More Modern Monetary Madness

One of the most ignored, yet troubling problems in the world today is the unquestioned assumption that money is and should be an instrument of public policy.  Part of this is the result of confusing “money” and “currency,” but the problem goes much deeper than that, especially in Keynesian economics.

What Is “Thomism”?

As we may have said once or twice in the past, one of our favorite blog postings to write is the one that we don’t have to write.  The second most favorite is the one that we can lift from something else we’ve written, tailor it a bit to fit circumstances, and post it.  Third is where we answer a question.  Today we have the last.

JTW Podcast: Communism, Part 9: Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

It does seem rather astonishing at times that an individual or group can tell other people straight to their faces what they plan on doing to them, and are dismissed, brushed aside, ridiculed or ignored . . . until action is finally taken.

News from the Network, Vol. 13, No. 39

 

Today we have our third monthly “special edition” of the News from the Network that has a number of features that we are sure you will find interesting:

A Philosophy of America

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, we asserted the main reason one “side” is so opposed to “rum, Romanism, and rebellion,” is that there is a profoundly anti-personalist philosophy prevalent today about the human person and each person’s place in society — and this philosophy seems to permeate both sides of the debate.

A Judicial Pascal's Wager

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, there appears to be a bit of a bruhaha (but no one is laughing . . .) following the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg and a possible successor.  In an age focused on mindless prejudice to the point of obsession, it’s interesting that the objections to the possibility of a practicing Catholic being appointed to the United States Supreme Court seem virtually unchanged from the rhetoric of a number of fringe groups from the late 1700s down to the 1950s.

A Philosophy of Law

 

With the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, speculation has shifted into high gear as conservatives push for what they think will be a conservative justice, and liberals for a, er, liberal justice.  That’s a little simplistic, but it’s the view most people have of the situation.  The problem is that it’s a little bit more complicated than that.

JTW Podcast: Communism, Part 8: Monsignor New Deal

 

Are you ready for another episode in the real-life saga of How Distributive Justice, Social Justice, and Socialism got so confused?  If you are, then fasten your seatbelts, you’re in for a bumpy ride.

News from the Network, Vol. 13, No. 38

Trying to report news items that have nothing to do with the upcoming election and stick to our last of working to implement and maintain the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism can get a little difficult at times.  We think we’ve managed it again for this week, so if you’re wondering how to relegate politics to a minor annoyance and let people live their lives the way they think best within a just social order, read on:

Is Industrialization Evil?

A constant theme among people dissatisfied with modern civilization is that a return to the simple life in one form or another will solve most, if not all, of our problems, and that a stronger faith and personal virtue will restore society to something more human.  That, at least, seemed to be theme of an article that appeared recently in Catholic World Report, “Facing Industrial-Strength Problems In an Industrial-Driven Society” by James Kalb.  As he stated,

The Economic Dilemma

Back in the late seventeenth century, the first true central bank was established, the venerable Bank of England, “the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street,” as it is more or less fondly known.  Usually it is less these days as the Old Lady, along with virtually every other central bank in the world, gets ever-further away from its mission.

Cultural Marxism?

 

A recent article in Catholic World Report opined “On the Troubling and Growing Popularity of Cultural Marxism“ in global society, especially (as might be expected) among Catholics, many of whom seem to understand Christianity more in terms of, e.g., Henri de Saint-Simon’s “New Christianity” as Jesus as the first socialist than in the more traditional manner.  Many Catholics, in fact, seem completely oblivious of the fact that their own church’s “social teachings” came into being as a discrete area of study specifically to counter the threat posed by socialism, modernism, and esotericism (“New Age”) to the human-centered personalism of traditional Christianity.

JTW Podcast: Communism, Part 7: The Crucifixion of Fulton Sheen

Yeah, we’ve been going a “little” heavy on “Catholic” stuff in the blog and in the podcasts, but we’ve got a good excuse: that’s what we’re working on at the present time and to add more areas to write about on top of everything else is just too much.

News from the Network, Vol. 13, No. 37

 

What with the stock market bouncing up and down and interest rates sometimes at negative levels, people considering taking early retirement due to the pandemic are in a serious bind.  They may not have work (or it has become too much work to work), but their retirement provisions are far from adequate, especially when they are all based on past savings, and the global economy is based by and large on Keynesian economics that actively seeks to destroy the value of past savings and erode or eliminate the value of investments held by small investors.  This makes the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism all the more essential, especially considering this week’s news items:

How Everyone Can Win in November, Part III

As we saw in the previous two postings on this subject, there is a way that Joseph Biden can win the U.S. presidential race in a landslide in November, and there is a way that Donald Trump can win in a landslide.  All it takes is a new vision of leadership and a coherent plan where this country is going, respectively.  Now today we’re going to finish off this subject and look at what will happen if both candidates catch on and carry out campaigns in which everyone wins, even if he or she is not elected.

How Everyone Can Win in November, Part II

 

Imagine, if you will, a scene in the White House within a few hours of Joe Biden announcing that he is dropping his support for government funding of abortion, as suggested in the previous posting on this subject.  There is (as you might imagine) a great deal of consternation and wringing of hands.

How Everyone Can Win in November, Part I

      What with all the acrimony, even hysteria about the upcoming presidential election in the United States, we thought it might be useful to present a plan that would guarantee (as far as is humanly possible) that everybody would win, even people not voting and those residing in every country in the world.  Yes, and even the “losers,” who would lose nothing substantive under our proposal.

JTW Podcast: Norman Kurland Exclusive Interview

This week’s podcast has an exclusive interview with Dr. Norman Kurland, president of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ), the first part of a presentation on the "Economic Democracy Act" (formerly "Capital Homestead Act"):

News from the Network, Vol. 13, No. 36

As has become usual, the economic situation gravitates between surreal and fantasy, with numerous side excursions into the ridiculous.  Nowhere is this more evident (or at least more obvious) than in the stock market, which continues to rise and fall in response to . . . whatever it is that it responds to, it certainly isn’t the economy.  Take, for instance, this week’s news items:

Building a Strategic Plan, Part II of II

As we noted in the previous posting on this subject, CESJ does not support or endorse any candidate for public office.  Any opinions expressed on these matters are personal and represent the views of people as individuals, not as members or representatives of CESJ.  The mention of any specific candidate(s) is purely expedient.

Building a Strategic Plan, Part I of II

As we noted in the previous posting on this subject, CESJ does not support or endorse any candidate for public office.  Any opinions expressed on these matters are personal and represent the views of people as individuals, not as members or representatives of CESJ.  The mention of any specific candidate(s) is purely expedient.

Need for a Strategic Plan

In the previous posting on this subject, we discovered that using the United States Supreme Court to create law and impose the views of one group on everyone else in the country is something of a double-edged sword.  Specifically, when the slave-owning “interests” in the American South succeeded in making human chattel slavery a federal issue instead of confining it to the individual states, they got what they wanted — legal justification to extend slavery anywhere in the United States, regardless whether or not it was legal in a specific state.