The stock market is, as usual, booming . . . which is odd,
considering just how many people are without both capital and jobs, how big the
debt has grown (pushing $134 trillion as
of noon today, if you include both “funded” and “unfunded” liabilities), and
the way the government insists on spending money it doesn’t have like a drunken
sailor on leave.
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| Government Finance Experts |
Of course, the possibility that the surging stock market
might be due solely to the massive money creation by the government that is
going directly into inflating the prices of existing shares . . . no, couldn’t
happen. We learned that lesson the hard way back in 1929. . . . Didn’t we? Don’t combine commercial and investment
banking, don’t create money that isn’t backed by the present value of hard
assets, don’t spend more than you bring in, maintain an elastic, asset-backed
reserve currency at all cost . . . obviously, given adherence to these common
sense rules, we couldn’t possibly go through that again.
On the other hand, in case we do, here’s what we’re doing to
try and give us a way out of the mess:
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| Latest Paradigm Paper |
• CESJ’s latest
“Paradigm Paper,” The Political Animal:
Economic Justice and the Sovereignty of the Human Person, is now available
in bulk. With the 20% discount
applicable to bulk sales (i.e., ten
or more copies of a single title), a full case of 50 is $400, plus
shipping. Enquire at “publications [at]
cesj [dot] org” for details and cost of shipping bulk/wholesale orders. Individual copies are available
now on Amazon, and should be available soon on Barnes and Noble. Please note: CESJ does not sell retail.
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| Boswell's Johnson |
• Scotland has decided
to remain part of the United Kingdom.
While intellectually to some of us it seemed as if there was a good
chance it might elect to go it alone, we had a gut feeling that it would not. Be that as it may, the referendum itself
suggests a desire for change that the powers-that-be in Whitehall are not
accommodating. The desire for positive
change, however, can still be addressed to the satisfaction of everyone. Scotland, with “only” a little over 5 million
people would be an ideal place for the U.K. to test the Capital Homesteading
concept. Some time back, we advocated
something similar, along the lines of the
Abraham Federation, for Northern Ireland.
There is no reason it couldn’t be applied to Scotland, then Northern
Ireland, Wales, and (of course) England itself once the concept proves feasible.
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| Johnson's Boswell |
• Jeanna Casey,
Assistant Project Manager for CESJ’s Fulton Sheen Project that resulted in the
publication of the Just Third Way Edition of Fulton Sheen’s Freedom Under God last year, has started
a new FaceBook group, “Classical Distributism,”
“distributism” being the rather loose social philosophy developed by G.K.
Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc that advocates widespread capital ownership, with
a preference for small, family-owned farms and artisan businesses. It is a “closed group,” which means you have
to apply for membership and be approved by an administrator. The idea is to “ensure discussion of
authentic Social Justice.” Particularly
in light of recent attempts to turn G.K. Chesterton into a mystic New Age guru
or Christian prophet, and (contrary to the Catholic Church’s own statement that
it endorses no system other than its own) distributism into THE “Catholic
system,” Jeanna cautions, “Many in this group are Catholic and Catholic
Encyclicals will be discussed. However, because Catholic social teaching
deals only with the natural law
(‘certain fundamental rights which innately belong to the
person’ and are discernible by the force and light
of human reason alone [Humani Generis,
§ 2]), the ideas presented here appeal to humanity as a whole and we welcome
people from all walks of life who are interested in pursuing reason and the
natural law.”
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| Babbage's Analytical Engine |
• Computer financial
advising is all the rage now — at least in discussions among financial advisors
worried that they can be done out of jobs.
Two points come to mind. One, if
the financial advisors threatened by replacement by the machines owned the
machines, they wouldn’t have anything to worry about. Two, the financial advising programs are
geared not to genuine investment, but to speculation, following trends by the
microsecond to time buy and sell orders to make money from changes in the value
per share, both long and short sales.
True investment requires a somewhat more human touch, taking into
account the wants, needs, and ethics of the investor, and presenting him or her
with advice and choice, not a fait
accompli. Once we have a Capital
Homestead Act, the speculators can have their computer programs. The human financial advisors will be
desperately needed for their expertise and advice among the millions of
Americans purchasing newly issued shares for the first time, and who don’t have
either the time or the resources to “play the market.” Investing is not a game, but a serious effort
to become productive through capital ownership as well as ownership of labor.
