We have sad news this week, the passing of one of the pioneer generation of the ESOP movement, Patricia Hetter Kelso. As co-author with Louis Kelso, she helped present many of the ideas embodied in the Economic Democracy Act:
Patricia Hetter Kelso
• Patricia Hetter Kelso, R.I.P. Patricia Hetter Kelso, a leading voice in the promotion of employee ownership and universal capitalism, died July 4 at the age of 98. She was the intellectual and business partner, wife, and coauthor with her husband, Louis Kelso, of Two-Factor Theory (1967) and Democracy and Economic Power (1986). Louis Kelso developed the idea of the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) in 1956. Patricia met Louis in 1963, and they married in 1980. Patricia was a managing partner at Kelso & Company, which Louis Kelso created as an investment banking firm to promote ESOPs. It eventually moved away from that practice after Louis Kelso’s death in 1991; Patricia Kelso retired from the firm the following year. Patricia Kelso was a passionate visionary. She argued that a system that provides ownership only to those who can afford it is neither fair nor sustainable. Her ideas carry special relevance today, when so much of the world’s wealth is concentrated in a very small number of hands while most of the population is economically insecure. Patricia argued there are practical, nonpartisan solutions to these problems.
• Tyrannosaurus Debt. Once upon a time on a short television show called “Schoolhouse Rock,” there was an episode called “Tyrannosaurus Debt” about, well, the ever-growing U.S. federal debt. There were a number of inaccuracies in the video, but it got the point across: the federal debt — any debt, for that matter — has the potential to eat the country and then the world alive almost before you notice what is happening, despite what all the Keynesian economists tell you about how the government never has to pay its debts. It’s thinking like this which got us into the problem today when the federal debt is upwards of $37 trillion — that’s trillion — and growing. Unfortunately, all anyone in Congress or any other branch of government ever talks about is raising the debt ceiling, not lowering the debt. Ironically, there is a morally sound and financially feasible way to get out from under the debt completely, not just control it. This is the Economic Democracy Act. Conservative estimates suggest the debt could be a thing of the past by a century in the future . . . which is pretty good, considering it took us two hundred and fifty years to get into.
• A New Political Party? It’s not as if an American third party is a new idea or anything. Third parties have long been a feature of U.S. politics. The Republican Party of today began as a third party in 1854 to replace the moribund Whigs and had Abraham Lincoln as its candidate. The campaign of 1912, however, was the last time a third party candidate was a viable contender for president. This was Theodore Roosevelt for the Progressive or “Bull Moose” Party, which split off from the reactionary Republican Old Guard. Now Elon Musk is forming a third party due to dissatisfaction with today’s Republican Party. If he wants to make it a success, of course, he might want to consider adopting the Economic Democracy Act, and really Make America Great Again.
• The Fantastic Middle Class. That’s “fantastic” in the sense of “fantasy,” not “fantastic” in the sense of “terrific.” It turns out that many people who think they are members of the middle class don’t quite make the grade. It doesn’t sound good: “Pew Research Center defines the middle class as a household with income that is at least two-thirds of the U.S. median income to double the median income. This would imply a range of incomes from $56,600 to $169,800, based on government data for 2022. As of 2023, 51% of American households fit into this category.” Is the solution to pay people more? No, that just raises the bar further. How about changing the definition of middle class from gross income to net wealth . . . and institute a program to build wealth in a sane and sustainable manner: the Economic Democracy Act.
• Trump Tariff Disaster. There is a “hidden” or delayed effect of Trump’s Tariffs in what is happening to corporate earnings and thus what is going to happen to the stock market. As reported in Yahoo! Finance, “The one factor that can support premium valuations is strong growth in corporate earnings. If the publicly traded companies responsible for driving the stock market higher are delivering rock-solid earnings-per-share (EPS) growth, it may be possible to maintain aggressive valuations. There’s just one problem: The earnings quality of these influential businesses is worse than you probably realize. Ideally, a company's operations should do the talking. But if you dig into the earnings reports of America's most influential businesses, you'll discover a number of ways profits have been (legally) bolstered by non-innovative or unsustainable methods.” This, of course, assumes the current financial system, which could be avoided by adopting the Economic Democracy Act.
