THE Global Justice Movement Website

THE Global Justice Movement Website
This is the "Global Justice Movement" (dot org) we refer to in the title of this blog.

Friday, November 8, 2013

News from the Network, Vol. 6, No. 45


Believe it or not, the Euro, the poster child of Keynesian “managed” currencies, is “suddenly” taking criticism for being “the world’s worst currency.”  Why?  Because “investors” (i.e., currency speculators) are having a hard time making enough money fast enough when the European Central Bank refuses to take their wants and needs into consideration.

We have a different opinion as to why the Euro might be the worst currency in the world.  It is the only reserve currency on the face of the earth that started out where all the others have gone: total government debt backing.  Every other reserve currency started out as asset-backed, whether being itself a stamped bit of gold or silver, convertible into gold or silver, or backed with specific hard assets, whether or not redeemable or convertible into gold or silver.

So, what’s the problem?  Rule number one for both commercial and central banking is that the reserve currency must — not “should,” must — be asset-backed.  A reserve currency has to stand for something that has real value.  This is because the reserve currency gives people confidence that all the other forms of money that can be converted into the reserve currency have value, too, or people wouldn’t want to trade something with value, for something without value.

A reserve currency that is backed with the present value of existing and future marketable goods and services has actual assets behind it.  A reserve currency that is backed with government debt has only the government’s ability to collect taxes out of production that might not even be taking place behind it.

It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon or a brain scientist to figure out which one is preferable — or sane.  So what have we been doing this past week to try and restore some sanity to the world?  Well, for starters:

• Al Smith up in Canada is making the rounds of Catholic seminaries, distributing materials on Fulton J. Sheen.  As you can see from the photograph, CESJ’s Just Third Way Edition of Fulton J. Sheen’s Freedom Under God is prominently featured.  Sheen, of course, along with G. K. Chesterton, spent years trying to wake people up to the need to use reason.  Not coincidentally, the Catholic Church claims to base its “social teachings” on an understanding of the natural law based on what can be discerned by reason about human nature, not on faith.  The more priests-in-training know this (or anybody else, for that matter), the better off everyone will be, Christian or not.

• The review of Freedom Under God by Tacy Beck on the “Catholic Mom” website seems to be garnering a little attention.  You might want to visit the site, read the review, and post your own comment.  You might also want to stop by Amazon and Barnes and Noble and purchase a copy or two for yourself — and post a review there, too.

• Again, the big news is that a short time ago we released Freedom Under God for printing.  CESJ is now taking bulk/wholesale orders (please, no individual sales).  The per unit price for ten or more copies is $16.00 (20% discount).  Shipping is extra.  Send an e-mail to “publications [at] cesj [dot] org” stating how many copies you want and the street address (no P. O. Boxes) where you want them delivered.  We will get back to you with the total cost, how to pay, and estimated delivery time.  All payments must be made in advance, and orders are placed only after payment clears.

CESJ offers a 10% commission on the retail cover price on bulk sales of publications.  If you broker a deal with, for example, a school or civic organization that buys a publication in bulk (i.e., ten copies or more of a single title), you receive a commission once a transaction has been completed to the satisfaction of the customer.  Thus, if you get your club or school to purchase, say, ten cases of Freedom Under God (280 copies) or any other CESJ or UVM publication, the organization would pay CESJ $3,920.00 (280 copies x $20 per copy, less a 30% discount), plus shipping (the commission is calculated on the retail cost only, not the shipping).  You would receive $560.00.  Send an e-mail to “publications [at] cesj [dot] org” for copies of flyers of CESJ and UVM publications.  (CESJ project participants and UVM shareholders are not eligible for commissions.)

• As of this morning, we have had visitors from 63 different countries and 51 states and provinces in the United States and Canada to this blog over the past two months. Most visitors are from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and South Africa. The most popular postings this past week were “Thomas Hobbes on Private Property,” “Aristotle on Private Property,” “The Fulton Sheen ‘Guy’,” “Apocalypse Now?” and “The Purpose of Production.”

Those are the happenings for this week, at least 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 we’ll see that it gets into the next “issue.”  If you have a short (250-400 word) comment on a specific posting, please enter your comments in the blog — do not send them to us to post for you.  All comments are moderated anyway, so we’ll see it before it goes up.

#30#