News from the Network, Vol. 9, No. 17

The Dow fell 200 or so points yesterday, and is down almost another 150 as this is being written.  This is all to the good for the gamblers, as they make money regardless which way the market goes; it’s the volatility itself that allows them to generate enormous profits.  The problem is that commercial banks, which since the repeal of Glass-Steagall and the recombination of commercial and investment banking can own equity shares other than their own, prefer to pump money into stock market speculation instead of making business loans.

Why a Central Bank: More Practical Considerations

This past Monday we addressed the problem of the “Automatic Gainsayer” who keeps insisting that (in our example) Country Y is so corrupt that we could never institute Just Third Way reforms, especially of the financial and tax systems.  For the sake of the argument, we demonstrated that even if the reforms turned out to be impossible from the top down — which, with the right leader, is a non-issue — it would still be possible to institute reforms from the bottom up.

Banksta’ Rap

Sometimes you don’t even have to think about an idea to know just how bad an idea can be . . . like doing a blog posting about the financial system titled “Banksta’ Rap,” writing it like a rap piece, and thinking it wouldn’t make us look like complete idiots.  It’s a really good idea to understand a medium — or anything else — before using it.

Minimum Wage Doctrine

Yes, we scheduled a final posting on central banking reform for today.  We got bogged down in other things, however, and had to set it aside until later.  Fortunately, someone asked us a question, so we just revised the answer for today’s posting.

Why a Central Bank: Some Practical Considerations

Last week we looked at some of the basic theory of central and commercial banking in connection with examining the problem of rampant corruption in Country Y.  We discovered that the problems Country Y is having are inherent in any economy in which government controls money and credit, whether directly by issuing currency, or indirectly by emitting bills of credit and going through the central bank.  It’s a matter of degree, not of kind.

Easter Witness: From Broken Dream to a New Vision for Ireland

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Arlington, Virginia, Sunday, April 24, 2016. On Easter Monday, April 24, 1916 at around noon in Dublin, the capital of Ireland, a small band of men and women marched through the streets and occupied key points in the city, including the General Post Office (GPO) in the center of town. To the bafflement of onlookers, a man came out, stood in the portico of the GPO, and proclaimed that Ireland was now a republic, declaring “the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland.”

News from the Network, Vol. 9, No. 16

Most of this week was taken up in preparing for the events or in doing the logistics of the postponement, but there have been some significant things happening:

Why a Central Bank: The Theoretical Solution

Yesterday we mentioned that there is always a solution, even to a mess like the banking system in Country Y, where the central bank doesn’t perform the function of a central bank (few do in any country, for that matter), and the commercial or mercantile banks can’t make loans to private sector businesses because people don’t trust private sector credit instruments (or the banks), and the currency is backed 100% with government debt.

Why a Central Bank: The Problem

Before we begin, we repeat that the annual Rally at the Federal Reserve and the CESJ gathering scheduled for this coming weekend, April 22-23, have been postponed due to predicted inclement weather and other factors.  All is not lost, however, as several things are in motion that may help us draw a larger crowd, and not come into conflict with various other events on the DC Mall.

FED RALLY & CESJ ANNUAL GATHERING POSTPONED

 A special announcement from CESJ president Dr. Norman G. Kurland:

Due to an emergency, the annual Rally at the Fed scheduled for Friday, April 22, 2016, and the CESJ annual celebration, scheduled for Saturday, April 23, 2016, have been postponed until further notice.

It was a hard executive decision to make and there not enough time to bring together others for a meeting on the situation.  We received word late yesterday the sad news that Joyce Hart’s mother had died in India.  Joyce is flying there now.  As I mentioned to most of you over a month ago, Joyce, the producer-director of the award-winning documentary Sisters of Selma, is planning a film on Louis O. Kelso, the father of our “Just Third Way.”  Joyce wanted to interview participants at both events.

That news combined with Monday’s weather report that predicted thunderstorms for Friday forced Dawn, Rowland, Marie and me to make an emergency decision to postpone these two events for at least two months rather than have people come in from all over the country to be with us.

In the meantime, we will be approaching support from other groups seeking to unite all Americans behind the Just Third Way and its reforms to lift unjust monetary, tax and financial barriers to achieve economic democracy with workable reforms for sustainable growth that would provide equality of opportunity to every citizen to share capital ownership.

