Mitchell’s laws: The more budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes. Until the 99% understand the need for deficits, the 1% will rule. To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments. Austerity = poverty and leads to civil disorder. Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
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Yes, that’s what the headline read: “A win ‘for all Europe.'” Not a win for the Greek people, of course. They will continue to suffer — worse. The words “all Europe” are a synonym for “European banks and rich people.”
Greek vote: A win “for all Europe.”
By Anthee Carassava and Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times, June 17, 2012, 11:56 p.m.ATHENS — The conservative New Democracy party eked out a slim victory in Sunday’s parliamentary elections over Syriza, the radical-left group that vowed to ditch Athens’ multibillion-dollar rescue deals and the harsh austerity measures they entailed. European officials had warned that such a move would result in Greece’s expulsion from the Eurozone.
Translation: Syriza is “radical,” because it doesn’t want Greek citizens to continue suffering “harsh austerity measures,” and because they think a return to Greek Monetary Sovereignty would be a bad thing.
Time is of the essence as recession and social deterioration worsen in debt-ridden Greece. Gripped by political instability since an inconclusive election last month and burdened with an increasingly dysfunctional government, the country is in danger of slipping further behind in meeting the deficit-cutting targets demanded by its creditors, spurring speculation it may yet have to seek its third bailout in three years.
Translation: We don’t care about Greece and the Greek people. All we care about is whether Greek will pay its creditors, mainly the banks.
Antonis Samaras, the New Democracy leader and potential new prime minister, urged his rivals to join him in a new government dedicated to promoting economic recovery.
Translation: Economic recovery is defined as Greece borrowing more, and Greek citizens having less.
He said that Greeks had voted “to stay anchored with the euro, remain an integral part of the Eurozone, honor the country’s commitments and foster growth. This is a victory for all Europe.”
“Anchored” is the operative word, as in trying to swim while tied to the anchor of monetary non-sovereignty and debts in a foreign currency (the euro).
The results also confirmed the stridently anti-austerity Syriza as Greece’s main opposition party, consolidating its breakthrough second-place finish in last month’s voting, which shocked many Greeks and other Europeans as well. The party’s leader, 37-year-old Alexis Tsipras, now has an official platform from which to keep up his populist hammering at the bailout agreements and to strengthen his power base among young people and others fed up with cronyism and corruption in Greek politics.
Translation: Being anti-austerity is “strident” and “populist,” while wanting the Greek people to continue falling deeper and deeper into debt, unemployment and depression is economically “stable.”
Locked out of the financial markets, Athens has had to accede to brutal spending cuts in exchange for foreign loans to stay afloat, including a $145-billion bailout package in 2010 and a second rescue deal last year that was worth $170 billion. The country is into its fifth consecutive year of recession, a breathtaking economic contraction marked by galloping rates of unemployment, poverty and homelessness.
Translation: Greece can’t pay its debts. So it gets to be more indebted to eurozone loan sharks. This increasing pauperism amazingly causes recession and economic contraction, unemployment, poverty and homelessness. Who’da thunk it?
European capitals greeted Samaras’ victory with relief and a hint that they might be willing to bend a little, perhaps by offering Greece more time to meet its spending and loan-repayment targets. Within weeks, Athens is supposed to detail about $14 billion in further budget cuts.
Translation: After five years of recession, Greece has cut away all the fat and all the meat and drained all the blood, and now must slice off pieces of the bone. But we’ll give them more time.
In a joint statement, Eurozone officials said they remained “convinced that continued fiscal and structural reforms are Greece’s best guarantee to overcome the current economic and social challenges.” But Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle of Germany, Europe’s de facto paymaster, told German radio that, though “there cannot be substantial changes to the agreements,” he could “well imagine talking again about timelines.”
Translation: So long as Greece finds some way to pay its debts to the banks, we really don’t give a damn how they do it.
The White House issued a statement expressing hope that Sunday’s results would “lead quickly to the formation of a new government that can make timely progress on the economic challenges facing the Greek people.”
Translation: We believe in magic. It’s the same magic that somehow will grow the U.S. economy if we cut our federal deficit spending.
And then there was this article:
Germany to cut Greece slack after vote backs bailout
Stephen Brown and Annika Breidthardt, Reuters, 9:25 a.m. CDT, June 18, 2012
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany may cut Greece some slack after its voters backed a pro-bailout party in weekend elections, with officials saying Athens might get more time to meet its savings goals, though longer-term economic reforms were still set in stone.
German officials, seeing the conservative New Democracy’s win as a vote to keep Greece in the euro zone and respect the terms of the European Union and International Monetary Fund bailout, struck a conspicuously softer line.
However, a Berlin government spokesman made clear there was no question on going back on key economic reforms to slim down the public payroll, close loss-making public enterprises, privatize state assets and crack down on fraud and tax evasion.
Translation: “Slim down the public payroll” means fire lots of people, which should help cure unemployment. “Close loss-making public enterprises” mean cut government stimulus spending, since all government enterprises are “loss-making.” “Privatize state assets” means selling state assets to the wealthy, for two cents on the dollar. “Cracking down on fraud and tax evasion,” means to extract more money from a private sector already starving. And Greek people, if youse rats don’t do what you’re told, we’ll bust your kneecaps.
Sounds like a great formula for economic recovery.
The question is: Why would the Greek people vote for a government that has announced it will continue austerity, only worse, while making sure the banks are taken care of? Answer: For the same reason the American people continue to back the Tea/Republicans. Economic ignorance, created by the brainwashing paid for by the upper 1% income.
It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world.
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. Two key equations in economics:
Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption + Net exports
#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 
[1] Circles are square, triangles have four sides, 1+1=3, and Greece needs more austerity. Amazing, huh? Even more amazing is how many people actually believe this trash.
[2] Many people naively insist that Alexis Tsipras is sincere. They flame me if I question Tsipiras’ motives. However, we know that the euro currency and Troika tyranny are increasing Greece’s debt, and thus worsening Greece’s austerity and depression. Alexis Tsipras favors the euro and Troika tyranny. Ergo, Tsipras favors austerity. Ergo, he is a liar. He knows that Greece can do absolutely nothing as long as Greece keeps the euro currency. He spouts anti-austerity rhetoric because that’s what the Greek masses like to hear. He just wanted to get on the bankers’ payroll, alongside all the other Greek politicians. He wanted to be an Obama, spouting populist rhetoric while serving the 1%. However the 1% did not need an Obama. The 1% has already crushed the Greek masses into total slavery.
[3] The article says, “Locked out of the financial markets, Athens has had to accede to brutal spending cuts in exchange for foreign loans to stay afloat.”
This is by banker design. After Greek politicians surrendered monetary sovereignty, they had to sell bonds to raise money. This caused Greece’s debt to skyrocket, along with the yield (interest rate) on those bonds. Result: No one wants to buy Greek bonds unless the yields are so high that Greece could never hope to pay back the binds. Therefore Greece can now only get money by begging from the Troika bankers, who are squeezing every last drop of blood out of the Greek masses. Greek politicians sustain this nightmare, because they are getting fat on the Troika bankers’ payroll. Like I said, it’s all by banker design. From the start, the euro project has been about erasing national sovereignty, eliminating all social programs, and widening the gap between rich and poor.
[4] “In a joint statement, Eurozone officials said they remained ‘convinced that continued fiscal and structural reforms are Greece’s best guarantee to overcome the current economic and social challenges’.”
Translation: Since austerity destroyed Greece, we must to apply more austerity. We have withdrawn 80 percent of the patient’s blood supply, but the patient became sicker. Thus, we must withdraw the remaining 20 percent.
[5] “Germany may cut Greece some slack after its voters backed a pro-bailout party in weekend elections, with officials saying Athens might get more time to meet its savings goals, though longer-term economic reforms were still set in stone.”
Translation: The Greek masses have no jobs, no money, and nothing of value left to sell. They have already been drained of every drop of blood. Therefore we will extend our blood-sucking over time.
[6] Many morons blame the Greek masses, saying they don’t pay enough taxes. This is idiotic. As with the USA, all federal income tax revenue in Greece goes to pay the interest on Greece’s debt. The Greek government runs on money borrowed from Troika bankers. No amount of tax revenue can ever keep pace with Greece’s mounting debt to the bankers. Moreover Greeks have no jobs. To say “They don’t pay enough taxes” is to condemn them because they have no money to pay taxes (let alone feed, clothe, and house themselves.)
