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

One thing becomes clear looking over the week’s news items: the so-called experts have no idea what they’re doing or even what they’re talking about.  We do know what we’re talking about, and what we’re talking about is an economic reform package that has been proven to work: the Economic Democracy Act:

The Financial Revolution

Today’s blog posting is adapted from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Few people — at least those of us who are not wealthy — would argue that there is something seriously wrong with the money system in the world today.  Most people, however, either dismiss matters as “the way things are (and whatcha gonna do ’bout it?)” or assume it’s due to some conspiracy or other.

JTW Podcast: The Front Line with Joe & Joe

Michael D. Greaney & Dawn K. Brohawn have co-authored the book: The Greater Reset, which traces the historical, religious, political, and economic roots of humanity’s perilous condition today … and how returning to God-given principles of natural law can help build a more just, liberating, prosperous, and hopeful future for every person:

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

Just in case you thought the experts and politicians know what they’re doing, we bring you selected news items that suggest they have no idea which end is up.  If they did, they would quickly adopt the Economic Democracy Act to get away from the nonsense and establish a sound and sustainable economy:

The Age of Revolution

Today’s blog posting is adapted from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

To oversimplify somewhat, three revolutions have led to the alienation of most people from the institutions of the common good by stripping them of power. The first two did this almost inadvertently by limiting access to social and technological tools, while the third did it by the nature of the change itself. These were,

JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on Happiness

Mortimer Adler on happiness, and why it might not be exactly what you think.  How do we live, and how do we live well?

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 15

We seem to have more than the usual numbers of contradictions in the stories in the media, but still no one considers adopting the Economic Democracy Act to get away from the nonsense and establish a sound and sustainable economy:

The Political Animal

Today’s blog posting is adapted from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

As we noted in the previous posting on this subject, being true to oneself means conforming to one’s human nature.  By doing so, people become more fully human by acquiring and developing virtue (“human-ness”).  If done at all, this is the work of a lifetime and the hardest path to follow.

JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on the U.S. Constitution

We have a real treat in store for you today: Mortimer Adler on the U.S. Constitution, which many people do not realize is in very close conformity with Aristotelian-Thomist philosophy:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 14

As usual, there are many problems in the world we report on this week that would either be greatly alleviated or eliminated entirely with the adoption of the Economic Democracy Act:, but the big job is convincing the powers-that-be it is a good idea and to get moving on it:

Dorothy Jean Fry Previc, R.I.P.

Dawn K Brohawn, Guest Blogger

Recently CESJ was saddened to learn of the death on March 17, 2024 of our member and long-time supporter Dorothy Jean Fry Previc.  A resident of Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, Dorothy graduated from T.C. Williams High School, Alexandria, VA, attended Mary Washington University, Fredericksburg, VA and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA.

JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on Goodness

Today we have Mortimer Adler’s lecture on “Goodness” . . . which might not be as straightforward as it sounds . . . no, it's not an April Fool's joke:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 13

As usual, there are many problems in the world we report on this week that would either be greatly alleviated or eliminated entirely with the adoption of the Economic Democracy Act:, but the big job is convincing the powers-that-be it is a good idea and to get moving on it:

The Reasonable Alternative

 

Today’s blog posting is adapted from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on How to Speak, How to Listen

Today we have Mortimer Adler’s lecture on “How to Speak, How to Listen,” taken from his book of the same title:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 12

The only thing significantly different from previous news notes is the fact that they seem to be getting weirder . . . and staying the same all the time.  Cutting to the chase, the only thing that’s going to make the situation better is to adopt the Economic Democracy Act:

Faith and Reason

Today’s blog posting is adapted from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Man, as Aristotle noted in the Politics, is the rational animal. Anything that shifts the human person away from reason as the foundation of a faith or a philosophy contradicts essential human nature, that is, what it means to be human.

JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on the Great Ideas

Here is one of Mortimer Adler’s appearances on William F. Buckley’s Firing Line about the need for genuine education:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 11

It is depressing to see how strong a hold discredited economic theories have on today’s global and national economies.  All of the news items this week wouldn’t even be on the radar if the so-called experts had sound principles and a workable paradigm, as found in the Economic Democracy Act:

JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler Gets Attacked

Frankly, we didn’t know anything about this . . . and neither do a lot of other people:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 10

Yes, it’s depressingly the same news items (or very nearly) week after week, but it’s what is going to continue happening until we adopt the Economic Democracy Act:

Solidarity and Personalism

Today’s blog posting is adapted from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Confronted today by growing conflict and inequality between people and nations around the globe, no one can ignore any longer the universal question that will shape the future for generations to come: What is the place of the human person — each of us — in society?

JTW Podcast: The Perennial Philosophy

Given that this week marks the 750^th anniversary of the death of Thomas Aquinas, we thought we’d give you a little talk about Aquinas talking about how faith and reason go together:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 09

At the top of the news this week, at least from the perspective of the Just Third Way, is Norman G. Kurland being honored as an Ambassador of Peace by the Universal Peace Federation:

The Just Third Way

Today’s blog posting is adapted from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

The fortieth anniversary of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice is coming up.  We’ll tell a little bit more about that as the anniversary itself, April 7, approaches, but today we’re looking at a major program developed by CESJ: the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism.

JTW Podcast: March on Washington, August 28, 1963

The National Archives film on the March . . . they left out private property in capital, though:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 08

This week’s news items are again a brief chronicle of dumb government tricks seemingly validated by failed Keynesian economics.  Again, as usual, we believe most if not all of these issues could be solved by adopting the Economic Democracy Act.

Five Levers of Change: Technology

Today’s blog posting is adapted from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

For centuries workers have understood that when technology advances it usually means they will lose their jobs to machines that can do the work better and cheaper. Sometimes advancing technology creates more new jobs than it displaces, although this is not always a benefit. The cotton gin created an enormous demand for labor that was filled by expanding the number of human beings owned as slaves. The Industrial Revolution largely eliminated most production by small and family-owned enterprises and turned millions of people into “employees” dependent on private employers and the State.

JTW Podcast: Walter Reuther on Civil Rights, August 28, 1963

Just in case you were wondering who else spoke during the March on Washington . . . and note the irony that the bill to which Reuther referred died with Kennedy a little over two months later:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 07

As has become usual, this week’s news items focus primarily on the growing debt crisis, both personal and public.  Again, as usual, we believe most if not all of these issues could be solved by adopting the Economic Democracy Act.

Five Levers of Change: Tax Policy

Today’s blog posting is adapted from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

 

In 1891, Pope Leo XIII declared that “Many excellent results will follow” from expanding ownership to as many people as possible (Rerum Novarum, § 47). As he said,

JTW Podcast: Walter Reuther on Profit Sharing, Part 2 of 2

As we noted in last week’s posting on this subject, January 1958 saw the publication of The Capitalist Manifesto by Louis O. Kelso and Mortimer J. Adler . . . and this Mike Wallace interview of labor leader Walter Reuther about profit sharing, of which we present Part 2 of 2 today:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 06

This week we have a plethora of news items that sound remarkably like the previous week and the week before that and the week before that and the week before that . . . but you get the idea.  Not to get repetitive, but most if not all of these issues could be solved by adopting the Economic Democracy Act.

Labor, Economic, and Civil Rights

What with the state of the economy and the so-called “woke” culture to which so many people today look for salvation when the solution is already within reach with a little effort, few realize that it was only a few decades ago that matters took a dramatically wrong turn.  The Keynesian New Deal, which many believed was supposed to be temporary, became permanent public policy following World War II, even though its disutility was painfully obvious by 1936 and the surreal “Depression within the Depression” that directly resulted from Keynes’s prescriptions.

