A little backstory. A few years ago, we were asked to prepare an explanation of what we mean by “the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism.” Even though we are an interfaith group, the request came from an official at the Vatican (not the pope or anyone you know). We wrote the explanation based on universal principles of natural law applicable to all “natural” faiths and philosophies (mostly based on or compatible with Aristotelian philosophy).
Wednesday, December 11, 2024
Monday, December 9, 2024
JTW Podcast: Presocratic Philosophy, Part II
This week, “Professor Dave Explains” continues his talk on Greek philosophers before Socrates. It’s a little abrupt, since Part I was the first half of the lecture and this is the second half, but that’s not really anything to worry about. So, let’s get down and funky with the Presocratics:
Friday, December 6, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 49
As the year draws to a close, we see increasing numbers of reasons for somebody somewhere to adopt the Economic Democracy Act and lead the way for the rest of the world:
Wednesday, December 4, 2024
What is the Federal Reserve For, Exactly?
George Will’s November 30, 2024, column asked the question as to what, exactly, is the purpose of the Federal Reserve System. This is a reasonable concern, especially given the way governments throughout the world have been using their central banks to spend money like drunken sailors on leave. Unfortunately, although Will pontificated for 750 words or so, it was evident that, while he clearly intended the title of his column to be rhetorical, he himself has no realistic idea of the role or function of a central bank, much less any bank other than a bank of deposit.
Monday, December 2, 2024
JTW Podcast: Presocratic Philosophy, Part I
This week, “Professor Dave Explains” about Greek philosophers before Socrates. It’s pretty rapid fire, but still informative and (up to a point) entertaining. As before, personally, we find the use of “BCE” instead of “BC” is annoying, but we’re big enough to let that pass . . . for now:
Friday, November 29, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 48
A lot of news items this week and consequently a lot of arguments to adopt the Economic Democracy Act, so we’ll get right into it:
Wednesday, November 27, 2024
Union Solidarista Guatemalteca y Costa Rica
It’s not so much a buzzword nowadays, but “solidarity” is still an important concept, and one that often doesn’t mean what people think it does. To define what we mean by solidarity, we begin with the thought of Pope Saint John Paul II (Karol Józef Wojtyła, 1920-2005, elected 1978).
Monday, November 25, 2024
JTW Podcast: East Asian and Indian Early Philosophical Thought
Here is an additional take on the history of philosophy and logic from “Professor Dave Explains.” We’re most interested in Aristotelian philosophy, but knowing something about other systems is useful as well. Personally, the use of “BCE” instead of “BC” is annoying, but so what:
Friday, November 22, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 47
Trump and the economy are the Big News this week . . . and since he isn’t really saying anything different than anyone else, we still need to adopt the Economic Democracy Act:
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Some Comments on Social Credit
In China, the social credit system (SCS) is a national reputation system that rates the trustworthiness of individuals, businesses, and government entities. The idea is to regulate social behavior and ensure compliance with laws and regulations. The SCS assigns a score to each entity, with higher scores leading to more benefits and lower scores leading to more penalties. High scores can lead to tax breaks, jumping the public housing queue, and easier access to credit. Low scores can lead to denial of licenses and permits, exclusion from booking flights or high-speed train tickets, and restricted access to public services . . . all based on some bureaucrat’s idea of how good a person you are. It’s a fun and easy way to have your life ruined.
Monday, November 18, 2024
JTW Podcast: Introduction to Philosophy and Logic
Here is an interesting take on philosophy and logic from “Professor Dave Explains.” Logic is a tool to help us think about knowledge, while philosophy is knowledge about knowledge . . . it’s not that bad (or bad at all), as you will see from this short video:
Friday, November 15, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 46
Economic and social insecurity is increasing at an increasing rate these days. Ironically, a lot of this could probably be eliminated by the Economic Democracy Act:
Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Who REALLY Owns the Federal Reserve?
On paper, the Federal Reserve System, the central bank of the United States, is owned by its member banks. Member banks are required to purchase a special form of preferred stock paying a minimal dividend but carrying a meaningless vote. This is not, however, true ownership. As Louis O. Kelso once pointed out, control means ownership in all codes of law, and as we will see below, the federal government, while it does have “legal title” to the Federal Reserve System, controls it by having the president of the United States appoint the Chairman of the Board of Governors, and by receiving all revenue in excess of what is expended in operations.
Monday, November 11, 2024
JTW Podcast: Four Possibilities to Prove Reality is Real
This week’s podcast deal with reality and the existence of God, a question relevant to every faith and philosophy. Again, if there is no God, then there is no absolute standard and there are no rules to live by and no moral law to follow; anyone can do anything he wants — might makes right. And why is that important? Because if there are no absolutes and right is whatever the strongest says it is, then the Just Third Way is nonsense:
Friday, November 8, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 45
Everyone is obsessing about the results of the U.S. election this week, but life goes on (and on, and on, and on). Regardless how it would have turned out, in our opinion the only thing that will Make America Great Again is to make AMERICANS (or any other nationalities) great again, and that means adopting the Economic Democracy Act:
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
Why “Binary”?
Occasionally, someone thinks he (or she) has come up with a brilliant criticism of the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism by pointing out “binary economics” is not a good way of describing the ideas of Louis O. Kelso which form the primary economic theory of the Just Third Way. The critic takes a brief look and sees Kelso divided the factors of production into labor and capital instead of labor, land, and capital, and assumes it is the whole of Kelso’s thought, which is ultra-simplistic.
Monday, November 4, 2024
JTW Podcast: The Case for God
This week’s podcast deals with the case for the existence of God. Why is this important? Because as Dostoyevsky had Ivan Karamazov in The Brothers Karamazov (1880) claim, if God does not exist, then everything is permitted. If there is no God, then there is no absolute standard and there are no rules to live by and no moral law to follow; anyone can do anything he wants — might makes right. And why is that important? Because if there are no absolutes and right is whatever the strongest says it is, then the Just Third Way is nonsense:
Friday, November 1, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 44
As the United States gets closer to the upcoming election, it becomes increasingly obvious from this week’s news items none of the candidates are looking at the economy in any realistic way. What is a realistic way? The program in the Economic Democracy Act:
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
The Pecuniary Advantage
Last week we noted what makes the rich different is not more money (although that certainly doesn’t hurt . . .) but access to money creation. Access to money and credit determines who can acquire and possess capital, which is what makes people rich, not mere money.
Monday, October 28, 2024
JTW Podcast: Aquinas v. Kant
This week’s podcast is still about “Natural Theology,” but don’t worry — this is just basic philosophical concepts underpinning the theory of natural law from which the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism is derived. Why is this important if the Just Third Way is not a religion? Because consistent with the philosophy of Aristotle, the Just Third Way assumes as a given that there are absolutes, which necessarily implies the existence of God. Again, don’t worry: the only thing we can tell from natural reason about the existence of God and the natural law is that it exists . . . which segues into Emmanuel Kant and his Critique of Pure Reason (1781):
Friday, October 25, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 43
There seems to be more of a focus on financial problems associated with retirement . . . something which (as we’ve commented previously) might need a little bit of rethinking. There are other news items, of course, notably the notice about the Free Nations of Post-Russia Forum event in Ottawa, Canada, but still many problems might be resolved or reduced in magnitude by adopting the Economic Democracy Act:
Wednesday, October 23, 2024
Is the Proletarian Condition “Normal”?
Last week we looked at the question whether the rich, as F. Scott Fitzgerald claimed, are different. We concluded that today the rich are, indeed, different . . . but not as human beings. Rather, what makes the rich different these days is access to money and credit which enables them to buy advanced technology which can and usually does outproduce human labor at a quantum level.
Monday, October 21, 2024
JTW Podcast: Natural Theology, Part II
This continues last week’s podcast on “Natural Theology”, which is what can be discerned by reason about God, so is applicable across the board to people of all faiths and philosophies, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Pagan, or what have you. Today Sproul covers what G.K. Chesterton called "the Double Mind of Man," the idea something can be both true and false at the same time. Here is what R.C. Sproul had to say on the subject:
Friday, October 18, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 42
The news items this week approach the surreal, with items contradicting each other, and others simply not making sense. As usual, many of these problems could either be resolved or made much less worrisome by adopting the Economic Democracy Act:
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
The Rich are Different . . . Now
It is probably apocryphal, but Ernest Hemmingway allegedly replied to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s statement that “the rich are different” — “Yes, they have more money.” Mmmmm . . . that was true at one time, but no longer. Once upon a time, all the rich had was more and better of what everyone else had. Nowadays what the rich have is not more money, but access to money and credit to become the owners of productive technology which is closed to those of us without similar access.
