THE Global Justice Movement Website

THE Global Justice Movement Website
This is the "Global Justice Movement" (dot org) we refer to in the title of this blog.

Friday, September 16, 2016

News from the Network, Vol. 9, No. 35


As the world’s central bankers try to figure out what a central bank is supposed to do, and the commercial and mercantile banks follow suit, the stock market continues its wild gyrations.  We believe that this will continue (if it doesn’t crash and burn) until a Capital Homestead Act is passed and the stock market can return to its proper role as a Second-Hand Shoppe for used debt and equity.  To help a CHA along, here’s what we’ve been doing for the past week:

Power follows property, not jobs.
• Norman Kurland met briefly with the Dean of the Chicago Law School this week, and discussed the contribution of William Winslow Crosskey (1894-1968) to constitutional law.  Crosskey’s analysis is key to CESJ’s understanding of how the growth of State power proceeded apace with the loss of economic — and thus political — power by ordinary Americans.
• The CESJ core group had an interesting discussion with an inventor and entrepreneur in Maine who talked about the possibility of building new, self-liquidating cities owned by the inhabitants to take care of the refugee situation.  The I&E was particularly fascinated by the possibility of using “pure credit” for financing, which would free the refugees from the necessity of either accumulating sufficient savings to build a city (estimated initial cost of $1 billion for a place that could house 10-12,000 people) and attract business to create an “export economy” to provide the future savings essential to retire the debt and then provide incomes for all citizens.
"It ain't over even when I say so!"
• Discussions were also held with CESJ friends in Houston, Richmond, and Washington, DC about the possibility of inserting the Capital Homestead Act into the political dialog even at this late date by getting to key religious and civic leaders with ties to the different political campaigns.  The thing to keep in mind is that in politics, it ain’t over even after the fat lady sings.  In the 1884 presidential campaign, a vindictive and malicious remark by Samuel D. Burchard about the Democratic Party being the party of “Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion” cost front-runner James G. Blaine the election after the Democrats spread the story, falsely either attributing the comment to Blaine, or claiming that they represented Blaine’s true sentiments . . . which they did not.  As a result, Grover Cleveland became president with very narrow margins in key states.
• CESJ’s intern, Eliza R., has returned from a trip to Belgium.  Unfortunately, scheduling difficulties prevented her from meeting with Astrid U., CESJ’s Fellow currently at Louvain University.
• CESJ friend Masako T. just celebrated her 103rd birthday to the congratulations of the core group and the entire membership.
Print and spend gives us money to burn!
• We (re) surfaced candidate Donald Trump’s remarks on monetary theory from May of this year.  In light of what we know of binary monetary theory, Say’s Law of Markets, the Banking Principle, and just plain common sense, his ideas appear to be . . . unsound.  “Print and spend” is not good fiscal or monetary policy.
• This is not to say that candidate Hilary Clinton’s economic ideas are any better from a Just Third Way perspective.
• 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.
"WHAT?  You haven't signed up for the Smile program?"
• 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 45 different countries and 43 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, Australia, and India. The most popular postings this past week in descending order were “News from the Network, Vol. 9, No. 33,” “Thomas Hobbes on Private Property,” “A Look at the Future, II: Labor Productivity?” “Let’s Talk About . . . Job Creation,” and “Is the United States the Enemy of Freedom and Democracy?”
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#