• Bob Moore, R.I.P. Bob Moore, founder of “Bob’s Red Mill,” a leading worker-owned company, has died at the age of 94. Refusing repeated efforts to buy the company, Bob preferred to sell the company to the workers using an ESOP. We like to think Bob would have been behind the Economic Democracy Act.
• Credit Card Debt Soaring. U.S. credit card is now over a trillion dollars, and according to the experts the reason is simple: “You have these noticeable pockets of consumers — mostly middle- and lower-income renters who have not benefited from the wealth effect of higher housing prices and stock prices — who are feeling financial stress and that's driving up these delinquency levels. They've been hit very hard by inflation.” Translation: people who didn’t have enough income to buy an expensive house as an “investment” and gamble on the stock market are getting caught between the upper and nether millstones of the economy. Of course, the experts are clueless about how to get more income to people without capital assets, even though it’s starting them right in the face: adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
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| Henry C. Adams |
• U.S. Debt Crisis. Back in the Stone Age, 1898, to be exact, Henry C. Adams, wrote a book, Public Debts: An Essay on the Science of Finance, explaining how government debt is the fastest way for a country to lose its sovereignty. Adams’s bottom line was that while productive debt (debt that generates its own repayment) is a very great good, non-productive debt is a very great evil. Jamie Dimon and other experts aren’t coming up with something new as they sound warnings about the level of debt in the world. The solution is to adopt the Economic Democracy Act?
• Robot Revenge. A defenseless robot taxi was attacked and destroyed in San Francisco’s China Town in what authorities say was an incident without apparent motive. Of course, it could have been high spirits during the Chinese New Year celebration, or just a luddite protest. We’re not certain how the Economic Democracy Act could be used to solve the problem, but there’s probably some way.
• Spend! Spend! Spend! Here’s a financial horror story, a twenty-year-old model with a slightly askew view of personal finance: “The 20-year-old Austin, Texas native, revealed she’s on a slippery slope of overspending and has a ‘bad habit’ of borrowing on credit cards. . . . she likes to “spend, spend, spend” all her income as soon as it hits her account, considers her credit card purchases an ‘investment’ and believes grocery shopping is a ‘scam’.” Frankly, there are some people that even the Economic Democracy Act might not be able to help.
• 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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