What’s So Great About Louis Kelso?

 Louis O. Kelso is today best known as the inventor of the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).  Despite the near-total global hegemony of Keynesian economics which assumes nothing can be done unless wealth is concentrated and government must be in charge of everything, the ESOP remains important to broaden the base of capital ownership.

JTW Podcast: Political Philosophy Part 1: Machiavelli, Rousseau, and Smith

Today, we present “Part 1” of Professor Dave’s talk on Political Philosophy.  As Professor Dave says, “With an understanding of the most important movements in modern philosophy, those being rationalism, empiricism, and idealism, we are ready to see how these modes of thought influenced politics, by examining the political philosophy of the era. Key early figures in this time were Niccoló Machiavelli, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Adam Smith, among many others. What ideas were they working with at the time?:

News from the Network, Vol. 18, No. 37

 There seems to be a focus this week on how a combination of AI and Trump’s tariffs are taking jobs.  Naturally, the solution is to adopt the Economic Democracy Act, which we may have mentioned once or twice:

The Rich are Different

 Ordinary people’s reactions regarding the possibility of getting the Economic Democracy Act adopted soon — or at all, for that matter — often take the form of asserting “they” won’t go for it or allow it.  And who are “they”?  The rich, the powerful, those who rely on the rich and powerful or want to, or who are afraid of them.

What Would Trajan Do? Part II

 As we saw last week, Ancient Rome had a problem with slaves convicted of crimes doing the work of honest municipal slaves, receiving pay and benefits, and generally causing scandal by taking jobs from other slaves and foreigners.  Still, rather than simply get rid of the illegal slaves (which would have exacerbated the chronic labor shortage), the Emperor Trajan came up with a solution.

JTW Podcast: Idealism Part 2: Fichte, Schiller, Hegel, and Schelling

Today, we present “Part 2” of Professor Dave’s talk on Idealism.  As Professor Dave says, “We introduced the movement of idealism and discussed its most important early proponents, such as George Berkeley and Immanuel Kant. Now let's examine the key figures that were to follow, including Johann Fichte, Friedrich Schiller, Georg Hegel, and Friedrich Schelling. Where did they take these ideas? Let's find out!”:

News from the Network, Vol. 18, No. 36

 The global economic and political situation remains such that we could pretty much just run the News from the Network from the previous week, and some people wouldn’t even notice.  If you want to see something different, then, get Congress to adopt the Economic Democracy Act:

Who Will Own America?

Back at the dawn of the 20^th century, Judge Peter Stengar Grosscup (one of Theodore Roosevelt’s “Trust Busters”) published a series of articles on the importance of ordinary Americans becoming owners of the commercial, industrial, and agricultural productive wealth.  One of these articles was titled “Who Shall Own America?”, published in the December 1905 issue of The American Magazine.

JTW Podcast: Idealism Part 1: Berkeley and Kant

 Today, we present “Part 1” of Professor Dave’s talk on Idealism.  This starts to get into the area of what Catholic social teaching evolved directly to counter; in a sense, Emmanuel Kant did to Protestant Christianity what Félicité de Lamennais did to Catholic Christianity: remove individual intellect and make everything faith-based (to grossly oversimplify).

News from the Network, Vol. 18, No. 35

 Heavy sigh.  One of the problems with reporting on what is going on economically and how it affects the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism is that the basic situation doesn’t seem to be changing because too many people keep making the wrong assumptions about the way the world really works economically — and only adopting the Economic Democracy Act will resolve the issue:

What Would Trajan Do? Part I

 Once upon a time, in the glory days of the Roman Empire, Pliny the Younger had a problem.  It seems certain slaves of the lesser sort — those who had been condemned to slavery for criminal activities — had managed to insinuate themselves into the ranks of municipal slaves.

JTW Podcast: Empiricism Part 2: Locke, Hume, and Voltaire

Today, we present “Part 2” of Professor Dave’s talk on Empiricism.  As Prof. D. says, “We’ve learned about the early figures in the empiricist movement, so let’s continue along the timeline to examine John Locke, David Hume, and Voltaire, among other key figures in the late 17th century. Empiricism helped set the tone for contemporary philosophy, so let's see what these philosophers had to say!”:

News from the Network, Vol. 18, No. 34

 Quite a bit about how AI is replacing human labor from the production process and none of the so-called experts or the powers-that-be appear to be understanding the implications of this.  In the Keynesian universe, all production is due to human labor . . . but what do you do if human labor is completely removed from the production process?  Do we eliminate the excess people?  Or turn people into the owners of the technology that is replacing them?  The latter is the solution in the Economic Democracy Act:

Own or Be . . . What?

