Mitchell’s laws:
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor, which leads to civil disorder.
●Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive.
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I wrote this as a comment on the previous post, but on second thought, I felt it deserved a post of its own.
President Barack Obama has proposed spending cuts that will crush the middle class, but John Boehmer wants even bigger cuts.
The National Memo
Boehner Rejects Obama’s Offer To Cut Social SecurityHouse Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) preemptively rejected President Barack Obama’s upcoming budget proposal Friday, slamming the president’s offer to cut Social Security as “only modest entitlement savings.”
AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka vowed that America’s largest labor federation would oppose any budget deal that included chained CPI, saying the index is “another example of how Washington creates fancy-sounding phrases to mask stupid policies that only work for the rich.”
The public seems to stand with Trumka; recent polling suggests that Americans strongly oppose any Social Security cuts.
The budget reportedly includes several other cuts, such as $400 billion in health care savings (including additional means-testing for Medicare,) and $200 billion in cuts to farm subsidies, federal employee retirement programs, and unemployment compensation.
Obama’s budget also aims to raise $600 billion in new revenues, including an increased cigarette tax, which would be used to finance the president’s proposal for universal pre-Kindergarten.
It sure looks like a fierce battle except, it’s not a real battle. It’s the pro wrestling version of combat. Obama and Boehner are putting on a show for the public. It goes like this:
Obama: “O.K. John, I’ll propose large cuts. You demand gigantic cuts. I reluctantly will offer to compromise on huge cuts.” The fools will think I’ve done my best and you’ll look like you’re being reasonable. We both get paid and no one gets hurt.
Both Obam and Boehner and their parties are bought and paid for by the upper .1%, so both will do as they are told, i.e. widen the gap between the rich and the rest. The rich want power, not just money, and power is what the gap gives them.
Since both parties are criminal, I’m beginning to wonder — dare I say it — whether this nation is headed for revolution. I sure hope not, but with the President and the entire Congress being owned by the .1%, for whom does one vote?
The people don’t understand what’s happening — they are brainwashed with debt-cutting lies — especially since the media also are owned by the rich.
The people pinned their hopes and dreams on Obama, but his greed got the best of him. He sold his soul for a Presidential Library, lucrative speaking engagements for his wife and him, and big jobs for his daughters.
As for the people, in frustration and feeling there is nowhere to turn, the people may lash out. They lack only a charismatic leader — an empathetic, Rooseveltian figure — to give them voice and strength.
Yes, it could happen here. Unfortunately, revolutions often result in even worse poverty for the middle and lower classes. But when people are killing your kids and stealing your house, you may not think about the subtleties.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty
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Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D — for everyone
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
4. Long-term nursing care for everyone
5. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
6. Salary for attending school (Click here)
7. Eliminate corporate taxes
8. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
9. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99%
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 Imports
#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 
Who does one vote for? Nobody. If enough people stop voting, especially for incumbents, then maybe a few eyebrows will rise.
Last year was the first time I did not participate in an election for national offices.
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i haven’t voted since bush v. gore. right then and there i knew the fix was in. well, i kinda knew it before then, but that just drove the point home, loud & clear.
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“Since both parties are criminal, I’m beginning to wonder — dare I say it — whether this nation is headed for revolution.”
In The Fourth Turning (1997), sociologists and generational theorists Stauss & Howe predicted a turning point around now, as has economic historian Ravi Batra in The Coming Golden Age: The Coming Revolution against Political Corruption and Economic Chaos. Looks like the next ten years or so may be getting interesting.
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turning point? revolution?? that’s all vague language. if you (or they, or rodger) are talking about violent revolution–forget it, b/c it’ll NEVER happen. those days are over, b/c the government is armed to the teeth and anyone with half a brain knows that.
they have shown they are more than ready to “taser” (remember that means “electrocute”), beat the crap out of, or shoot at the public, unarmed or not, peaceful or not. anyone who has been watching the beatdown that OCCUPY has gotten knows this to be true.
the only way that change can possibly come about is that a large group of knowledgeable, incorruptible people run for congress and win and turn that body around.
congress is the currency issuer and controls the regulatory structure by being the main legislative entity in this country.
no other entity in society controls the economy to the degree that congress does–as the constitution mandates. so, if you want to turn this thing around, the focus HAS to be by necessity on turning congress around and nothing else.
i think there’s a chance that something could possibly happen with the demographic shift that’s taking place, but it could take a long time and it’s long shot at that.
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Of course, I don’t think that violent revolution is possible, let alone a good idea. The quick and violent crack down on Occupy around the US was meant to show force and the willingness to use it, in case anyone was not clear, just as the Iraq War was a demo to the ROW of US ability to project power militarily.
Let’s call it a velvet revolution observing Gandhi’s non-violent “rules of engagement.” What counts is the will of the people acting in coordination. TPTB will do all in their power to break that coordination of wills, so it will take strong commitment.
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A PBS item purports to be a “debate” between Friedrich Hayek and John Maynard Keynes over the question: Should Americans spend and consume? Or should Americans save and invest? Which is better for the economy?
This question is meaningless, just like the debt-to-GDP ratio for MS countries. Its purpose is to maintain bickering over nothing, thereby concealing the real issue: Is it better for a Monetarily Sovereign government to spend, or to impose austerity?
As long as this real question is ignored, economists will chatter about nothing, while the gap widens between the rich and the rest.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/04/a-libertarian-take-on-economic-faith-facts-and-follies.html
A YouTube video that promotes this empty chatter has 4.177 MILLION views.
PBS says, “Savings vs. spending — Hayek vs. Keynes — remains as sharp a divide as ever.”
BULLSHIT! There is no “debate” regarding austerity.
There are only facts and fools. Truth and liars.
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Separate topic:
One reason why bankers get away with their theft is that their victims blame each other, rather than bankers. It’s what I call “peasant thinking.”
Here’s an example, which I must preface with some background…
In 2004, Gary and Sharon Connor sold their house in England to finance their dream of moving to Cyprus to run a scuba-diving school. Hoping to retire in Cyprus, they bought a house and existing business there, but in Jan 2012 Gary Connor suddenly died from a heart attack. His widow Sharon closed the scuba-diving business, intending to move back to England, and she put her Cyprus house on the market for €230,000. However it sold for only €183,000. Half the money was paid in euros, and half in British pounds. Sharon planned to wire the money to England, but the sale was completed just before close of business on Friday 15 March 2013. Therefore she deposited the money in two Bank of Cyprus accounts, intending to wire it to England the following morning. But on the following morning (16 March) the bank announced that all deposits were frozen, and all deposits over €100,000 were forfeit.
37.5% of monies over €100,000 will be converted into worthless bank shares. Another 22.5% will be put into a fund that earns no interest, and will be confiscated to pay for Cyprus’ ever-exploding debt. The remaining 40% is frozen “temporarily” (i.e. indefinitely) for “liquidity reasons.” Thus, any money over €100,000 is gone. Sharon Connor lost €83,000 ($107,657). Her money had been in the bank for just a few hours. She cannot even get her remaining €100,000, because of capital controls. Ms. Connor now lives with her sister in England.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/apr/06/british-widow-money-locked-cyprus
Some readers are sympathetic with Ms. Connor, but others write sarcastic things like this…
“Those British expats thought they were so bright, living the good life, not paying taxes nor national insurance for years, boasting to their sad friends still working and suffering in the UK. Then suddenly it all crashes. These foreign countries, where they hardly speak English and dare having different laws! Something tells me that Sharon will not be a pauper and will still use the NHS she did not paid for, for many years to come.”
(The idiot thinks that tax revenue pays for socialized medicine in England. Moreover, he does not realize that 80% of Cypriots speak English.)
As long as peasants envy and resent each other, they will suffer (and justifiably so). Not everyone is that way, but show me a person who is obsessed with taxing the rich, and I’ll show you an envious, wretched peasant.
