This week the experts are trying to scare people by raising the specter of inflation versus recession . . . forgetting (or ignoring) the fact that there is no correlation between economic growth and inflation, and recession and lowering inflation. This is evident once we understand the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism and economic reality as applied in the Economic Democracy Act:
Russ Robinson
• Death of Russ Robinson. We were saddened this week to learn of the death of Russ Robinson, who was working with the CESJ core group on possible financing for a new type of city in Utah. Russ came to CESJ through the late Kemp Harshman and was very enthusiastic about applying the Just Third Way financing concepts to create a model for future financing in ways that benefit every child, woman, and man.
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| Paul Krugman |
• Krugman Strikes Again. Not too long ago, Paul Krugman claimed that inflation is not a problem if you simply redefine your inflation calculation by cutting out anything that has a rising price. Now he reiterates his Keynesian dogma, coming from the mouth of the Great Defunct Economist himself (i.e., the Lord Keynes) that the national debt of mega-trillions of dollars is not a problem because it’s not like real debt . . . it doesn’t have to be repaid!! The rationale, as Dr. Harold Moulton explained it in his 1943 pamphlet, The New Philosophy of Public Debt, is that since the people are the government (uh, huh), any debt the government owes is money we owe ourselves, so it’s just a bookkeeping entry and nothing to worry about. Of course, there are a few logical flaws in this argument, as it confuses actual people with collectivist abstractions and assumes you can get something for nothing. It also assumes, as Keynes declared, that money is a special creation of the State (which, if we’re supposed to be the State, means we can make our own money. . . right?) instead of the medium of exchange and a way of measuring value. In other words, the Currency Principle carried to its reductio ad absurdum. The only alternative is the Banking Principle, applied in binary economics and found in the Economic Democracy Act which — among other things — would completely eliminate government debt over time (like the next century or so . . . you were expecting a miracle?
• Goldman Sachs Says Nothing to Worry About. Seconding Paul Krugman, whether they mean to or not, the investment firm of Goldman Sachs has declared the worst is over . . . for them. Whether they realize it or not, their economic view is as collectivist as that of Krugman, with a very distorted view of money and credit, as well as confusing truly productive activity that provides food, clothing, and shelter for genuine people, with playing with pieces of paper that, more and more, represent nothing but a mountain of debt the world’s governments have issued. One might think, to hear them, that the world was created exclusively for government and Wall Street, which we suspect is not the case. One way to restore the economy so that it operates for the benefit of ordinary people is the Economic Democracy Act, which would return money to its original purpose of a stable medium of exchange and focus on getting people what they need to live on rather than on generating meaningless pieces of paper and electronic impulses.
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| Robert Kiyosaki |
• Money Isn’t Wealth. Sometimes the obvious isn’t so obvious. Robert Kiyosaki has pointed out the rather obvious fact that money isn’t real wealth — it is a measure of real wealth, and a means of storing a claim on real wealth . . . which doesn’t mean all that much in the Keynesian universe when government manipulates the value of money on a daily, sometimes hourly basis. As Kiyosaki explains, the rich put their “money” in non-monetary wealth, i.e., into things that hold their value or generate marketable goods and services. One way that everyone can do this the way the rich do, is to adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
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| A lot of bull . . . |
• We’re All Rich . . . Again! Earlier this week, apparently confirming the opinions of Paul Krugman and Goldman and Sachs, the Dow jumped almost 500 points. Hallelujah. We’re saved. The economy is sound again . . . until it goes down again. Evidently the experts and the optimists haven’t yet figured out that the stock market really doesn’t have very much to do with the real economy except to screw it up as people focus on speculation and gambling rather than actual productive activity. One way to reorient people to have a better understanding of what economic life is really about is to adopt the Economic Democracy Act, but that means the experts and the optimists will have to give up some of their delusions, and that is very hard to do.
• Overemployment. We’ve been hearing so much about people who can’t find work that the news there are some people who are finding more than their share comes as a little surreal. There is a growing number of people who are “overemployed,” meaning they are holding two or more full time jobs, a phenomenon made easier by the fact that when you’re working from home the boss can’t see what you’re doing. This would seem to be a trifle dishonest, as an employer is paying for all your work time, and to have two or more full time employers means that the overemployed individual is being paid two or more times for the same thing. The reasoning is that this secures income and, well, security . . . but it also deprives others of jobs. What’s the solution? Aside from policing people in their homes and realizing that if a full-time job only takes half or a third of the time assigned to it, why pay for full time? Adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
• Debt a Noose Around the Economy. Contradicting the Great Paul Krugman, other experts claim the gigantic debt is a “noose” around the neck of the economy . . . but no one is really too sure of what to do about it. Austerity? Doesn’t that mean deflation and insufficient money, strangling the economy? Spending? More debt, inflation, and an overheated economy? If the experts are worried about the debt, why not do something wild and crazy and get rid of it? This can be done by adopting the Economic Democracy Act.
• The Coming Recession . . . Maybe. According to the experts, the Federal Reserve is walking a tightrope between inflation and recession . . . the false dichotomy Keynesians and politicians use to frighten people into letting them keep on trying to control the economy and everyone’s lives. In the Just Third Way there is no such tradeoff, as there is a different, more realistic understanding of money. This can be found in the Economic Democracy Act which is why it should be adopted as soon as possible.
• Inflation Will Normalize . . . In a Year or Two . . . Maybe. The experts are again unanimous in their lack of unanimity. They predict inflation might get back to normal in a year or two . . . or not. Of course, from the perspective of the Just Third Way all the talk of inflation and such is misdirection, as implementing the Economic Democracy Act would make the whole issue a moot point.
• 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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