Although some of the experts seem to be acting as if everything is going to be fine, this week’s news items suggest disaster is in the offing and it’s only a matter of time. We, of course, think that adopting the Economic Democracy Act: will go a long way to correcting the problem and providing a foundation for genuine sustainable growth:
• Imprimatur Submission. Although CESJ is not a religious organization, the short book Economic Personalism was written at the request of some Catholic officials, and is therefore written from that perspective. The edition in English has received an imprimatur (not an endorsement, but a certification that there is nothing contrary to what the Church teaches in the book), and the recent Spanish translation has been submitted for its own imprimatur. From CESJ's perspective, the short book's focus on the Economic Democracy Act as a goal is what is of interest, not the orientation of the language or the primary audience.
• Social Security Reform . . . Again. The powers-that-be are again looking at Social Security “Reform” with pretty much everything being more of the same only more so. Benefit cuts, increased taxes — it doesn’t address the fact the system itself is not broken, it didn’t really work from the beginning. It was set up as a separate system with its own tax to make it look as if people were saving for retirement when it is really a transfer payment, pay-as-you-go system; people do not own what they pay in. It was just made to sound as if they did. In 1960 the Supreme Court of the United States confirmed benefits are not owned but can be taken away for any reasonable cause (Flemming v. Nestor, 363 U.S. 603 1960). No amount of tweaking will solve the problem. What we need is for the Congress to adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
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| Thomas Aquinas |
• 1,100 Point Jump in Dow. Earlier this week, the Dow jumped 1,100 points. The experts are exultant. News flash. It’s not investing. It’s gambling, specifically speculation. What’s the difference? According to Thomist philosophy, investing your money is a productive project, e.g., lending money to a farmer, artisan, or merchant so the farmer can grow a crop, the artisan can produce goods and services, or the merchant can buy goods for transport, storage, and resale, is legitimate, and the lender is due a share of the profits, called “interest,” plus a return of the amount lent (or suffer a portion of the loss). It’s also legitimate if a merchant buys goods for later resale at a just profit as storage, transport, and retailing are essential services and thus a “product.” There’s also nothing wrong if the price of the goods goes up for some reason, such as decreased supply or increased demand. As an example, Aquinas says if a ruler dies and everyone needs black cloth for mourning clothes, weavers and tailors can raise prices until supply and demand coincide. Similarly, in a famine food prices may go up, simply because there is less food. If, however, some people start buying goods and holding them off the market to raise prices, it is illegitimate and may even be sinful; it’s called usury, taking a profit when no profit is due, or taking excessive profits. The problem in our economy today is the system is set up to operate as if speculation — dealing in changes in the value or price of something — instead of true investment, which consists of making a profit by producing something, is the way things are supposed to be. That being the case, it’s permitted to buy and sell for profit instead of true investing IF at the same time you work to change the system and make true investment the rule again. That is the idea of the Economic Democracy Act.
• Good News, Bad News on Inflation. Prices are coming down (a little, very little), which you would think is a good thing, right? Not in the Keynesian Bizarro World. The so-called experts are worried that there won’t be enough money for the rich to get richer with or for the politicians to spend. Of course, they neglect to remember that the reason prices are so high is largely because governments have followed the Keynesian prescription and have been creating money and spending it like a drunken sailor on leave. Here’s a crazy idea: why not only create money as it is needed to carry out transactions and finance new capital? You know, what money is really for, not to let politicians buy votes and for the rich to lord it over the rest of us. How can we do that? Simple. Adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
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| Jamie Dimon |
• Recession Coming? This comes across as a “Your Point Being?” moment. According to Yahoo! Finance, “JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is not ruling out the possibility of a US recession, saying Thursday that ‘I wouldn't take it off the table at this point.’” You don’t need a crystal ball to know that when government tries to run the economy, whether you call it MMT, socialism, communism, or the Great Reset, an economic downturn is only a matter of time. You cannot disjoin money from what money does the way it has been in the modern world without there being disaster in the offing. The solution? Adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
• Consumer Sentiment Falling. The good news is consumer sentiment is not the lowest it’s ever been. The bad news is that consumer sentiment is at the second lowest it’s ever been. According to Yahoo! Finance, “‘Uncertainty over trade policy continues to dominate consumers' thinking about the economy,’ Survey of Consumers director Joanne Hsu wrote . . . Hsu added that nearly 75% of respondents mentioned tariffs ‘spontaneously,’ up from almost 60% in April.” In other words, President Trump’s obsession with an outdated and counterproductive tax policy is undermining any hope of sustaining any kind of economic recovery — which he made the centerpiece of his campaign. What’s the solution? You guessed it: 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., 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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