From the news items it is more than a little obvious that the financial markets are in utter chaos, and the general economy reflects this unfortunate condition. From the perspective of the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism, it is even more obvious why the decisions of a very few rich and powerful individuals of questionable ethical orientations and possibly a bit more have such incredible influence: reliance on what Louis O. Kelso called the slavery of [past] savings. Whoever controls the means of becoming productive will control who can be productive and for whose benefit. The only solution is to ensure that every person has access to the means to become productive, and that means access to “future” savings, and that means adopting the Economic Democracy Act:
Anthony Scaramucci
• The Coming Greek Tragedy? It’s not unheard of for people to clap their hands over their ears when they hear the word “history,” but as George Santayana said in The Life of Reason: Reason in Common Sense (1905), “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” That is also the contention of Anthony Scaramucci as he noted in an article in Fortune magazine: “The Greeks had a word for what happens when power goes unchecked: hubris. The pattern in their tragedies is always the same — a leader, swollen with success, decides the rules no longer apply to him. These men were not intrinsically evil; their gifts fueled their overreach while the chorus watched the collapse. Looking at America’s billionaire class and its executive branch today, the warnings from antiquity have never felt more urgent. We are living through an era in which a small number of individuals have accumulated influence that rivals or exceeds that of sovereign governments. Think billionaires who control vast technology platforms, media empires, and financial networks. At the same time, presidential authority has expanded to a degree that would have alarmed the framers of the American Constitution. With increasing overlap between both, the result is a special kind of arrogance: the conviction that personal wealth or political office confers not just power but infallible wisdom. This is hubris in the age of algorithms and executive orders.” What does Scaramucci propose? “The way out is through the disciplined commitment to process. It is Cicero’s insight that true freedom requires constraint. It is the hard-won wisdom of five millennia that tells us societies prosper when power is checked, when institutions are respected, and when leaders have the humility to recognize that they are public servants.” Hmmm . . . maybe . . . but who is going to get them to realize it? No one, at least until ordinary people have power, too, and the only way to do that is by adopting the Economic Democracy Act. Reformers otherwise risk getting slaughtered by the elite or (more often) the elite’s tools among the powerless, who cozy up to the rich and powerful as a way of gaining power over others; the best way to control slaves is with other slaves.
• The Four-Day Work Week. It’s been touted as a cost and energy saving measure like Daylight Saving Time (which actually adds costs and takes more energy), but as Fortune magazine claims in a recent article, “The Iran War might give us a three-day weekend. That’s because, as Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Pakistan move to a 4-day work week because of the war in Iran, experts say we’re the closest we’ve ever been to a permanent shorter workweek. It started in Asia, but now major governments around the world are once again mandating that workers stay home to save on fuel and survive an energy crisis as the war in the Middle East threatens vital oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.” Notice that there is nothing about doing less work, just less time to do it in, and (for some) less pay for doing it. That’s great for the people who own the companies and who buy the labor of others, but not so good for those others . . . unless they also have a share of ownership and get a cut of the cost savings or increased profits. That can be achieved by adopting the Economic Democracy Act.
• The Big Beautiful Bankruptcy. The Big Beautiful Bill and its sequels such as the Big Beautiful War(s) and the Big Beautiful Budget Bash came with a Big Beautiful Price Tag and, at least according to Fortune magazine, that adds up to a Big Beautiful Bankruptcy: “The U.S. government is insolvent. That’s not hyperbole — it’s the conclusion drawn directly from the Treasury Department’s own consolidated financial statements for fiscal year 2025, released last week to near-total media silence. The numbers: $6.06 trillion in total assets against $47.78 trillion in total liabilities as of September 30, 2025. Importantly, the $47.78 trillion in reported liabilities does not include the unfunded obligations of social insurance programs like Social Security and Medicare — those are disclosed separately in the off-balance-sheet Statement of Social Insurance (SOSI). The government’s consolidated balance sheet position, excluding the SOSI, deteriorated by nearly $2.07 trillion between FY 2024 and FY 2025, reaching a staggering negative $41.72 trillion. Total liabilities are now nearly eight times the value of reported assets. The largest drivers were a $2 trillion increase in federal debt and interest payable (now $30.33 trillion) and a $438.8 billion increase in federal employee and veteran benefits payable (now $15.47 trillion). The off-balance-sheet picture is even more alarming. The 75-year unfunded social insurance obligation surged by $10.1 trillion in a single year, rising from $78.3 trillion in FY 2024 to $88.4 trillion in FY 2025 — driven primarily by a $6.9 trillion jump in projected Medicare Part B shortfalls and a $2.5 trillion increase for Social Security. The Treasury’s Statement of Long-Term Fiscal Projections shows the 75-year fiscal gap widening from 4.3% of GDP in FY 2024 to 4.7% in FY 2025.” Now, the picture is not utterly grim . . . but only if you are aware of the potential benefits of adopting the Economic Democracy Act, as we noted earlier this week in “How to Get Out of (National) Debt” — it’s at least a place to start.
• Six-Figure Unfortunates. It’s hard to have sympathy for someone who makes more money in a year than some people see in two or three — when they have income, that is — but get real: people with six- and seven-figure incomes can have money troubles, too, and sometimes worse than the rest of us. After all, when times get tough, it’s difficult to cut back on what you’ve become accustomed to, even if it sounds a bit unreal, e.g., someone living off $1 million a year who suddenly finds his or her income has been cut 90% to a beggarly $100,000. Must be rough, right? But could you take a 90% cut in your income? Say, from $100,000 to $10,000? Or from $50,000 to $5,000? Anyway, as reported in Fortune magazine, “Some six-figure earners are ‘on thin ice’ thanks to potential headwinds and a shakier financial footing, according to a recent analysis from consulting firm Kearney. The wealthy who are at financial risk are ‘high earners whose lack of budgeting and profligate spending has them overleveraged and exposed,’ the report explained. ‘While they appear to be doing well from the outside, they are only a step away from real financial trouble’.” Obviously, such people know how to make and spend money, but not how to preserve income-generating capacity. For whatever reason, such people need as much financial education as the rest of us if the Economic Democracy Act is to work for everyone — and it can and will, once it is adopted.
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| "Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production" — Adam Smith |
• Consumption Drives the Economy. Although many people are worried about the economic drain older people are believed to be on an economy, there appears to be a bright spot . . . at least according to the Wall Street Journal. As reported in a recent article, “Forget the AI hype and the data-center boom. What’s keeping the jobs market afloat these days is Grandma and Grandpa. The recent numbers tell a lopsided story. Over the past year, the U.S. has added 156,000 jobs—but healthcare alone was responsible for 375,000 new jobs. Strip out the medical sector, and the rest of the American economy is actually losing jobs.” There’s another lop to the side: who is paying for it? Usually “Grandma and Grandpa . . . or their children or grandchildren, which tends to build resentment for the time, effort, and money involved, and the shrinking inheritance. What is needed is a system which allows people to pay their own way, regardless of age or condition or anything else. That (as you might expect if you read this blog) can be achieved by adopting the Economic Democracy Act.
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| Alex Karp |
• The Autism Advantage . . . ? This might seem to be getting a little surreal, but those people “afflicted” (not the right word by far) with a “neurodivergent” condition such as dyslexia, autism, or ADHD (many of whom are rather tired of being referred to as “weird,” often for being able to think out of “the box”), might have a leg up in the coming AI Hell (or Heaven, if you happen to own the AI). According to an article in Fortune magazine, “workers across industries are on the hunt for ways to future-proof their careers as artificial intelligence threatens to upend the labor market. Palantir CEO Alex Karp is offering a starkly simple view of who will come out ahead. ‘There are basically two ways to know you have a future,’ the 58-year-old billionaire said on TBPN earlier this month. ‘One, you have some vocational training. Or two, you’re neurodivergent’.” We must disagree with the first part of Karp’s diagnosis. The “vocations” (meaning plumbing, carpentry, etc., will only be in demand by human employers so long as they are cheaper than a robot. As the article goes on to say, however, “For Karp, that cognitive difference can be an advantage in an AI-driven world—less because of the diagnosis itself and more because of the mindset it can foster. Success, he argued, will favor people who think differently and take risks, or in his words, be ‘more of an artist, look at things from a different direction, be able to build something unique’.” Now, that might be something to consider. Somebody has to come up with wild and crazy ideas that become normal, even essential after time, and who better than people who are used to thinking differently? As for the rest of the population, adopt the Economic Democracy Act (EDA) so they can own the AI that is replacing them from the workforce.
• Moon, Inc.? It seems that Robert Heinlein might have been a bit of a prophet in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966), at least if you ignore a few zillion details, and NASA is proposing building an “ambitious” $20 billion Moon Base. As reported in CBS News, “NASA announced ambitious long-range plans Tuesday to spend $20 billion over the next seven years to build a moon base near the lunar south pole featuring habitats, pressurized rovers and nuclear power systems. The announcement came just over a week before the planned launch of NASA's Artemis II around-the-moon mission. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman kicked off a series of meetings with contractors at NASA Headquarters in Washington saying he envisioned launching two moon landing missions per year to establish semi-permanent astronaut occupation on the lunar surface to explore, conduct research and develop the technology needed for eventual flights to Mars.” Here’s an idea, and it might go over pretty well, given the returns NASA has made to the economy: turn NASA into a for-profit corporation owned by every America, financed by rediscounting qualified paper at the Federal Reserve. Now, likely NASA, Inc., might not return much in dividends — although The United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies (The Honourable East India Company or “John Company”) did pretty well for its shareholders (profits were described as “immense” and pretty much funded the lifestyles of the rich and snobbish of the British Empire for a century) — but if “Space” is considered a public good, shouldn’t it be owned by the public? A Moon base or even a city or two as a steppingstone to Mars or Venus could be quite profitable instead of being a potential tax drain, but it shouldn’t be owned by only the rich. This is the sort of thing that would be very easy to do with the Economic Democracy Act (EDA).
• Loosening Land Ownership for Foreigners. Argentina is in serious need of investment capital, at least according to a Reuters report, and is making the possibly fatal assumptions that foreign investors are 1) a good source of investment capital, 2) a politically safe or at least viable source of investment capital, 3) allowing non-residents to own substantial amounts of land in a country is a good or at least non-dangerous idea, and 4) there is no viable domestic source of investment capital. Wrong on all four counts. Being partially of Irish descent, this writer will deal briefly with #3 first: Absentee landlordism is a really, really, REALLY bad idea. It doesn’t matter (up to a point) who owns the land IF he or she has to live on it. This principle is the same for landlords and for shareholders. As a rule — although you will find some very notable exceptions — owners who don’t live where the production takes place often don’t care about local conditions as long as the cash keeps rolling in. It wasn’t resident landlords in Ireland who continued to wring every penny out of their tenants, but those who had never set foot on their estates or even in Ireland. As for #1, foreigners with money to invest are looking to make money, not build a society by being productive — not always the same thing (again, you could name many exceptions). As for #2 . . . maybe. According to AI, “Argentina is a high-risk, high-reward investment destination, currently undergoing significant economic liberalization under President Milei to attract foreign capital. Rich in natural resources (lithium, oil, gas, agriculture) and offering a highly skilled workforce, it presents opportunities for long-term investors, though it requires patience and a high tolerance for economic volatility.” In other words, if you are rich and have money to risk, Argentina just might be for you . . . if you don’t mind realizing you could lose it all as soon as the administration changes. As for #4, you probably saw this coming, but the best source for investment capital in a country is the country itself, which can be released or accessed (however you want to put it) by adopting the Economic Democracy Act (EDA).
• Modern Job Creation. It’s easy enough to tell (other) people how to live their lives and insist, for example, that if they just had any ambition or get-up-and-go, they could easily find a job. That might be a little, er, optimistic. As noted in an article in the Business Insider, “Since losing his job in 2023, Scott had applied to 1,600 jobs, completed 78 interviews, and depleted his savings just to stay afloat. The constant rejection had become so unbearable that he went on antidepressants. So when a recruiter from a staffing company called with a job offer last December, he hung up, walked upstairs, told his wife the news, and cried. ‘It finally happened,’ he remembers thinking. The triumph, though, was bittersweet. The position was a six-month contract as a technician, two steps down from his previous role as senior manager. He’d have no guarantee of work once the contract ends. And he’d be earning only half what he made before.” This is a problem that is only going to get worse. The solution is to be able to generate income from capital ownership if you cannot do so from your labor ownership, and that can be done by adopting the Economic Democracy Act (EDA).
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| Louis O. Kelso |
• Sour Grapes Jobs Market. Well, not really sour grapes. More like “Let ’Em Eat Cake.” According to an article in Fortune magazine, “Tech executives have offered foreboding visions of the future of work due to AI, with ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott predicting unemployment will exceed 30% in a matter of years. But Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas says that’s nothing to be afraid of. People should embrace the future of AI job displacement, Srinivas said in an episode of the All-In podcast released on Monday and recorded at Nvidia GTC last week. While AI may lead to unemployment, that job displacement subsequently frees people from careers they may not have enjoyed, he suggested. This, instead, gives them opportunities to pursue entrepreneurship.” Uh, yeah, uh, Kingfish. And what are these opportunities? Could you be a little more specific? If the opportunity is there, are you sure AI won’t take it before human beings can get moving on it? And where are all the displaced people supposed to obtain the resources to take advantage of this entrepreneurship which they might not have developed to any appreciable degree if at all? Here’s a better idea. As Louis Kelso put it more than half a century ago, “If the Machine Wants Our Job, Let’s Buy It.” It’s easy (but not very effective or even empathic) to say, “If you lazy scuts don’t have jobs, just go out and exercise a little gumption and start up a company.” It’s quite another thing to be able to do it. It would be better to adopt the Economic Democracy Act (EDA) and create the opportunity and the means to be “entrepreneurs” instead of just sitting back and sneering at those who don’t measure up to your high standards.
• Another Social Security Fix That Breaks It More. It strikes one as a little surreal, what with the current maximum Social Security benefit being $5,181 per month ($62,172 annually) for a worker retiring at age 70, but according to an article in USA Today, a proposal by a think tank to cap Social Security benefits at $100,000 has met with fierce resistance. As noted in the article, “A Washington think tank proposed capping annual Social Security benefits at $100,000 for couples as a way to shrink a looming deficit in the retirement trust fund. The idea might sound reasonable enough: Only the wealthiest Americans can collect $100,000 a year from Social Security, a federal program that was meant to ease poverty, not pad wealth. But the ‘Six Figure Limit’ idea has drawn swift rebukes from retirement advocates, who see any cap or cut in Social Security benefits as a slippery slope.” Since we have ourselves proposed merging the FICA tax into general revenues and making Social Security benefits need-based, there would seem to be no problem with such a cap, “but.” Frankly, it comes across as self-defeating to insist on an unworkable system when a better alternative such as the Economic Democracy Act (EDA) is available.
• 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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