Please let members of your family and other Just Third Way supporters who were planning to be with us this week know the events have been postponed.  Michael Greaney will send out the word in his weekday Just Third Way blog.

We seek your inputs for our next events.

In solidarity,
Norm

A Video on Money

In so many areas of knowledge, it’s not what you know that makes the difference.  It’s what you think you know.  Nowhere does this seem to be more evident than when the subject is money.  Take, for example, this article on how Iceland plans to take money creation power away from commercial banks that are controlled by the private sector, and give it to the central bank, controlled by the government.

More Monetary Madness

If it looks as if we’re focusing a lot on money lately . . . it’s because we are.  With the annual Rally at the Federal Reserve only a few days away, it’s a good idea for people to know what money is and why we think monetary (and tax) reform are key to the implementation and maintenance of an economically just society.

News from the Network, Vol. 9, No. 15

By coincidence, the name of William Winslow Crosskey came up a number of times this week in discussions at CESJ.  Crosskey, who taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago law school, was probably the premier constitutional scholar of the twentieth century.  Paradoxically, hardly anyone remembers him today.  Perhaps this is because his book, the two-volume (with a posthumous third) Politics and the Constitution in the History of the United States (1953) is not exactly “lite” reading, or it could be that, in common with Mortimer Adler, people are not drawn to thinkers who make them think.  There are, however, signs that things might be changing:

Curb Your Dog(ma)

Yesterday we looked at the problems that can crop up when you start “re-editing the dictionary” in order to get yourself out of some difficulty.  Not by coincidence, this sort of problem solving always ends up causing a problem far worse than the one being “solved.”

Democratic Distributism?

Recently we had someone ask the question, “Is the Just Third Way the antithesis of Democratic Socialism?”  No, we didn’t make that up in order to have a softball pitch to knock out of the stadium.  It was an honest question.

Rally for Monetary Justice

In the spirit of full dignity, empowerment and liberty for every person, and a life-enhancing future for every child, woman and man on our precious Earth, the Center for Economic and Social Justice and Coalition for Capital Homesteading invite you to join us April 22-23, 2016 for our annual social justice event, the Rally for Monetary Justice.

Aaaaaand Even More on Money. . .

Every time we think we’ve answered a question as thoroughly as we can, we always find someone who can misunderstand what we’ve said, and will keep dragging in more and more things, drifting further and further from the original question.  Generally it’s because the questioner is convinced we’re wrong, and only asked the question to prove that point, and didn’t pay any attention to what we actually said because he or she “knew” what we “really” said . . . especially when we didn’t. . . .

News from the Network, Vol. 9, No. 14

What with personal taxes and other non-fun items, there hasn’t been too much going on in the Just Third Way movement this week.  Of course, what is going to happen at the Rally at the Federal Reserve on Friday, April 22, 2016 is important (and we tell you about it), but that’s an announcement, not a news item per se.  Still, some things are happening:

More On What Backs the Money

Yesterday we decided that the U.S. Constitution does not give Congress sole power to create money . . . or to create money at all, for that matter.  It does, however, have the power to exchange one form of money for another and (in common with all powers of government) can — and must — delegate that power as it will.  In the Constitution, this is the power to “coin money.”

What Backs the Money?

As regular readers of this blog may recall — at least, regular readers of the captions under the illustrations — we recently made a comment to the effect that, while all coin may be money, not all money is coin.  Not unexpectedly, this brought a response from the original questioner . . . who continued to assert rather than question, but we answered, anyway.

Rally at the Fed for Monetary Justice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Washington, D.C., March 30, 2016 — Citizen-activists from around the country will rally in front of the Federal Reserve Building in Washington, D.C. to deliver their “Declaration of Monetary Justice” to Fed Chair Janet Yellen. The protest rally, scheduled for Friday, April 22, 2016, from 10:00 AM to 1:30 PM, will focus on “Green Money, Green Growth: A New Role for the Federal Reserve.”

Can the Federal Reserve Create Money?

Last Thursday we responded to a few comments — they weren’t really questions, just assertions of alleged “facts” about money and Congress’s alleged power to create money (which it doesn’t have, much less a sole power) — about “money.”  Today, to start the week off right, we’re looking at whether the Federal Reserve can create money . . . since that is the other assertion made by our critic:

News from the Network, Vol. 9, No. 13

Yet another week filled with important news and pivotal events for the Just Third Way: