News from the Network, Vol. 19, No. 20

With the signing of Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical scheduled for today, there is the potential for the dawning of a new day for economic and social justice — and we intend to do what we can.  CESJ is not a Catholic or even a religious organization, and the Just Third Way is not a religious movement, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take full advantage of the efforts of a global leader to bring some sanity and commonsense to the world . . . and (eventually) result in the adoption of the Economic Democracy Act:

Making Sense of Social Justice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

MAKING SENSE OF SOCIAL JUSTICE

A Guide to Understanding Magnifica Humanitas is Now Available in Spanish

 

(Arlington, Virginia, USA, May 15, 2026) Justice University Press, an imprint of the Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ), a think tank promoting a free market, private property-based approach to widespread capital ownership without redistribution, is pleased to announce the release of Personalismo Económico: Propiedad, Poder y Justicia para Cada Persona (ISBN: 978-1-60210-011-4), a book applying the personalist thought of Pope John Paul II. Translated into Spanish by Dr. María Teresa Rosón de Pérez Lozano of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina in Buenos Aires, Personalismo Económico makes Economic Personalism: Property, Power and Justice for Every Person (2020) by Michael D. Greaney and Dawn K. Brohawn available to a new audience.

A short but substantive work, Personalismo Económico presents a summary of natural law moral principles and sound methods of finance designed to establish and maintain economic justice for all. In English or in Spanish, Personalismo Económico is an essential orientation to understand and advance the message of Pope Leo XIV’s new encyclical for people of all faiths and philosophies everywhere.

Dar Sentido a la Justicia Social

PARA PUBLICACIÓN INMEDIATA

DAR SENTIDO A LA JUSTICIA SOCIAL

Una guía para comprender Magnifica Humanitas ya está disponible en español

 

(Arlington, Virginia, EE. UU., 15 de mayo de 2026) Justice University Press, una editorial del Centro para la Justicia Económica y Social (CESJ), un grupo de expertos que promueve un enfoque de libre mercado basado en la propiedad privada para una propiedad generalizada del capital sin redistribución, se complace en anunciar el lanzamiento de Personalismo Económico: Propiedad, Poder y Justicia para Cada Persona (ISBN: 978-1-60210-011-4), un libro que aplica el pensamiento personalista del Papa Juan Pablo II. Traducido al español por la Dra. María Teresa Rosón de Pérez Lozano de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Argentina en Buenos Aires, Personalismo Económico pone a disposición de una nueva audiencia Economic Personalism: Property, Power and Justice for Every Person (2020) de Michael D. Greaney y Dawn K. Brohawn.

Una obra breve pero sustantiva, Personalismo Económico presenta un resumen de los principios morales de la ley natural y métodos sólidos de finanzas diseñados para establecer y mantener la justicia económica para todos. En inglés o en español, Personalismo Económico es una orientación esencial para comprender y promover el mensaje de la nueva encíclica del Papa León XIV para personas de todas las religiones y filosofías en todo el mundo.

A New Encyclical . . . So What?

Word on the street is Pope Leo XIV is issuing a new “encyclical” on May 15, 2026.  The document, provisionally titled Magnifica Humanitas (hmmm . . .) is expected to be a follow-up on Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 effort, Rerum Novarum, “On Labor and Capital,” which some (erroneously, if it matters) consider the first “social encyclical.”

JTW Podcast: Magnifica Humanitas and the Just Third Way

A new “encyclical” provisionally title “Magnifica Humanitas” (ouch!) is scheduled for release this coming Friday.   So . . . what has this got to do with CESJ or the Just Third Way?  Well, plenty.  Although CESJ is not a Catholic or religious organization, and the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism is not a religious movement, the “natural law” foundations of Catholic social teaching and the respect for human dignity are common to people of all faiths and philosophies.

News from the Network, Vol. 19, No. 19

The stranger things get, the more they seem to stay the same.  This, of course, argues that things are already so strange that they could hardly get more so.  This, if nothing else, is a good reason to adopt the Economic Democracy Act as soon as possible:

Economic Doubletalk, II: The Theoretical Critiques

In our last exciting episode, we looked at a list of reasons the AI engine “Claude” gave to explain why economists reject Louis Kelso’s Binary Economics.  We didn’t think the critiques were very good (or we wouldn’t be writing this blog, obviously) and they are very easily refuted.  This week we take the first group on the list, the “Theoretical Critiques”:

JTW Podcast: William Winslow Crosskey: The Forgotten Originalist

The thought of William Winslow Crosskey (1894-1968) is fundamental to the Just Third Way — and not because CESJ’s president, Norman G. Kurland, was a student of his in the late 1950s at the University of Chicago.  Crosskey took his law degree at a Yale still under the influence of the rigorous Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld (1879-1918, Fundamental Legal Conceptions, 1919) and was brought to Chicago by Robert Maynard Hutchins.

News from the Network, Vol. 19, No. 18

Making a long story short, the conclusion to be drawn from this week’s news items is that it would be better all ’round if the powers-that-be adopt the Economic Democracy Act as soon as possible:

Economic Doubletalk, I: The Question

Recently a CESJ stalwart decided to ask “Claude” a question.  Actually, this particular individual has been asking Claude a lot of questions, but the answer to this particular question was one we could use to create a blog posting without first having to think what to write about.

JTW Podcast: The Pope vs the President

. . . and the pope is winning?  We have kept more or less quiet about the back-and-forth between Pope Leo XIV and President Trump because 1) As an organization we’re interested in politics and religion only insofar as they affect essential human dignity and the establishment and maintenance of an environment within which consistent with principles of natural law people can become more fully human — “virtuous” — and thereby fit themselves for their proper role and purpose of life, however they define it.