 AI — Artificial Intelligence — has been in the news a lot recently.  Possibly this is because the powers-that-be and so-called world leaders seem to exhibit so little of the natural kind.  That purportedly being the case, a regular reader of this blog began asking questions of AI (who better to ask?) about what people who have always worked for a living or who expected to have to work for a living are going to do when AI has taken all the jobs, the Universal Basic Income bites the dust, and the government can no longer fund welfare or even Social Security.

JTW Podcast: Empiricism Part 1: Da Vinci, Bacon, and Hobbes

Today, for our 400^th podcast, we return to Professor Dave who “knows a lot of stuff.”  We don’t always agree with him, but at least we can figure out what those disagreements are!  This podcast is about empiricism.  As Professor Dave says,

News from the Network, Vol. 18, No. 33

 It appears that the somewhat delayed effect of the Terrible Trump Tariffs will soon be kicking in, and “the average American” — despite all the promises made — will soon be kicked in the teeth by rising prices and disappearing jobs, neither of which will be fixed by trying to change reality.  The only real solution is to adopt the Economic Democracy Act as soon as possible:

Why Economists Reject Binary Economics, V: “Perceived Policy Risks and Inflation Concerns”

The four previous postings on this subject — why so-called mainstream economists reject Binary Economics — we have looked at 1) Lack of Empirical and Econometric Support, 2) Heterodox and Non-Conventional Framework, 3) Criticism of Core Concepts, Particularly “Productiveness”, and 4) Negative Reception by Prominent Economists.  This last, the “negative reception” by prominent economists, is possibly the weakest reason given.

JTW Podcast: The Social Program of Pope Leo XIV

Many people are intrigued by the first U.S.-born pope’s choice of regnal name and his declaration that he would take Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical, Rerum Novarum as his guide.  What does this mean not merely for Catholics, but for everyone?  Dawn Brohawn and Michael D. Greaney give their thoughts on the matter:

News from the Network, Vol. 18, No. 32

 It continues to be difficult to report on news items relating to the Just Third Way when the media are filled with the economic chaos being spread without regard of anything connected to reality.  As always, however, we believe the solution to the chaos and quite a few other things is to adopt the Economic Democracy Act:

Why Economists Reject Binary Economics, IV: “Negative Reception”

 In the three previous postings on this subject, we have been examining (as the title of this posting suggests) why mainstream economists reject Binary Economics.  So far, we have looked at 1) Lack of Empirical and Econometric Support, 2) Heterodox and Non-Conventional Framework, and 3) Criticism of Core Concepts, Particularly “Productiveness”.  Today we look at perhaps the weakest reason, even though some in the modern world give it the greatest weight: Negative Reception by Prominent Economists: the “Non amo te, Sabidi” (“I do not like thee, Doctor Fell”) syndrome:

JTW Podcast: Louis Kelso on 60 Minutes

Mike Wallace interviews the inventor of the ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan), Louis O. Kelso. They discuss ESOP Pros and Cons, ESOP detractors, and Kelso answers the question: “What is an ESOP?”

News from the Network, Vol. 18, No. 31

 With an appalling sameness, this week’s news items strongly resemble those of last week . . . and the week before . . . and the week before that, and so on.  Some of the reasons are given below in the items listed, but frankly, this situation is going to continue until the Economic Democracy Act is adopted:

Why Economists Reject Binary Economics, III: “Particularly ‘Productiveness’”

 One of the many things conventional mainstream economists find annoying (i.e., incomprehensible) about Binary Economics is the idea of “productiveness.”  In Binary Economics, productiveness is not a synonym for productivity.  It is, rather, an acknowledgement that there is more than one factor of production and that each makes a definable and independent (although not autonomous when the factors are combined) contribution to production.

JTW Podcast: Capital Credit Insurance and Reinsurance

Economic Democracy Act: Expanding Capital Credit and Ownership for All

 

Discover how “the Economic Democracy Act” aims to democratize access to capital ownership through reforms like capital credit insurance and reinsurance.  This video delves into how the Act would make acquiring productive capital a fundamental right, facilitated by interest-free loans and paid off through tax-deductible dividends. Key topics include the establishment of commercial loan default insurance, the role of a Capital Credit Reinsurance Corporation as a backup insurer, and the benefits of commercial portfolio insurance in protecting retirement assets. Learn how this initiative could transform economic opportunities and ensure financial security for every citizen.

News from the Network, Vol. 18, No. 30

 The news items this week reflect the same problem we noted last week: that under the current administration the term “developing story” has ceased to have any real meaning.  Chaos, both political and economic, seems to be the order of the day.  We do have to wonder when the powers that be are going to wake up and adopt the Economic Democracy Act: