Believe it or not, there are bright spots appearing on the horizon. One is that the new Biafran government in exile has adopted the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism as its economic program. Another is that a second Catholic newspaper has run a feature article on The Greater Reset, which is written around — you guessed it — the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism. Both of these open up a number of possibilities to get the Just Third Way, especially as embodied in the Economic Democracy Act into the public arena as a topic for discussion:
• Arlington Catholic Herald. The November 1, 2022, issue of the Arlington Catholic Herald, the official newspaper of the Catholic diocese of Arlington, Virginia, ran a major story about The Greater Reset, a book by Michael D. Greaney and Dawn K. Brohawn of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice in, well, Arlington, Virginia. Rather than talk about the article, however (except to mention the Economic Democracy Act at the focus of the article), it is much easier to follow the link and read it. We think it is well written and gets the story straight, but you can judge for yourself.
• Biafran Government in Exile. This past Saturday, November 12, 2022, leaders in the Biafran diaspora formed a government in exile to focus world attention on the ongoing genocide in southeast Nigeria. Dr. Norman G. Kurland, president of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice cut the ribbon opening Biafra House and gave the keynote address. The entire four-hour ceremony was livestreamed to 17,000 viewers worldwide, and the recording was posted on YouTube. Uniquely, the Biafran government in exile has stated that they want to implement the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism as embodied in the Economic Democracy Act as the model for their new country.
• Party Like It’s 1929? The financial mavens — at least some of them — are “warning” us about something we’ve known for many decades: you can’t go on creating funny money and expect to have a sound economy . . . or an economy at all after a while. According to them, a big crash is coming that will make that of 1929 look like a walk in the park. One of the great advantages to the Economic Democracy Act, of course, is that implementing it can stave off any such crash, and also be the best way to recover from a crash if not implemented previously.
• Is the Crypto Craze Over? Back in the seventeenth century a “tulip mania” seized Holland, and prices went astronomically high, with fortunes being made in flower bulk speculation. The same thing has happened with “crypto currencies,” with the crash ever-looming on the horizon as soon as people realized that there is nothing there. At least with tulips, people were left with flower bulbs they could plant. People are starting to realize, however, that a crypto currency per se represents nothing except what someone else will give you for it. There is nothing behind it, not even government debt. This raises questions as to why people would “invest” in something that doesn’t even exist, but also why people can’t seem to understand the common sense of the Economic Democracy Act.
• 401(k) Contribution Limits Raised. The U.S. government has raised the contribution levels for 401(k) plans as well as for most other “qualified plans.” This sounds very nice . . . until you realize that “saving for retirement” is a double fallacy. First, what is this whole “retirement” thing? Retire from what? From a job that you only had to get income so you save so you wouldn’t need a job to “save for retirement”? The whole concept of “job creation” (which verges on the surreal once you think about it) is predicated on the assumption that a “job” is the only way gain income to meet daily living expenses and “save for retirement.” That is why there are limits on the amount you can save each year, but no limit on the amount you can accumulate. From the Just Third Way point of view, this is exactly backwards. You should be able to “save’ (but only if you understand that you’re saving by investing, not investing by saving) any amount you want at any time, up to a tax-advantaged level of capital self-sufficiency. After that you can continue to save (actually invest) all you want, but without the tax advantages of doing so. This is the whole idea behind the Economic Democracy Act. Stop thinking about “saving for retirement,” and start thinking about “investing for life.”
• Financial Hurricane Coming! The experts at J.P. Morgan are warning us that a “category 1 financial hurricane is coming. Although we cannot say we agree with Morgan’s strategy or goals, we have no quarrel with their analysis. The problem is that all these financial experts have forgotten the first principle of finance: to know the difference between a “mortgage” (past savings) and a “bill of exchange” (future savings). They are, however, truly expert in handling a monetary and financial system based on “no savings” — a reserve currency backed by government debt and a system that runs on the principle (and a false one at that) that the quantity of funny money pumped into the system determines the level of economic activity. To prevent the predicted “financial hurricane” from happening or fixing the problem if it occurs, then, the logical thing to do is to change the erroneous assumptions from which the experts are operating, and implement a system based on sound principles. Such a system is the Economic Democracy Act.
• Raising Prices to Lower Prices. In an effort to counter inflation caused by printing massive quantities of money (demand pull inflation, the Federal Reserve has announced that it will be raising the “price of money” (a bizarre notion that only exists in the surreal Currency Principle paradigm) by increasing the interest rate by fifty basis points (cost push inflation). When analyzed from the perspective of the Currency Principle — that the amount of money in the economy determines the level of economic activity — this makes perfect sense . . . but only if you accept the demonstrable false Currency Principle! If you go by the reality-based “Banking Principle” — that the level of economic activity determines the amount of money — raising prices to lower prices makes no sense at all. What should the Federal Reserve be doing instead? How about its job as described in the Economic Democracy Act?
• Greater Reset “Book Trailers”. We have produced two ninety-second “Book Trailers” for distribution (by whoever wants to distribute them), essentially a minute and a half commercials for The Greater Reset. There are two versions of the videos, one for “general audiences” and the other for “Catholic audiences”. Take your pick.
• The Greater Reset. CESJ’s new book by members of CESJ’s core group, The Greater Reset: Reclaiming Personal Sovereignty Under Natural Law is, of course, available from the publisher, TAN Books, an imprint of Saint Benedict Press, and has already gotten a top review on that website. It can also be obtained from Barnes and Noble, as well as Amazon, or by special order from your local “bricks and mortar” bookstore. 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.
• 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 21 different countries and 25 states, provinces, and territories in the United States and Canada to this blog over the past week. Most visitors are from the United States, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, Bangladesh, and Canada. The most popular postings this past week in descending order were “Social Justice, IV: The Characteristics of Social Justice,” “JTW Podcast: Technology v. Human Labor with Norman Kurland,” “News from the Network, Vol. 15, No. 43,” “Reflections on Biafra” and “The Purpose of Production.”
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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