News from the Network, Vol. 19, No. 17

This week’s news items seem oddly similar to previous weeks . . . which maybe isn’t so strange given the rising level of chaos everywhere.  As you might expect (and as we hint in some of the items) we believe much of this is due to the almost total disempowerment of ordinary people throughout the world — and (as Daniel Webster said over two centuries ago), “Power naturally and necessarily follows property.”  That being the case, the obvious solution to the world’s ills is to adopt the Economic Democracy Act as soon as possible:

Yes, But What Do You Mean by Progressivism?

And, of course, What do you mean by “America”?  U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has come out with a warning against something he calls “progressivism.”  In his opinion, “progressivism” has the potential to destroy America.

JTW Podcast: Economic Democracy

Of course, the first thing that pops into your head on hearing the words “Economic Democracy” is socialism of some variety or other, but that is not the case with the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism, which is based solidly on the natural right of every person to own capital.  Socialism, as you might know, is defined as the abolition of private property in capital — so a system based on widespread private ownership of capital cannot be called socialism.

News from the Network, Vol. 19, No. 16

Again the news items we’ve collected (entirely without prejudice, of course) graphically illustrate what has increasingly become the absolute need for something like the Economic Democracy Act as soon as possible — so why not now?

The Marriage Tax Penalty

Just in time for “Tax Day,” we have a posting on . . . taxation!  How original!  Today we are taking on the so-called “marriage penalty” that kicks in when people get hitched, specifically, what has been going on in Switzerland.  It hasn’t been getting a lot of (or any) play on this side of the pond, but the Swiss are “equalizing” what people have become accustomed to calling “genders.”

JTW Podcast: Mike Wallace Interviews Robert Maynard Hutchins

Somehow, we missed this video when searching for videos by or about Robert Maynard Hutchins, one of the people behind the “Great Books” program with the goal of reviving and restoring American education — related, not coincidentally, to CESJ’s “Justice University” program.

News from the Network, Vol. 19, No. 15

Not too much new in the “news” this week, but perhaps there are a few items of interest.  Frankly, it’s difficult to know what tack to take in putting together the news items every week because that requires some idea of what the powers-that-be are likely to do, and in the current economic and political atmosphere, that is very difficult to figure out.  One thing remains constant, however: if we want things to change, we should adopt the Economic Democracy Act as soon as possible:

Democratizing Finance

    One of the goals of the Economic Democracy Act is to “democratize” ownership of capital.  By this we do not mean the collectivist “The People” own (meaning everything is owned by the State and controlled by whoever holds political power), the individualist “Democratic Capitalism” (meaning almost everything is owned by a relatively few private individuals holding economic power), or the collective-individualist/individual-collectivist “Servile State” (meaning virtually everything is owned or controlled by a private-public sector economic-political elite holding both economic and political power).

JTW Podcast: How to Find Good Books to Read

    Last week we looked at a Beginner’s Guide to the Classics — books, that is.  Today, assuming you are all agog to start the process of reading all the good stuff, we present “Great Books” Professor Andrew Moore’s suggestions as to how to find the good stuff:

News from the Network, Vol. 19, No. 14

At the risk of sounding redundant, this week’s news items differ only in detail from those of previous weeks.  The only antidote is to adopt the Economic Democracy Act as soon as possible:

The Monster from SpaceX

No, this is not the title of a 1950’s low-budget sci-fi flick.  Nor is it a cheap commercial from the, er, 1950s comparing what someone is advertising with “Brand X.”  No, it’s just some commentary about the proposed IPO — that’s “Initial Public Offering” for those of us not up on the lingo of financial markets — of “SpaceX” for “Space Exploration Technologies Corporation,” the rather unimaginatively named private American aerospace manufacturer and space transportation company.

JTW Podcast: Beginner’s Guide to the Classics

Yes, it’s a Good Thing to read “the Great Books” . . . but where do you start — and in a way that doesn’t turn you off immediately if not sooner?  Well, for one thing, don’t try to read something that really leaves or left a bad taste in your mouth.  Plus, keep in mind that a book that really turned you off at age 18 might suddenly turn out to be absolutely fascinating, even (if you’ll pardon the expression) great.  In this podcast, Andrew Moore, a “Great Books” professor who bills himself as The Great Books Prof, gives you a leg up on the process:

News from the Network, Vol. 19, No. 13

From the news items it is more than a little obvious that the financial markets are in utter chaos, and the general economy reflects this unfortunate condition.  From the perspective of the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism, it is even more obvious why the decisions of a very few rich and powerful individuals of questionable ethical orientations and possibly a bit more have such incredible influence: reliance on what Louis O. Kelso called the slavery of [past] savings.  Whoever controls the means of becoming productive will control who can be productive and for whose benefit.  The only solution is to ensure that every person has access to the means to become productive, and that means access to “future” savings, and that means adopting the Economic Democracy Act:

How to Get Out of (National) Debt

The U.S. National Debt is now climbing upwards of $39 trillion . . . although it’s not impossible to find some experts who claim the figure is more like $100 trillion due to unbooked estimates for Social Security and Medicare.  Of course, whether we’re talking $39 trillion or $100 trillion — yes, that’s trillion — it’s in the realm of the surreal, not the real.  That’s a lot of money.

JTW Podcast: Oligarchy Explained Simply

This week we return to the podcasts created by Andrew Moore, a “Great Books” professor who bills himself as The Great Books Prof.  We don’t know if he warrants that the instead of an a, but we think you might find his podcasts interesting, possibly even useful.  Today we feature his podcast on Oligarchy . . . which should possibly interest us more than it does and might prove useful if we wonder why we should be interested in the Economic Democracy Act: