Pope Francis Critic of CHRONY CAPITALISTS, Not Capitalism
One recent article helps explain more about Pope Francis and illustrate Rush Limbaugh's Thanksgiving eve questioning based on a partial reading of a 50,000 word document, says Eugene Delgaudio, president of Public Advocate.
"Chris Manion and other genuine conservative economists have commented in a similar vein and observed that Pope Francis is not being critical of the free market but some of the apparent abuses of the market system by immoral forces or people which are apparent to even blind people, " says Delgaudio.
Academic Catholic authority and long-time folk singer Chris Manion posts on Acurracy in Academia
"Rush Limbaugh .....is mad at the Pope. Pope Francis, the new guy on the block who, for all we know, might be even more popular than Rush......
It all started last week when Pope Francis published Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), an "Apostolic Exhortation" that commemorates the end of the Year of Faith, which ended with the First Sunday of Advent this week.
In the 50,000 word document encouraging Catholics to carry the Gospel to the four corners of the earth, Pope Francis devoted a few paragraphs to the economy.
Everybody's talking about it. So, on the day before Thanksgiving, Rush launched.
(Rush Limbaugh said) "You know, the pope, Pope Francis - this is astounding - has issued an official papal proclamation, and it's sad. & [He] attacked unfettered capitalism as 'a new tyranny' and beseeched global leaders to fight poverty and growing inequality.
This is just pure Marxism coming out of the mouth of the pope. Unfettered capitalism? That doesn't exist anywhere. Unfettered capitalism is a liberal socialist phrase to describe the United States."
Rush has a point. Robert Nisbet once observed that in 1913, the year he was born, the only contact that the average U.S. citizen had with the federal government was the Post Office.......
In brief, writes (economist) Veryser (It Didn't Have To Be That Way), for the last hundred years several generations of self-appointed whiz kids allied with a bunch of liberal politicians to manipulate the political economy, causing the "boom and bust cycle" and making the 1913 dollar worth one penny today.
Washington: America's Crony Capital
This perversion of the market has spawned today's "Crony Capitalism."
Perhaps that's what the Pope is condemning, and well he should. After all, Crony Capitalism is closer to corporate fascism (with a small "f") than to what is left of the free market.
.....the (US) government routinely fudges economic figures to serve its own ends. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve's quiet counterfeiting destroys savings and the value of the dollar, hurting children, the old, and the poor the most.
Hurting everybody but the Crony Capitalists.
In Crony Capitalism, a tax cheat from the corrupt banking community managed to become Obama's Treasury Secretary, and then left to make a million dollars a month at a well-connected crony hedge fund.
By the way, (The Pope's) Evangelii Gaudium condemns "the idolatry of money" and "the powerful [who] feed on the powerless."
A perfect fit for the Cronies.
"The thirst for power and possessions knows no limits," the pope adds - which captures the cold heart of Crony Capitalism pretty well..................
Here's a question that our (American Catholic) bishops rarely ask: Does the welfare state work?
The Rubble notes with an arched eyebrow that Lyndon Johnson, in his 1964 book, My Hope for America, predicted that his Great Society programs would end poverty in America well before the end of the twentieth century.
No, socialism doesn't work.
Well, now what? Will Pope Francis defend true economic freedom? Or does he have in mind a "Third Way"?
Besides Chris Manion's plain talk here's another geo-political economic and religious opinion posted at this link:
Pope Francis and the economists
Alejandro Antonio Chafuen
The recent economic statements by Pope Francis in his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (EG) read as a call for a "Third Way" economic system ruled by experts and people of good will