As the news comes in about the world situation, especially Putin’s War in Ukraine, the global debt crisis, the threat of famine, COVID-19, mass murders in Denmark, political assassination in Japan — just how many Horsemen of the Apocalypse are there, again? — it becomes increasingly obvious that there are serious underlying problems that are not being addressed . . . and that won’t be until we have the proper framework within which ordinary people are empowered to act with intelligence and justice instead of lashing out in desperation. We think that the Economic Democracy Act will provide the proper environment within which people can become more fully human. That’s why it’s fortunate that a book applying the concepts is on sale this weekend:
• The Greater Reset. TAN Books is currently running a 40% off sale today (July 8, 2022) through Monday, July 11, 2022. This is your chance to get CESJ’s new book by members of its core group, The Greater Reset: Reclaiming Personal Sovereignty Under Natural Law for a bargain price of $18.00 IF YOU BUY FROM THE PUBLISHER, TAN Books, an imprint of Saint Benedict Press. You can, of course, also get it from Barnes and Noble, as well as Amazon, or by special order from your local “bricks and mortar” bookstore, BUT THE SALE ONLY APPLIES TO BOOKS ORDERED FROM TAN THIS WEEKEND. The Greater Reset is the only book of which we’re aware on “the Great Reset” that presents an alternative instead of simply warning of the dangers inherent in a proposal that is contrary to natural law. It describes reality, rather than a Keynesian fantasy world. Please note that The Greater Reset is NOT a CESJ publication as such, and enquiries about quantity discounts and wholesale orders for resale must be sent to the publisher, Saint Benedict Press, NOT to CESJ.
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| Keeping Russia solvent |
• Oil Money Funding Russia’s War Against Ukraine. Currently, economic projections are that while Russia may be facing a recession due to the combination of sanctions, the war in Ukraine, and the needlessly barbaric and destructive methods by which Russia carries on its campaign, the recession may not be as “deep” as in other countries due to increased oil revenues. This suggests that in the short term, sanctions must not only be widened to include prohibiting Russian oil and gas, but that there must be a concerted effort to develop alternative energy sources. For the long term, even — or especially — if there is a return to fossil fuel purchases from Russia, there must be reforms implemented to prevent a dictator like Putin using national natural resources that allegedly belong to everyone to add to his own wealth and carry on an increasingly unpopular war . . . even if people in Russia aren’t as vocal as they might otherwise be about it. We think the best way to do that is to make every Russian citizen and permanent resident a direct owner of the oil, so that profits are paid to them, not to the government or an oligarchic elite (or should that be “oil-garchic?”). The best way to do that, of course, is to implement the Economic Democracy Act for Russia, and inhibit or prevent altogether a new Putin from seizing power once this one is gone.
• Ukraine Recovery Conference. This past week saw the July 4-5, 2022, Ukraine Recovery Conference in Lugano, Switzerland. This was focused on the overall recovery plan for Ukraine framed within President Zelenskyy’s “United 24” initiative. Topics discussed included the methods, priorities and principles of recovery, social, economic, environmental and infrastructure recovery, and specific reforms that can be implemented currently. A “Marshall Plan” for post-war recovery has also been widely discussed. Of course, the single most important issue in the minds of virtually everyone, whether current reforms or future recovery, is how to finance the program. We believe that this issue, while indeed the most serious, is the easiest and simplest to address. This can be done by integrating the Economic Democracy Act that applies the principles of Economic Personalism into the recovery program, principally that of self-financing out of future profits instead of using existing accumulations, taxation, or government debt.
• Euro-Dollar Parity Strained. As the war in Ukraine drags on and Europe is increasingly in danger of fuel shortages — as well as the upcoming butcher’s bill for Putin’s genocidal attack — “shorting” the Euro has become the most popular activity among speculators. This has always been a potential problem with the Euro, as with virtually all other reserve currencies throughout the world, although the Euro is the first currency established on Keynesian principles from the start instead of being converted to the Keynesian system from an earlier, sounder system. Frankly, the only real solution is to abandon Keynesian monetary theory altogether, and return to “hard money” with a fixed standard of value, that is, a money supply backed entirely by private sector hard assets, not government debt, and pegged to something with a stable and consistent value (e.g., electricity). We believe that the best way to do this, of course, is to adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
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| "Dam, that's big!" |
• Democratic Energy Needed. In a move to break Russia’s fossil fuel hegemony over Europe, the European Investment Bank is looking into financing the construction of the world’s tallest hydroelectric dam in Tajikistan. No problem with that . . . except that nothing is said about who will own the dam. As we noted above, it’s not only important to get the world away from dependency on Russia for energy, it’s also important that no one else be able to control the supply of a critical resource, such as fuel or food, both of which Russia has targeted in its bid for world domination. The only real remedy to the situation is the Economic Democracy Act.