Instead of punishing the rich (which is not possible), I say we should take some of their money-power, which will give us brainwashing power. This means spreading the truth about MS. All wars and political struggles are for control of people’s minds. Money and physical resources are mere adjuncts of this central struggle.
Control public opinion, and you control the public.
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The Cyprus nightmare continues to worsen.
Acting on Troika advice, the Bank of Cyprus – the island’s biggest bank — bought Greek bonds, which took losses of 1.9 billion euros (£1.6bn; $2.4bn). Now the bank is stealing directly from depositors to pay the foreign holders of those bonds. (Same with Laika Bank.) In addition, the Troika has created € 10 billion on its computer keyboard, and will dump it onto Cyprus as debt. That means there will be brutal austerity. Cyprus’ economy has been destroyed even without austerity. Its two principle industries, finance and tourism, are gone. Meanwhile Cyprus must import most of its food and fuel. Cyprus is HISTORY, folks. Nearly a million people have been impoverished, although the corporate media pretends it was just a few Russian gangsters.
Things are so bad that yesterday (6 Apr 2013) Cyprus prison inmates donated 9,000 euros cash to a volunteer clinic so needy families could receive medical attention. The inmates raised the cash from the 300 euros in pocket money they’re allowed to keep for once-weekly purchases at the prison canteen.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/2013/04/06/amid-financial-crisis-cyprus-convicts-offer-help/2J9E6Aikx1AYyZu1BsWLZL/story.html
A Financial Times article brazenly gloats about all this destruction. Titled: “Cyprus reaches end of a long and sleazy road: The island grew rich on the misfortunes of its neighbours.”
Its lies and distortions are too numerous to list here.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/39748f8a-9e01-11e2-bea1-00144feabdc0,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2F39748f8a-9e01-11e2-bea1-00144feabdc0.html&_i_referer=#axzz2Po8totpT
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MEDIA JITTERS
The corporate media continues to worry that the people of Cyprus might overthrow Troika tyranny by forcing their “leaders” to dump the euro after all.
(The Communist Party wants to dump the euro currency that destroyed Cyprus, and which led to the theft of deposits, but Communists are outnumbered in the parliament.)
Hugo Dixon is a right-wing maggot who built his little career by championing Wall Street and austerity. He was a former editor of the Financial Times, and now writes for Reuters. Dixon claims that if Cyprus regains its Monetary Sovereignty, then this will, “devastate wealth, fuel inflation, lead to default, and leave Cyprus friendless in a troubled neighborhood.”
Dixon gives no proof for this garbage, but he doesn’t need to. The purpose of economics is to empower the 1%. If leeches cause anemia, then the cure is more leeches. The cure for austerity is more austerity. For the 99%, the way to prosperity is via ever-increasing poverty. We must kill the patient to save him. All this is “common sense.”
The Troika just added €10 billion in debt to Cyprus (with compound interest). That is, the Troika added ten billion new leeches. Dixon calls this a “bailout.”
Dixon continues, claiming that if Cyprus dumped the euro, then the world would end. It’s the standard line. “This death camp is your only protection! In order to survive, you must all die!”
All nations in the euro-zone periphery will remain in a death spiral for as long as they keep the euro currency. When those nations have nothing left for the bankers to steal, French and German bankers will steal directly from their own people, as Rodger has predicted.
That will make me VERY happy. Right now the average German is nauseatingly arrogant. He thinks his tax dollars “bail out” the “lazy” periphery. He thinks German bankers are “generous” when they crush Europe with debt and austerity. He loves Angela Merkel. And he is the most righteous person on earth, since he “learned” from the WW II “holocaust.”
>>NY Times: “Quitting the Euro Wouldn’t Be a Good Choice for Cyprus.”
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Quote from a letter sent by Sen. Dick Durbin (D – IL):
No, Dick. There is no trust fund; there is no depletion; there is no solvency issue and there is no need to castrate Social Security in order to save it.
In Obama’s case, it’s bribery. In Durbin’s case, it probably is ignorance.
