A lot of events this week underscore the need for, and the importance of adopting the Economic Democracy Act as soon as possible:
Dr. Harold G. Moulton
• The (Lack of) Savings Disaster. Ignoring the truism that “savings equals investment” (which usually means the poor save and the rich invest instead of the poor save and invest for themselves), people are not saving enough (at least given current wrongheaded Keynesian assumptions) for the good of the economy. Of course, a real understanding of savings can be found in Dr Harold Moulton’s The Formation of Capital (1935), but we’re looking at today’s Keynesian Kraziness. Anyway, “In 2024, Americans faced several financial challenges that impacted their ability to save and manage their finances effectively. Inflation remained a top concern, leading to increases in the cost of essentials such as housing, groceries, and utilities, and straining household budgets.” Not only that, “Credit card debt also reached record highs. Rising interest rates on credit cards and loans made it harder for consumers to pay down their balances. Additionally, many households depleted the excess savings they accumulated during the pandemic, leaving them with less of a financial cushion.” What’s the solution? Adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
• Commanding the Tide Not to Come In. Before it became politically incorrect to suggest a ruler might not be all-powerful or the State might not be a “Mortall God” à la Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan, every schoolchild knew the story of King Canute and the ocean. It seems the usual crowd of lickspittles and sycophants who inevitably gather ’round people with wealth and power flattered old King Canute that his power was so great he could command even the elements to obey him. Either because he was delusional or to teach them a lesson (depending on who is telling the story), Canute had his thrown set up on the beach at low tide and began issuing orders to the ocean not to come in and wet his feet. Obviously, Canute got his feet wet. President Trump has said he will do something similar, and he will command lower interest rates and oil prices. This displays a lack of understanding of both economic and social justice. In social justice, you simply cannot command or impose desired results. Social justice, in fact, does not consist of obtaining results, but in making it possible to obtain results. Economic justice, a subset of social justice, does not mean ensuring everyone has an acceptable material life, but in making it possible for everyone to have an acceptable material life. You see the difference? Trump would do much better by adopting the Economic Democracy Act, and make what he wants to achieve possible, rather than attempting to do it by fiat.
• Putin Outdoes the Soviet Union. Restoring the Workers’ Paradise — evidently by wiping out everybody except the bloated capitalist elite — has always been a dream of Russia’s current dictator. Unfortunately, Putin is doing the same things that brought down the Soviet Union. Thus, “Speaking at Davos, Radoslaw Sikorski said Putin was overspending on the military and bankrupting Russia.” Putin is “copying Soviet-era approaches that bankrupted the USSR and that he used to criticize.” Evidently, Putin cannot learn either from the past or from himself. If he could, he would long ago have adopted the Economic Democracy Act.
• More Crypto Craziness. President Trump’s idea of creating a national cryptocurrency stockpile is causing even the most avid crypto investors (i.e., gamblers) to move forward a little cautiously. They’re not questioning the soundness of the idea, just, well, you know. . . . It’s up to Stick-in-the-Muds like us to question the soundness of creating a government crypto stockpile. Crypto is, after all, a “virtual commodity,” meaning it doesn’t really exist, so the government would essentially be stockpiling . . . nothing. A better idea would be to adopt the Economic Democracy Act so that ordinary people can stockpile actual wealth instead of the government stockpiling imaginary wealth.
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| Let's all get the DTs!! |
• A Great Crypto Idea. If President Trump wants the United States to make money with cryptocurrency, here’s a better idea: create a new cryptocurrency; let’s call it the DT. This would be a non-circulating, non-legal tender, non-reserve, non-redeemable parallel virtual currency issued specially for gamblers . . . er, investors. Only 1,000,000,000 DTs would be issued, and all would be deposited in a special account in the U.S. Treasury. A minimum acceptable bid would be posted, and investors would be allowed to bid on units of the cryptocurrency. When the bidding reaches an acceptable level (say, U.S.$50,000 per DT, less than half the value of the Bitcoin today), bids will be accepted, and the DTs sold. ONLY U.S. dollars will be accepted in payment for the DTs, and ALL proceeds will be applied to debt reduction or meeting existing obligations. The balance will be applied to future budget deficits. Given that the current U.S. national debt is a shade under $37 trillion and the annual budget deficit is roughly $2 trillion, this should not only eliminate all existing government debt but remove the need to incur new debt for at least five years. This would buy time to adopt the Economic Democracy Act and get things up and running so that the government need never borrow money again, except to meet temporary shortfalls in tax collections. As for the people with the DTs? They can do whatever they want. The issuer, the U.S. government, is off the hook, because the DTs are non-redeemable and couldn’t be used for tax payments or government expenditures. It’s the perfect thing for people with more dollars than sense to invest in, and even Keynes would agree, assuming he was telling the truth in his General Theory. It’s a way to tax the rich and give them the illusion they are getting even richer.
• Putin Worried About the Russian Economy. Putin is allegedly worried about the Russian economy: “According to the sources close to the Kremlin, [Putin] has privately acknowledged the war’s strain on the economy, specifying ‘really big problems’.” Reportedly, “At a December 16 meeting with business leaders, Putin criticized top economic officials and was reported to be clearly displeased by rising borrowing costs faced by Russian businesses.” Gosh. You mean attacking another country and using everything in your country in an incredibly costly effort to conquer it and there is no hope the effort could ever pay for itself is adversely affecting the economy? Wouldn’t it have been easier to adopt the Economic Democracy Act?
• 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 (now with an imprimatur), 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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