• House Passes Ukraine Aid Bill . . . Finally. Yes, it’s expensive, and yes, it’s not universally popular . . . but the U.S. House of Representatives has finally passed a Ukraine aid bill that will presumably keep Putin from conquering the country. No, we don’t like spending billions and trillions of dollars on war and foreign aid, but the alternative is hardly acceptable, and keep in mind that Hitler had and has his fans in the United States as well; U.S. entry into World War II was not universally supported, even today. Nevertheless, it beats the alternative, and so far the world’s leaders have resisted adopting the Economic Democracy Act, that might not stop war, but it would remove many of the purported causes, and — in the event war or any other disaster occurs — make it less of a financial disaster as well.
• U.S. Debt, Gold, and Bitcoin. “‘Concerns about the U.S. debt cycle, devaluation of money — and fiat money in particular — does drive the story and the narrative’,” an analyst is quoted in a recent Reuters article about the current quantum leap in amount of U.S. government debt outstanding. The astounding amount of interest the government is paying on its own debt (which is paid back to itself, by the way, less a small service fee subtracted by the Federal Reserve for the debt it holds), is sometimes more than spending for defense, and is encouraging “investors” (actually speculators and gamblers) to put their money into gold and the ephemeral Bitcoin. All of this would be completely unnecessary, and the government would even have a hope of eventually repaying the debt in full if (and only if) they adopt the Economic Democracy Act, which would allow people to take care of themselves without the government’s help or at least so much of it.
• Getting It Backwards. Why do the poor stay poor, and the middle class can’t get out of the rut it’s in? There are six reasons according to Brian Davis: 1) People don’t learn about money in school. (They don’t learn about it anywhere else, either, because virtually no one understands the Banking Principle, but think Keynes actually knew what he was talking about), 2) We learn the wrong things from our communities (in other words, we let public opinion influence us, baa, baa, baa), 3) Higher education means higher earnings. (Bull. If that were true, why all the fuss about student loan debt? The fact is, wealthy people tend to be better educated not because education brings wealth, but because wealth brings education), 4) Ongoing education is lacking (education in what? More of the same that keeps things the way they are?), 5) Home ownership is out of reach (houses are consumption items, not investments; like education, wealth brings a big house, a big house doesn’t bring wealth) and 6) Investing and leveraging aren’t practiced (not real investing and leveraging, anyway, people don’t buy assets that pay for themselves with their own profits; they buy things they hope will rise in value and sell the asset, not take dividends). Adopting the Economic Democracy Act would require that people straighten out this kind of backward thinking, but it can be done.
• The Stupids are in Charge. According to at least one “expert,” rising oil prices aren’t the biggest problem the Federal Reserve faces, but rising consumer demand! Keynesian economics, however, is predicated on the presumed need to stimulate demand at all costs . . . so now they say that demand is too stimulated, and raising prices isn’t putting the expected damper on. Frankly, we need to jettison Keynesian economics and get back to sanity. The experts don’t seem to understand that production — economic growth — is driven by consumer demand. If they want to do something about consumer demand, you don’t raise interest rates to drive up prices and keep demand down, you encourage production by lowering interest rates so that producers can produce and sell more at lower prices. Of course, if you want an economy that actually works, stop manipulating interest rates, which should be set by the market, anyway, and adopt the monetary and financial reforms of the Economic Democracy Act, as well as the rest of the package to encourage sustainable growth.
• The World Isn’t as Messed Up as We Think. No, it’s worse. Despite this rosy little picture painted by Citibank that things “aren’t so bad”, the global economy is headed downhill at an accelerating rate. We’re reminded of Leslie Howard as Sir Percy Blakeney when he declared to Nigel Bruce that “In all the world, there is nothing so bad as something that is ‘not so bad’.” To say that things are not so bad verges on the delusional. We’ve addressed the reasons many, many times in these news items and other postings, but the solution is not to sit back and say everything is fine, but to adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
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| Yeah . . ."wobbly" |
• April Economy “Wobbly”. The experts are astounded to find that the economy in April was “wobbly” and the stock market (which is not actually a leading economic indicator) has been “volatile.” If the “experts” want a stable economy, they should work to adopt the Economic Democracy Act, and put things on a sound basis.
• 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 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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