A lot has been going on this week,
so we won’t waste your time or ours by pointing out something obvious like the
stock market is a mess, politics is crazy, or academia is in a shambles:
• On Monday of this week we had a very good telephone
conference with a prospective intern from Brigham Young University. She has expressed interest in both the
economic and social justice aspects of the Just Third Way, and sounded very
close to a decision.
• On Tuesday of this week we had a meeting with an attorney
from Hawaii who has recently moved into the DC area, and who was referred to us
by one of the key presenters at the recent ESOP Association conference. The meeting was very productive, and the
attorney was introduced to many of the innovative concepts of the Just Third
Way.
• On Wednesday of this week we had a meeting with Father
William Christensen, S.M., Ph.D., who has been working for many years to
implement Just Third Way reforms in Bangladesh, notably in a proposed
woman-owned garment factory. Although
Father Christensen has had a great deal of success lifting people out of
poverty with the programs of the Institute of Integrated Rural Development
(IIRD) in Bangladesh (there is a different IIRD in India), the garment factory
would expand the reach of his efforts from the micro level to the macro
level. The stumbling block — as it has
been for centuries — is the fixed belief of the experts that you need existing
accumulations of savings in order to finance new capital formation. Since existing savings are by definition an
effective monopoly of the currently wealthy, and they are not likely to do
anything to their own disadvantage even when doing good, it appears that only
by gaining access to interest free (but not cost free) capital credit extended
by commercial banks backed up by the rediscounting powers of a central bank
will there be any measurable and significant progress made.
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| Soybeans for miso, a Japanese staple, not animal fodder. |
• China appears to have backed itself into a corner by doing
all the right things . . . to grossly inflate the country into a bubble
economy. Virtually nothing has been done
to encourage or even allow ordinary Chinese to participate in the presumed
economic growth, except as subsistence wage workers. The Chinese have not built mass purchasing
power into their economy, and must
rely on expansion of exports and economic imperialism in order to take up the
slack. There is a tremendous market for
luxury goods, of course — given China’s population, a relatively small élite translates into bottom line magic
— but the danger signs are everywhere . . . and are everywhere being ignored. For example, the Chinese have been bidding up
the price of beef “offal” (a.k.a. “chitterlings”) and lower-priced beef cuts
that have been a Japanese lower- and middle class mainstay since the 1950s to
meet the mushrooming demand for beef among the newly affluent in China. In addition, China has been buying up
soybeans at a tremendous rate, not for use as a dietary staple as in Japan
(shoyu [soy sauce], tofu, and many types of miso [a fermented food paste used
to make a soup base that many Japanese have for breakfast every morning and as
a flavoring] are made with soybeans), but for animal fodder, again as a result
of the increased demand for beef in China among the new economic and old Party élites.
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| Only a matter of time. |
• Bad as the economy may seem for the average American or
Japanese, it is worse for the average Chinese.
Yes, we have all been subjected to reports of how well the economy is
doing, e.g., the Dow is up, new jobs
are being created, etc., etc., and so on, but once examined
closely, these claims verge on the delusional.
Nevertheless, both the U.S. and Japan still have the basic system in
place that was meant to benefit ordinary people, not simply an élite. True, this was done through the wage system
instead of an ownership-based system, but that can be changed very quickly to
restore the strength and vigor of both countries’ economies. China has no such tradition or system in
place, and is thereby poised for a dramatic downfall, as soon as either the
bubble bursts, or ordinary people get fed up and surface a leader who will take
corrective action.
• CESJ’s latest book, Easter
Witness: From Broken Dream to a New Vision for Ireland, is available from Amazon
and Barnes
and Noble, as well as by special order from many “regular” bookstores. The book can also be ordered in bulk, which
we define as ten copies or more of the same title, at a 20% discount. A full case is twenty-six copies, and
non-institutional/non-vendor purchasers get a 20% discount off the $20 cover
price on wholesale lots ($416/case).
Shipping is extra. Send enquiries
to publications@cesj.org. An additional discount may be available for
institutions such as schools, clubs, and other organizations as well as
retailers.
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| Pope Pius XI |
• Is (as some have maintained) the State the sole
intercessor available to the poor? (A
direct quote from a critic of CESJ, by the way.) Not according to Pope Pius XI in § 78 of Quadragesimo Anno: “When we speak of the reform of institutions, the State
comes chiefly to mind, not as if universal well-being were to be expected from
its activity, but because things have come to such a pass through the evil of
what we have termed “individualism” that, following upon the overthrow and near
extinction of that rich social life which was once highly developed through
associations of various kinds, there remain virtually only individuals and the
State. This is to the great harm of the State itself; for, with a structure of
social governance lost, and with the taking over of all the burdens which the
wrecked associations once bore, the State has been overwhelmed and crushed by
almost infinite tasks and duties.”
• Let’s
talk Social Security. The government deliberately gave the false impression in
1935 that people were paying into a savings account and that they somehow
retained ownership of what is paid in. No — the system was designed as a “pay
as you go” system, with tax monies (not
contributions) paid out to recipients when received from those who paid into
the system. Excess collections were loaned to the rest of the government, being
replaced by IOUs. Thus, for every dollar paid out of the so-called Trust Fund,
the government has to have collected more than two dollars in taxes (the
overage to cover admin costs). The lack of ownership of the amounts paid in to
Social Security was confirmed in the Supreme Court's decision in Flemming v. Nestor (1960), when the Court
upheld Congress's power to adjust benefits up or down at any time for
reasonable cause. If you read the fine print, Social Security is not even truly
an entitlement, for it can be taken away — bankruptcy would probably be
considered a reasonable cause for non-payment of benefits.
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| Nigel Farage |
• Early this morning we sent an
email to Mr. Nigel Farage, a British politician who is pushing for the U.K. to
pull out of the European Union. He
believes that the EU is an economic disaster, and having been in actual
business as a commodities broker before entering politics, he might actually
know what he’s talking about. We
suggested that he visit the CESJ website, especially the sections on Capital
Homesteading, and give Dr. Norman Kurland a call if he finds it
interesting. What prompted our sending
the email was Mr. Farage’s article in the Irish
Times, “Ireland
Has Been Crushed By Iron Fist of the EU.”
To put a little icing on the cake, Guy “The Fulton Sheen Guy” sent us
the link to a brief
clip from one of Mr. Farage’s speeches before the European Parliament,
which turns out to be both informative and, in a grim way, entertaining.
• Here’s the usual announcement about the Amazon Smile program, albeit moved to
the bottom of the page so you don’t get tired of seeing it. To participate in the Amazon Smile program
for CESJ, go to https://smile.amazon.com/. Next, sign in to your account. (If you don’t have an account with Amazon, you
can create one by clicking on the tiny little link below the “Sign in using our
secure server” button.) Once you have
signed into your account, you need to select CESJ as your charity — and you
have to be careful to do it exactly this way: in the
space provided for “Or select your own charitable organization” type “Center for Economic and Social Justice
Arlington.” If you type anything
else, you will either get no results or more than you want to sift
through. Once you’ve typed (or copied
and pasted) “Center for Economic and
Social Justice Arlington” into the space provided, hit “Select” — and you
will be taken to the Amazon shopping site, all ready to go.
• As of this morning, we have had
visitors from 53 different countries and 44 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, South Africa, Brazil, and Canada. The
most popular postings this past week in descending order were “Thomas Hobbes on
Private Property,” “The Purpose of Production,” “Strictly Speaking,” ““Lower
Forty,” and How Not to Limit Capital.”
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#