Monday, October 14, 2024
JTW Podcast: Natural Theology, Part I
No, today’s podcast is not going far afield from the Just Third Way. All “Natural Theology” says is that knowledge of the existence of God and of the natural law can be derived from human reason by examining nature and using your head. It doesn’t say anything other than “God” exists and that what we see in human nature and everywhere else tells us something, however dimly, about “God’s” nature which is the content of natural law . . . and the Just Third Way is based on natural law. Here is what R.C. Sproul had to say on the subject:
Friday, October 11, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 41
Again, there is not too much new this week, and, again, most of it could be resolved by adopting the Economic Democracy Act:
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
How Much Money?
One of the problems with the global monetary system is the so-called experts are never able to decide how much money to create so that there is low inflation, high employment, low prices, and high wages . . . and you get the idea. The experts argue endlessly about everything except what they’re really concerned about: how to get the money they want and prevent everyone else from getting it.
Monday, October 7, 2024
JTW Podcast: Mystery
Do you love a mystery? This week’s lecture on “Mystery” continues last week’s talk on “Contradiction and Paradox.” Just to keep it exciting, Sproul starts off with antinomy. Not, the metal, which is antimony, but the concept. As usual, you can ignore the fact this lecture is part of a series on Christian apologetics, as the subject concerns thought and logic itself. Apologetics is just the application . . . which is neither a contradiction nor a paradox. Here’s what R.C. Sproul had to say on the subject:
Friday, October 4, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 40
Not too much new this week, and most of it could be resolved by adopting the Economic Democracy Act:
Wednesday, October 2, 2024
The High Priest of Capitalism?
There is much more to Adam Smith (1723-1790), the purported high priest of laissez faire capitalism, than many today suppose. Part of this is because few people in positions of authority, whether Church, State, or Family, understand the underlying principles of his philosophy. Instead, they accept conventional wisdom based on the principles of a competing paradigm having little in common with Smith’s fundamental tenets.
Monday, September 30, 2024
JTW Podcast: Contradiction and Paradox
Continuing our series of R.C. Sproul’s lectures, this week we have a talk on “Contradiction and Paradox” which are not the same thing. As usual, you can ignore the fact this lecture is part of a series on Christian apologetics, as the subject concerns thought and logic itself. Apologetics is just the application . . . which is neither a contradiction nor a paradox. Here’s what R.C. Sproul had to say on the subject:
Friday, September 27, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 39
We have some very sad news this week, the loss of a CESJ founding member and one who made continuing input into supporting the Just Third Way and the Economic Democracy Act:
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
“Freedom is Not an Empty Sound”
In the previous posting on this subject, we looked at William Cobbett, to whom some have referred as “the Apostle of Distributism,” meaning a sort of proto advocate of small ownership. Of course, in some cases, the people who attach such a label have little understanding of what ownership consists. We can sum up what Cobbett was talking about by quoting American statesman Daniel Webster: “Power naturally and necessarily follows property.”
Monday, September 23, 2024
JTW Podcast: Analogical Language, Part II
Last week’s podcast was Part I of R.C. Sproul’s lecture on “analogical language.” This week podcast is Part II of the lecture.” Again, you can ignore the fact this lecture is part of a series on Christian apologetics, as the subject concerns thought and logic itself. Apologetics is just the application. Here’s what R.C. Sproul had to say on the subject:
Friday, September 20, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 38
Some interesting events this week, but also a lot of more of the same . . . much of which could be resolved or at least ameliorated by adopting the Economic Democracy Act:
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
“Power Tends to Corrupt”
From 1824 to 1826, William Cobbett (1763-1835), whom G.K. Chesterton and others consider “the Apostle of Distributism,” published segments of A History of the Protestant Reformation in England and Ireland. In the book, portions of which were later adapted for The Poor Man’s Friend (1829), Cobbett’s goal was not to defend the Catholic faith. As he clearly stated, he was a Protestant, and never had any intention of being anything else.
