One of the most
interesting developments in the Just Third Way in 2018 is the number of media
outlets that seem to be opening up. Paradoxically,
some of these have resulted from the success of a new book, Ten Battles Every Catholic Should Know,
in which the Just Third Way is only a minor “sub-theme” of the book. People reading or hearing about the book,
however, often get interested in the reason a Certified Public Accountant would
write a history book, and start looking into the Just Third Way. Plus, there are a number of initiatives going
on throughout the world that might start some positive things happening:
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| Ken Huck of Radio Maria's "Meet the Author." |
• Ten Battles Every Catholic Should Know. As a recent reviewer on Amazon said, this
book may be somewhat mistitled, as it should be of interest not only to
Catholics, but to Orthodox, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Hindus . . . in short,
anyone and everyone who has an interest in how the current world situation
developed. Underscoring this, yesterday Michael
D. Greaney, CESJ’s Director of Research, was interviewed live on “Meet the Author” with Ken Huck
on Radio Maria. It will be re-broadcast
Saturday, March 17, 2018 at 1:00 am EDST, and Tuesday, March 20, 2018 at 6:00
am EDST. We’ll post a link to the show
as soon as it is archived so you can listen at your leisure. Information on how to tune in to “Meet the
Author” (or any of their other shows; they broadcast 24/7!) can be found by following this link.
Going by the rankings on Amazon, Ten Battles Every Catholic Should Know
has been doing remarkably well for a “first” book (at least from a major
publisher). If you have not already
obtained your copy, do so and be sure to post a review.
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| John Paul II and Norman Kurland |
• Norman Kurland’s Second “Church
and Culture” Radio Interview. The Ave Maria Radio Network, an
affiliate of EWTN, will broadcast a second prerecorded interview with CESJ’s president,
Norman G. Kurland, on the “Church and Culture” show with your host Dr. Deal
Hudson. Norm’s subject is the need for ethical tax reform. The interview will air Saturday, March 17,
2018 at 3:00 pm EDST (the second hour of the show, which starts at 3:00 pm) and
Sunday, March 18, 2018 at 7:00 am EDST in the U.S. To locate a station
that carries the show in your area in the United States, follow this link. If
you miss the show or can’t get it in your area, you can listen to it later on
the “Church and Culture” link.
• Congress Promoting Widespread Small Business Ownership. The National Center for Employee Ownership in
Oakland, California reports that non-tax bills to promote employee ownership
are moving in Congress. These are the
first such bills since the 1970s. Two
bills, both of which focus on the Small Business Administration, have passed in
a committee without dissent, and both have bipartisan support. Loren Rodgers
describes the bills in his online column.
• Rutgers University Employee Ownership Institute. The NCEO also reports that on March 7 Rutgers
University announced the formation of an Employee Ownership Institute. Joseph Blasi will head up the Institute,
while Douglas Kruse will be associate director. The new institute will combine research,
teaching, academic resources, and a fellowship program. A more in-depth report is, again, in Loren
Rodgers’s column (above).
• European Worker Ownership Initiatives Advance. Again from the NCEO, the European Federation
of Employed Shareholders (EFES) reported on March 8 that in 2017 worker owners
held nearly €400 billion (U.S. $500 billion) — 3.2% — held by workers in their
company. Unlike the U.S., where the ESOP
predominates that does not require workers to put up their own money, most
European worker ownership programs usually require some sort of personal
investment.
• World’s Largest Worker-Owned Company? Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei may
be the world’s largest worker-owned firm.
Company chairman Ren Zhengfei credits the company’s success to “seven
important leadership lessons”: 1) Have a purpose-driven ambition, 2) Have an
adaptive vision, 3) Inspire others, 4) Humble dedication, 5) A balanced
decision-making process, 6) Winning by cooperating, and 7) Unlock the power of
learning.
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| Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia |
• Saudi Crown Prince Seeking Investors and Know-How. Saudi Arabia’s reforming Crown Prince Mohammed
bin Salman is on a quest to recruit U.S. investors and new products to
diversify the Saudi economy. The second
part — surfacing new products to wean the economy off of oil — is all to the
good, and can result in a great deal of mutual benefit as the country finds a
comparative advantage. The first part, finding
U.S. (or any other country) investors, may be more problematical. With a sound currency and a functioning
central bank to back up a commercial banking system, there is no reason to
bring foreign investors into any economy (and without a sound currency, get the
World Bank to back up a country’s self-liquidating development). Instead, using commercial and central banking
as intended, to finance private sector growth, it would be easy to build
ownership of the new industries into every Saudi child, woman, and man without
the need for foreign investment at all.
Yes, buy foreign technology as the first step in diversification, but
build a self-sustaining ownership and consumer base in the country itself to
make the new economy truly sound.
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| "We are dumbfounded you haven't signed up for 'Smile'." |
• Shop online and support CESJ’s work! Did you know that by making
your purchases through the Amazon Smile
program, Amazon will make a contribution to CESJ? Here’s how: First, go to https://smile.amazon.com/. Next, sign in to your Amazon 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.
• Blog Readership. We have had visitors from 35 different countries
and 51 states and provinces in the United States and Canada to this blog over
the past week. Most visitors are from the United States, Canada, India, Peru,
and the United Kingdom. The most popular
postings this past week in descending order were, “News from the Network, Vol.
11, No. 10,” “Cardinal Dolan’s Mistake,” “Do We Need the Rich?, IV: How Past
Savings Enslaves,” “Thomas Hobbes on Private Property,” and “You Asked. Kelso
Answered.”
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#