Again, we are pleased this week to report the Initiative on Economic Personalism is still making steady progress. As we also mentioned last week, and the week before that, this could also give a boost to the related effort to push the Economic Democracy Act:
• Initiative on Economic Personalism. The CESJ team is still reaching out and networking but is also preparing to make definite plans for moving forward with the Initiative. As these are all in the preparation and organization stage, we cannot say anything about them — after all, would YOU like to find out what you’re allegedly doing before you even knew it was you? We don’t want anyone saying, “I never did half the things I did,” to paraphrase Yogi Berra. Rest assured, however, we are moving forward and hope next week to begin distributing educational materials to those on the mailing list. We also hope to have an occasional newsletter, very informal but hopefully informative.
• So Much for So Little. It sounds good at first, especially to promoters of the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism. According to an article in Yahoo! Finance, Americans have never been so invested in the stock market, not even back in 1929 or the Dot Com Bubble, when everybody seemed to be on the get-rich-quick bandwagon: “Stocks made up 48.2% of Americans' financial assets in the second quarter, counting everything from brokerage accounts to 401(k)s, according to the Federal Reserve's latest Financial Accounts data. That’s the highest share in records going back to 1945. It tops the 38.7% reached at the height of the dot-com mania and the 41% hit after the 2021 meme-stock frenzy.” There’re just a few downsides to this. It sounds really great, but the statistics are a little misleading as they include non-profits as households, and holders of a single share of stock are counted the same as Elon Musk. As the article explains, “ ‘There's some fine print. The Fed’s household category is a catch-all that also includes nonprofits, and the central bank says its estimates for the group are ‘largely residual, derived from other sectors' data.’ The ownership is lopsided, too. The richest 1% of households own about half of all stocks and stock funds, and the top 10% own 88%, according to the Fed’s distributional data. The bottom half owns about 2%. America isn't all in on stocks. Wealthy America is. Most of the climb also came from rising prices, not a buying spree. When stocks rally and everything else sits still, stocks take up a bigger slice of the pie on their own.” In other words, it’s the same story it has always been. The rich get richer and the rest of us continue to drop behind. And the way to correct this without harming the rich? Adopt the Economic Democracy Act (EDA).
• Single Millennials Barely Surviving. From Reddit Unvoted comes the word that, despite the “peace” and “lack of stress,” living on your own is becoming rapidly financially unfeasible. As stated in the article, “Surviving on one paycheck can be a heavy weight. It's enough to lead some to harbor the painful feeling that living is explicitly designed for couples. The cost of living alone can drive otherwise happy singles to search for financial support.” In other words, the inability to survive on a single income for couples is now extending to the inability to survive on a single income for singles. Given that in accordance with Say’s Law of Markets “production equals income,” the obvious solution is to make more people productive, and that entails adopting the Economic Democracy Act (EDA).
• Across the Great Divide. It is hardly news considering the above item, but as noted in an article in the Washington Post, “Homeownership has become a more elusive goal for many Americans, particularly those in their 30s, not just because of rising mortgage rates and home prices. Millions of renters are spending so much each month on housing that saving for a down payment and investing can seem impossible.” Things like the Homeowners Equity Corporation can help some, but they don’t address the underlying problem, which is rapidly declining real income for many people As we see it, the only thing to do is to adopt the Economic Democracy Act (EDA) as soon as possible.
• Let ’Em Ride Bikes. It might seem a little insensitive to us sans culottes and other peasants, but we should be reassured. According to the Business Insider, President Trump claims high gasoline prices are just the price we have to pay for Iran not initiating a nuclear strike using weapons they don’t have to achieve a goal that would destroy their own country before inflicting comparable harm on the United States — one or two nuclear warheads lobbed at the U.S. even if they reach the target could potentially call forth retaliatory strikes using the U.S.’s approximately 5,042 to 5,177 nuclear warheads, enough to flatten Iran several times over and glow in the dark for a few thousand years — and in any event, as the president declares, “Speaking at a rally in Georgia, Trump said that oil prices are ‘temporarily high,’ but added that the throttling of the Strait of Hormuz has pushed oil buyers to American companies with operations in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. ‘The United States oil and gas business is making hundreds of billions of dollars,’ Trump said. ‘I don't give a damn, I'm going to say it — we're making a freaking fortune.’” That is such a comfort, to know that the rich are getting richer instead of Congress working to adopt the Economic Democracy Act (EDA).
• Where’s the Beef? Well, what did you expect from a political promise? People around the world are complaining about rising food prices (although you’re probably not seeing all the European protests in the news); people are in trouble. As reported in Fortune magazine, however, the current administration’s attempt to bring down beef prices seems to have backfired politically at the same time it did nothing to bring down beef prices. As the article states, “At the nexus of an ongoing affordability crisis and midterm election push, the Trump administration's effort to reduce beef prices appears to be falling short. President Donald Trump signed a proclamation in August to temporarily increase the quantity of beef in the U.S. by importing 300,000 metric tons of lean beef trimmings into the country at a reduced tariff rate. The imports were scheduled over 90 days, from September through November. ‘This deal will reduce prices for Americans while giving space for our Great American Beef Herd to grow again,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social announcing the policy. But as of Oct. 19, the U.S. has imported just 59,423 metric tons of beef, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, or just 20% of the target. And ground beef averaged $6.79 per pound as of September, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, down from $6.92 in August, but still above $6.32 a year ago.” It seems it would be better to address the real causes, at least those that can be addressed: 1) The smallest U.S. beef herd in 75 years (a multi-year process to rebuild), 2) droughts and high feed costs (see #1), 3) Rising operating and inflation costs (government monetary and fiscal policy), 4) processing industry consolidation (ongoing concentration of capital ownership), 5) trade and tariffs (government trade and tax policy). The bottom line? 60% of the cause of rising beef prices would be taken care of very quickly by adopting the Economic Democracy Act (EDA), and the other 40% would be taken care of in a couple of years.
• Pro-Choice Doesn’t Mean Schools. We don’t really look to a magazine like Catholic World Report, an e-zine that seems more directed to arguing about other things, for items relevant to the Just Third Way, but recently Dr. Charles Russo had an article regarding the state of Ohio and a court’s decision to end a parental educational choice program. This ties into the Just Third Way because CESJ’s late president Norman Kurland once worked for HEW as his first job out of law school, and he was given the job of supporting Kennedy’s denial of aid to church schools. Like a good advocate, he studied the opposition’s case, decided the opposition was correct — that parents should have the right and access to the means to choose their children’s education — reversed himself . . . and soon switched jobs. Going against the powers-that-be when you don’t have the wealth or power to sustain your choice can sometimes be a little difficult, but one that the Economic Democracy Act (EDA) is intended to make easier.
• They Prefer the Term “Little Planet.” It may soon be time once again to revise school textbooks. According to an article in Newsweek, the Solar System may have ten planets . . . or (depending on how you label them) eight and change. As the article states, “2026 ED138 was found by Matthew Holman, of the Center for Astrophysics (CfA), while he was examining observations collected by the Rubin observatory earlier this year. On October 13, Holman ran the observations through computer software designed to find distant objects moving across the sky. Holman said, ‘my first reaction was one of excited disbelief,’ adding that ‘objects like this are very rare, so I immediately started checking whether I or the code had done something wrong.’ After the potential discovery emerged, scientists trawled back through the catalog of Rubin images, taken from March to July, and were able to find the object in more than 20 observations.” And what has this got to do with the Just Third Way? . . . Well . . . it demonstrates no matter how much you know, there is always more to learn, and what you thought was settled science turned out possibly not to have the whole picture. And how does this bring in the Economic Democracy Act (EDA)? Okay, so it doesn’t, but it still has a point to make.
• Yes, But What is “Socialism”? According to an article in The Hill, more than half of Americans say they are willing to vote for a “Democratic Socialist.” This, as we might expect, raises a few questions as to how people define “democratic socialism” when they have so much difficulty defining socialism, and (of course) exactly how the survey question(s) were phrased. In any event, as the article states, “In the Economist/YouGov poll, 50 percent of respondents said they would cast their ballot for a democratic socialist, while 41 percent said the opposite. Nine percent said they were unsure about voting for such a candidate.” For the record, we define socialism and communism the same: the abolition of private property. Differences are merely semantic. The solution to either socialism or communism, not to mention capitalism, is the same: adopt the Economic Democracy Act (EDA).
• Petition to Stop the Public Execution. As we noted last week, the petition to stop the public broadcast of the execution of Nidal Hasan has been rendered somewhat moot by President Trump’s announcement that it will not be broadcast. Nevertheless, given the somewhat mutable decisions made by the current administration, it will not be closed.
• 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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