One of these days we hope to have some good news to report, but until someone among the powers-that-be wise up and push for the adoption of the Economic Democracy Act:, we have a sneaking suspicion we won’t be reporting too much good news:
The new gourmet treat
• Micky D’s Not Your Kind of Place Anymore. Admittedly we haven’t exactly been on McDonald’s A List of customers, although when traveling on concert tour during college it was a safe and affordable place to eat. One of the oddities developing out of the “K-Shaped Economy” is that low-income customers are forsaking McDonald’s while the upper brackets are taking up some of the slack . . . at least percentagewise. We don’t know about revenue. As reported in The Los Angeles Times, “Industry-wide, fast-food restaurants have seen traffic from one of its core customer bases, low-income households, drop by double digits, McDonald’s chief executive Christopher Kempczinski told investors last week. Meanwhile, traffic from higher earners increased by nearly as much, he said. The struggle of the Golden Arches in particular — long synonymous with cheap food for the masses — reflects a larger trend upending the consumer economy and makes ‘affordability’ a hot policy topic, experts say. McDonald’s executives say the higher costs of restaurant essentials, such as beef and salaries, have pushed food prices up and driven away lower-income customers who already are being squeezed by the rising cost of groceries, clothes, rent and child care.” The problem for a business like McDonald’s is that it won’t sustain itself by going after the upper income brackets on a long-term basis. The only real solution is to enhance income for everyone, overall, by adopting the Economic Democracy Act.
Uh, yeah, uh, Kingfish . . .
• Trump Twiddles Terrible Tariffs, the Saga Continues. Instead of doing something to lower prices naturally, such as making it easier for people to become more productive thereby increasing production and income and decreasing prices, the current administration has decided to twiddle with tariffs yet again: “President Trump further expanded tariff breaks on Brazilian goods, part of moves to lower costs on some everyday goods as consumers grapple with price struggles. The move came a week after he signed a similar order more broadly reducing tariffs on goods including beef, tomatoes, coffee, and bananas. The push to reduce food prices comes after electoral wins for Democrats across a number of key state and local races where candidates stressed affordability concerns. Trump has also in recent weeks floated the possibility of a tariff "dividend" for many Americans in the form of a $2,000 check. Trump said he was eyeing the rebate checks ‘probably in the middle of next year, a little bit later than that,’ though officials have said Congress would need to approve them.” And even the rose-colored glass prognosticators are slightly less optimistic: “Rebate checks could detract from Trump administration pledges to use much of revenue from tariffs toward reducing US deficits. The Congressional Budget Office revised its estimate of tariffs’ impact on that front, saying it would shrink deficits by $3 trillion by 2035 instead of the $4 trillion it had projected in August.” The solution is to ditch the whole tariff imbroglio and adopt the Economic Democracy Act, with its tax reforms that actually make sense.
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| Cutting edge of Russian technology |
• Tanks, But No Tanks. At the height of its war, excuse us, “Special Military Operation,” against Ukraine, it seems odd, but the Soviet Union, excuse us, the Russian Federation, has its largest tank factory in deep trouble, laying off a large number of workers, cutting production to the bone. Russia cannot replace the armored vehicles it is losing already, and now it is in even greater trouble. The Russian economy is imploding and yet at the same time we are morally certain the Russian powers-that-be won’t pay any attention to a simple set of reforms that could turn everything around: get rid of Putin, stop the war, and adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
'Tis the season to be bankrupt
• Debt and Budget Strain. Much to the astonishment of the current administration, ordinary Americans are having a hard time, economically speaking (and a lot of other ways, as well). This is not a good thing as the country gets into the holiday spending season, on which many companies rely to put them in the black. As reported in GlobalData, “A recent survey by The Harris Poll, conducted for the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), suggests that many Americans are preparing for a holiday season marked by financial caution, increased borrowing, and anxiety over expenses. According to the findings, 42% of those planning to spend on gifts, travel, or entertaining during the holidays estimate they will exceed $1,000 in total costs. Half expect their spending to stay at or below $1,000, while 8% remain uncertain about their final outlay. Plans to reduce spending compared to last year are common: 36% of respondents buying gifts and 35% of those travelling for the holidays intend to cut back.” The current administration doesn’t think this is important, but when ordinary people — who vastly outnumber the wealthy — stop consuming, then the income of the wealthy starts to decline as well. The solution? You guessed it: adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
• Elon Musk is Right. The smartest man in the world is right again. According to a report in barchart, “Musk argued that ‘the only way to get us out of the debt crisis and prevent America from going bankrupt is AI and robotics,’ a conclusion he reached after observing what he described as unsustainable growth in federal obligations. He noted that interest payments on the national debt now exceed major federal expenditures, including the military budget — a comparison he called a personal ‘wake-up call.’” We agree . . . but not if ownership of the AI and robotics remains concentrated in the hands of a few people, which doesn’t occur to the Man-God Musk. The solution, of course, is to adopt the Economic Democracy Act as soon as possible.
