This has been a
busy week for a number of people involved in the Just Third Way, with a large
number of meetings with some very interesting and intriguing people and
institutions. We also received a very
encouraging report from CESJ’s overseas correspondent, who has been working
very hard at introducing the Just Third Way with key people and institutions in
politics, academia, and the Catholic Church:
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| Dr. Norman G. Kurland |
• Hoover Institute Talk on Philanthropy. On Monday, a CESJ team attended a
presentation on new directions for philanthropy at the Hoover Institute in
Washington, DC. Members from the CESJ
chapter in formation in Hartford, Connecticut drove down to join Dr. Norman
Kurland and other local members for the event.
While the talk was interesting, and the presenters were clearly of
goodwill, notably David Rubenstein, the creative thinking going on was all
within the current paradigm. Norm got a
chance to talk briefly with one or two of the presenters, although not with Rubenstein,
but was not able to ask the question that might have led to follow up
discussions.
• Meeting with Dr. Julianne Malveaux.
Members of the CESJ core group met with Dr. Julianne Malveaux on
Thursday. Dr. Malveaux is a professor of
economics and president of Bennet College.
She is a labor
economist, noted author, and colorful commentator. Dr. Cornel West has described Dr. Malveaux as
“the most iconoclastic public intellectual in the country.” Her
contributions to the public dialogue on issues such as race, culture,
gender, and their economic impacts are credited with shaping public
opinion in 21st century America. The
discussion that followed was stimulating and lively.
• Meeting with Alfred Gordon.
Through Martin Smith, the CESJ core group met with Mr. Alfred Gordon on
Monday. Mr. Gordon expressed great
interest in the Just Third Way, both as “pure ideas” and as applied by (for
example) Equity Expansion
International, Inc. Mr. Gordon, who
has been an athletic coach, may be interested in reaching out to teens and
young adults to introduce them to these ideas as an alternative to the
prevailing jobs or welfare mentality.
 |
| Pope Benedict XVI |
• Just Third Way Article to Benedict XVI. We received a report that an article from a
Just Third Way perspective on Pope emeritus Benedict XVI’s focus on the natural
law was presented to him on his ninety-first birthday this past Monday. The article by CESJ’s Director of Research
Michael D. Greaney was included in a special edition of Inside the Vatican magazine.
• Currency Volatility Up.
According to an article this week in the Wall Street Journal, currency
volatility is up. The significance of
that observation seemed lost on most people, including the authors of the
article. The idea of a currency as a
standard of value seems to have been relegated to the dustbin of history as a
result of the hegemony established by Keynesian economics.
• “Federal ‘Baby Bonds’”? In
another article this week in the Wall
Street Journal, it was proposed that there be a federal program to
encourage capital ownership among people in the lower income brackets, funded
by the issuance of small denomination government bonds, with the repayment
spread out over half a century. While no
doubt well-intentioned, the proposal is both tokenistic and ineffectual. It relies for its feasibility on the
assumption that the shares purchased with the bond proceeds will increase in
value, and can be sold to repay the debt, leaving the former shareholder with
the balance. A rough projection,
however, gives a grim picture. According
to a
study posted on The Motley Fool investment website, you have to reinvest
dividends and factor out inflation. With
the “baby bonds” you would need the dividends to pay the interest on the
acquisition loan, or come up with the money from somewhere else. Assuming that dividends are not reinvested,
and factoring out inflation, stocks today are worth the same on the average as
they were fifty years ago . . . meaning that if you implemented the program and
it operated as advertised, the shareholder would be able to meet the balloon
payment to retire the debt at the end of fifty years and have nothing to show
for half a century of “investing.” Only
an investment program that focuses on self-liquidating assets that pay out ALL
earnings, not just a pittance, are truly feasible.
From our overseas Just Third Way correspondent, we have a number of
items:
• Australia. A student/alumni discussion club was formed which will
focus on Just Third Way ideas with emphasis on binary economics. The club will also seek to promote the Just
Third Way at universities and places in the cities where young people gather. The primary goal is to organize a conference
on the Just Third Way that will feature Dr. Norman Kurland as a guest-lecturer.
• Catholic Church Outreach. There
appears to be growing interest in the Just Third Way approach to the issue of global
poverty among the senior officials at the Vatican. There may be some discussion on the benefits
of widespread ownership of productive capital, as opposed to redistribution as
a solution. There also appears to be increased
interest in Just Third Way at the highest levels at the Vatican. Two high level church officials in the United
States were approached with information about the work of Center of Economic
and Social Justice.
• Federal Republic of Germany. Three senior politicians of Christian
Democratic Party (CDU) received material including the article, “A New
Look at Prices and Money,” by Dr. Norman Kurland. Om addition, the CEO Alliance office in
Germany has expressed interest in the ideas of the Just Third Way. The office
of the German Chancellor has received complete information about Just Third
Way-based solutions to the problems of non-inflationary economic growth.
• Global. There have been several more talks with high officials in
the European Union and Australasia on the possibility of promoting and
including elements of Just Third Way solutions into government policy.
• India. A letter with material about the Just Third Way was sent
to representatives of the Committee on Finance in the Parliament. Other high-level officials have also been sent
material.
• South Africa. Some
interest on the Just Third Way was expressed by advisors to the new President.
• Switzerland. One of the
largest daily newspapers has expressed interest in learning more about the Just
Third Way. The newspaper has launched a new project which will include a
preparation of an insert or a special electronic page on the Just Third Way.
• Taiwan. Talks and
discussions have been pursued regarding the idea of organizing a conference for
government economic advisors for the Chinese President as well as policy-makers
by the end of this year.
• 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 27 different countries
and 37 states and provinces in the United States and Canada to this blog over
the past week. Most visitors are from the United States, Canada, Peru, the
United Kingdom, and India. The most
popular postings this past week in descending order were, “7.
The Social Doctrine of John Paul I,” “Thomas
Hobbes on Private Property,” “6.
The Social Doctrine of John Paul I,” “5.
The Social Doctrine of John Paul I,” and “What
If Lincoln Had Lived?”
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#