This is the first new news report for the year, and we unfortunately start the year with sad news. There is a little about the Economic Democracy Act as well:
Reverend Virgil A. Wood
• Reverend Virgil Wood, RIP. We were saddened early this week to learn of the death of long-time CESJ supporter Reverend Virgil Alexander Wood (1931-2024). Rev. Wood was an ordained Baptist minister who became actively involved in the Civil Rights Movement. He served with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a member of his National Executive Board of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference for the last ten years of Dr. King’s life and coordinated the Commonwealth of Virginia in the historic March on Washington in 1963. Dr. Wood received his B.A. degree from Virginia Union University, his Master of Divinity from Andover Newton Theological School in Newton, Massachusetts, and his Doctorate in Education from Harvard University. He served as Dean and Director of the African American Institute, and Associate Professor at Virginia Seminary and College in Lynchburg, Virginia, and was a visiting Lecturer, Researcher, and Teaching Fellow at Harvard University. As a member of the board of the Institute for the Study of Economic Systems, founded by Louis O. Kelso with Norman Kurland as its executive director, Dr. Wood introduced Dr. King to Kelso’s ideas, after which Dr. King encouraged Dr. Wood to spread Kelso’s ownership message. Dr. Wood was the author of several books, including Introduction to Black Church Economic Studies (1974) and In Love We Trust (2005) His concept of a Biblical Jubilee served as the foundation for the Jubilee Bible project which resulted in the African American Jubilee Edition of the King James Version of the Holy Bible, published in 1999 by the American Bible Association. Section One opened with Dr. Wood’s article, “The Biblical Jubilee.” He served for many years as the pastor of the Pond Street Baptist Church in Providence, Rhode Island.
Robert W. Smiley, Jr.
• Robert W. Smiley, Jr., RIP. We were also saddened to learn of the death of Robert Smiley, one of the pioneers of ESOPs, who died November 13, 2024, at the age of 81. Mr. Smiley was a past president of the ESOP Association and was instrumental in its foundation. He was an early and generous supporter of the National Center for Employee Ownership and served on the NCEO’s board for several years. He was the founder and board chairman of the Benefit Capital Group, an ESOP banking and advisory firm. He also formed Benefit Capital, Inc., which provided advice to ESOP deals. He was a contributing author to the NCEO’s Journal of Employee Ownership Law and Finance, was published from 1989 to 2010, and was the managing editor of Employee Stock Ownership Plans: ESOP Planning, Financing, Implementation, Law and Taxation, covering ESOP legal, financial, and administrative issues. Mr. Smiley also served on the faculty of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Extension and was a trustee for the Reason Foundation, a free market think tank, for nine years. Like Louis Kelso, Mr. Smiley served in the United States Navy.
• Possible Spanish Translation of Economic Personalism. On a much happier note, Doctor María Teresa Rosón de Pérez Lozano is Professor of Commercial Law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina in Buenos Aires, one of the finest institutions of higher learning in South America. His Holiness Pope Francis was formerly Grand Chancellor and taught a course in philosophy. Dr. Rosón has expressed an interest in translating CESJ’s short book, Economic Personalism: Property, Power and Justice for Every Person (2020), which — unusually for a book from an interfaith group — was recently issued an imprimatur (a certification by Catholic authority it contains nothing contrary to faith or morals, not an endorsement) into Spanish. As she said, “I think it is necessary to spread the principles of CESJ’s Just Third Way of Economic Personalism in the Hispanic communities in need of better guidance to overcome the anxieties and problems of the uncertain futures of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.” In 2022, Economic Personalism was expanded into The Greater Reset: Reclaiming Personal Sovereignty Under Natural Law, by Michael D. Greaney and Dawn K. Brohawn. The Greater Reset is available from the publisher, TAN Books (currently on sale for $5), as well as from Amazon, as is Economic Personalism. At the heart of both books, of course, is the Economic Democracy Act.
• Trump and Social Security (Again). Although never intended as the sole source of retirement income, Social Security is exactly that for approximately 20% of people over age 65 and is what makes ends meet for a little under 90% of all retirees. At the same time, demographic shifts (i.e., far fewer people paying in and far more people receiving benefits) have made the likelihood of systemic failure a virtual certainty. President-elect Trump’s fix as reported by Sean Williams of the Motley Fool? “In late July, while posting on his social media platform, Truth Social, the now-president-elect stated eight words that offer a potential promise to change Social Security forever: ‘Seniors should not pay tax on Social Security.’” A far better solution would be to adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
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| Not just Asians, Kwan |
• The Rich Are Different. As F. Scott Fitzgerald said, blah, blah. According to this article, yes, the rich ARE different . . . if clueless and completely out of touch with reality are among the criteria. Want to stop this sort of thing? Make fewer people dependent on the rich, whether directly or indirectly, by turning every child, woman, and man into a free and independent capital owner 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 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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