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99.9 percent of people believe there is a SS “trust fund” somewhere. This includes most readers of the New Economic Perspectives blog. They too believe it.
If this “trust fund” exists, then where is it? Where is the vault with the pile of cash? Oh, it’s not paper? Then why do they think there is a physical “trust fund” somewhere? Show it to me. But they can’t, since it doesn’t exist. And yet they believe it does exist…somewhere. Again, that includes most people at the NEP blog.
This shows the power of corporate media brainwashing.
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Mark, view my comments below on a “well known” idiot blog site from just this Friday past. My “obvious” stupidity garnered me 22 thumbs down/negative responses. Only two positive. Cripes!
1. Social Security is “pay as you go”, aka, a direct transfer program. Today’s workers “fund” today’s recipients. Irregardless of a “trust fund”, Congressional “looting” or any other devious scheme by the government, today’s recipients get paid by today’s workers via the regressive and unnecessary FICA tax, HOWEVER:
2. As long as there is sufficient production of goods and services in the economy that will be consumed by SS recipients, the system is entirely sustainable, BECAUSE:
3. Each and every SS “check” via authority of Congress and the Dept. of Treasury is created on keyboards, routed through the banking system and ends up as numbers added to the recipient’s bank/debit account. The government DOES NOT NEED tax dollars to do this (this is what we call Monetary Sovereignty). It can do this endlessly whether taxes are $0 or taxes are $100 Trillion. This is why people who have “paid in” to SS for very few years can receive several decades’ worth of benefits.
4. In reality only three things affect the sustainability of Social Security now and long into the future:
a). Economic Productivity
b). The FRB controlling the rate of INFLATION (This should be the Central Bank’s primary job).
c). And oh yeah, and a (computer) keyboard
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Readers have told me revolution in the U.S. is unlikely. I agree. It’s not in our history — oh, except for the Revolutionary War and the Civil war.
And the American military is too strong — except that’s what the French, Hungarians, the Libyans and Syrians thought.
The government cannot fight a war. It needs soldiers. And when the people, who are the soldiers, become angry at the government, they leave the army and join the revolution.
How many unemployed, impoverished Americans, live without hope but with anger, today? How many people are needed to start a revolution?
Again, I think it’s unlikely. I hope it’s unlikely.
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If there would ever be armed insurrection in the US, it will come from the right, since those are the folks with all the guns and ammo. As they, Heaven forbid.
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Plenty of people on the left are equally armed. There is absolutely no need for armed revolt. Just vote the incumbents out or don’t vote at all. Better yet, run for office!
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Curt, you hang with a different crowd of “lefties” than I do, I guess.
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ever heard of “predator drones?”
make no mistake–what they’re doing right now in pakistan and yemen and east africa is a “dry-run.”
most people think the vietnam war ended b/c of the anti-war protests back home. no, it ended b/c of a general mutiny, or so i heard in an interview years ago from one of the soldiers claiming to have part of the organization of it.
it’s a safe bet that “they” are well aware that a mutiny is possible and that’s where the drones come in as well as the latest advances in military robotic technology.
that said, i think that a major catalyst for change could come from soldiers. from what i hear, they have had it really hard economically, harder than the “average” american. but they’re largely unorganized and ignored by the media–not to mention misinformed about the economic system, as everyone else out there…
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I suppose anything is possible. There have been many revolutions in the past. However the world could also become like a movie that will open in theatres on 9 August, titled “Elysium.” In the year 2154 the rich live in splendor on a posh space station that is a gigantic luxurious resort. They have leisure, comfort, and a cure for every disease.
Meanwhile the other 99% of mankind suffers and starves on a ruined earth.
The human species is cursed with a drive to exploit and enslave others. If this drive causes our extinction, then the universe will not weep. In the vast depths of space, a wretched group of monkeys flickered into consciousness for a split second, boasted of their “superiorty,” and just as quickly vanished into the silent Nothing.
On the other planets, no one noticed or cared.
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