Monday, September 16, 2024
JTW Podcast: Analogical Language, Part I
And you thought big words were just for dictionaries, not for the instant gratification internet crowd. This week’s podcast is another lecture from R.C. Sproul, this time on “analogical language.” And what is “analogical language”? That’s what you’ll find out today, at least the first part. Interestingly, Fulton Sheen's doctoral thesis, God and Intelligence in Modern Philosophy (1925) is related to this lecture. Again, you can ignore the fact this lecture is part of a series on Christian apologetics, as the subject concerns thought and logic itself. Apologetics is just the application. Here’s what R.C. Sproul had to say on the subject:
Friday, September 13, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 37
More of the same, only more so? In a sense, yes, this week’s news items bear a strong resemblance to those that have been listed week after week for some time. Keep heart, though, we’re continuing to work on introducing the principles of the Just Third Way as applied in the Economic Democracy Act:
Wednesday, September 11, 2024
Central Banking, III: The Role of a Central Bank
Despite all the conspiracy theories floating around, central banking is essential in a modern technologically and economically advanced economy. Allowing government to fill the role of a central bank is a serious mistake on so many levels that we won’t get into it. We’ll focus instead on the mechanics. So, what is a central bank all about?
Monday, September 9, 2024
JTW Podcast: Sense Perception
Does sense perception have a role in matters pertaining to faith or even to reason itself? Again, you can ignore the fact that this lecture is part of a series on Christian apologetics, as the subject concerns thought and logic itself. Apologetics is just the application. Here’s what R.C. Sproul had to say on the subject:
Friday, September 6, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 36
It seems the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee is worried about the interest rate and the unemployment rate. It is a Keynesian dogma, constantly disproved, that there is a tradeoff between inflation and employment . . . except that Keynes said there is no such thing as real inflation until full employment is reached. Is there a way to get out of this weird paradox? Yes. It is only necessary to adopt the Economic Democracy Act, and bring a halt to some of this surreal weirdness:
Wednesday, September 4, 2024
Central Banking, II: Commercial Bank Problems
In the previous posting on this subject, we noted that a single commercial bank is always riskier than several commercial banks acting together as part of a system. There is also the problem that, however sound an individual bank may be and stable its issues with respect to their value over time, the banknotes of one bank will never have the same value as the banknotes of another bank which is independent of the first bank.
Monday, September 2, 2024
JTW Podcast: The Law of Causality
Although this lecture is intended as an “apologetic” for Christianity, we’re presenting it as a basic lesson in principles of logic, using Christianity as an example. Here’s what R.C. Sproul had to say on the subject:
Friday, August 30, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 35
Were you among the elite group expecting to benefit from whatever comes out of meetings at, say, Jackson Hole, or were a normal person trying to get by as the elites and the central banks of the world continue to manage the global economy into more chaos? If the latter, you might want to consider promoting the Economic Democracy Act:, and bringing a halt to some of this nonsense:
Wednesday, August 28, 2024
Central Banking, I: Commercial Banks for Commercial Banks
Conspiracy theory to the contrary, central banks are not a plot by the bankers to conquer the world by controlling access to money and credit. Government got into central banking by an accident of history. King William III of England needed money and demanded a bribe in the form of the specie reserves of the newly organized Bank of England in exchange for “government stock” (i.e., government debt) for the bank to obtain a charter.
Monday, August 26, 2024
JTW Podcast: The Law of (Non) Contradiction
Does the world have a rational basis, or is it purely in the mind of the beholder? As some of today’s thinkers and politicians insist, do we create our own reality? Do we choose what we want to be and self-identify as? R.C. Sproul thought differently:
Friday, August 23, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 34
It’s tempting to say, “Nothing to see here, move along,” but there might be something in the Same Old Thing that makes people realize things could be different by adopting the Economic Democracy Act:
Wednesday, August 21, 2024
A Rational Approach to Taxation, Part II
In the previous posting on this subject, we noted that by and large the tax systems in place throughout the world are employed as means of social control and justifying Keynesian economics instead of their sole justified use as the sole legitimate source of revenue for government. Interestingly, both Adam Smith and Pope Leo XIII — usually assumed to be at odds on everything — agreed that for taxation to be just, it must adhere to what Smith called the four canons of taxation:
Monday, August 19, 2024
JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on Seeking Faith
In the 1930s, Mortimer Adler, a self-described unbaptized pagan, took a lot of criticism for “converting” people to Catholicism simply by getting people to think logically:
Friday, August 16, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 33
This week’s news items are more of the same only more so. It gets a little tiresome to see all the situations that could easily be solved by adopting the Economic Democracy Act:
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
A Rational Approach to Taxation, Part I
Reportedly, vice presidential candidate Tim Walz “created ‘the most progressive tax system in the country’ for Minnesota.” Pundits believe this will help Kamala Harris in her tax proposals. It will probably do that . . . but are Harris’s tax proposals what is needed? Come to think of it, are Trump’s tax proposals any better?
