JTW Podcast: The Great Conversation, IV

Our podcast today is Episode Four of “the Great Conversation” on the Great Books Program:

News from the Network, Vol. 16, No. 30

 

Again, most of the news items this week are about inflation, deflation, and other monetary myths.  By insisting that money must exist prior to economic activity, the so-called experts bind people into a losing paradigm and ensure that everyone, even ultimately the presumed winners, loses.  Of course, adopting the Economic Democracy Act could straighten people out on that, so maybe it’s time to get busy with it:

A City Divided, Part I

Why did Eugene Gordon choose St. Louis for the Heart of America Project?  Apart from being a resident, it can be argued — as Gene does — that no place needs it more.  In St. Louis, segregation, whether geographic, cultural, or economic, is normal. The typical descendant of American slaves lives in a neighborhood that is 45 percent black, 35 percent white, 15 percent Hispanic and 4 percent Asian.

JTW Podcast: Return to the Great Conversation

Today we continue the series of podcasts on “the Great Books,” this one on the disappearing liberal education.  Of course, we know that simply reading them or, worse, just knowing about them, isn’t going to do a “gosh darned” thing.  You have to understand them and think about them . . . which is the hard part . . . net to putting them into action to become virtuous, which is the whole point of it:

News from the Network, Vol. 16, No. 29

Not surprisingly, most of the news items this week are about inflation, deflation, and other monetary myths.  By insisting that money must exist prior to economic activity, the so-called experts bind people into a losing paradigm and ensure that everyone, even ultimately the presumed winners, loses.  Of course, adopting the Economic Democracy Act could straighten people out on that, so maybe it’s time to get busy with it:

A Breakthrough for Democracy

On Friday, July 1, 2022, the Republican Governor of Missouri, Michael Parson signed a bill that is designed ultimately to reduce poverty, racism, and a host of other problems in an area encompassing some of the most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods in St. Louis.  The initial phase is to form a commission funded by the state of Missouri to study the problem and develop recommendations for implementing what Eugene Gordon of the Descendants of American Slaves for Economic and Social Justice calls “the Heart of America Project.”

JTW Podcast: The Front Line with Joe and Joe

Today we have an episode of The Front Line with Joe and Joe on the subject of  “Economic Personalism,” which is the principles of natural law applied to the economic common good with the human person the central focus of economic and all other activity:

News from the Network, Vol. 16, No. 28

Perhaps the more cynical among our readers would say that it’s right on schedule, but the world does seem to be falling apart at an increasing rate.  What is also increasing is the obviousness of the fact that the Economic Democracy Act may be about the only game in town that has any hope of solving the mounting problems:

A New Look at Reparations

There has been more talk in the Unites States of reparations for slavery recently.  Ironically, this is at a time when the foundations of the economy and therefore of the tax base are rapidly eroding for everyone except the rich and those who have political power — usually the same people, as has often been the case throughout history.

JTW Podcast: The Great Conversation, Episode 2

Today we present Episode Two of the Great Conversation based on the Great Books of the Western World as promoted by Mortimer Adler and Robert Maynard Hutchins::

News from the Network, Vol. 16, No. 27

Right now the world is quite properly focused on what is happening in Ukraine at the present time and not worrying about the future rebuilding of the country (with the Economic Democracy Act, of course), but there are other things going on, of which we present a few here:

The Great American Chocolate Philanthropist

It is impossible to say anything about chocolate and America without mentioning the Hershey Company of Hershey, Pennsylvania.  Milton Snavely Hershey founded the Lancaster Caramel Company in 1883, having failed at three previous attempts to establish confectionaries in different cities across the country.  Although successful in caramel production, he became fascinated with chocolate after seeing modern chocolate making machinery at the Chicago Exposition in 1893.

JTW Podcast: What Happened to Education?

What happened to education?  According to Robert Maynard Hutchins, it was getting away from a liberal education — liberal in the true sense, not in today’s political sense — as embodied in the “Great Books” of the western world.  If you’re satisfied or dissatisfied with the way the world is, chances are you will be angered or annoyed by this short video — especially if you’re not talking or associating with “those people” . . . you know who we mean: