Economic chaos continues to reign supreme. This will continue to be the case until people realize that something different is possible and push for Congress to adopt the Economic Democracy Act:
• U.S. Credit Rating Drops. Thanks to indiscriminate spending and incoherent tax, trade, and monetary policies, the Great-Again United States of America has lost its final top credit rating. This could have serious consequences in today’s economy where one party wants to print and spend, and the other wants to spend and print. (If that doesn’t make sense, don’t worry. It’s not supposed to, any more than whatever alleged theories are influencing or driving today’s politicians.) It makes government borrowing more expensive, which means greater costs and thus the need to borrow even more as interest rates rise — a vicious circle. Cutting costs does not solve the problem because it does not address the real, underlying cause: the fixed belief that government not only can but must engage in deficit spending if there is to be a money supply. After all, if money must be backed by government debt and only by government debt, it necessarily follows that government must be in debt! The rather obvious rejoinder is, of course, to point out that the reserve currency need not be backed by government debt and, in fact, it is far better if it isn’t. Instead, it should be backed by private sector hard assets, as proposed in the Economic Democracy Act. The rest of the program would enable people to meet their own needs through their own efforts, thereby drastically reducing government spending across the board naturally, rather than the current, destructive way.
• From Beat It to Eat It. Having campaigned and won office on the promise to beat inflation and get the economy under control, President Trump has been somewhat behindhand in keeping that or any other promise, other than to impose tariffs on domestic imports paid by U.S. consumers that he has insisted are really levies imposed on foreign countries’ exports paid by foreigners . . . until now. In a complete about-face (speaking conceptually), President Trump has tacitly admitted that tariffs are really paid by American consumers . . . unless the companies paying them don’t pass the costs on to them. To forestall rising prices due to tariffs, then, President Trump has threatened reprisals against Walmart if they factor the cost of tariffs into the merchandise they sell. How this conforms to the theory the U.S. has a capitalist free market instead of a socialist command market is not entirely clear, nor how it is making America great again. What is clear is that no one, not even the president of the United States, can command a market and make it work. The only solution is the Economic Democracy Act.
• Walmart Responds to Trump. Despite past experience, evidently the CEO of Walmart seems to think he can give a few lessons in the facts of life to President Trump and his efforts to impose a free-market command economy on the United States. It is baffling to a capitalist or a socialist when something is neither, but it’s not clear President Trump is even aware of that, and that no one can really figure out what he is doing. Although socialism or capitalism would at least be something that could be defined, it may not be possible to define what Trump is doing. Of course, if we had our “druthers,” we would pitch it all in favor of the Economic Democracy Act.
• DoGE’s Grand Plan Goes Somewhat Astray. As a number of people are finding out, one of the problems with a command economy is that it inevitably runs into the brick wall of reality with a resultant smashup. While this is popping up all over the United States in response to the bizarre cost-cutting policies imposed by the Trump administration, it seems particularly evident in the chaos the DoGE imposed on the Social Security Administration. People tend to pay a little more attention to that than they do to, say, USAID and other programs they think affect only foreigners. It turns out, however, that institutional inertia can sometimes even defeat the greatest power; no one can “fool Mother Nature” or, as the ancient Roman poet Horace said, “You can chase Nature out with a pitchfork but she always comes back.” Of course, the Social Security does need reform, but not the way they’re trying to impose it. No, real reform will only come by adopting the Economic Democracy Act.
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| Jamie Dimon |
• More Dimon Warnings. Jamie Dimon of J.P. Morgan is probably feeling a bit like Cassandra, giving warnings people ignore as they continue to insist on doing, and cheering on, the very things that will ensure their own destruction. (In case you didn’t know, the gods gave Cassandra the gift of foreseeing the future . . . and added that no one would believe her after they got ticked off at her. So, when the Trojans insisted on hauling that big wooden horse into the city of Troy, and she said they’d regret it, they didn’t listen, and you know what followed.) Anyway, Dimon has been warning of an “extraordinary amount of complacency” as the stock market bounces up and down following President Trump’s “hold” on tariffs. People don’t seem to realize it’s only a respite, and not much of one at that. As a result — at least according to Dimon — there is a serious danger of “stagflation,” that is, inflation coupled with no growth, an impossibility according to the principles of Keynesian economics. Where it will lead, no one knows . . . unless Congress gets its act together and adopts the Economic Democracy Act.
• More Unwarranted Optimism. In a similar move, people act as if they are convinced that “Happy days are here again” as the “market rebounds” (i.e., shows increased volatility) even as the return of the Terrible Trump Tariffs looms. It is hard to figure out where all this “unwarranted optimism” is coming from in light of the downturn that happened right after the first frenzied bout of “Did I Do That?” with the tariffs. The market reacts to emotions, however, not to real economic conditions. That would be different, however, with the Economic Democracy Act, so we should really push for Congress to adopt it.
• 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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