[7] Roger writes, “Why would the Greek people vote for a government that has announced it will continue austerity, only worse, while making sure the banks are taken care of? Answer: For the same reason the American people continue to back the Tea/Republicans. Economic ignorance, created by the brainwashing paid for by the upper 1% income.”
Yes. The bankers did not need to rig the Greek vote, since all Greek candidates favored keeping the euro currency. Even the most left wing newspapers in Greece favor the euro currency. Thus, Greek politicians continue to get fat on the bankers’ payroll, while the Greek masses continue to march to the bankers’ slaughterhouse.
If I were a Troika banker, I would think, “If God did not want them sheared, he would not have made them sheep.”
The masses do not care who their masters are, as long as they have masters to worship. They do not care that they are led to the slaughterhouse, as long as they are being led. After three civil wars, Oliver Cromwell and his army finally got rid of the horrendous king Charles I, only to have the masses re-install an equally horrendous tyrant king (Charles’ son) as soon as Cromwell died. This is the way of the world.
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A small quibble: You said, “As with the USA, all federal income tax revenue in Greece goes to pay the interest on Greece’s debt.”
While taxes do pay for monetarily non-sovereign government spending, taxes do not pay for Monetarily Sovereign government spending. U.S. federal taxes do not pay for federal interest.
However, U.S. state and local taxes do pay for state and local interest.
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Roger I seek education. If federal income tax revenue does not pay the interest on the federal debt, then why are federal incomes taxes collected? Where does the revenue go? What services the debt, i.e. pays the interest on the bonds and securities sold? Is the debt simply rolled over again and again (getting larger all the time)? How does it work?
Consider the CNN article below. The CBO projects that over the next ten years the national debt will increase by another $11 trillion, while interest paid by the federal government will be more than $5.5 trillion. Put another way, by 2020 the US government will pay $750 billion per year on interest alone. If that $750 billion a year doesn’t come from federal taxes, then where does it come from? Is the debt simply rolled over? Please straighten me out on this.
http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/05/news/economy/national-debt-interest/index.htm
I thought all federal tax revenue paid only the interest in the national debt. However, according to the GAO (report link below), in 2008 the federal government collected $2.5 trillion in taxes, and spent only 9.6% of that ($242 billion) on interest payments. So where did the other 90.4% of that tax revenue go? I seek education.
Click to access feddebt_ann2008.pdf
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Richard, my name is Rodger.
You asked, “If federal income tax revenue does not pay the interest on the federal debt, then why are federal incomes taxes collected?”
Good question. Federal taxes are a relic of the gold standard days, when the U.S. government was monetarily non-sovereign, and used tax dollars to pay its bills.
Today, the government is Monetarily Sovereign, so has the unlimited ability to create dollars. It does not need to ask you for dollars. Congress pretends it doesn’t know this, because taxes are the government’s method for keeping the 99% down. The government sides with the 1%.
You asked, “Where does the revenue go?”
Federal taxes (unlike state and local taxes) are destroyed upon receipt. Just as federal spending creates dollars, federal taxing destroys dollars.
You asked, “What services the debt, i.e. pays the interest on the bonds and securities sold?”
The misnamed “debt” is the total of outstanding Treasury securities. You lend (i.e. buy T-securities) to the government by instructing the government to debit your checking account and credit your T-security account. In essence, dollars are transferred from one of your bank accounts to another of your bank accounts.
The government “pays the debt” by debiting your T-security account and crediting your checking account — i.e. by transferring the dollars back, from one of your accounts to another of your accounts.
To pay the interest, the government instructs your bank to mark up the numbers in your checking account. It can do this, forever.
You asked, “Is the debt simply rolled over again and again (getting larger all the time)? How does it work?”
The current system, is for the debt to increase, if taxes are less than spending (surplus). This system is obsolete, because issuing T-securities is obsolete. The government could eliminate all T-securities tomorrow, and while continuing to deficit spend.
There is not functional relationship between T-securities and deficits. The government could run deficits with no T-securities, and it could issue T-securities with no deficit. Two separate processes.
The most important thing to remember: Federal, Monetarily Sovereign finances are different from personal, monetarily non-sovereign finances.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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