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| Thomas Hobbes, author of Leviathan |
• In the “Everything
Not Forbidden Is Compulsory” department, we came across an editorial in today’s
Wall Street Journal, highlighting the
hypocrisy of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez (2010). The University of California, Hastings
College of Law has a policy that official recognition is denied to any student
group that does not admit all comers, regardless of belief or anything else. Thus, because the Christian Legal Society
required that all members sign a “Statement of Beliefs” and refrain from
proscribed behavior, it was denied official recognition. The Supreme Court upheld the university. Thus, if the decision were to be applied
consistently, an Alcoholics Anonymous chapter could not turn away someone who
proclaimed the glories of drunkenness and who denigrated reliance on a higher
power, Weight Watchers would have to permit the attendance of unrepentant
gluttons who insisted on bringing brownies to meetings to share, and Jewish
groups could be faced with admitting Neo-Nazis who spewed anti-Semitic ravings
and refused to refrain from attacking Jews or Judaism. It all sounds just a trifle Hobbesian to us.
• CESJ has been
invited to participate in the 11th Annual Public Anthropology Conference
on “Violence, Resilience, and Resistance” at American University, Saturday and Sunday, October 4 and 5. CESJ will have the tactically important first
session for its participatory panel discussion on the Just Third Way on Saturday
morning. Parking is free both days. We didn’t see any mention of a cost to attend
(double check on that, because we are not absolutely
certain that it’s free), but registration and
conference information is available on the website. Lunch will be provided free both days, but
you must register for the conference in order to get the free lunch.
• The CESJ core group
is scheduled to meet this coming Wednesday, September 24, 2014, with two
members of CESJ’s Board of Counselors, Fr. John Trigilio and Dcn. Joseph
Gorini, in Emmitsburg, Maryland. We
expect to get a great deal done in the meeting, especially in light of the need
to formulate specific strategies to present the Just Third Way to Pope Francis,
whom most of us agree is the only world leader of stature with any coherent and
consistent vision for humanity, not just short term expedience to advance
narrow national or political interests.
• One of the topics to
be discussed at the meeting will be CESJ, CCC, CCVA, and other individuals and
organizations joining in solidarity to present a unified, interfaith Just Third
Way proposal at the 2015 World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. We think that an
interfaith group with a strong proposal and clear principles stands a very good
chance of catching the eye of Pope Francis, assuming that His Holiness attends
as planned. Strategy, tactics, and, of
course, funding may be discussed, or a later meeting planned in which to bring
together representatives of organizations (e.g.,
churches, high schools, colleges and universities, clubs, civic organizations)
interested in sponsoring, endorsing, or participating in the combined effort —
none of which are mutually exclusive, of course. The effort could include a booth, a reception
for speakers, key participants, and the media, and a delegation of
participants. All of this, of course,
would rely on the effectiveness of the fundraising for the effort, which could
be modeled on the planned fundraiser for the “Campaign for Distributive
Justice,” which is being finalized for launch soon, that will combine crowdfunding
with outreach to foundations and other organizations.
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| CESJ Co-Founder Fr. Ferree |
• Two potential
communications student interns from Marymount University in Arlington,
Virginia, have been provided with preliminary reading in the form of hard
copies of CESJ co-founder Father William Ferree’s pamphlet Introduction
to Social Justice. Particularly
in light of the proposed World Meeting of Families initiative (above), the
students have been encouraged to schedule their interviews at CESJ at the
earliest possible date.
• The short series on
the suspension of Fulton J. Sheen’s “cause” for canonization has (as can be
seen, below) been very popular. Why
would an interfaith group be interested in such a thing? Because Sheen was a strong advocate of
justice in the tradition of the Just Third Way.
We hope that the suspension will get people interested in looking into
Sheen’s intellectual achievements and his social thought, instead of “only” his
virtue and spirituality.
• As of this morning, we have had
visitors from 60 different countries and 47 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, Ecuador, Canada, and Australia,. The
most popular postings this past week were “Fulton Sheen Suspended . . . Again?,
I: What’s the Story?” “Happy Capital
Day!, II: The Capital Question,” “Fulton Sheen Suspended . . . Again?, III:
Faith v. Reason . . . Again?” “Aristotle on Private Property,” and “Happy
Capital Day!, I: The Theories of Labor.”
Those are the happenings for this week, at least those 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, so we’ll see it before it goes up.
#30#