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:
• Golden Gate Debased. Earthquake and fire couldn’t destroy San Francisco, but human knavish imbecility can as the City on the Bay goes into free fall. Of course, it’s being blamed on everything except what is probably the real cause: the near-total powerlessness of ordinary people. This in turn is caused by a condition of dependency enforced by reliance on the government or a private employer in which the worker has no ownership stake. The situation is consistent with the warning issued by Benjamin Watkins Leigh of Virginia in 1820 that power and property can be separated for a time, but never divorced, for as soon as the pangs of separation are felt, property will take over power or power will take over property. When the majority of people have neither power nor property, what you get is the situation that prevails today in San Francisco. Is there a solution? Yes. Adopt the Economic Democracy Act. . . .or see the City on the Bay sink into complete chaos.
•How Ukraine is Conquering Russia. Putin is winning the war . . . for Ukraine. His all-out effort has pillaged the Russian economy so that it may soon reach the point of no-return without the the Economic Democracy Act. That’s if people would do the reasonable thing and get rid of Putin, end the war, and start rebuilding. The powers-that-be in Russia and their supporters, however, long ago passed the point of no return mentally and are in the grip of a mania that they can and must win a meaningless war at all cost. Reason has nothing to do with what Putin is doing, so all we can do is sit on the sidelines and comment without being able to do anything.
• No, Inflation ISN’T Falling. Depending on the day or even the hour now, the pundits are declaring that inflation is under control, out of control, or whatever it is that fits their agendas at the moment. Thus, as prices are still spiraling out of control, one set of experts is declaring that it’s falling sharply . . . which doesn’t explain why prices keep jumping up and down and the stock market keeps going up . . . which is a type of inflation. Frankly, the only thing that will resolve the inflation conundrum is to get off the inflation and deflation treadmill completely and realize that money is not a commodity, but a means of exchanging things of value; it has no value itself and need not pre-exist an economic transaction. Adopting the Economic Democracy Act could fix this problem but the experts aren’t considering it.
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| Keynes is so bad we can't even find cartoons about him. |
• Get Rid of Inflation by Changing the Definition! One of the problems with controlling inflation — besides the fact that “controlling inflation” is such monumental hubris when you insist on printing money and spending it like a drunken sailor on leave — is the fact that no one seems able to define it, and then changes the definition to suit the circumstances or fit a political agenda. Thus, Austrians claim that inflation is any increase in the money supply even if the price level falls, Monetarists say it’s a rise in the price level which can be due to a change in the ratio of money to goods and services or in underlying supply or demand, while Keynesians declare inflation (true inflation, that is) is a rise in the price level after full employment has been reached. The problem, of course, is that the experts decide how to define inflation and change it at will, then fiddle with the definition of price level until they get the results they want! That means their idea of controlling inflation is really controlling the definition of inflation. Is there any way to resolve this mess? Yes — the Economic Democracy Act.
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| Modern Economics |
• Dumbest Headline EVER Department. According to this news story, inflation is plummeting, but prices are soaring! Say, what? Inflation means a rise in the price level! Only an expert could say something so insanely dumb. Of course, adopting the Economic Democracy Act would straighten out a lot of this weird thinking.
• Chinese Ghost Cities Redux. The Chinese “ghost city” phenomenon appears to be falling apart of its own dead weight. Farmers are moving into the abandoned cities and grazing livestock and doing other things amidst the decaying ruins of China’s economy. Of course, if they had enacted the Economic Democracy Act they would have known that the “Ghost Cities” as well as much of the “Belt and Road Initiative” was a colossal waste of resources . . . and explains why the Chinese government is so anxious to suck in as much of the rest of the world as they can to bolster what is left of their economy. Too bad the experts told them differently.
• The Open Hidden Inflation. There is inflation: of stock prices and other things not counted, and the recession is in full swing as the obsession with the stock market hides it. As this news story has it, “The U.S. economy has proven more resilient than many expected amid an aggressive series of interest rate hikes at the Federal Reserve that are intended to fight price increases by slowing the economy and slashing demand, analysts said.” See below for what’s been happening in response to the fantasy that “interest” represents the “price” of money which goes along with the fallacy that money and credit are a commodity. The only way out of this is a realistic view of money as can be found in the Economic Democracy Act.
• The Greatest Money Myth? Possibly the most damaging money myth is that idea that money and credit are a commodity and therefore must pre-exist any economic transaction. Inflation and deflation therefore change from effects to causes and the experts start to talk about inducing inflation or deflation to achieve desired results rather than getting down to economic brass tacks and looking at how people produce, distribute and consume. Understanding money as a measure of value instead of an essential precondition for carrying out economic transactions would put all this financial foolishness into the dustbin of history, and the way to do that would be to adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
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| "I ain't afraid of no truth!" |
• Something Strange in the Neighborhood! Who you gonna call? TRUTHBUSTERS! The experts are wondering why their fiddling with interest rates ins’t causing the recession they were evidently hoping to cause. What happened? Well, according to this news story, businessmen were a little too smart for the experts’ own good. It seems that they refinanced a lot of their debt so that it was low interest long term instead of high interest, leaving them unaffected largely by an increase in interest rates. As they said, “It turns out that during the period of near-zero interest rates, especially leading up to the pandemic and during the pandemic, corporations took advantage and refinanced a ton of their liabilities into long-term, low-rate, fixed debt. According to data from Bank of America earlier this year, companies bought themselves some time to navigate higher rates. The debt composition of S&P 500 companies includes just 6% in short-term floating rate debt, just 8% in long-term floating rate debt, 10% in short-term fixed debt, and a whopping 76% in long-term fixed debt.” The solution? You guessed it, 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 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.
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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