Yet again this we have a virtual tsunami of reasons to adopt the Economic Democracy Act as soon as possible . . . need we say more?
• Rina Sanchinelli. The big news this week was a meeting this past Tuesday with Rina Sanchinelli who currently resides in Italy, not too far from Rome. Doña Rina has concluded some pressing personal business and is anxious to start advancing Solidarism and the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism. As a co-founder of Unión Solidarista Guatemalteca, she may be able to reach out to Solidarność in Poland for their help for building acceptance of Solidarism and the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism as applied in the Economic Democracy Act in Europe, especially as a way of assisting Ukraine in their struggle against Russia.
• Poland May Be Key. As can be seen in this video, it appears Poland may well be key to the effort to restructure the social order. It has been strong in its support of Ukraine, and is, in fact, the country of Solidarność which began the downfall of the Soviet Union. Further, in Donald Tusk Poland currently has the presidency of the European Union, and the country is in the forefront of those preparing to resist Russia’s current imperialist ambitions. Getting to Polish leadership may be the fastest way to have the Economic Democracy Act adopted in the European Union.
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| Lech Wałęsa |
• Double Pay at Inflated Prices? This past week Lech Wałęsa, renowned co-founder of Solidarność, posted an open letter of protest on his Facebook account to U.S. President Donald Trump regarding Trump’s demand for a quid pro quo for aid previously given to Ukraine to resist the Russian invasion. Pan Wałęsa noted Ukraine already surrendered its nuclear arsenal, then the third largest in the world, in return for “assurances” by Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France that they would respect Ukraine’s borders and provide security should the country be attacked. The only question is the meaning of “assurance” in the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, not whether Ukraine should pay twice for what was promised — which is in essence what Trump is demanding, and greatly exaggerating the amount of aid given . . . most of which was spent in the U.S. creating jobs, anyway, while Ukraine received mostly surplus arms and matériel due for disposal — invaluable, and still better than what Russia has, but not the very best. We also note Pan Wałęsa has gone before the European Forum for New Ideas to show his support for, well, new ideas, and he may be more open than many others to the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism as applied in the Economic Democracy Act to establish economic democracy.
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| The McKinley Tariffs of the 1890s |
• What is a Tariff? With all the discussion regarding tariffs recently, it might be good to know what a tariff is and how it affects an economy. First, a tariff is a tax levied by a government of one country on goods imported from another country. It is paid by the consumers of the country which imposes the tariff, not by the country on whose goods the tariff was imposed. The purpose of a tariff is not to raise revenue for the government per se, but to raise the prices of foreign goods to make the purchase of domestic goods more attractive to consumers if the foreign goods would otherwise be cheaper. A tariff is extremely regressive as it falls heavier on the poor who spend much more of their income on consumption than it does on the rich whose consumption expenses are sometimes negligible in comparison to those of the poor, e.g., a poor person may spend 100% of his or her income on consumption and still require assistance, while even the most extravagant rich person might have difficulty spending even 0.1% of his or her income on consumption. Thus, a tariff that adds 25% to the price of a product could be an effective 25% tax on the poor, and an effective 0.0% tax on the rich. In addition, tariffs are temporary measures intended to protect domestic production until domestic production can become competitive without tariffs. Tariffs only work when foreign goods are in direct competition with domestic goods, that is, when foreign goods are in direct competition with domestic goods; tariffs protect existing jobs and companies. Because they create an unfair competitive advantage for existing domestic workers and companies, however, a tariff removes any domestic incentive to create more jobs or produce goods more efficiently and increases incentives for foreign producers to become more competitive. It is an incentive for domestic producers to raise their prices, not to decrease them and become more competitive. Tariffs must therefore be temporary if a country wishes to remain competitive both domestically and in the global market. If tariffs are imposed on goods not produced domestically (i.e., there are no domestic substitutes), the result is purely inflationary, and the higher the tariff, the greater the inflation; an importing country cannot at one and the same time impose tariffs and try to bring down inflation — it is a contradiction in terms. Further, when tariffs are imposed on goods required by an importing country for its own production, the result is higher costs for domestic producers, causing job loss and forcing domestic companies out of business. Instead of imposing tariffs, a better strategy would be to adopt the Economic Democracy Act. This could dramatically drive down the cost of domestic production, lowering prices without deflation, and making domestic goods more competitive naturally rather than punitively.
• Gold Plated Conspiracy? The fascination of the New Powers-That-Be (NPTB) for making certain no one has stolen the gold in Fort Knox makes one wonder if they’ve watched Goldfinger too many times. If the NPTB understand money, banking, credit, and finance as well as they think they do, then “auditing Fort Knox” has got to be a giant red herring . . . but for what? Selling it to Putin? Gold plating Teslas? Keynes was wrong about far too many things, but he was right about gold — up to a point. Gold is not money, but a commodity in terms of which some countries measured the value of their reserve currencies, although silver was the preferred standard for millennia prior to the nineteenth century. How much gold the government owns is, frankly, irrelevant if the country 1) is not on the gold standard and 2) the reserve currency is not redeemable in gold. Neither of those conditions apply in the United States. If the NPTB are worried about the soundness of the U.S. Dollar as a reserve currency, they would be better advised to adopt the Economic Democracy Act. and implement the monetary and tax reforms immediately.
• Tanking Stock Market. With the economy getting trumped (sorry) by tariff threats, the stock market is, as might be expected, getting “clobbered.” If the economy was otherwise in good shape, and if there wasn’t a war on in Europe, this might not matter much, but at present it is very bad news for the economy, which may very well be heading into a depression, what with the double whammy of high tariffs (which are a very regressive consumption tax) and sweeping cuts to government programs without replacing them. It would clearly be of immediate benefit to adopt the Economic Democracy Act, but the new powers-that-be don’t seem to be thinking along those lines.
• Federal Reserve Rate Cuts. What with the bizarre games being played with tariffs and other matters, the Federal Reserve is in a bit of a quandary. The Keynesian solutions didn’t work when supported by public policy, and now that public policy is in a radical state of flux, nobody knows what to do, although “investors” (a.k.a., “gamblers and speculators”) do seem agreed that now is not the time for rate cuts. From the perspective of the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism, the Federal Reserve should let the market set interest and discount rates, but that requires some major reforms as outlined in the Economic Democracy Act.
• How Not to Reform Social Security. In 2025 the government is changing the retirement age for Social Security from the current 65 to age 67 for those born after 1960. The government has the right to do this, as not-so-clearly stated in the Social Security Act of 1935 and reaffirmed by the United States Supreme Court in Flemming v. Nestor, 363 U.S. 603 (1960). Naturally, people are complaining that the government is taking their money . . . which is not the case. The money is a tax, not a contribution, and the government can do pretty much as it likes with the funds — and it does. What’s the solution? Keep Social Security as a backup, but adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
• Paging John Carter. Elon Musk can’t seem to get his rocket off the launching pad. The eighth test of Musk’s “starship” (which probably should be called a “planetship”) to take him to Mars failed, raining debris on the Caribbean. This suggests that Musk might be using the wrong technology. In A Princess of Mars (1912), Edgar Rice Burroughs showed us how it is done. Get yourself killed by Apaches (or German artillery, if your name is Ulysses Paxton) and transport yourself by astral projection to the Red Planet. There you will find an entire world built on the assumptions of Theosophy, i.e., a few decadent races from degenerate times, a master race dedicated to war and conquest, advanced vehicles, the whole deal. Theosophy is, of course, the source of “Ariosophy” (“Aryan Wisdom”), which was one of the ideological underpinnings of the Nazis and the Third Reich . . . although, of course, Burroughs couldn’t have known that two decades before the Nazis began their meteoric rise. It does seem odd, however, that at a time when there are so many things to do on this planet, some people are so obsessed with escaping to another instead of trying to solve the problems we have here through social justice instead of declaring war on the human race. Adopting the Economic Democracy Act., for example, would go a long way toward solving many of the problems, and leave plenty of money for building spaceships to Mars.
• 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., 52 or more copies) at the wholesale price, send an email to info@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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