News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 26

One of the “interesting” things about the current world situation is the insistence of the experts that what has never worked must work if we just try harder, and to avoid like a cliché what has been proven to work and continues to work every day . . . but which endangers the monopoly of power currently held by the elite.  Not their wealth, just their currently monopoly on power.  What’s the solution?  Adopt the Economic Democracy Act:

Central Bank Funding, I: The Twin Threats

Today’s posting is the first half of “Central Bank Funding of Economic Growth and Economic Justice Through Expanded Capital Ownership” By Norman A. Bailey, Ph.D., presented at the Capital Ownership Group Conference on Globalization, Four Points Sheraton Hotel, Washington, D.C., October 9-11, 2002.

JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on Justice

Possibly the best known (and best? you can have your own opinion) Aristotelian philosopher in the twentieth century, Mortimer Adler brought knowledge of philosophy to a popular audience.  Today we have a talk he gave on the premier natural virtue of justice:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 25

Yet another week of the same old same old.  Putin is destroying Russia in his bid to save Ukraine from itself and the hordes of gay Jewish Nazis, while politicians and academic economists cannot seem to understand how an economy that benefits the few at the expense of the many isn’t benefiting the many!  Oh, the humanity.  No one seems considering the possibility of making it easy on themselves by adopting the Economic Democracy Act:

Declaring War on Debt

According to the Bureau of Fiscal Service, America’s public — and completely non-productive — debt and liabilities now stands at $42.9 trillion and rising.  At the same time, America’s net worth in private sector agricultural, industrial, and commercial wealth is estimated at $123.8 trillion, while the federal government owns $5.2 trillion in assets.

JTW Podcast: Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics

Today we have a talk on the Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle, which most authorities consider the first half of The Philosopher’s The Politics:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 24

As the Russian economy implodes and its attempted conquest of Ukraine flounders with astronomical losses of men (more than half a million estimated to date) and material grinds to a stalemate, Putin continues to threaten the world with nuclear holocaust, promise aid to America’s “crappy” (Russia’s term) allies, and make shows of force that everyone except other delusional politicians and toadying sycophants on Putin’s payroll knows are expensive shams, the world continues to dither about What To Do About Russia.  No one seems to consider the possibility that adopting the Economic Democracy Act would be the final nail in the coffin Putin has constructed for Russia and virtually ensure Russia could never effectively threaten Ukraine or anywhere else ever again:

Something Missing

Today’s blog posting is adapted from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

In response to the spread of socialism and the other “New Things,” Pope Pius IX, socialism and the other new things continued to spread.  Finally, in 1868 he convened the first ecumenical council since Trent in the sixteenth century.

JTW Podcast: Washington Outsider Report

“How Banks Went Astray — But Can Still Help Independence Movements and the Poor.”  That pretty much says it all, but you’ll want to see this episode of the Washington Outsider Report from Tuesday, June 4, 2024, featuring Michael D. Greaney, Director of Research for the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice talking about money, credit, banking, and all the things that go along with really trying to understand what is going on today:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 23

One thing that struck us this week about the news is how often experts and dictators who aren’t succeeding at solving their own problems are busily solving everyone else’s or threatening to do more of the same.  How about if we adopt the Economic Democracy Act and the economists and dictators can do as they want to themselves and their warships and leave the rest of us alone?

JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on Goodness

You can always count — or at least you could when he was with us in the flesh — on Mortimer Adler giving us a few good tips on moral virtue:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 22

Ex-president Trump has been convicted, but what difference will it make?  We predict no difference at all for good or ill . . . unless Congress wises up and adopts the Economic Democracy Act:

Putin’s Tiger by the Tail

According to Renaud Foucart, a senior economics lecturer at Lancaster University in a recent article in Business Insider, Putin has put Russia into a “lose-lose” position.  In a “tiger by the tail” scenario, the country cannot afford to continue the war against Ukraine, but neither can it afford to stop.  According to Foucart’s analysis, the Russian economy has become so dependent on the war that “defense” spending is the only thing keeping up the illusion of viability.

JTW Podcast: Fulton Sheen on Firing Line

William F. Buckley on Firing Line interviewing Fulton J. Sheen.  Buckley tries his usual one-upmanship, and for some reason doesn’t come off too well:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 21

Not much has been happening in the Global Justice Movement this week . . .that we can report about!  A great deal has been happening, but mostly setting the stage for what we’re working on, primarily getting the Economic Democracy Act adopted:

Just Third Way Tax Reforms

 As the saying goes, nothing is inevitable but death and taxes, and hopefully not in that order.  That being the case, how should taxation (for we don’t claim any power over death) be made as fair and just as possible?  We have some suggestions, consistent with the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism.

JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on Aristotle

A little knowledge may be a dangerous thing, but at least according to Mortimer Adler, you cannot have too much of it, or moral virtue, either.  As for what else Adler has to say, view the video:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 20

We can save you a lot of time on this week’s news items.  People who think they are in charge of the economy are making the same stupid decisions week after week, and we are getting nowhere fast as no one considers adopting the Economic Democracy Act:

Keynesian Economics and Income Distribution

Occasionally, we get a question from a reader that forces us to think . . . what on Earth Keynes and his disciples thought they were doing and what they are still trying to do with Keynes’s backwards economics.  Recently we received the following question:

JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on Aristotle’s Theory of Happiness

Someone (actually a lot of someones) told they deserved to be “happy.”  Since that usually involved wrecking someone else’s life to get something they wanted, it is hard to see how anyone deserves to be “happy” under those conditions.  What, however, if happiness meant something other than merely satisfying your own selfish desires?