THE Global Justice Movement Website

THE Global Justice Movement Website
This is the "Global Justice Movement" (dot org) we refer to in the title of this blog.

Friday, April 28, 2023

News from the Network, Vol. 16, No. 17

 

We know there is a depressing sameness about the weekly news items . . . but there’s also a depressing sameness about the refusal to adopt the Economic Democracy Act:


 

• Misunderstanding Banking (Again).  The recent bank failures or crises (however you want to put it) have been blamed on uninsured depositors having too much money in the bank, and losses on band investments.  Nobody stops to think that maybe it might have something to do with banks not bothering to do what they’re supposed to do: provide money and credit for private sector economic growth and development, not speculation and savings.  This would be taken care of with the Economic Democracy Act.


 

• Gambling Gloom and Doom.  Leon Cooperman says the United States is heading into a recession and the Standard and Poor index won’t hit a new high for some time.  Of course, if shares were bought for income instead of gambling, then you might see very little change in the indices over time, but that would take the Economic Democracy Act.


 

• Good, Old Fashioned Bank Run.  The Federal Reserve was intended in part to prevent “runs” on banks, i.e., sudden demands by depositors for their money or too many obligations presented for payment at one time.  The idea was that when this happened to a bank, the bank could immediately apply for additional reserves to keep the bank from failing.  That’s why it’s called “the Federal Reserve System.”  Perhaps not surprisingly, given the hijacking of modern central banking into a financing source for government, The First Republic Bank was not rescued by the Federal Reserve, but by other banks . . . the very thing the Federal Reserve was supposed to make unnecessary. This was the whole point of the “Pujo Report” of 1913, which in part led to the formation of the Federal Reserve System.  The only way to solve this is to pass the Economic Democracy Act which would retore the original purposes of both the Federal Reserve and the tax system.


 

More Recession Predictions.  The Federal Reserve, which is the immediate source of the funny money that is at the heart of the causes of recession, is warning that a recession is imminent, but is clearly unwilling to change its practices or policies to do anything effective about it.  The best way to eliminate the danger of a recession is to make money and credit available for ordinary people to become capital owners as described in the Economic Democracy Act.

Warren Buffett

 

• Warren Buffett’s Ukrainian Prediction.  Financier Warren Buffett has predicted that rebuilding Ukraine will cost billions and billions of dollars.  He’s probably right.  The real question is where the money is to come from.  If it comes from current and existing resources, what the world will get is an enormous bill to finance the same people owning more of what they had before.  If they do it as recommended in the Economic Democracy Act,  however, every Ukrainian can own a piece of Ukraine and the rebuilding will pay for itself without other countries having to foot the bill.  It’s at least worth considering.


 

• A U.S. Government Debt Default Could Spark Recession.  “They” keep making recession predictions, but nobody is willing to do anything to prevent it except what is causing the problem in the first problem.  They warn against the dangers of defaulting on government debt, but won’t do anything to stop issuing debt . . . when passing the Economic Democracy Act would not only stave off a recession and a default (or the other way around), but take away the underlying problem: relying on government debt as the backing of the reserve currency, and, increasingly, as the whole of the money supply.


 

• Slowdown Imminent.  Because Americans are “blowing through” their savings, investments, retirement, etc., to fund current consumption, (more) predictions insist that a slowdown or recession is just around the corner.  Restoring Say’s Law of Markets could rectify this situation, which could be achieved by adopting the Economic Democracy Act, but nobody seems to be considering that.

• 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.

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.

Blog Readership.  We have had visitors from 23 different countries and 29 states, provinces, and territories in the United States and Canada to this blog over the past week. Most visitors are from the United States, Canada, India, the United Kingdom, and Australia.  The most popular postings this past week in descending order were “Social Justice IV: The Characteristics of Social Justice,” “What’s Wrong With the World,” “What Would Aquinas Do? The Refugee Crisis.” “Binary Banking Theory, V: Fractional Reserve Banking,” and “JTW Podcast: Economic Independence.”

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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