This week’s news items seem strangely familiar yet at the same time surreal. Still, the constant theme is how much better most people’s lives could very well be if we would adopt the Economic Democracy Act:
• Attack on the Pasta Pasto. We are credibly informed that a term for a cheap evening out with a member of the opposite sex is “Spaghetti Date.” It’s not in the same class as a “Coffee Date” — a get-acquainted meeting where prospective relationship partners give each other the once-over to see if they want to commit to something more expensive in the way of time, money, and emotions — and a minor cut above a fast-food joint, although those aren’t all that cheap anymore. Now, there are charges of “dumping” against Italy affecting the export of pasta. “Dumping,” the practice of exporting a product and selling it in a foreign market at a price lower than its fair market value, which is often below the cost of production or the domestic price, a form of predatory pricing used to gain market share, eliminate foreign competition, or sell off excess inventory; while it can benefit consumers with lower prices, it is often controversial as it can harm domestic producers in the importing country. At a time when food prices are skyrocketing in the U.S., it might be advisable to rethink the idea of dumping; when it works it benefits a few rich owners who can take the “hit” of a lower than fair market price for their product(s). Is the solution to impose a tariff . . . or to address the problem at its root and spread out the ownership of producers? Many owners with the full rights of ownership would be quick to allow dumping because it would cost them money in the short term that they could ill-afford to lose. This could easily be done by adopting the Economic Democracy Act.
• Those Tariff Rebate Checks. Okay, on the one hand you have people who continue to insist that tariffs are a charge on foreign importers, not domestic producers and consumers. Impose sweeping tariffs, they claim to believe, and every American will be rolling in cash. Everyone will have so much money he or she won’t know what to do with it. For such individuals, we have a few suggestions . . . why not pay down debt or purchase food clothing and shelter, or — gasp — give it away to people in charity? Now we have a contradictory proposal to give a $2,000 tariff rebate to each (qualifying) American. Half a mo’. If a tariff is a tax on foreigners, then Americans cannot get a rebate, because a rebate is a partial refund of a payment already made by oneself, not somebody else. Is this an admission that foreigners don’t really pay tariffs, or just a confusion of terms? Why should this even matter? Why not just adopt the Economic Democracy Act, and implement a rational and coherent tax policy?
• Low Income Recession. This seems to be what they call a “K-shaped economy” that has been in the news recently. It appears that while people in the upper income brackets have few if any problems — financially — but people in the lower income brackets are “near recession” . . . surprise, surprise. While this seems obvious, what appears to be new in this analysis is the realization that the vast number of poor people consume much more than the few rich people! Consequently, the economy (contrary to popular, academic, and political belief) doesn’t rely on having a few rich people who produce far more than they consume as John Maynard Keynes asserted, but on having a lot of people of reasonable wealth levels who produce what they consume and consume what they produce (at least in aggregate). So, how do you get around the belief that you need the rich to produce to what they can’t consume and the poor to consume what they don’t produce and can’t afford to purchase? The easy answer is to adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
Karoline Leavitt
• Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. The current administration’s war on reports that reflect poorly on the current administration appears to be showing significant results. According to a report from NBC News, a number of key economic reports are not being released. As the article states, “The White House said Wednesday it was unlikely that key federal inflation and labor reports impacted by the government shutdown would be released. ‘The Democrats may have permanently damaged the federal statistical system, with October CPI and jobs reports likely never being released, and all of that economic data released will be permanently impaired, leaving our policymakers at the Fed flying blind at a critical period,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.” Ummm . . . okay . . . but how come these problems never surfaced until they started showing the current administration in a bad light? Of course, the sensible thing to do would be to generate some good reports by instituting the program presented in the Economic Democracy Act.
• Cutting Edge of Russian Technology. The Russians put together a robot to show their technological superiority to the rest of the world . . . and it appears the robot may have had a little too much vodka before its first public appearance, staggering and falling flat on its face before stage hands quickly pulled a black cloth in front of the performance. “The robot, named AIdol, was unveiled during a tech showcase at the Yarovit Hall Congress Center in Moscow on Monday. As the machine walked onto the stage accompanied by two handlers to ‘Gonna Fly Now,’ the theme from the 1976 film Rocky, it waved to the audience before taking a few steps, losing its balance, and toppling over. Event staff rushed to cover the fallen robot with a black cloth and carried it from the stage, cutting the presentation short. You have to see it for yourself.” Our contention is that the Economic Democracy Act might spur technological innovation for its own sake, not the glory of a Führer.
• Things Are, Er, “Crappy”. We don’t have to say too much about this one. It can speak for itself: “An estimated 24% of US households are living paycheck to paycheck so far in 2025, according to a Bank of America Institute analysis released this week. The bank’s researchers combed through internal data on its tens of millions of consumers and tracked how much income customers spent on necessities like housing, gasoline, groceries, child care and utilities. They found that 24% of households spend over 95% of their income on those necessities, leaving little to nothing left over for the “nice-to-have” things like going out to dinner or taking a vacation, let alone saving.” The solution? Adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
• The Rebirth of Handwriting. Here is a surprising news item that has nothing to do with adopting the Economic Democracy Act, at least, none that we can think of. “In an effort to curb AI plagiarism, professors are swapping out take-home essays and assignments for in-class exams and assessments. They're banning screens and bringing back blue books, the robin's-egg-hued notepaper booklets that were once a mainstay of college exams. In short: Handwriting is so back. This return to analog is exactly the opposite of what many have predicted since the dawn of the digital age. As recently as this August, Sridhar Vembu, the billionaire cofounder and former CEO of Zoho, predicted on X that ‘handwriting is going to be a lost art.’ Generative AI was expected to speed up the decline of pen-and-paper writing, not trigger its return to the halls of higher learning. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it's been a bumpy ride.”
• Self-Induced Solution. In the novel Captain Newman, M.D., a base commander in the Army Air Corps is described as being an expert at creating snafus that only he could unravel. This evidently job security. The current administration appears to be following a similar policy by creating massive chaos which only those inflicting it on the country can ameliorate. Thus it comes as no surprise that in an effort to counter the high prices resulting from the imposition of tariffs, the current administration is considering removing some of them. Of course, the better thing to have done would have been to adopt the Economic Democracy Act, but that seems to be too easy.
• 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.
#30#