• Things Are, Er, “Crappy”, Part Deux. Last we reported (and this week as well) that things are really bad for ordinary people. Matters haven’t exactly improved in the past seven days. As reported by CBS News, “A growing share of lower-income Americans are struggling to get by financially as their wages fail to keep up with inflation, according to a recent analysis. Roughly 29% of lower-income households are living paycheck to paycheck, up slightly from 2024 and from 27.1% in 2023, data from the Bank of America Institute shows. The financial firm defines that as spending more than 95% of household income on necessities such as housing, gasoline, groceries, utility bills and internet service.” And as if that wasn’t enough, according to a report in Yahoo! Finance, “US consumer sentiment deteriorated slightly in November as Americans fretted about high prices, weaker incomes, and mounting layoffs, nearing record lows.” As if you didn’t know, of course, the solution is to adopt the Economic Democracy Act., but the problem is getting anyone in power at this point to listen to common sense.
• An “Alarming” Retail Picture. Although we could certainly use some good news, it appears that we won’t be getting any until the powers-that-be wise up and adopt the Economic Democracy Act. According to a report from Business Insider, Home Depot (the Big Orange Box) is worried about the cutback in consumer spending among ordinary people: “Home Depot became the latest major retailer to warn that the slowdown in consumer spending is spreading. The home improvement cut its full-year outlook on Tuesday, reporting weakening sales growth for Q3. Comparable sales — a key measure that strips out new store openings — rose by just 0.2% with US comps up by 0.1% — falling short of Wall Street's expectations and underscoring a subtle yet important shift: more financially stable shoppers are starting to pull back.”
• Who Will Buy? Many eons ago, as then-governor Ronald Reagan liked to relate, the late labor statesman Walter Reuther, then-president of the United Auto Workers, was touring a largely automated Ford automobile factory and the Ford executive guiding Reuther through the plant joked that Reuther would have a hard time collecting union dues from the machines. Reuther immediately retorted, “You’ll have an even harder time selling them automobiles.” As AI advances with quantum leaps and replaces jobs at an accelerating rate, this is starting to occur to more and more people. According to Business Insider, this has occurred even to the s0-called “godfather of AI”: “[Bernie] Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, kicked off the discussion by asking whether multibillionaires like Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, and Larry Ellison, a cofounder of Oracle, have considered the impact on working-class people when making enormous investments in AI and robotics. ‘They should be, but I don't think they are,’ Hinton said in response, ‘And I think many of them haven't really absorbed canes, that if the workers don't get paid, there's nobody to buy their products, and they haven't really thought through the massive social disruption we'll get if we get very high unemployment.’” Again, the solution is to link people’s income to ownership of capital, which is doing the production and get away from linking people’s income absolutely to ownership of labor, which is being phased out by advancing technology. And that’s yet another reason to adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
• Stock Market Yoyo. Although most normal people are fully aware that the stock market — also known as the secondary market — is not the “real” economy . . . that doesn’t make too much (if any) difference to the powers-that-be, academic, financial, or political. The Dow has been jumping up and down so much this week that it is difficult to understand how anyone can possibly mistake for real economic activity. What is needed is something that refocuses people’s efforts and attention on the real economy in which real people live, and that means adopting 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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