Week after week, one thing becomes crystal clear (as if it hadn’t already): Keynesian economics isn’t working and has never worked . . . but the politicians and so-called experts insist with all their heart and our lives, fortunes, and sacred honor that it’s going to work, or they’re going to see that we die while they try. Or they could do the sensible thing and adopt: the Economic Democracy Act:
Roger Bannister
• U.S. Productivity “Slows”. According to the latest news from the “experts,” labor productivity in the first quarter “slowed sharply.” And this means . . . what? Have human beings stopped evolving and are not able to produce as many marketable goods and services as before? Or does it mean that businesses have not been implementing advanced technology that really accounts for increases in production? We strongly suspect the latter, since the human mechanism (i.e., “body”) has not increased its inherent capabilities for thousands, perhaps millions of years (depending on whose evolutionary theory or lack thereof you accept or believe). True, athletes have been expanding and increasing their abilities, but that is measured in small percentage gains. For example, the four-minute-mile was thought to be the limit when Roger Bannister managed to run a mile in less than four minutes on May 6, 1954. In the seventy years since then, the limit has been pushed to 3:43:13 for men (by Hicham El Guerrouj in 1999), and 4:07:64 for women (by Faith Kipyegon in 2023), an increase of approximately 6.25% for the men’s mile record. At the same time, since 1954, “labor productivity” — as measured in output of marketable goods and services per labor hour — in the United States has increased 286.92% since 1954 (the Labor Productivity Index was 28.97 points in 1954, and 112.09 in 2023). This means athletes, many of whom spend their lives developing into the best possible physical shape, have managed to increase their “production” or physical output by only 6.25% — and that only in the most exceptional cases — while ordinary human beings of average intelligence and physical abilities have increased their production or physical output of marketable goods and services by almost 300%! Either even the best athletes have only 2.2% of the capacity of ordinary human beings, or something else accounts for the phenomenal increase in “labor productivity” . . . and it isn’t labor. We maintain, contrary to John Maynard Keynes (who claimed capital only provides the environment within which human labor can be productive), human productivity has stayed the same for thousands of years, while capital productivity has been increasing at a phenomenal rate. That means labor productivity is being replaced with capital productivity as technology advances. What is the solution? As Louis Kelso pointed out a decade after Bannister broke the world’s record, “If the machine wants out job, let’s buy it” (i.e., buy the machine that is producing and receive the income as a right of private property). Something is needed if ordinary people are to become the owners of the technology that is displacing them from their jobs, and that “something” is the Economic Democracy Act.
"Don't blame me"
• “Stagflation” is Here. In the Keynesian lexicon or economic bible, one of the unquestioned commandments is that you cannot have economic growth without inflation (that isn’t really inflation, according to Keynes, but that is another story), and therefore the “cure” for a stagnating economy is to induce inflation-that-isn’t-really-inflation. It is impossible to have both a stagnating economy and inflation in the Keynesian universe . . . which doesn’t explain either the post-World War I hyperinflation in Germany and Austria-Hungary or the current bout of slow or negative growth and skyrocketing prices. Of course, if the so-called experts want to solve the problem, they need to abandon discredited Keynesianism and go with the “economics of reality” and adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
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| Super Fed Man |
• Fed to the Rescue? Not likely. According to the so-called experts, not even Keynesian economics can save Keynesian economics, at least as implemented by the Biden administration. Of course, common sense tells us Keynesian economics cannot save Keynesian economics regardless whose administration it is or who is in power. The fact is Keynesian economics is inherently flawed and cannot work, even if (as Keynes warned us) we lie to ourselves for at least a century and insist it is working when clearly it isn’t. We need to adopt the Economic Democracy Act, which would put the economic back on a sound and rational basis.
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| "I'm in charge. Bow." |
• The Rich are Driving the Economy. . . . and the so-called experts are worried. In Keynesian economics, the rich are not supposed to spend, but to save so that new capital can be financed to create jobs for people who are not rich and are therefore forced to spend and not save . . . except for forced savings that decreases the spending power of the poor for the benefit of the rich. No, it doesn’t make sense, and don’t try to make it make sense because you’ll go crazy. So, when the rich spend instead of save, it looks good for a while, but it puts the experts into a panic. Of course, if we want to put the economy on a sane footing, we need to adopt the Economic Democracy Act, but that would require people straighten out their backward Keynesian thinking, which can be quite a struggle.
• U.S. Pay Gains Rising! Despite all the dire warnings about decaying wage rates and lack of quality jobs, people with jobs are experiencing pay increases. Of course, if you don’t have a job or rising wage rates are about to eliminate your job and replace you with a robot, you’re out of luck, but that’s the trouble with statistics and Keynesian economics: they don’t take the individual into account. A system that does take the individual into account is the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism, and that can be instituted by adopting the Economic Democracy Act.
• Consumer Confidence Declines. Sometimes we wonder whether people are as dumb as the so-called experts and politicians think. That is why the reported decline in consumer confidence is a little ray of hope. If people don’t believe the nonsense the experts and politicians keep spouting and are getting a trifle non-confident about the future, that’s a good sign. If they get worried enough, they might get organized and insist on getting the Economic Democracy Act. adopted. It’s better than listening to experts and politicians whose goal is to control your lives for their own benefit.
• Voters Don’t Like Biden’s Economy. . . . and the politicians and so-called experts are asking why? After all, things are going so well! . . . for the politicians and so-called experts. Perhaps what is needed to restore people’s faith in the system is a system that actually works instead of leading people on for nearly a century with promises that it will work if only we lie to ourselves long enough that it is working. We need to have a system that makes sense, and that means the Economic Democracy Act.
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| A difference that makes no difference |
• The U.S. Economy is “Already in a Recession”. The so-called experts are arguing again about whether we’re in a recession. If they have jobs, we’re not. If they don’t have jobs, we are. It used to be they argued about whether we were in a depression or a recession, but Keynesian economics doesn’t allow depressions, so everything is automatically a recession. Of course, all the semantic foolishness of Keynesian economics could be eliminated at the stroke of a pen by adopting the Economic Democracy Act, but the experts would then have to unlearn stupidity and get smart.
• The Mysterious Federal Funds Rate. The experts are warning people about proposed changes in “the Federal Funds rate,” the interest charged on short term loans to commercial banks, and what it means for the economy and the average wallet and pocketbook. We’re going to let you in on a closely guarded secret: the Federal Funds rate is a red herring, like pretty much everything else in Keynesian economics. The Federal Reserve was instituted in part to accept qualified paper from commercial banks when commercial banks need funds and create money to do so, not act as an intermediary or lender of existing money. The Federal Funds Rate assumes that all money is “past savings money” and that all banks are deposit banks — which is not the case. The discount rate is the important rate, not the Federal Funds Rate. To put the monetary system and thus the economy back on a sound footing, we need to adopt the Economic Democracy Act as soon as possible.
• 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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