"Over your dead body, pilgrim."
• North to Russia’s Own? He’s not the first — Putin has already made noises about wanting Alaska “back” — but a Russian official has been ranting that Ukraine and the rest of Europe is only the beginning, and Alaska really belongs to Mother [Expletive Deleted] Russia. Given that Russian guarantees of national sovereignty are completely worthless, there’s no reason why they should respect a cash purchase or anything else. We expect to see claims made on California, too, since there were Russian settlements there, or at least trading posts, and the Moon and the planets since they can be seen from Russia.
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| No, ownership, not jobs |
• The U.S. Is Already in Recession. According to Professor Jeremy Siegel of the Wharton School of Business, the United States is already in a recession and the Federal Reserve is only going to make it worse. We have news for Dr. Siegel — we’re still in the backdraft of the Great Depression, and are going to remain there until and unless we dump Keynesian economics and adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
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| Russia's fighting elite. |
• Russia Recruits Convicts to Fight “Nazis”. In the waning days of the American Civil War, the Confederacy was so desperate for soldiers that it extended the draft to all white males aged thirteen to sixty, offered freedom to any slave that enlisted, and recruited any man not convicted of a capital crime from the prisons. Russia is evidently so hard up for manpower that they have been kidnapping people off the street and now are recruiting convicts, promising them pardon and around $3,000 if they survive . . . telling them that they don’t expect too many to survive. In that case, they’ll pay the man’s family around $75,000. Of course, none of this is in writing, and the Russian government isn’t exactly known for keeping it’s word (and they’ve been burning dead soldiers so people won’t know how many are dying), and so on, so forth, but it does seem to suggest that the average Russian isn’t exactly enthusiastic about Putin’s dreams of glory and greed. We suspect that any dead convicts will be listed as deserted so that the family doesn’t get the bounty, but that’s just speculation . . .
• Help Joe Walk Again for Economic Justice. Just a reminder, if you haven’t already done so, to visit the GoFundMe campaign and consider making a contribution and spreading word out among your social media networks. It’s off to a good start, but it’s still just a start.
• Hortense and Her Whos. In case you’ve been wondering how you might advance the Just Third Way by introducing it to legislators at any and all levels of government, we’ve made it easy for you, with the “Hortense Hears Three Whos“ initiative. Visit the explanatory website, and consider downloading the postcard to send to people in government. Don’t worry if you think they won’t be open to it, as the postcard is intended to get them to open their eyes.
• Economic Personalism Landing Page. A landing page for CESJ’s latest publication, Economic Personalism: Property, Power and Justice for Every Person, has been created and can be accessed by clicking on this link. Everyone is encouraged to visit the page and send the link out to their networks.
• Economic Personalism. When you purchase a copy of Economic Personalism: Property, Power and Justice for Every Person, be sure you post a review after you’ve read it. It is available on both Amazon and Barnes and Noble at the cover price of $10 per copy. You can also download the free copy in .pdf available from the CESJ website. If you’d like to order in bulk (i.e., ten or more copies) at the wholesale price, send an email to publications@cesj.org for details. CESJ members get a $2 rebate per copy on submission of proof of purchase. Wholesale case lots of 52 copies are available at $350, plus shipping (whole case lots ONLY). Prices are in U.S. dollars.
• Sensus Fidelium Videos, Update. CESJ’s series of videos for Sensus Fidelium are doing very well, with over 155,000 total views. The latest Sensus Fidelium video is “The Five Levers of Change.” The video is part of the series on the book, Economic Personalism. The latest completed series on “the Great Reset” can be found on the “Playlist” for the series. The previous series of sixteen videos on socialism is available by clicking on the link: “Socialism, Modernism, and the New Age,” along with some book reviews and other selected topics. For “interfaith” presentations to a Catholic audience they’ve proved to be popular, edging up to 150,000 views to date. They aren’t really “Just Third Way videos,” but they do incorporate a Just Third Way perspective. You can access the playlist for the entire series. The point of the videos is to explain how socialism and socialist assumptions got such a stranglehold on the understanding of the role of the State and thus the interpretation of Catholic social teaching, and even the way non-Catholics and even non-Christians understand the roles of Church, State, and Family, and the human persons place in society.
• 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 24 different countries and 34 states, provinces, and territories in the United States and Canada to this blog over the past week. Most visitors are from the United States, Australia, India, Canada, and Germany. The most popular postings this past week in descending order were “America Delenda Est?” “Postcard from Mariupol,” “Book Review: A Field Guide for the Hero’s Journey,” “News from the Network, Vol. 15, No. 24,” and “What is Socialism, I: The Natural Law.”
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 well see that it gets into the next “issue.” Due to imprudent and intemperate language on the part of some commentators, we removed temptation and disabled comments.
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