One thing about the economic and monetary policies of the current transactional administration in Washington is it constitutes the best argument ever for adopting the Economic Democracy Act as soon as possible. Of course, that would mean we don’t have as much bad news to report and could finally get around to saying one or two good things, but that’s fine with us:
• More Tariff Traps. The biggest mistake the current administration is making about tariffs — besides imposing them in the first place! — is the fixed and completely erroneous idea that exporting countries (or, more accurately, exporters in other countries importing goods to the country imposing the tariffs) are the ones paying the tariffs. NO. Tariffs are a tax imposed on the consumers of the country imposing the tariffs. They are paid by the consumers of the country whose government imposed the tariffs to the government that imposed the tariffs. Get the picture? A government imposing tariffs is raising prices in its own country by levying taxes which are paid by the consumers of its own country and pocketed by the government of that country. Not one cent of a tariff comes from the people or the governments of other countries. That is why President Trump’s latest pronouncement about tariffs, that “We’re going to raise hundreds of billions in tariffs; we’re going to become so rich we’re not going to know where to spend that money,” simply doesn’t make any sense at all, and verges on the delusional. The only real solution is a reformed money and credit system and a reformed tax system as described in the Economic Democracy Act which would foster a sound and stable reserve currency, money creation only for private sector growth and accommodation, and limit the government to taxes that have been agreed upon by the legitimate taxing authority — Congress — not the ill-considered whims of a transactional tyrant.
• Beating Social Security. Some people have the idea they can “beat” Social Security by claiming benefits at age 62 and investing enough money to have a private cache of income generating assets. Most simply put, it ain’t gonna happen. More often than not, the “extra” money will be spent, not invested, and the reduced amount of benefits is permanent. The only real alternative to Social Security woes is to adopt the Economic Democracy Act, and retain Social Security as a safety net.
• Stagflation Follies. No, stagflation doesn’t have anything to do with filling the Bambi balloon in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with too much helium. Stagflation is a term invented in 1965 to try and explain the Keynesian paradox of economic stagnation (i.e., no growth or a decline) combined with inflation — which under Keynesian assumptions is impossible . . . using Keynes’s non-definition of inflation (a rise in the price level after reaching full employment). Thus, in the Krazy Keynesian Kosmos, you can’t have economic growth without inflation, and inflation causes economic growth . . . except when it doesn’t: economic stagnation and inflation. Of course, Keynes himself knew this very well, having observed the hyperinflation in Germany and Austria following World War I, but he simply ignored it, the same way he ignored the fact that widespread ownership and broadly distributed wealth accelerate technological advancement and the rate of economic growth, and declared without a shred of proof that the world could not advance unless wealth was concentrated, and the more concentrated, the better. This means the only real cure for stagflation and the whole of the Kooky Keynesian Kraziness is not ineffectual handwringing or edicts from a transactional tyrant, but to adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
• Just Wait Patiently. According to an article on Yahoo! Finance yesterday, the economy can “still afford to wait” until the chaos of the tariff frenzy subsides. Hardly. This underscores the differences between personalist economic democracy — “Economic Personalism” — and other forms of economic democracy. Where others tend to be democratic in an individualist or collectivist fashion, Economic Personalism focuses on the individual within a social context. Individualist economic democracy assumes if a few select individuals are doing well, the economy is in great shape. Similarly, collectivist economic democracy assumes if the system is functioning (well or ill tends to be a matter of opinion, depending on whether the opinionator has a job . . .) then everything is A-OK. Saying the economy can “still afford to wait” ignores the fact that if individual persons, groups, institutions, or anything else are being treated unjustly or ignored, then society cannot “afford to wait” a single moment. This is the same whether it is individualist indifference, collectivist ignorance, or any combination thereof — it’s astonishing at times how individualist collectivism can be, and how collectivist individualism can be. Economic democracy must be personalist and thus (in a sense) individualist when respecting each person’s rights, and collectivist when ensuring that the system optimizes everyone’s rights. That can only realistically be done when every child, woman, and man has power, which ordinarily means capital ownership, and that is the essence of Economic Personalism as embodied in the Economic Democracy Act.
• Anything on Amazon. Perhaps ironically given its name and the effect carbon emissions presumably have on the world’s rain forests, the internet retailor Amazon is now selling carbon credits. This raises an interesting possibility: if some mega-rich individuals who are concerned about carbon emissions were to corner the market on carbon credits, offending countries couldn’t purchase them and would have to discontinue their current activities or clean them up. The mega rich who purchased the carbon credits could then dole them out at grossly inflated prices only to those countries making an honest effort to reduce emissions, thereby giving the double incentive of increasing the cost of pollution and shutting the escape hatch for offenders making no effort at reform. This would be an excellent speculative use of existing savings, while reserving future savings for new capital investment, as proposed in the Economic Democracy Act.
• Trump and Control of the Federal Reserve. President Trump’s latest attempt to control the free market is to dictate terms to the ostensibly independent institution controlling the free market: the Federal Reserve. Of course, we use the term “free market” advisedly, and the Federal Reserve has not been a truly independent institution since the 1930s when the Chairman became a government appointee. It has, admittedly, retained some of the forms of independence. These include private “ownership” which does not include control (control, as Louis Kelso pointed out, is ownership in all codes of law) and technical compliance with the meaningless stipulation prohibiting dealing in primary (i.e., new) issues of government securities. Nevertheless, the central bank will never be independent — nor the market free — until all government control over money and credit (notice we are not saying “all government regulation”) is removed and the private sector is put back in charge of the economy, as proposed in the Economic Democracy Act.
• Inflation Doubletalk. There are at least three ways of dealing with any difficult subject that you don’t know anything about. 1) Keep your mouth shut and people will ignore you. 2) Keep your mouth running and never stop talking about it and people will ignore you. 3) Talk utter nonsense in a pontifical way and people will accept what you say as absolute truth. It appears Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has taken the third option. While consistently spouting Keynesian dogma, that inflation is necessary for growth, he is also claiming that inflation is transitory and will not harm growth. Say, wuh? On the one hand you must have inflation for growth, and on the other inflation isn’t necessary for growth? Why not just cut to the chase, admit the entire Keynesian framework is a work of fantasy, and adopt 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 (now with an imprimatur), 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., 52 or more copies) at the wholesale price, send an email to info@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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