It’s been yet another week of Federal Reserve follies, with all the experts thinking they’re smarter than what experience and intelligence has long proved to be the case: that Keynesian economics and the Currency Principle simply don’t work, nor can they. For such gloomy people, they continually rely on the triumph of optimism over experience and think if they just keep doing what hasn’t worked for nearly a century it’s bound to work sometime . . . or they could do the rational thing and adopt the Economic Democracy Act:
• FIVE DOLLAR SALE! It’s opportunity of a lifetime time again! The Greater Reset: Reclaiming Personal Sovereignty Under Natural Law, is currently available from the publisher, TAN Books, an imprint of Saint Benedict Press, and for $5.00 per copy in any quantity, while supplies last. The heart of the book is, of course, the Economic Democracy Act?, but there is much more there in what the “Censor Librorum” of the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, called a “real page turner.” Don’t worry — although published by a Catholic publisher, the book is written from a natural law, interfaith perspective, and applies across the board to all human beings.
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| Oh, really? |
• Is the Federal Reserve’s Job Over? Completely aside from the fact that anytime the government creates a bureaucracy to do a job it’s a virtual certainty that the job will never get done, there’s also the problem that when an organization loses track of its original mission for which it was specifically intended. So it is with the Federal Reserve System. Although they claim to be independent of government, the Federal Reserve Chairman is appointed by the president, and their biggest — if not only — customer is the United States government . . . which was never intended to be the case. The Federal Reserve is no more independent than a presumably private sector government contractor. The only difference is that the Federal Reserve manufactures money and credit for the government (completely against the original intent of both the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Constitution) and is thus completely dependent on government now for its existence . . . which is the legal definition of slavery. Look it up. For that reason, the recent announcement that the Federal Reserve thinks its job will be done when if performs some act or acts is pure illusion. It's job will be done when the politicians say it is done and not before. And since the politicians will never say that so long as they need more money to spend, and they will always need more money to spend, the Federal Reserve need not fear that its job will ever be done. Of course, if they changed back to their original mission to supply the private sector instead of government with liquidity, they wouldn’t be in the fix they’re perpetually in. By getting the Economic Democracy Act adopted, the Federal Reserve could return to its original mission and add that of helping to make every citizen a capital owner without redistribution, inflation, or any of the other things Keynesian economics takes for granted.
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| "I'm an 'investor'. Yeah. 'Investor' . . ." |
• Confusion on All Sides. Evidently “investors” (read “gamblers”) are convinced that current actions and policies of the Federal Reserve (which change more often than most people change their underwear) are going to be to their benefit and they’re going to make lots and lots of money. Even some of the experts on the current system are saying that’s a pipe dream. According to economist Stephanie Pomboy, “Investors can’t wait for the Federal Reserve to switch from raising interest rates to cutting them, as they expect that to boost economic growth and send stocks higher. They're overlooking the brutal fallout from the central bank's hikes that will precede that policy shift.” In other words, the Federal Reserve’s games with interest rates are going to cause a lot of harm before there’s any benefit . . . if there ever is any benefit. This could, of course, be completely avoided if Congress would adopt the Economic Democracy Act, but guess what they’re not even thinking of doing.
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| China is starting to hoard gold. |
• China Dumping Dollars, Hoarding Gold. China is so anxious to solve its problems by getting rid of the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency and instituting its own that it isn’t considering exactly what a reserve currency is and what it’s supposed to do. Ideally, a reserve currency — which is what contracts are written in and into which all other forms of money can be converted on demand — is uniform, stable, elastic, and asset-backed. The idea is to ensure a stable monetary system so that the economy functions with a unit of measure on which everyone agrees and that it never runs out of “yardsticks” with which to measure value. Instead, reserve currencies have been used for the past two centuries or so to gain political or economic advantage, not fill the need for an objective standard with which to measure value. The Chinese government is so confused at this point that it is issuing money to buy gold, evidently in the belief that this will stabilize the Yuan (which one? The Chinese government issues multiple currencies that do not pass at par with one another on demand) and displace the U.S. dollar. Dream on. Gold may be useful as a standard of value so long as its value remains constant . . . which it doesn’t . . . but printing money to buy gold drives up the price of gold, thereby completely nullifying the effect of buying gold if the idea is to achieve monetary and financial stability. The would do better to adopt the Economic Democracy Act, but that would empower ordinary people with capital ownership, and that could be pretty far down on the list of what China hopes to accomplish.
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| WE NEED HIGHER INTEREST RATES! |
• Investor Says We Need Higher Interest Rates. . . . so that he can continue to make lots of money even if the stock market goes down. Mega investor Leon Cooperman has declared that we need higher interest rates because the stock market is going down and he needs to make money somewhere or the economy won’t survive. This, of course, assumes that we need his and other billionaires’ past savings in order to finance economic growth that benefits them and not us. Alternatively, the Federal Reserve could stop manipulating interest rates and let them be set by the market, which is one of the things the Economic Democracy Act is designed to do, along with making it possible for everyone to become a capital owner if they want to.
• 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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