JTW Podcast: Walter Reuther on Profit Sharing, Part 1 of 2

January 1958 saw the publication of The Capitalist Manifesto by Louis O. Kelso and Mortimer J. Adler . . . and this Mike Wallace interview of labor leader Walter Reuther about profit sharing:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 05

Ready for this week’s short list of economic insanity and gloom and doom?  Neither are we, but here it is, anyway.  Of course, we could adopt the Economic Democracy Act . . . so if people want to see something new in this report, get Congress to act . . .

Five Levers of Change: Money and Credit

Today’s blog posting is adapted from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

As we have seen in the previous postings on this subject, the meaning and purpose of life — becoming virtuous to become more fully human — requires that people have power. As a rule, to have power, people must have private property. In order to have private property and be secure in its possession, people must have access to the means of acquiring and possessing private property, and that requires access to the just and responsible use of money and credit.

JTW Podcast: The Great Conversation, XXXIX

This appears to be the final installment of “The Great Conversation” . . . like Jack Benny, they stopped at 39.  The end or not of this series, today’s video is about how Herodotus explained the first ancient people and the origin of the Nile.

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 04

Yet again there is a depressing sameness about the news items this week.  That means that our solution is the same, if not at all depressing: adopt the Economic Democracy Act . . . so if people want to see something new in this report, get Congress to act . . .

Five Levers of Change: Politics

Aristotle

Today’s blog posting is adapted from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Despite what “politics” means to most people, it is not something to avoid.  In the Aristotelian, philosophical sense, politics refers to the behavior of human beings as “political animals” having both individual and social aspects. In this broad sense, politics refers to the art of securing and maintaining fundamental human rights of all persons without harm to other individuals, groups, or the common good as a whole. Social justice is the particular virtue directed to the common good by means of which this social order is structured, reformed, and maintained.

JTW Podcast: The Great Conversation, XXXVIII

Today we continue Herodotus with the FALL of Cyrus the Great . . . after what we assume was a great Summer . . . right?

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 03

Once again, we have a depressingly similar roundup of news items.  Of course, that makes our commentary very simple: adopt the Economic Democracy Act . . . so if people want to see something new in this report, get Congress to act . . .

Five Levers of Change: Education

Today’s blog posting is adapted from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

In social and economic justice, there is no “one size fits all.” Applying the principles of economic personalism to any particular society is and will always remain more of an art than a science. The question of which institutions need to be reformed and what will be the most effective means to do this is one that cannot be resolved easily. At the same time the question must be settled before any effective action can be taken.

JTW Podcast: The Great Conversation, XXXVII

Today we pick up Herodotus again with the birth of Cyrus the Great:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 02

All the news media are saying how great the economy is doing . . . so we know there must be terrible problems that in our opinion can only be resolved by adopting the Economic Democracy Act, so what is stopping them?

The Framework of Economic Justice: Restoration of Private Property

Today’s blog posting is adapted from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

As we saw in the previous postings on this subject, widespread private property in capital is essential to a just society.  That of course raises the question as to what private property is.

JTW Podcast: How to Read a book

For today’s podcast, we’re starting off the year right, with an examination of Mortimer Adler’s How to Read a Book:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 01

As the new year opens . . . it seems very much like the old year, at least economically and financially speaking.  All the experts are talking about how different it’s all going to be if things just stay the same . . . right.  Isn’t one definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?  If they really wanted something different, they would adopt the Economic Democracy Act, so maybe this will be the year they wake up:

The Framework of Economic Justice: Free and Open Markets

Today’s blog posting is adapted from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Not too long ago a book came out purporting to instruct people on how to development and implement a truly free market.  Since this posting is not a book review (and we don’t want to give the author of the tome more credit — or blame — than he, she, and, or, it has already garnered) we will refrain from saying any more than the author’s idea of a truly free market sounded a lot like some of the more restrictive forms of socialism.

Happy New Year