Analysis of the Panic of 1907

In the previous posting on this subject, we closed by noting that the financier J. Pierpont Morgan saved the country from the “Panic of 1907” . . . which he had caused in the first place.  Observant readers of this blog will not be slow to realize that a similar thing has happened with the recent bank failures.  The federal government has been quick to assure the public that it will guarantee that the rich people who had money in the bank will be rescued from wanting to have their cake and eat it, too . . . and coincidentally take more control over the financial system.

JTW Podcast: Just Third Way Home Economics

Usually when we talk about economics, what we really mean is political economy, the science of production, distribution, and consumption of marketable goods and services.  Most authorities divide political economy into macro- and microeconomics, a distinction that does not exist in binary economics, at least not as generally understood.  In Economic Personalism, microeconomics refers to the individual and family, while macroeconomics refers to everything else.

News from the Network, Vol. 16, No. 11

If you happen to be at least 150 years old, you will recall the Panic of 1907, a.k.a., “the Bankers’ Panic,” and not be surprised at the current spate of bank failures.  If you don’t happen to have reached the century and a half mark, you will, of course, be stunned and amazed, as well as baffled, that such a thing could happen on the eve of the Utopia that Keynes promised if we would just lie to ourselves for a century.  Of course, if we adopted the Economic Democracy Act, we wouldn’t have to lie at all, and could probably avoid problems like these:

The Panic of 1907

The recent bank failures have once again raised questions not only about the safety of the financial system, but its role in the economy.  What goes on in the world’s financial centers seems to have no connection to people’s daily lives and the need to secure food, clothing, shelter, and the other essentials of life.  What happens on Wall Street, stays on Wall Street . . . except when it seeps out to the real economy and destroys lives.

JTW Podcast: Natural Law Theory

Today we feature a short piece on Thomas Aquinas and natural law theory.  Although we might not agree with everything that the presenter says or how it’s said, Thomist (Aristotelian) natural law theory is the foundation of the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism as applied in the Economic Democracy Act:

News from the Network, Vol. 16, No. 10

As usual, reports and predictions of economic disaster are coming as fast as glowing reports of economic health and growth.  What’s the real story?  Paradoxically, both reports and predictions could very easily be true . . . depending on who you are.  Like “the Great Reset” of Klause Schwab and the World Economic Forum which has capitalism for the rich and socialism for the poor, today’s economic growth benefits the rich, while the recession/depression affects the non-rich.  Of course, the Economic Democracy Act would benefit everyone, but no one seems to think of that.

What is a “Bank”?

Banking for most people is a little like pornography.  There is something not quite right about it, but a lot of people seem to like it and can’t seem to function without it, and they can’t define it, but they know it when they see it.

JTW Podcast: Fulton Sheen at UCLA

What, Notre Dame wasn’t good enough?  Just kidding, although we’d like to see something truly revolutionary come out of Academia instead of the increasing emphasis on “job training” at a time when AI is replacing even top professionals, leaving very little to do for the rest of us.  The obvious solution is the Economic Democracy Act, but nobody is or was discussing it, which leaves it up to the will bes:

News from the Network, Vol. 16, No. 09

 

Recently we saw a video in which a retired British major general kept insisting that we must appease Putin and allow him to keep Crimea and everything else he had managed to grab.  He was then honest enough to admit that if Putin were appeased in this fashion, it would probably be necessary to fight him or his successor again in five or ten years, but that was the price that had to be paid for peace.  Over a year ago people were saying Putin could not be stopped from taking all of Ukraine and so must be allowed to have it, now they are saying Russia will never surrender Crimea and must be allowed to have it.  Apparently, nothing succeeds best for a tyrant than people afraid to stand up to him.

News from the Network, Vol. 16, No. 09

News from the Network, Vol. 16, No. 09

What is the “Banking Principle”?

Frequently, we have made the statement that, where the so-called mainstream schools of economics (the Keynesian, Monetarist/Chicago, and the Austrian) are based on the “Currency Principle” and belong to the “Currency School,” the binary economic of Louis Kelso is based on the “Banking Principle” and belongs to the “Banking School.”  What does this mean?

JTW Podcast: Fulton Sheen on Firing Line

 

This week we're putting the late Fulton Sheen on the firing line . . . or was that Fulton Sheen on Firing Line?  In either case, you're bound to see something interesting, although not, perhap, as interesting (or at least as immediate) as the Economic Democracy Act:

News from the Network, Vol. 16, No. 08

Today is the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, or (as some are putting it) Day 366 of Russia’s 10 day “special military operation.”  Given that no sane person believes claim of saving the world from gay Nazis through war crimes and atrocities, it seems reasonable to expect that the effort would have collapsed months ago.  Instead, Russia continues to push . . . well, if not forward, at least along, losing sometimes more soldiers in a week than it did in Afghanistan in ten year.  Of course, the rest of the world, locked into the economic insanity of Keynesian economics and accumulating more debt in nominal terms than the entire world did in a century before Keynesian economics came along, has nothing to brag about, as can be seen by the refusal to adopt the Economic Democracy Act, but, like Putin, people still insist on implementing failed programs that never worked in the first place:

Was Henry George a Socialist?

In a recent email, someone stated, “Henry George was definitely NOT a Socialist.  Quite the contrary.  He wanted to untax labour and capital, treat land rents as the source of public revenue and restore the mediaeval system of financing the Crown through land rents.”

JTW Podcast: Fusion Power and Kilowatt Hour

We are not nuclear scientists, but we recognize the importance of power to any civilization, especially a technologically advanced one.  We also recognize the importance of a stable measure of value for a currency for any civilization, especially (again) a technologically advanced one.

News from the Network, Vol. 16, No. 07

Again this week we see a large number of problems that could be solved by adopting the Economic Democracy Act, but people still insist on implementing failed programs that never worked in the first place:

Some Thoughts on Credit

. . . social credit, that is, the brainchild of Major C.H. Douglas.  Recently we received a question asking whether we were familiar with “the Douglas Scheme,” as the Anglican Christian apologist C.S. Lewis rather pejoratively termed it.  Yes, we are familiar with Major Douglas and his social credit plan, which has nothing to do with what the Chinese have termed “social credit,’ although both rely on intrusive government control.

JTW Podcast: Embodiment of the Human Person

Continuing the series of videos on personalism, today we have Dr. John F. Crosby on “Understanding the Embodiment of the Human Person.”  He puts it in terms of Christianity, but being based on natural law, applies across the board.  In this video he talks about what Dr. Ralph McInerny of Notre Dame called “fideism,” the opposite but equal error of materialism.  Both are forms of “modernism” that separates faith and reason.

News from the Network, Vol. 16, No. 06

As usual, we have nothing spectacularly new to report, although the special segment on Hulu airing tonight might be of great interest.  Otherwise, the list of news items is tophevy with stories about people and situations that would e much better off with the Economic Democracy Act, but we may get there eventually:

A Keynesian Contradiction

The first principle of reason is that nothing can both “be” and “not be” at the same time under the same conditions.  This law or principle of (non) contradiction simply means that something cannot both exist and not exist at the same time, e.g., nothing can be a little bit dead.  Something is either dead or alive; Schrödinger’s cat is only half dead and half alive because there’s a fifty percent chance it’s either one, which is known for certain when the box is opened.

JTW Podcast: Intro to Thomistic Personalism

This week we follow up on last week’s podcast that featured the personalism of John Paul II, with a video of the Thomistic personalism . . . of John Paul II.  Okay, so we’re in a rut, or at least we’re not finding enough videos or other shows on the rest of the Just Third Way.  Again, there is nothing in the video about economic personalism as applied in the Economic Democracy Act, but you can’t have everything:

News from the Network, Vol. 16, No. 05

It is very tempting to give the blogging equivalent of “Nothing to see here, move along,” when reporting on various events that advance the Just Third Way (rare) or actively inhibit or prevent the Just Third Way (far too common).  Sadly, too many people seem to be convinced that if we just continue to do what isn’t working and has never worked instead of adopting the Economic Democracy Act, things will be fine:

The Currency Principle

Nowhere is the pervasiveness of the “New Things” (rei novae) of modernism, socialism, and the New Age more obvious today than in the prevalence of Keynesian economic and monetary policies throughout the world.

JTW Podcast: John Paul II’s Personalism

It’s not as clear as the presentation of the personalism of Pope John Paul II in The Greater Reset, but it might help people get a better understanding through a different perspective if they’ve already read The Greater Reset.  Of course, there is nothing in the video about economic personalism as applied in the Economic Democracy Act, but you can’t have everything:

News from the Network, Vol. 16, No. 04

What is so fascinating about the world situation these days is that a great many people are convinced that Russia has lost its war of conquest in Ukraine, yet Russia (or Russia’s insane dictator Putin) refuses to admit it has lost horribly and continues to sacrifice everything to save Putin’s face and gratify his ego.  The same goes for Putin’s worshipers in other countries who simply refuse to see the writing on the wall.  Is it, however, so crazy?  After all, governments still insist on implementing Keynesian economics as if it hadn’t failed nearly a century ago.  Keep on doing what has never worked and refuse to implement the Economic Democracy Act: