Piers Paul Read on Catholic Answers Live

What is a Catholic Novel?
Guest: Piers Paul Read
mp3, rm

Tonight he was speaking at the DSPT. (Cardinal Stafford was planning to be in attendance.)

Solemn vows at St. Albert's Priorty

The ceremony was today. Some photos:

St. Albert's Priory

The sinking Titanic: interview with Michael C. Ruppert
Lars Schall, Energy Bulletin
Interview with investigative journalist and author Michael C. Ruppert about his new book A Presidential Energy Policy.

The financial mess we’re in: Has it something to do with Peak Oil, too? Is there this systemic crisis because we are heading towards the end of the Age of Oil – and no one is telling the public so?

The current economic collapse is a combination of two things. First, the current global economic paradigm -- governed by fractional reserve banking, fiat currency, and compound interest (debtbased growth) -- is inherently and by definition a pyramid scheme. Money is useless without energy. One cannot eat a dollar bill or crumble it up and throw it in his gas tank. Each of the trillions of dollars created out of thin air since the fall of 2008 is a commitment to expend energy that cannot and will not ever be there. The Laws of Thermodynamics prevent this. I applaud the decision of Chancellor Merkel to resist the temptation to achieve a temporary solution by printing money endlessly. I am German by ancestry. My great grandfather migrated to the U.S. from a small town in Essen called Ruppertsburg at the turn of the last century. German pragmatism and realism on energy has been apparent to me since my first visit to Germany in 2003. It is not perfect and must be improved, but I have seen more clear thinking on the subject in Germany than in any of the 13 countries I have visited. That is actually not as good a thing as it might sound. There can be no "recovery", no return to growth (which is what the economic paradigm demands), without energy.

Why is this not discussed openly: The dinosaurs of the old paradigm -- who are about to pass into extinction -- cannot admit this because it would have an immediate effect on the financial markets which are already dying. People would stop buying stock if they understood that a return to growth is impossible. I think, however, that on a more fundamental level the dinosaurs just cannot see their own impending extinction. They are incapable of mental and spiritual evolution which all of our survival depends upon. They cannot adapt. As the global environment changes forever, from the related issues of climate change, energy shortages, and economic collapse all dinosaurs can do is die. That's what Darwin so clearly proved with regard to all life on this planet. Those species which cannot adapt must go extinct. We see billionaires and dinosaurs disappearing or losing money everywhere. Even Warren Buffet and George Soros are losing money because they cannot grasp that infinite growth is not possible. The term "sustainable growth" is perhaps the greatest oxymoron ever coined and an instant indicator of imminent Darwinian deselection for anyone who uses it. I keep a safe distance from such people.

Mainstream media all over the world is corporate-owned; a dinosaur by definition. In America CNN is owned by Time-Warner; CBS is owned by Viacom; NBC is owned by General Electric, ABC by Disney; the Wall Street Journal is owned by Rupert Murdoch and Newscorp, ad infinitum. All large press outlets sell stock and -- far worse -- are tied into a global derivatives bubble now estimated at $700 trillion in notional value that not only is collapsing: The Mother of All Bubbles.[4] Telling the truth to the people means that people will stop buying GE, Time Warner, Viacom and Newscorp stock so that is the last thing mainstream media can acknowledge.

Those who produce, edit and report the "news" are corporate citizens rather than human beings. They have chosen to murder their own children to protect their current jobs (the food they receive from an abusive parent). Being of German ancestry I am sensitive to issues about being willfully ignorant (cowardly) in the face of great evil. I am also aware of and grateful for the White Rose and von Stauffenberg and his heroic colleagues. I have felt like these great Germans must have felt for many years now. I still owe a great debt of gratitude to my old friend Andreas von Bülow from Köln[5] who graciously exposed me to authentic German culture. I have lost contact with Andreas and his wife Anne and I pray they are well. Now we find that this blindness is an inherent part of humans in all countries and the one thing that must and will go extinct with the Old Paradigm.[6]

But the dinosaurs are losing their grip. Since the start of the collapse of industrial civilization, corporate-owned media has become something of a joke. "Check the tire pressure on your resume" is about the best advice they can offer. Then they say, "We think we have hit the bottom, so buy stock and don't pull your retirement out of the markets" while at the same time issuing reports that show that we are nowhere near a bottom and that everything is getting worse. Who can trust such nonsense. There must be a great German word that means idiotic, contradictory and bullshit at the same time.

Related links:
From The Wilderness
From the Wilderness' Peak Oil Blog
BOOK PUBLICATION AND MOTION PICTURE ANNOUNCEMENT
RubiconWorks
A Presidential Energy Policy
Mike Ruppert: "A Presidential Energy Policy" KBOO Community Radio
MMnews - Interview: Michael C. Ruppert

Crunchy Con: Nashville, musicians and localism

I wouldn't mind visiting Nashville again, but I suspect I'll be disappointed once more. A CC reader recommends Branson, MO.

Zenit: Pope to Visit St. Benedict's Monastery

VATICAN CITY, MAY 21, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The Pope will be visiting the monastery founded by the saint he chose as his patron upon taking the name Benedict XVI.

The Holy Father will travel Sunday to Monte Cassino, the monastery St. Benedict founded that is the cradle of the Benedictine order.

The visit will begin with a Mass in the plaza of Cassino, the city just east of the monastery. The site of the Mass will be renamed after Benedict XVI.

After Mass, the Pontiff will inaugurate a "House of Charity" for homeless immigrants. The project is being carried out in a former hospital under the sponsorship of the abbot of Monte Cassino.

The second part of the day will be dedicated to the Benedictines, as the Bishop of Rome will meet with abbots and abbesses from around the world, as well as a large number of monks and nuns.

Finally, before his return to Rome, the Holy Father will visit the Polish cemetery, one of the cemeteries from World War II. This year marks 65 years since the bombing of the monastery in the Battle of Monte Cassino, also known as the Battle for Rome.

I'll try not to forget to watch it live on EWTN.

Air times:
Sun 5/24/09 4:00 AM ET / 1 AM PT
Sun 5/24/09 12 PM ET / 9 AM PM

Crunchy Con: Should California break up? Should your state?

Dan Wetzel, Johnson has words of warning for Danica

I don't keep up with NASCAR and I don't care for it. Would Danica Patrica get as much attention or money if she weren't physically attractive?


LOUISVILLE, KY - MAY 01: Danica Patrick attends the Barnstable Brown Party Celebrating The 135th Kentucky Derby at Barnstable Brown House on May 1, 2009 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Getty/Daylife)

Takuan Seiyo, From Meccania to Atlantis - Part 7: The True Horror in Hitchcock Films (in which he discusses San Francisco)

Does he have his facts correct? San Francisco Police Department: Chief Fong's Biography

The Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ

CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Feast of the Ascension

To be observed here in the diocese of San Jose next Sunday. (Apparently the only exceptions here in the United States are Boston, Hartford, Newark, New York, Philadelphia, and Omaha.)

The Feast of the Ascension at Westminster Abbey

Freddy Gray, Bad Feith

The big idea is the aggrandizement of the Civilian Response Corps “so the president can mobilize trained civilian volunteers the way he already can mobilize volunteers for the military reserve.” And it just so happens that CRC is in line to receive an additional $323 million, if Congress approves the budget Obama submitted last week.

How to Win the 'Long, Hard Slog' - WSJ.com
Douglas Feith, undersecretary of defense for fiascos
Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization
State Department recruits for Civilian Response Corps
Civilian Response Corps Gains Ground - washingtonpost.com
wiki

Photos: The installment of Archbishop Nichols

The Most Reverend Vincent Nichols (C) arrives at Westminster Cathedral in central London, ahead of the formal service to install him as the 11th Archbishop of Westminster, on May 21, 2009. (Getty/Daylife)

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 21: Archbishop Vincent Nichols processes to Westminster Cathedral on May 21, 2009 in London. The Pope has chosen Archbishop Vincent Nichols to be installed as the 11th Archbishop of Westminster and the head of the Catholic Chruch in the United Kingdom. (Getty/Daylife)

The Most Reverend Vincent Nichols (C) arrives at Westminster Cathedral in central London, ahead of the formal service to install him as the 11th Archbishop of Westminster, on May 21, 2009. (Getty/Daylife)

Archbishop Vincent Nichols acknowledges members of the public as he arrives for his installation as the eleventh Archbishop of Westminster at Westminster Cathedral in London May 21, 2009. Nichols heads the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Westminster, in England. (Reuters/Daylife)

Archbishop Vincent Nichols makes his way through the congregation for his installation as the eleventh Archbishop of Westminster at Westminster Cathedral in London May 21, 2009. Nichols heads the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Westminster, in England. (Reuters/Daylife)

Archbishop Vincent Nichols gives a thumbs up after being installed as the eleventh Archbishop of Westminster at Westminster Cathedral in London May 21, 2009. Nichols heads the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Westminster, in England. (Reuters/Daylife)

Archbishop Vincent Nichols takes part in a mass after being installed as the eleventh Archbishop of Westminster at Westminster Cathedral in London May 21, 2009. Nichols heads the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Westminster, in England. (Reuters/Daylife)

Archbishop Vincent Nichols (C) walks past the congregation after being installed as the eleventh Archbishop of Westminster at Westminster Cathedral in London May 21, 2009. Nichols heads the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Westminster, in England. (Reuters/Daylife)

More photos here.
Solemn Vespers before the Installation of Archbishop Vincent Nichols (via NLM)
Service of Solemn Vespers marks start of Installation of new Archbishop of Westminster
Installation of Eleventh Archbishop of Westminster
Installation of Archbishop Vincent Nichols as the 11th Archbishop of Westminster (via NLM)

The Founders Knew Latin by Larry L. Beane II (via the Western Confucian)

The word "federal" comes into English from the Latin word foedus (genitive: foederis). And in this light, there is no ambiguity whatsoever when it comes to what the founders meant by rejecting the word "nation" and replacing it with the word "federal." When one understands this, all the clever and pompous pronouncements from academicians and government bureaucrats (who want Washington, DC to plan and manage every aspect of our lives) fall by the wayside. For the word "foedus, foederis" means: "a league, treaty, charter, compact."

Thus, federal governance is, by very definition, a compact. The Constitution is a compact. The Union is a compact – not a nation. The founders knew their Latin even as most of our modern-day "educators" and bureaucrats do not. Coincidentally, Jefferson Davis's middle name was "Finis," Latin for "end" or "boundary." His generation's passing marked the end of education that emphasized Latin and history and classical ideals, and the beginning of Big Government's brand of "public schools."

Today, very few people are in a position to even know that the Federal government is, by definition, a compact. Most give it no thought at all.

To show how language has been perverted to the detriment of truth since the time of the American Republic's founding, a standard modern collegiate dictionary today defines "federal" as involving "surrender [of] their individual sovereignty to a central authority but retain[ing] limited residuary powers of government" (compare this to the text of the Tenth Amendment!) and marks the definition "of or relating to a compact or treaty" as "archaic."

Asia Times: China's farmers a poor base for growth
Boosting domestic consumption, notably in rural areas, is a key goal of China's economic stimulus plan to counter the fall-off in export demand. Yet the recent history of the country's non-industrialized areas, including disproportionately high taxes, should create considerable doubt that China's farmers can help pull the world from recession. - Walden Bello

Sierra Hull

Everyone's Somebody's Fool


Sierra Hull & Highway 111 Pretend


Worried Man Blues by Sierra Hull and Highway 111 featuring Ron Block


Sierra Hull - From Now On


Sierra Hull @ Branson MO Whiskey Before Breakfast


Sierra Hull - Ragtime Annie
Sierra Hull w/ Hwy 111 Jam With Road Less Traveled May 2008 - (alt)
Sierra Hull W/ Hwy 111 "Rock Hearts"

shuckin the corn


Ron Block, Sierra Hull & Kenny Smith - Smashville

Sierra Hull
myspace

The economics of decline (original)
John Michael Greer, The Archdruid Report
Proponents of technofixes for the crisis of industrial society are fond of insisting that today's complex technologies are "more efficient" or "more economical" than the alternatives. Behind that claim lies a series of assumptions that are likely to turn out severely misguided as the age of cheap abundant energy comes to an end.

Worth pondering, for anyone with a job dealing with computers and the Internet. (Hello, Bay Area.)


The myth of efficiency (original) by Peak Oil Hausfrau

KFC grilled chicken

AP: Kentucky Grilled Chicken? KFC to begin grilling



Grilled chicken is displayed on a tray after being grilled at the Kentucky Fried Chicken in Indianapolis, Friday, March 21, 2008. KFC hopes grilled chicken will lure back health-conscious consumers who dropped fried chicken from their diets, or cut back on indulging. (AP/Daylife)


I tried the new KFC grilled chicken this afternoon -- last day for the coupon. As good as El Pollo Loco? No. How could it compare? EPL chicken is almost cooked to order. It is probably the case that KFC grilled chicken is pre-cooked, and re-heated in your KFC restaurant. I didn't see any grills in the kitchen, and how could most KFC restaurants fit one?

Does it taste better than KFC's fried chicken? I'm not sure. I don't know how the two recipes compare, and what spices are used for both. The chicken didn't taste that fresh though--you usually can't tell with the fried chicken because it is cooked so long, and there is so much grease.

I'd rather go to EPL... even a Costco chicken would be better.

Mel Gibson in "The Colonel"

Also coming on EWTN: INSTALLATION OF THE MOST REVEREND VINCENT NICHOLS AS ARCHBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER LIVE (2hrs)
Archbishop Vincent Nichols will be installed as the 11th Archbishop of Westminster in London.
Thu 5/21/09 7:00 AM ET / 4 AM PT
Thu 5/21/09 12:00 PM ET / 9 AM PT

Installation blog
Profile: Archbishop Vincent Nichols UK news guardian.co.uk

Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham

The installation of Archbishop Vincent Nichols at Westminster

A guide to the ceremony
20 May 2009

Music before Mass:
- Kyrie, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit (J S Bach)
- Christe, aller Welt Trost (J S Bach)
- Grand Dialogue (Louis Marchand)
- Kyrie, Gott heiliger Geist (J S Bach)

Before the Mass:
- Cathedral chaplains process to the sanctuary to sing Lauds together with the congregation
- Concelebrating priests, permanent deacons and seminarians enter the Cathedral
- Westminster canons leave the sacristy and take their places in the sanctuary
- The chapter sings Terce with the congregation
- The sanctuary procession enters the Cathedral
- Provosts and canons move from the sanctuary to the West Door

Solemn reception of the Archbishop:
- The choir sings "Tu es pastor ovium"
- Archbishop kneels at threshold of Cathedral
- A fanfare is sounded, the Archbishop is greeted by the Provost, who presents him with a crucifix, which he kisses
- The Archbishop sprinkles himself and the chapter with holy water
- Procession passes up the nave to the sanctuary, while the choir sings "Summae Trinitati"
- The Archbishop kneels before the high altar, while the Provost prays for him
Solemn installation of the archbishop:
- Bishop John Arnold reads the Apostolic Letter of authority from the Holy See
- The Provost leads the Archbishop to the throne, places him in it and reads the formula of installation
- Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor presents the Archbishop with the crozier
- The Provost and Canons greet the Archbishop, followed by other representatives of the diocese
- The choir sings "Benedictus Deus"
- The Archbishop of Canterbury greets the Archbishop
- All sing the hymn "All people that on earth do dwell"
- The Provost says the Collect

The Liturgy of the Word:
- First reading: Acts 22:3-16, read by Chris Nichols, sister-in-law of the Archbishop
- Responsorial psalm
- Second reading: Philippians 2:1-11, read by Jennifer Davies, secretary to the Archbishop of Birmingham
- Gospel acclamation
- The Gospel: Luke 10:1-9, read by Deacon Vincent Malone
- The archbishop proceeds to the pulpit to preach the homily
- The Creed is sung by choir and congregation
- The General Intercessions are read by Pamela Singh, member of the diocesan education commission, Edmund Adamus, director of pastoral affairs, Bwalya Kangwa, member of the pastoral board, Mark Nash, of the agency for evangelisation, and Helen O'Brien, director of St Joseph's Pastoral Centre

The Liturgy of the Eucharist:
- The prayer of the gifts
- The preface: "Father, all-powerful and ever-living God"
- The Eucharistic Prayer: "We come to you, Father, with praise and thanksgiving"
- The Communion Rite
- The sign of peace
- The motet, Ave Verum Corpus (Colin Mawby)
- The Communion Hymn, "Soul of My Saviour"
- Communion
- The Postcommunion
- The Hymn of Thanksgiving
- The Apostolic Nuncio, followed by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, addresses the congregation
- Concluding rite
- The hymn "Praise to the Holiest in the Height"
- Archbishop and concelebrating clergy proceed out of the Cathedral

Organ music at the end of Mass:
- Marche Pontificale from Symphonie No 1 Op 13 (Charles-Marie Widor)
Prelude and Fugue in C (J S Bach)

EWTN:


TELL THE WORLD (30 mins)
This lecture, part of a series of talks given at a Catholic Charismatic Conference, features Fr. Benedict Groschel discussing the factors necessary for growth in Christian maturity.
Mon 5/18/09 3:00 AM ET / 12 AM PT
Mon 5/18/09 6:30 PM ET / 3:30 PM PT

TELL THE WORLD (30 mins)
In this lecture Fr. Benedict Groschel explaining why we should trust God through difficult times.
Tue 5/19/09 3:00 AM ET / 12 AM PT
Tue 5/19/09 6:30 PM ET / 3:30 PM PT

TELL THE WORLD (30 mins)
Father Raniero Cantalamessa, discussing devotion to God the Father.
Wed 5/20/09 3:00 AM ET / 12 AM PT
Wed 5/20/09 6:30 PM ET / 3:30 PM PT

TELL THE WORLD (30 mins)
Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa talking about the special charism of the Catholic Charismatic Movement.
Thur 5/21/09 3:00 AM ET / 12 AM PT
Thur 5/21/09 6:30 PM ET / 3:30 PM PT
TELL THE WHOLE WORLD



TELL THE WORLD (30 mins)
Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa discussing the spirituality of the Catholic Charismatic Movement.
Tue 5/26/09 3:00 AM ET / 12 AM PT
Tue 5/26/09 6:30 PM ET / 3:30 PM PT

TELL THE WORLD (30 mins)
This lecture, part of a series of talks given at a Catholic Charismatic Conference, features Fr. Pablo Straub talking about the nature and meaning of the Sacrament of Penance.
Wed 5/27/09 3:00 AM ET / 12 AM
Wed 5/27/09 6:30 PM ET / 3:30 PM PT

TELL THE WORLD (30 mins)
Fr. Pablo Straub talking about the nature and meaning of sanctifying grace.
Thur 5/28/09 3:00 AM ET / 12 AM PT
Thur 5/28/09 6:30 PM ET / 3:30 PM PT

The Toll Booth Economy
By MICHAEL HUDSON

There are, in this current crop of books, the usual pro forma calls to re-industrialize America, but not to address the financial debt dynamic that has undercut industrial capitalism in this country and abroad. How will these timid “reforms” look in retrospect a decade from now? The Bush-Obama bailout pretends that banks “too-big-to-fail” only face a liquidity problem, not a bad debt problem in the face of the economy’s widening inability to pay. The reason why past bubbles cannot be restored is that they have reached their debt limit, not only domestically, but also the international political limit of global Dollar Hegemony.

What don’t these books address? Everything economics really is all about: the debt overhead; financial fraud and crime in general (one of the economy’s highest-paying sectors); military spending (a key to the U.S. balance-of-payments deficit and hence to the buildup of central bank dollar reserves throughout the world); the proliferation of unearned income and insider political dealing. These are the core phenomena that “free market” choristers have relegated to the “institutionalist” basement of the academic economics curriculum.

For example, the press keeps on parroting the Washington line that Asians “save” too much, causing them to lend their money to America. But the “Asians” saving these dollars are the central banks. Individuals and companies save in yuan and yen, not dollars. It is not these domestic savings that China and Japan have placed in U.S. Treasury securities to the tune of $3 trillion. It is America’s own spending – the trillions of dollars its payments deficit is pumping abroad, in excess of foreign demand for U.S. exports and purchases of U.S. companies, stocks and real estate. This payments deficit is not the result of U.S. consumers maxing out on their credit cards. What is being downplayed is the military spending that has underlain the U.S. balance-of-payments deficit ever since the Korean War. It is a trend that cannot continue much longer, now that foreign countries are starting to push back.

Inasmuch as China’s central bank is now the largest holder of U.S. government and other dollar securities, it has become the main subsidizer of the U.S. payments deficit – and also the domestic U.S. federal budget deficit. Half of the federal budget’s discretionary spending is military in character. This places China in the uncomfortable position of being the largest financier of U.S. military adventurism, including U.S. attempts to encircle China and Russia militarily to block their development as rivals over the past fifty years. That is not what China intended, but it is the effect of global dollar hegemony.

Another trend that cannot continue is “the miracle of compound interest.” It is called a “miracle” because it seems too good to be true, and it is – it cannot really go on for long. Heavily leveraged debts go bad in the end, because they accrue interest charges faster than the economy’s ability to pay. Basing national policy on dreams of paying the interest by borrowing money against steadily inflated asset prices has been a nightmare for homebuyers and consumers, as well as for companies targeted by financial raiders who use debt leverage to strip assets for themselves. This policy is now being applied to public infrastructure into the hands of absentee owners, who will build interest charges into the new service prices they charge, and be allowed to treat these charges as a tax-deductible expense. Banking lobbyists have shaped the tax system in a way that steers new absentee investment into debt rather than equity financing.

The cheerleaders applauding a bubble economy as “wealth creation” (to use one of Alan Greenspan’s favorite phrases) would like us, their audience, to believe that they knew that there was a problem all along, but simply could not restrain the economy’s “irrational exuberance” and “animal spirits.” The idea is to blame the victims – homeowners forced into debt to afford access to housing, pension-fund savers forced to consign their wage set-asides to money managers for the large Wall Street firms, and companies seeking to stave off corporate raiders by taking “poison pills” in the form of debts large enough to block their being taken over. One looks in vain for an honest acknowledgement of how the financial sector turned into a Mafia-style gang more akin to post-Soviet kleptocrat insiders than to Schumpeterian innovators.

The post-bubble tomes assumes that we have reached “the end of history” as far as big problems are concerned. What is missing is a critique of the big picture – how Wall Street has financialized the public domain to inaugurate a neo-feudal tollbooth economy while privatizing the government itself, headed by the Treasury and Federal Reserve. Left untouched is the story how industrial capitalism has succumbed to an insatiable and unsustainable finance capitalism, whose newest “final stage” seems to be a zero-sum game of casino capitalism based on derivative swaps and kindred hedge fund gambling innovations.

I'd like an analysis of this part from a different point of view:

What have been lost are the Progressive Era’s two great reforms. First, minimizing the economy’s free lunch of unearned income (e.g., monopolistic privilege and privatization of the public domain in contrast to one’s own labor and enterprise) by taxing absentee property rent and asset-price (“capital”) gains, by keeping natural monopolies in the public domain, and by anti-trust regulation. The aim of progressive economic justice was to prevent exploitation – e.g., charging more than the technologically necessary costs of production and reasonable profits warranted. This aim had a fortuitous byproduct that made the Progressive Era reforms seem likely to conquer the world in a Darwinian evolutionary manner: Minimization of the free lunch of unearned income enabled economies such as the United States to out-compete others that didn’t enact progressive fiscal and financial policy.

A second Progressive Era aim was to steer the financial sector so as to fund capital formation. Industrial credit was best achieved in Germany and Central Europe in the decades prior to World War I. But the Allied victory led to the dominance of Anglo-American banking practice, based on loans against property or income streams already in place. Today’s bank credit has become decoupled from capital formation, taking the form mainly of mortgage credit (80 per cent), and loans secured by corporate stock (for mergers, acquisitions and corporate raids) as well as for speculation. The effect is to spur asset-price inflation on credit, in ways that benefit the few at the expense of the economy at large.

The problem of debt-leveraged asset-price inflation is clearest in the post-Soviet “Baltic syndrome,” to which Britain’s economy is now succumbing. Debts are run up in foreign currency (real estate mortgages in the Baltics, tax-avoidance funds and flight capital in Britain), without exports having any prospect of covering their carrying charges, as far as the eye can see. The result is a debt trap – chronic austerity for the domestic market, causing lower capital investment and living standards, without hope of recovery.

These problems illustrate the extent to which the world economy as a whole has pursued the wrong course since World War I. This long detour has been facilitated by the failure of socialism to provide a viable alternative. Although Russia’s bureaucratic Stalinism got rid of the post-feudal free lunch of land rent, monopoly rent, interest and financial or property-price gains, its bureaucratic overhead overpowered the economy in the end. Russia fell. The question is whether the Anglo-American brand of finance capitalism will follow suit from its own internal contradictions.

The flaws in the U.S. economy so intractable, embedded as they are in the very core of post-feudal Western economies. This is what Greek tragedy is about: a tragic flaw that dooms the hero. The main flaw embedded in our own economy is rising debt in excess of the ability to pay is part of a larger flaw: the financial free lunch that property and financial claims extract in excess of a corresponding cost as measured in labor effort or an equitably shared tax burden (the classical theory of economic rent). Like land seizure and insider privatization deals, such wealth increasingly can be inherited, stolen or obtained by political corruption. Wealth and revenue extracted via today’s finance capitalism avoids taxation, thereby receiving an actual fiscal subsidy as compared to tangible industrial investment and operating profit. Yet academics and the popular media treat these core flaws as “exogenous,” that is, outside the realm of economics analysis.

Unfortunately for us – and for reformers trying to rescue our post-bubble economy – the history of economic thought has been rewritten in infantile caricature, to give an impression that today’s stripped-down, largely trivialized junk economics is the apex of Western social history. One would not realize from the present discussion that for the past few centuries a different canon of logic existed. Classical economists distinguished between earned income (wages and profits) and unearned income (land rent, monopoly rent and interest). The effect was to distinguish between wealth earned through capital and enterprise that reflects labor effort, and unearned wealth stemming from appropriation of land and other natural resources, monopoly privileges (including banking and money management) and inflationary asset-price “capital” gains. But even the Progressive Era did not go much beyond seeking to purify industrial capitalism from the carry-overs of feudalism: land rent and monopoly rent stemming from military conquest, and financial exploitation by banks and (in America) Wall Street as the “mother of trusts.”

What makes the latest bubble different from previous ones is that instead of being organized by governments as a stratagem to dispose of their public debt by creating or privatizing monopolies to sell off for payment in government bonds, the United States and other nations today are going deeply into debt simply to pay bankers for bad loans. The economy is being sacrificed to reward finance, instead of finance subordinating and channeling finance to promote economic growth and lower the economy-wide cost structure to remain viable. Interest-bearing debt is weighing down the economy and causing debt deflation by diverting saving into debt payments instead of capital investment. Under this condition “saving” is not the solution to today’s economic shrinkage; it is part of the problem. In contrast to the personal hoarding of Keynes’s day, the problem is the financial sector’s extractive power as creditor instead of clearing the slate by wiping out the economy’s bad-debt overhang in the historically normal way, by a wave of bankruptcy.

California Catholic Daily: “Like burning the furniture to keep warm”
USF may sell rare books, valuable art if “economic emergency” develops

Zenit: Benedict XVI Promotes Internet Friendships

VATICAN CITY, MAY 20, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is encouraging a "positive" use of communication technologies so that friendships created through them can help make the world a better place.

The Pope said this today at the end of the general audience when he spoke in English about this Sunday's celebration of World Communications Day.

Referring to his message for this year, he noted his invitation to "all those who make use of the new technologies of communication, especially the young, to utilize them in a positive way and to realize the great potential of these means to build up bonds of friendship and solidarity that can contribute to a better world."

The Holy Father recognized that "new technologies have brought about fundamental shifts in the ways in which news and information are disseminated and in how people communicate and relate to each other."

Thus, he exhorted those who "access cyberspace" to take care to "maintain and promote a culture of respect, dialogue and authentic friendship where the values of truth, harmony and understanding can flourish."

His final exhortation was for youth: "Young people in particular, I appeal to you: bear witness to your faith through the digital world! Employ these new technologies to make the Gospel known, so that the Good News of God's infinite love for all people, will resound in new ways across our increasingly technological world!"

--- --- ---

On the Net:

Benedict XVI's message for Communications Day '09: www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/communications/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20090124_43rd-world-communications-day_en.html

Zenit: Cardinal Arinze Defines a Truly Catholic College

The mark of a good Catholic university is success at turning out model Christians who are good citizens, says Cardinal Francis Arinze.

The cardinal, former prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, affirmed this May 10 in a commencement address he delivered at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, New Hampshire.

He said that a Catholic college that adopts an attitude of "courageous creativity and rigorous fidelity" contributes much to promoting a "healthy synthesis between faith and culture in society," the Cardinal Newman Society reported.

Cardinal Arinze contended that a Catholic institution of higher learning should teach its students "to appreciate that moral rules of right and wrong apply also to science, technology, politics, trade and commerce, and indeed to all human endeavors."

"In the complicated world of today, where all kinds of ideas are struggling for the right of citizenship, a university student needs a clear and viable orientation on the relationship between religion and life," he continued. "The Catholic college or university is ideally positioned to help him see the light and equip himself for a significant contribution in society."

The cardinal recognized that universities need to offer premium intellectual formation, but he affirmed that formation in upright behavior is also a need.

"But what does it profit us if a student is an intellectual giant but a moral baby," he asked, "if he or she can shoot out mathematical or historical facts like a computer but is unfortunately a problem for the parents, corrosive acid among companions in the college, a drug addict and sexual pervert, a disgrace to the school, a waste-pipe in the place of work and 'Case No. 23' for the criminal police? It is clear that intellectual development is not enough."

At Thomas More College, Not Obama But Arinze
Thomas More College Welcomes New President

I wanted to add to my quick response to Professor Deneen's latest -- there is very little mention about justice and duties in his piece. Now, as Americans are encouraged to be mobile, it may that one's family does not settle in any one place, with its members scattering to the four winds. But if many of them decide to remain in one area, what does one do about one's obligations to them? Sure, one may not be able to find a job in the profession for which he trained (or any job, for that matter), or there may be difficulties with one's spouse -- is it really too late to think about such considerations though? Should people be planning ahead and taking into account their obligations to family (and also to the community, as ephemeral as that may be) before they decide on a college major or a career track? If it is too "late" for those who have already decided, what can be done to eliminate conflict?

Surely, reform of the political economy must be undertaken, and economic freedom re-established (along with local autarky).

The gentle art of non-gardening
Gene Logsdon, Dave Smith, OrganicToBe.org
The most amazing aspect of it, and I don’t know why, is that this “wild” lettuce is ready to eat before the lettuce that I plant early in the cold frame, coddled with compost and protected with a plastic cover on cold nights. The “wild” lettuce grows faster. If I had any brains, I would quit the cold-frame lettuce, but so far I just don’t have enough faith in nature to do it.

(original)

NLM: Usus Antiquior Journal: Subscriptions Now Open and How Important Is Ceremony? and Russian Orthodox Theologian Weighs in on the Liturgical Reform after Vatican II.