Monday, August 12, 2024
JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on Equality
Concluding our series on Mortimer Adler on the Six Great Ideas, today we have “Equality” — false ideas of which Alexis de Tocqueville warned us about. So, what does “equality” mean? Let’ hear Mortimer Adler:
Friday, August 9, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 32
What’s astonishing about the wild fluctuations of the stock market this week is that people (the so-called experts) think it is not a sign that something is wrong with the system and that the Economic Democracy Act isn’t necessary:
Wednesday, August 7, 2024
Vladimir Putin, Keynesian
In his General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936) John Maynard Keynes made some astonishing, even bizarre statements, many of which boggle the imagination. We have addressed a few of them on this blog, and if this were an “anti-Keynesian” venue instead of a “pro-Economic Personalism” platform, we would have enough to keep us going for quite some time, years, in fact.
Monday, August 5, 2024
JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on Goodness
Continuing our series on Mortimer Adler on the Six Great Ideas, today we have “Goodness.” What does “goodness” mean? All things aim at the good, according to Aristotle, but what, exactly, is good? Mortimer Adler gives us a few thoughts on the subject . . . and it might not be what you think:
Friday, August 2, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 31
“Winning isn't everything; it’s the only thing” in various forms has been to UCLA coach Henry Russell “Red” Sanders. Similarly, some people talk about money so much you’d think it is the only thing. It’s not — but if we don’t solve “the money question” in a just manner, we might as well stop where we are, and hope things don’t get worse. Fortunately, we have a tried-and-true program of monetary and tax reform applied in the Economic Democracy Act which would stop a great deal of the foolishness we see in the news with respect to economics and finance:
Wednesday, July 31, 2024
Putin’s Pertinacious Problems, III: Not Paying Your Bills
When you or I can’t pay our bills, our telephone service gets cut off or “they” repossess the car, truck, fishing boat, or whatever. When a country can’t pay its bills, the consequences get even more dire. As Henry C. Adams noted as recently as 1898, or 21 BK (Before Keynes, who thought being permanently in debt was a Good Thing),
Monday, July 29, 2024
JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on Justice
As it says in the Bible, “Justice, justice, thou shalt pursue.” Continuing our series on Mortimer Adler on the Six Great Ideas, today we have “Justice.” This is particularly important these days because, having suffered from the distortions of socialism and capitalism, so many people do not know the difference between justice and charity:
Wednesday, July 24, 2024
Putin’s Pertinacious Problems, II: Continuing a War of Conquest
In the previous posting on this subject, we looked at the problem Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has with starting a war of conquest when neither he nor Russia (despite their fantasies) were prepared for it, and for trying to deceive others into thinking it was anything other than an attempt to increase his own personal wealth and power, for which others were paying with their lives, liberty, and property. Today we look at the problem Putin has on his hands due to continuing a war of conquest (or any other kind), when it was painfully obvious from Day One the attempt has failed — at least to anyone applying reason to the situation.
Monday, July 22, 2024
JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on Liberty
Continuing our series on Mortimer Adler on the Six Great Ideas, today we have “Liberty.” Some people are of the opinion that liberty means they can do anything they like, which means anything they can force others into letting them do. Is that so? Or is that “license,” while liberty means the freedom to become more fully human as an individual while living together with others in society? Let’s listen:
Friday, July 19, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 29
Alas, all we have this week is more of the same, which will almost certainly be the case until and unless the Economic Democracy Act is adopted:
Wednesday, July 17, 2024
Putin’s Pertinacious Problems, I: Starting a War of Conquest
Vladimir Putin has a few problems. Well, he has a few hundred million problems, but we’re only going to look at three, all of which derive from his biggest problem: himself. When you need to control or destroy other people to live your own life, the real problem is you.
Monday, July 15, 2024
JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on Beauty
Continuing our series on Mortimer Adler on the Six Great Ideas, today we have a video he made on “Beauty” . . . which might not be what you expect:
Friday, July 12, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 28
With the upcoming U.S. election and the Russian attack on the largest children’s hospital in Ukraine, things are looking a trifle bad for sanity in the world. Still, while it won’t solve all problems or even most of them, adopting the Economic Democracy Act could be a giant step in the direction of restoring sanity and a world in which children might actually be permitted to live:
Wednesday, July 10, 2024
Total Financial Mobilization
In defense of Ukraine, money and credit are as crucial as guns and ammunition. A robust economy with widespread purchasing power is vital for both national prosperity and security. A solid financial system and sustainable growth are necessary in peacetime and wartime alike.
Monday, July 8, 2024
JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on the Necessity of Government
Continuing our series on videos we’ve discovered about Mortimer Adler, today we look at Adler’s thoughts on the necessity of government. Given the antics of today’s leaders and politicians, this is a reminder how good, even great ideas can be twisted by bad philosophy, bad motives, and bad people:
Friday, July 5, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 27
Once again, the news items from this week sound like a fantasy writer who might have snacked on the wrong pan of brownies and got kicked off the writing team of Killer Klowns from Outer Space for being too far out. Ironically, many of the world’s problems could be solved or at least ameliorated by adopting the Economic Democracy Act:, returning economic (and thus political) power to people, and getting rid of a few of the dictators and wannabes:
Wednesday, July 3, 2024
Central Bank Funding, II: Traditional Solutions to the Twin Threats
Today’s posting is the second 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.
The first half of this article,“The Twin Threats,” can be found here.
Monday, July 1, 2024
JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on Beauty
Continuing our series on videos we’ve discovered about Mortimer Adler, who brought knowledge of philosophy to a popular audience, today we have a talk he gave on beauty:
Friday, June 28, 2024
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:
Wednesday, June 26, 2024
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.
Monday, June 24, 2024
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:
Friday, June 21, 2024
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:
Wednesday, June 19, 2024
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.
Monday, June 17, 2024
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:
Friday, June 14, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 24
Wednesday, June 12, 2024
Something Missing
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.
Monday, June 10, 2024
JTW Podcast: Washington Outsider Report
Friday, June 7, 2024
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?
Monday, June 3, 2024
JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on Goodness
Friday, May 31, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 22
Wednesday, May 29, 2024
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.
Monday, May 27, 2024
JTW Podcast: Fulton Sheen on Firing Line
Friday, May 24, 2024
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:
Wednesday, May 22, 2024
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.
Monday, May 20, 2024
JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on Aristotle
Friday, May 17, 2024
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:
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Keynesian Economics and Income Distribution
Monday, May 13, 2024
JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on Aristotle’s Theory of Happiness
Friday, May 10, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 19
Wednesday, May 8, 2024
The Keynesian Fairy State
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.
One of the first things a student must learn about Keynesian economics is there are certain questions one must not ask, such as, How could Keynes reject Say’s Law of Markets when he couldn’t even define it correctly? What did it mean when Keynes declared inflation — which means a rise in the price level — isn’t really inflation until after “full employment” is reached, and that a rise in the price level before reaching full employment is due to “other factors” and isn’t really inflation . . . meaning a rise in the price level isn’t really a rise in the price level until Keynes said it is a rise in the price level?
Monday, May 6, 2024
JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on Reading Aristotle Backwards
Friday, May 3, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 18
Week after week, one thing becomes crystal clear (as if it hadn’t already): Keynesian economics isn’t working and has never worked . . . but the politicians and so-called experts insist with all their heart and our lives, fortunes, and sacred honor that it’s going to work, or they’re going to see that we die while they try. Or they could do the sensible thing and adopt: the Economic Democracy Act:
Wednesday, May 1, 2024
The Theory of Certitude
Socialism as promoted by Robert Owen, Claude-Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon, François-Marie-Charles Fourier, and others, sought to abolish traditional concepts of private property, marriage and family, and religion. In their place would be new institutions that might go by the same name and even have the same outward form as the old institutions (Saint-Simon, for instance, called his system, “the New Christianity”), but the substance would be completely different.
Monday, April 29, 2024
JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on Aristotle
Friday, April 26, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 17
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
The Financial Revolution
Few people — at least those of us who are not wealthy — would argue that there is something seriously wrong with the money system in the world today. Most people, however, either dismiss matters as “the way things are (and whatcha gonna do ’bout it?)” or assume it’s due to some conspiracy or other.
Monday, April 22, 2024
JTW Podcast: The Front Line with Joe & Joe
Friday, April 19, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 16
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
The Age of Revolution
To oversimplify somewhat, three revolutions have led to the alienation of most people from the institutions of the common good by stripping them of power. The first two did this almost inadvertently by limiting access to social and technological tools, while the third did it by the nature of the change itself. These were,
Monday, April 15, 2024
JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on Happiness
Mortimer Adler on happiness, and why it might not be exactly what you think. How do we live, and how do we live well?
Friday, April 12, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 15
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
The Political Animal
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.
As we noted in the previous posting on this subject, being true to oneself means conforming to one’s human nature. By doing so, people become more fully human by acquiring and developing virtue (“human-ness”). If done at all, this is the work of a lifetime and the hardest path to follow.
Monday, April 8, 2024
JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on the U.S. Constitution
We have a real treat in store for you today: Mortimer Adler on the U.S. Constitution, which many people do not realize is in very close conformity with Aristotelian-Thomist philosophy:
Friday, April 5, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 14
As usual, there are many problems in the world we report on this week that would either be greatly alleviated or eliminated entirely with the adoption of the Economic Democracy Act:, but the big job is convincing the powers-that-be it is a good idea and to get moving on it:
Wednesday, April 3, 2024
Dorothy Jean Fry Previc, R.I.P.
Dawn K Brohawn, Guest Blogger
Recently CESJ was saddened to learn of the death on March 17, 2024 of our
member and long-time supporter Dorothy Jean Fry Previc. A resident of Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, Dorothy
graduated from T.C. Williams High School, Alexandria, VA, attended Mary
Washington University, Fredericksburg, VA and earned her Bachelor of Arts
degree in Political Science from Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA.
Monday, April 1, 2024
JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on Goodness
Today we have Mortimer Adler’s lecture on “Goodness” . . . which might not be as straightforward as it sounds . . . no, it's not an April Fool's joke:
Friday, March 29, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 13
As usual, there are many problems in the world we report on this week that would either be greatly alleviated or eliminated entirely with the adoption of the Economic Democracy Act:, but the big job is convincing the powers-that-be it is a good idea and to get moving on it:
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
The Reasonable Alternative
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.
Monday, March 25, 2024
JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on How to Speak, How to Listen
Today we have Mortimer Adler’s lecture on “How to Speak, How to Listen,” taken from his book of the same title:
Friday, March 22, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 12
The only thing significantly different from previous news notes is the fact that they seem to be getting weirder . . . and staying the same all the time. Cutting to the chase, the only thing that’s going to make the situation better is to adopt the Economic Democracy Act:
Wednesday, March 20, 2024
Faith and Reason
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.
Man, as Aristotle noted in the Politics, is the rational animal. Anything that shifts the human person away from reason as the foundation of a faith or a philosophy contradicts essential human nature, that is, what it means to be human.
Monday, March 18, 2024
JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on the Great Ideas
Here is one of
Mortimer Adler’s appearances on William F. Buckley’s Firing Line about the need for genuine education:
Friday, March 15, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 11
It is depressing to see how strong a hold discredited economic theories have on today’s global and national economies. All of the news items this week wouldn’t even be on the radar if the so-called experts had sound principles and a workable paradigm, as found in the Economic Democracy Act:
Monday, March 11, 2024
JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler Gets Attacked
Friday, March 8, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 10
Yes, it’s depressingly the same news items (or very nearly) week after week, but it’s what is going to continue happening until we adopt the Economic Democracy Act:
Wednesday, March 6, 2024
Solidarity and Personalism
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.
Confronted today by growing conflict and inequality between people and nations around the globe, no one can ignore any longer the universal question that will shape the future for generations to come: What is the place of the human person — each of us — in society?
Monday, March 4, 2024
JTW Podcast: The Perennial Philosophy
Given that this week marks the 750th anniversary of the death of Thomas Aquinas, we thought we’d give you a little talk about Aquinas talking about how faith and reason go together:
Friday, March 1, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 09
At the top of the news this week, at least from the perspective of the Just Third Way, is Norman G. Kurland being honored as an Ambassador of Peace by the Universal Peace Federation:
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
The Just Third Way
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.
The fortieth anniversary of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice is coming up. We’ll tell a little bit more about that as the anniversary itself, April 7, approaches, but today we’re looking at a major program developed by CESJ: the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism.
Monday, February 26, 2024
JTW Podcast: March on Washington, August 28, 1963
The National Archives film on the March . . . they left out private property in capital, though:
Friday, February 23, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 08
This week’s news items are again a brief chronicle of dumb government tricks seemingly validated by failed Keynesian economics. Again, as usual, we believe most if not all of these issues could be solved by adopting the Economic Democracy Act.
Wednesday, February 21, 2024
Five Levers of Change: Technology
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.
For centuries workers have understood that when technology advances it usually means they will lose their jobs to machines that can do the work better and cheaper. Sometimes advancing technology creates more new jobs than it displaces, although this is not always a benefit. The cotton gin created an enormous demand for labor that was filled by expanding the number of human beings owned as slaves. The Industrial Revolution largely eliminated most production by small and family-owned enterprises and turned millions of people into “employees” dependent on private employers and the State.
Monday, February 19, 2024
JTW Podcast: Walter Reuther on Civil Rights, August 28, 1963
Friday, February 16, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 07
Wednesday, February 14, 2024
Five Levers of Change: Tax Policy
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 1891, Pope Leo XIII declared that “Many excellent results will follow” from expanding ownership to as many people as possible (Rerum Novarum, § 47). As he said,
Monday, February 12, 2024
JTW Podcast: Walter Reuther on Profit Sharing, Part 2 of 2
As we noted in last week’s posting on this subject, January 1958 saw the publication of The Capitalist Manifesto by Louis O. Kelso and Mortimer J. Adler . . . and this Mike Wallace interview of labor leader Walter Reuther about profit sharing, of which we present Part 2 of 2 today:
Friday, February 9, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 06
This week we have a plethora of news items that sound remarkably like the previous week and the week before that and the week before that and the week before that . . . but you get the idea. Not to get repetitive, but most if not all of these issues could be solved by adopting the Economic Democracy Act.
Wednesday, February 7, 2024
Labor, Economic, and Civil Rights
What with the state of the economy and the so-called “woke” culture to which so many people today look for salvation when the solution is already within reach with a little effort, few realize that it was only a few decades ago that matters took a dramatically wrong turn. The Keynesian New Deal, which many believed was supposed to be temporary, became permanent public policy following World War II, even though its disutility was painfully obvious by 1936 and the surreal “Depression within the Depression” that directly resulted from Keynes’s prescriptions.
Monday, February 5, 2024
JTW Podcast: Walter Reuther on Profit Sharing, Part 1 of 2
January 1958 saw the publication of The Capitalist Manifesto by Louis O. Kelso and Mortimer J. Adler . . . and this Mike Wallace interview of labor leader Walter Reuther about profit sharing:
Friday, February 2, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 05
Ready for this week’s short list of economic insanity and gloom and doom? Neither are we, but here it is, anyway. Of course, we could adopt the Economic Democracy Act . . . so if people want to see something new in this report, get Congress to act . . .
Wednesday, January 31, 2024
Five Levers of Change: Money and Credit
As we have seen in the previous postings on this subject, the meaning and purpose of life — becoming virtuous to become more fully human — requires that people have power. As a rule, to have power, people must have private property. In order to have private property and be secure in its possession, people must have access to the means of acquiring and possessing private property, and that requires access to the just and responsible use of money and credit.
Monday, January 29, 2024
JTW Podcast: The Great Conversation, XXXIX
This appears to be the final installment of “The Great Conversation” . . . like Jack Benny, they stopped at 39. The end or not of this series, today’s video is about how Herodotus explained the first ancient people and the origin of the Nile.
Friday, January 26, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 04
Yet again there is a depressing sameness about the news items this week. That means that our solution is the same, if not at all depressing: adopt the Economic Democracy Act . . . so if people want to see something new in this report, get Congress to act . . .
Wednesday, January 24, 2024
Five Levers of Change: Politics
Aristotle |
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.
Despite what “politics” means to most people, it is not something to avoid. In the Aristotelian, philosophical sense, politics refers to the behavior of human beings as “political animals” having both individual and social aspects. In this broad sense, politics refers to the art of securing and maintaining fundamental human rights of all persons without harm to other individuals, groups, or the common good as a whole. Social justice is the particular virtue directed to the common good by means of which this social order is structured, reformed, and maintained.
Monday, January 22, 2024
JTW Podcast: The Great Conversation, XXXVIII
Friday, January 19, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 03
Wednesday, January 17, 2024
Five Levers of Change: Education
In social and economic justice, there is no “one size fits all.” Applying the principles of economic personalism to any particular society is and will always remain more of an art than a science. The question of which institutions need to be reformed and what will be the most effective means to do this is one that cannot be resolved easily. At the same time the question must be settled before any effective action can be taken.
Monday, January 15, 2024
JTW Podcast: The Great Conversation, XXXVII
Friday, January 12, 2024
News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 02
Wednesday, January 10, 2024
The Framework of Economic Justice: Restoration of Private Property
As we saw in the previous postings on this subject, widespread private property in capital is essential to a just society. That of course raises the question as to what private property is.