Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
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O.K., President Obama stabbed the working people, the poor, the elderly and the sick in the back. These are the people who elected him, and he stabbed them in the back.
Although he long has said he wants Social Security “reform” and Medicare “reform” and Medicaid “reform” (the word “reform” being a coded signal for “cut the hell out of”), his followers didn’t believe him. After all, isn’t he a Democrat, and aren’t the Democrats the party of the people?
It’s those nasty Republicans who are for the rich, not the Democrats. Right?
So it simply is not believable that dear President Obama could intentionally have lied to the poor and the unfortunate, only pretending to be a Democrat, when he secretly is a Republican or (gasp!) a Tea Partyer. Is it?
No, it must be something else, and this something else is what the unfortunate, the compassionate, the true believers now have begun to cling to: It’s called Obama’s secret plan.
The secret plan scenario goes like this: Obama really loves the poor. But in this climate, and owning only the Presidency and the Sentate, he can’t go against the powerful Tea Party and House Republicans. The mid-term election proved that. So instead, he has to play the role of sane, sensible, honest, adult, while the voters see what crazed lunatics the right-wingers are. After all, do we really want Michele Bachmann or Sarah Palin or some other fascist running our county?
Then, in 2012, all those nuts will be voted out of office, President “hope and change” once again will have his House majority to go along with his Senate majority, and this will give him the power to restore or even increase the benefits to the underprivileged. Medicare will be expanded. Social Security will be expanded. Medicaid will be expanded. Roads and bridges will be built. Children will be educated. Our food and drugs will be inspected. Our nation will be safer. Unemployment insurance will be extended. Federal spending will increase to stimulate business, and unemployment will drop.
And pigs will fly.
For you see, dear liberals, you have been scammed. You thought you voted for a warm-hearted liberal. He talked like one. He looked like one. He acted like one. But he isn’t one. He isn’t a conservative either. He’s a Chicago politician, with no moral imperative. People call Chicago the “windy city,” and Chicago demagogs always know which way the wind is blowing. And today’s wind howls, “Cut, cut, cut.” So he will cut. He’ll cut you; he’ll cut your kids; he’ll cut your savings and your health and your home.
Forget what he promised. He hopes you will. He also hopes you’re helpless. You’ll have to vote for him. I mean, are you going to vote for Newt or any of the other mental midgets on the far right? No. You are going to march into that polling booth, pull the lever marked “Democrat,” and march right back out. You always have and you always will. The whole process will take less than 1 minute, which will give you time to go home and complain about the recession. Or the depression.
He may be a DINO (Democrat in name only), but he’s all you have. I understand. I empathize. We Chicagoans elected Mayor Daley for 20 years, and even though he may have been the biggest crook in Chicago history (which is saying a lot), and left this city with a gigantic debt (which unlike the federal government, Chicago can’t pay), he was a Democrat.
So stop whining about being cheated. There is no secret Obama plan. You’re the people who fell for the lies that the federal debt is too big, and that we are on the edge of bankruptcy, and that there’s no way out of the debt ceiling other than cutting social services. And today, you’re the people who still tell me I’m wrong, when I say the deficit should be increased.
One of my readers (Thank you, Hamish) compared you to turkeys who voted for Thanksgiving. So enjoy your misery, and don’t forget to pull that lever marked “Democrat.” Gobble, gobble.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com
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No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia. The key equation in economics: Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 
Those NASTY Democrats, Liberals and Progressives who attribute Islamic Jihadist Terrorism with the Tea Party and those that believe we shouldn’t spend what the next generation has not even amassed so that our country doesn’t face economic catastrophe, are incredulous Class Warfare Crusaders bent upon a Do-Nothing attitude as we head toward economic chaos. Since they also refrain from accepting known mathematics that shows TRILLIONS of dollars in Ponzi-scheme Socialist programs of redistribution of wealth promises that cannot possibly be fullfilled, they then resort to bombastic, nasty, vile ad hominem attack retoric against their opponent that is unbecoming to those that claim to want to solve problems and not just add to them. Greed and covetousness guided the Democratic Party for 170 years of Jim Crow and KKK rule, and then ended up going around the Constitution and implementing their acclaimed snake-oil salesmen Ponzie Socialist schemes that promises much more in benefits than beneficiaries pay into it, all the while putting the tab on the Generational Theft credit card of the Federal Government. RINOS are there to help the Dems accomplish their goals. Thanks for listening, 777denny
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From which right-wing nut bag website did you get your ideas from? I need a good laugh after the dog and pony show that has taken place the past couple of months. You wouldn’t know the definition of Socialism if it hit you in your tiny head.
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Charles,
For those who come here to obtain information, Socialism is not what Charles may think it is. Socialism is government ownership of resources, not federal spending.
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Denny,
So your point is . . . ?
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Hopefully we citizens are waking up, not only to Obama’s deceit, but to corruption of both major political parties. I recently read an assertion that the democrats are owned by the banks and the republicans are owned by the oil companies. I don’t know if this is true, but it is becoming more and more clear that neither party is interested in serving the general welfare of the nation.
Is there one succinct question that we can pose to politicians or media “economics experts” which will provoke citizens into thinking for themselves about Monetary Sovereignty? I wonder how the politicians and pundits would respond to a simple (admittedly two-part) question like, “How is money created, and who gets the free money?”
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Or, “How does removing money from the economy help the economy recover?”
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This question assumes that people understand how money is added to and removed from the economy, which they don’t. If they were asked, they would think it is done by the Federal Reserve, not by the Treasury.
If GDP is too small, and and the government deficit is part of GDP, how does reducing the deficit help to grow GDP?
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Where does this leave us? Now that we have the diagnosis (we live in a Duopoly where both parties are just subdivisions of one party that serves the financial elite) what is the prescription? Do you think they’ll ever allow a viable third option to rattle the entrenched status quo? Ha ha, look what they did to Nader. No seats at the table for the non-rich and those not preapproved by high finance and big industry.
The only problem with MS or MMT (while I find it highly educational) is that you still need the application to flow through legitimate, uncorrupt leadership. Unfortunately our illegitimate State has illegitimately alienated the money creation power to the banks with their funny money, and there’s nothing we can do about when they decide to run the presses for their own greed or shut them down to squeeze us.
It might be time to start looking for solutions outside central planning. Have you heard of “Time Banking”?
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Pete,
This is more hyperbole than even I can handle. The State is not illegitimate. Banks do create temporary money (which has an expiration date), as does every other lender, money market, bond issuer, traveler’s check issuer et al.
Banks do not run presses. They lend to people and businesses who wish to borrow. I suspect shutting down the banks would send us immediately into a depression, though I think much more regulation is in order.
Don’t know much about Time Banking. From what I’ve heard, it is a take off on the common barter schemes, except instead of trading goods, people trade services.
Like barter, it will have its followers, but it never will be a substitute for money.
As for where we should go, I believe the truth will out. It took years for Dr. Semmelweis to convince doctors to wash their hands. Just have to keep plugging.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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Give me a break, why should Obama care about the general public. We call him muslim, a traitor, a terrorist, etc… We are finicky as hell, changing our minds about supporting him on a daily basis. We didn’t support him on health care reform. We then voted into congress a bunch of clowns and now we expect Obama to fight for us.. not gonna happen. He’s a regular human and he’s doing what all of us do when our boss pisses us off: he saying ‘screw you. you want budget cuts, you got budget cuts. choke on ’em’ This isn’t Obama’s fault – it’s ours. The problem with America is this: the American public suck– George Carlin had it right. If we’re being taken advantage of by the elite, its only because we’re too damn stupid to stop them. There’s nothing stopping Americans form waking up tomorrow and saying, “wait a minute, the Germany economy works better than ours despite widespread unionization. Hmm, everything they say about Japan is a lie, Japan’s economy is actually good — they have an unemployment rate of 4.6% after all. And, you know what, both these countries have government backed industry and national health care– maybe we should do what they do”. What is stopping Americans from coming these realizations? Nothing except pure laziness and hatred of ‘libruls’, ‘socialism’ and a desire to ‘drive any darn car I want’ no matter how low its mpg. And we expect someguy to come into office and care about us – hah. We should get down on our knees and thank the heaven’s we even have a guy who cares as much as Obama does — cause we don’t deserve anything better than Pol Pot.
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modeleverything,
Actually, I blame the economists for spreading the false story: The federal deficit and debt are too big. The media and the politicians believe what the economists tell them. Why would they not? The University of Chicago and Harvard professors have won dozens of Nobels, for heaven sake.
The people believe what the media and the politicians tell them. Why would they not? To my knowledge no editor of any newspaper in America, perhaps the world, departs from the story. Aside from Abby Romaine, I know of no radio or TV commentator who questions the story.
So when all the “experts” tell you the same story, and you see that story every day in the newspapers, and hear that story every day on radio and TV, you’re going to believe it. And if, by chance, you figure out the story is total nonsense, your friends will tell you you’re stupid not to believe the story. The pressure to believe the story is enormous.
No, it’s the old-line economists. They are to blame. They are the ones who invested their reputations and egos in the story, and no amount of data can dissuade them.
Hey, years ago, when every doctor in the world said stomach ulcers are caused by emotional stress, you believed them. Right?
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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Rodger,
The chosen term “run presses” is figurative. Part of the reason governments aren’t legit is because of the very effect we’re talking about here, how by their elitist nature they always seek to alienate public property to private criminals. So the idea of direct money creation by the government is a mismatch of problem and prescription, a kind of “contradiction in the adjective”.
Legitimate sovereign money would be the people’s money, by definition. This would be true at the political/philosophical/constitutional levels.
