significant. He not only said
good things about economic and social justice (particularly the importance of
private property), he convened the Second Vatican Council. While we are not Catholic theologians, it
seems evident to us that John XXIII had in mind moving forward the social
vision of Leo XIII and Pius XI, emphasizing (as they did) the importance of
what Pius XI called “Catholic Action,” or the role of ordinary people in
restructuring the social order to establish and maintain a more just
society. The misunderstandings and
misinterpretations forced on the Second Vatican Council managed to divert this
effort, but it remains a critical task not just for Catholics, but for everyone
of every faith and philosophy.
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| Leda getting coffee and making copies. |
• Leda K. was elected “Panhellenic Woman of the Week” this
past week for her work as a CESJ intern.
This is considered a great honor, as the recipient is selected for
exemplifying dedication and service to others.
The award is usually reserved for seniors. Leda is a sophomore.
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| Irving Fisher, father of reflation. |
• Michael D. Greaney, CESJ’s Director of Research, was
quoted in an article in a series describing possible obscure or unfamiliar financial terms. The term highlighted, “reflation,” is one
that should be of interest to all CESJ members, as it is integral to a “currency
principle” approach to monetary and fiscal policy, and is opposed to the “banking
principle” on which binary economics is based.
• Members of the CESJ core group met with Matthew T. on the
telephone today. We have a follow-up
meeting scheduled for Monday when he is coming into town on other business. He is exploring a possible relationship with
both CESJ and EEI. Matthew came to us
through LinkedIn, a good reason why more people in the network should be using
the social media.
• Amazon is still using CESJ Director of Research Michael D.
Greaney’s book, So Much Generosity, a survey of the fiction of Cardinals Wiseman and Newman, and Monsignor Robert
Hugh Benson, as a “loss leader.” Today
it’s down a few more dollars to $5.46.
While you might have missed the absolute best deal, that is nearly 75% savings off the cover price. The book
is published by Universal Values Media, Inc., which has a co-marketing
arrangement with CESJ.
• Members of the CESJ and EEI core groups are exploring the
possibility of developing a method of significantly reducing the cost of
implementing and maintaining ESOPs. The
number of ESOPs has been static for a number of years. Something like this could easily give a big
boost to the movement.
• As of this morning, we have had
visitors from 66 different countries and 52 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 United Kingdom, Australia, and India. The most
popular postings this past week were “Thomas Hobbes on Private Property,” “The
Problem with Social Credit, I: The Critique,” “Aristotle on Private Property,” “Why
Did Nixon take the Dollar off the Gold Standard?” and “Focus on the Fed, I: How
the Federal Reserve Creates Money.”
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#
