Jaspreet Singh
• The Fake Rich Going Bankrupt. It’s usually (as in always) a bad idea to buy investments at a high price and sell them at a low price if there has been no other benefit derived from ownership than mere possession. Of course, if an asset has generated income or some other benefit and it has been depleted, that is another matter. What financial expert Jaspreet Singh is noting, however, is that the “Fake Rich” — people with a temporary condition of having more dollars than sense — were buying very expensive consumer items as investments, and are now caught in a crunch as those assets have plunged in value . . . as consumer goods and speculative investments tend to do. Owners are stuck with items they bought high and can’t sell low. Like the bad slave in the parable of the talents, they would have done better to let their money out at usury and gained at least a small return and retained the principal. Instead, they chose to gamble on consumer price changes. Adopting the Economic Democracy Act would help orient people toward real investment and give greater returns, but it’s probably not as much fun as gambling and putting one over on others.
• Markets “Ahead of Themselves”. The gamblers know it and the economic and financial experts are causing it, but most people are mystified why the economy jumps all over the place whenever the Federal Reserve starts fooling with the interest rates or even talking about it. This has the gamblers and so-called experts dancing in the aisles as the stock market goes to incredible heights . . . which doesn’t really reflect what is going on in the real economy. That is why a few other experts are worried that the high prices of shares on the market are indicative of wishful thinking, and not of reality. If the Economic Democracy Act were to be adopted, however, the stock market would gradually start to reflect the real value of shares, as people would begin shifting from buying shares to sell them at a profit to holding them for income, not appreciation.
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| . . . that always looks exactly like the old economic order . . . |
• A New Economic Order? The experts claim they are expecting a “new economic order.” What do they mean by that? Certainly not a genuine new economic order, which would be the case if a country adopted the Economic Democracy Act. Instead, what do they mean by “new”? Let’s take a look: “Investors are betting that the Fed could cut rates by as much as 1.5% by the end of 2024, but that would still leave policy rates at close to 4%, higher than where it has been for most of the past two decades. At that level, monetary policy will still be a drag on growth, as it would be above the so-called neutral rate at which the economy neither expands nor contracts.” So, “new” means still attempting to control the economy by manipulating the so-called “price of money.” This is new? It’s the same thing that has screwed up economic thinking since at least 1844 when the British adopted the Act that completely changed central banking, shackling it to the bizarre Currency Principle that insists the quantity of money determines the level of economic activity, instead of the Banking Principle, which is that the level of economic activity determines the quantity of money.
• Fresh Voice in Interest Rate Debate. We are informed that Alberto Musalem, the new president of the Saint Louis Federal Reserve, will add a “fresh voice” to the “interest rate debate.” Uh, huh. Coming from the New York Federal Reserve and the IMF, the only thing fresh is the degree to which interest rates will be manipulated, not whether they should. This is a difference in degree, not in kind. There only thing we can expect, therefore, is more of the same, only more so. If the Federal Reserve really wanted something fresh, they would push for adoption of the Economic Democracy Act, which would allow the market to determine interest rates, and limit government’s role in the economy.
• What Wall Street Got Wrong. All the experts were expecting an economic downturn in 2023 . . . and they got it, as conditions got worse for real people, but the stock market soared to new heights. Money that should have gone into financing real production poured into speculation and gambling, and since the experts don’t know the difference between fake and real economic activity, they have declared the economy is booming. Well, if the economy is booming, so is a thunderstorm and a cannon barrage, neither of which is a particularly good thing, especially if you happen to be the target. What is needed is a shift to a new paradigm, which can easily be achieved by adopting the Economic Democracy Act.
• Greater Reset “Book Trailers”. We have produced two ninety-second “Book Trailers” for distribution (by whoever wants to distribute them), essentially minute and a half commercials for The Greater Reset. There are two versions of the videos, one for “general audiences” and the other for “Catholic audiences”. Take your pick.
• The Greater Reset. CESJ’s new book by members of CESJ’s core group, The Greater Reset: Reclaiming Personal Sovereignty Under Natural Law is, of course, available from the publisher, TAN Books, an imprint of Saint Benedict Press, and has already gotten a top review on that website. It can also be obtained from Barnes and Noble, as well as Amazon, or by special order from your local “bricks and mortar” bookstore. The Greater Reset is the only book of which we’re aware on “the Great Reset” that presents an alternative instead of simply warning of the dangers inherent in a proposal that is contrary to natural law. It describes reality, rather than a Keynesian fantasy world. Please note that The Greater Reset is NOT a CESJ publication as such, and enquiries about quantity discounts and wholesale orders for resale must be sent to the publisher, Saint Benedict Press, NOT to CESJ.
• Economic Personalism Landing Page. A landing page for CESJ’s latest publication, Economic Personalism: Property, Power and Justice for Every Person, has been created and can be accessed by clicking on this link. Everyone is encouraged to visit the page and send the link out to their networks.
• Economic Personalism. When you purchase a copy of Economic Personalism: Property, Power and Justice for Every Person, be sure you post a review after you’ve read it. It is available on both Amazon and Barnes and Noble at the cover price of $10 per copy. You can also download the free copy in .pdf available from the CESJ website. If you’d like to order in bulk (i.e., ten or more copies) at the wholesale price, send an email to publications@cesj.org for details. CESJ members get a $2 rebate per copy on submission of proof of purchase. Wholesale case lots of 52 copies are available at $350, plus shipping (whole case lots ONLY). Prices are in U.S. dollars.
• Sensus Fidelium Videos, Update. CESJ’s series of videos for Sensus Fidelium are doing very well, with over 155,000 total views. The latest Sensus Fidelium video is “The Five Levers of Change.” The video is part of the series on the book, Economic Personalism. The latest completed series on “the Great Reset” can be found on the “Playlist” for the series. The previous series of sixteen videos on socialism is available by clicking on the link: “Socialism, Modernism, and the New Age,” along with some book reviews and other selected topics. For “interfaith” presentations to a Catholic audience they’ve proved to be popular, edging up to 150,000 views to date. They aren’t really “Just Third Way videos,” but they do incorporate a Just Third Way perspective. You can access the playlist for the entire series. The point of the videos is to explain how socialism and socialist assumptions got such a stranglehold on the understanding of the role of the State and thus the interpretation of Catholic social teaching, and even the way non-Catholics and even non-Christians understand the roles of Church, State, and Family, and the human persons place in society.
Those are the happenings for this week, at least those 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 well see that it gets into the next “issue.” Due to imprudent and intemperate language on the part of some commentators, we removed temptation and disabled comments.
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