Claiming we live in a Duopoly is not hyperbolic. It’s just the cold hard truth. Through the capture of campaign finance and concentrated media ownership, we are presented with a false choice between two (as of recently) equally corrupt parties with possibly a few rare exceptions.
I’m for being critical of blind Obama supporters as well, but you offer no alternative in exchange. I voted 3rd party up until 2008 (yippee, it begins to feel like a giant waste of time after a while), took a chance on Obama like so many others, and am now left wondering how he could appear to be such a traitor.
Constructs like Time Banking (you have it right) and Relocalization get people taking responsibility with themselves and their local communities, rather than relying on top-down economic policy that favors monopoly rents and enforced consumerism.
Again, MS and/or MMT would still require leadership that is actually interested. Nothing hyperbolic about that.
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So no government is “legit”? Hmmmm . . . .
You might like: http://moslereconomics.com/2011/08/04/mmt-history-and-overview/
I’m mentioned in there as an “MMT extremist.” Translation: I don’t believe the way MMT would deal with inflation. But my discussions with Warren Mosler, I think I have helped him refine his view of the economy — and he, mine.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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Rodger, I’m spreading the word on you and Mosler. Thanks for the link.
Still think banks don’t have us by the balls? From Bill Black, one of the good guys.
“The U.S. does not bail out banks because they are well run institutions that provide unique benefits to the economy. It bails out banks because they are so badly run that they have losses so large that the regulators fear could cause cascade failures at dozens of other banks. I urge you to call authors on their use of any euphemism that fails to stress that these banks are systemically dangerous.”
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/08/bill-black-u-s-subsidies-to-systemically-dangerous-institutions-violate-wto-principles.html
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It’s difficult to argue with you on that. I’m sure future generations of economists will look back at the current generation’s practices and view them in a similar manner as the modern medical establishment views the practices of the middle ages. Nevertheless, the people who believe these messages often do so because its fits into the world view they like and not just because the media tells them to. Of course, this is pure conjecture and based on personal experience. But, it seems there a few reasons that people seem to use for their support of far right wing economics: fear of minorities taking freebies from the hardworking folk, fear of hyperinfation — this is a interesting one because it seems to be based mostly on fear of one’s inability to retire and is only adhered to when it does not conflict with other AARP supported goals (P. Ryan found that out), and then there is the hatred of all regulation — this one is taught by certain economists, but I don’t believe it is perpetuated in the msm without considerable dissent and, as far as I can tell, is believed by some due to a distaste of environmentalists and intellectuals constantly telling the regular folks how they should live. Of course, I really base this only on people I know… some in my own family. The extremity of the opinions of these regular folk is astounding. They choose to be racists, and haters of the EPA, despite enormous attempts by the msm to actually educate them in the exact opposite manner. I don’t know about you, but I don’t I see too much msm support for racism and any support that does exist is more than offset by anti-racist messages in mainstream music and movies. Anyway, my real point is that there are many messages the msm tries to sell Americans that they don’y buy (ranging form all people are equal and evolution to the NBC Olympic triple cast) and usually when they do buy some message its because it meshes nicely with what they want to believe.
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Can’t claim authorship of the phrase “Turkey’s voting for thanksgiving”, I read it somewhere else. But I think it’s a good description of how most of us have been conned into voting against our own interests – the Tea Party being the most extreme example of this.
Also living in Australia, a country with universal health care, watching the argument over it’s introduction in the USA boggles the mind. In spite of ample evidence just across the border of cheaper system that gives every citizen access to decent care, plenty of regular Americans seem to heve been scared into thinking it’s some sort of communist conspiricy.
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Hamish, you have more sense than our entire Congress and our President. I don’t know whether you’ve read these:
https://rodgermmitchell.wordpress.com/2011/07/17/what-are-the-best-recessiondepression-investments/
and
https://rodgermmitchell.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/why-there-will-be-a-full-blown-depression-in-2012/
and
https://rodgermmitchell.wordpress.com/2011/07/30/the-depression-cometh/
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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Pete,
Unquestionably, the big banks (especially) are a bunch of crooked scum bags. But they do what they are allowed to do. If there were no laws against stealing, most of us would steal (Think taxes). There is nothing in bankers’ DNA that makes them more dishonest than the rest of humanity.
The government is at fault for not regulating and passing appropriate laws. The banks are just taking advantage of the situation.
That said, federal money given to the banks is stimulative. It goes from the banks out into the economy, where it touches many hands. Money does not stop with its first use.
As I long have said, even federal waste is stimulative, perhaps not as stimulative as non-waste, but stimulative nevertheless. Had the “bridge to nowhere” been built, it would have helped the economy.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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The financier/rentier class has done whatever they’ve wished to do throughout history. The government is inherently corrupt. But on whose behalf it exerts its corruption is decided by who pays the most. So the corruption is an ongoing auction. Money is a tool of command.
Indeed, there is something perplexingly different about their DNA. That’s why us “salt of the earth” types who are content with a good home, family, friends, and modest resources can’t understand why they behave like covetous monkeys.
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