• Political Economics. No, that’s not a typo for “political economy.” It’s “political economics.” The Big Beautiful Bill Act does not make sense economically, and almost no sense politically: “Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers railed against President Trump’s massive tax and spending bill, saying no objective economist would characterize the legislation as a boon to the economy. ‘There is no economist anywhere, without a strong political agenda, who is saying that this bill is a positive for the economy. And the overwhelming view is that it is probably going to make the economy worse,’ Summers told ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos in a Sunday interview on ‘This Week.’ ‘Think about it this way,’ he continued. ‘How long can the world’s greatest debtor remain the world’s greatest power? And this is piling more debt onto the economy than any piece of tax legislation in dollar terms that we have ever had.’” Aside from the fact that a single piece of legislation is not a magic spell guaranteed to solve all problems, the only real boon to the economy would be to adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
• Debt, Smebt. Reality, even Keynesian-influenced reality, evidently no longer has any influence on politics. Debt appears to have no meaning to today’s politicians, except as something they want more of, despite any warnings they might have received: “As congressional Republicans advanced their megabill in recent months, many fiscal hawks in the party figured they had a powerful force on their side: wary titans of finance who had started sending powerful signals that their appetite for purchasing U.S. debt was not, in fact, endless. Turns out Wall Street was barely a bump in the road. In passing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last week, GOP leaders blew past a host of warnings to potentially add several trillion dollars of additional borrowing — brushing off concerns that they were missing a late opportunity to put the nation on a more sustainable fiscal trajectory in favor of piling on expensive new tax cuts. The whole episode was a stark display of how short-term rewards and Trump’s demands outweighed any anxieties about long-term calamity — even from a constituency as powerful as Wall Street, whose major players are reliable financiers for politicians of both parties.” ’Nuff said, as Stan Lee used to say. Still, there is a solution: adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
• Newborn “Trump Accounts”. Evidently vote buying is going to ludicrous lengths. As reported in yet another article in Yahoo¡ Finance, “Pretty soon, every newborn American will be the proud owner of their very own ‘Trump account.’ President Trump’s sprawling tax law creates a new, tax-advantaged investment account prefunded with $1,000 for each child born from the beginning of 2025 through the end of 2028. Kids born before this year are eligible for the IRA-style accounts but not the $1,000 seed money. The idea’s backers say the accounts are a way to get all kids into saving and investing early in life, while helping them save for goals like college or a home. But financial advisers who spoke with Yahoo Finance warned that, aside from the free seed money, the benefits the accounts offer are relatively paltry compared to other tax-shielded savings options Americans already have available, including the 529 accounts parents use to put away money for college and IRAs for retirement. The new Trump accounts also come tied up with a fairly complex and potentially confusing set of rules. As a result, putting any money into them beyond what the government offers might not make sense for most families, they said.” There is also the slight problem as to where the money is coming from for the seed money as well as additions. This question and others are answered by the Economic Democracy Act.
• We’ve Only Just Begun: Trump’s Tariffs. It seems as if the disaster economists have predicted will come in the wake of Trump’s Terrible Tariffs hasn’t arrived . . . yet. As reported in Yahoo! Finance, “Economists, researchers and analysts have warned that President Donald Trump’s sweeping trade policy of tacking steep tariffs on most goods that come into America will deliver a taxing blow to consumers via higher prices. However, recent months’ economic data has shown that overall inflation has remained fairly tame.” There are many reasons for this, but the fact remains that holding the line on inflation is not sustainable in the long run. Eventually reality catches up to even the loudest proclamations. The only real solution is to adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
• Any Accusation in a Storm. What a surprise. The administration is targeting for retribution people who aren’t going along with the program. As reported in Yahoo! Finance, “A top Trump administration official accused Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell of leading an ‘ostentatious’ office renovation project that may be ‘violating the law’ on Thursday, a new broadside against the central bank chief as President Trump tangles with him over interest rates.” Evidently, President Trump believes he, like the legend of King Chanute, can simply command the world to do as he says even as the flood of disaster rises higher and higher as the tide continues to come in. Why the leader of a presumably free market economy insisting he can control the economy? We don’t know, either, but the solution is to let the market set the market rate of interest, as required in 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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