News from the Network, Vol. 18, No. 34

 Quite a bit about how AI is replacing human labor from the production process and none of the so-called experts or the powers-that-be appear to be understanding the implications of this.  In the Keynesian universe, all production is due to human labor . . . but what do you do if human labor is completely removed from the production process?  Do we eliminate the excess people?  Or turn people into the owners of the technology that is replacing them?  The latter is the solution in the Economic Democracy Act:

Own or Be . . . What?

 AI — Artificial Intelligence — has been in the news a lot recently.  Possibly this is because the powers-that-be and so-called world leaders seem to exhibit so little of the natural kind.  That purportedly being the case, a regular reader of this blog began asking questions of AI (who better to ask?) about what people who have always worked for a living or who expected to have to work for a living are going to do when AI has taken all the jobs, the Universal Basic Income bites the dust, and the government can no longer fund welfare or even Social Security.

JTW Podcast: Empiricism Part 1: Da Vinci, Bacon, and Hobbes

Today, for our 400^th podcast, we return to Professor Dave who “know a lot of stuff.”  We don’t always agree with him, but at least we can figure out what those disagreements are!  This podcast is about empiricism.  As Professor Dave says,

News from the Network, Vol. 18, No. 33

 It appears that the somewhat delayed effect of the Terrible Trump Tariffs will soon be kicking in, and “the average American” — despite all the promises made — will soon be kicked in the teeth by rising prices and disappearing jobs, neither of which will be fixed by trying to change reality.  The only real solution is to adopt the Economic Democracy Act as soon as possible:

Why Economists Reject Binary Economics, V: “Perceived Policy Risks and Inflation Concerns”

The four previous postings on this subject — why so-called mainstream economists reject Binary Economics — we have looked at 1) Lack of Empirical and Econometric Support, 2) Heterodox and Non-Conventional Framework, 3) Criticism of Core Concepts, Particularly “Productiveness”, and 4) Negative Reception by Prominent Economists.  This last, the “negative reception” by prominent economists, is possibly the weakest reason given.

JTW Podcast: The Social Program of Pope Leo XIV

Many people are intrigued by the first U.S.-born pope’s choice of regnal name and his declaration that he would take Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical, Rerum Novarum as his guide.  What does this mean not merely for Catholics, but for everyone?  Dawn Brohawn and Michael D. Greaney give their thoughts on the matter:

News from the Network, Vol. 18, No. 32

 It continues to be difficult to report on news items relating to the Just Third Way when the media are filled with the economic chaos being spread without regard of anything connected to reality.  As always, however, we believe the solution to the chaos and quite a few other things is to adopt the Economic Democracy Act:

Why Economists Reject Binary Economics, IV: “Negative Reception”

 In the three previous postings on this subject, we have been examining (as the title of this posting suggests) why mainstream economists reject Binary Economics.  So far, we have looked at 1) Lack of Empirical and Econometric Support, 2) Heterodox and Non-Conventional Framework, and 3) Criticism of Core Concepts, Particularly “Productiveness”.  Today we look at perhaps the weakest reason, even though some in the modern world give it the greatest weight: Negative Reception by Prominent Economists: the “Non amo te, Sabidi” (“I do not like thee, Doctor Fell”) syndrome:

JTW Podcast: Louis Kelso on 60 Minutes

Mike Wallace interviews the inventor of the ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan), Louis O. Kelso. They discuss ESOP Pros and Cons, ESOP detractors, and Kelso answers the question: “What is an ESOP?”

News from the Network, Vol. 18, No. 31

 With an appalling sameness, this week’s news items strongly resemble those of last week . . . and the week before . . . and the week before that, and so on.  Some of the reasons are given below in the items listed, but frankly, this situation is going to continue until the Economic Democracy Act is adopted: