Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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 ultimately 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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Recently, Republicans have entertained us with a combination of screw loosedness, mia culpidness and downright “I-see-nothing; I-know-nothingedness”: Sarah (Russian expert) Palin, Newt (marriage expert) Gingrich, Rick (God expert) Santorum, Rick (dumber than Bush II) Perry, Michele (even dumber than Perry) Bachmann, Herman (nein, nein,nein) Cain, Ted (shut down America) Cruz, and Marco (If I had a mind, I’d make it up) Rubio to name just a few.
These are the strange people to whom the Tea/Republican Party has given its love.
Today we are treated to Chris Christie, who follows in the happy tradition. I won’t bore you with the details of his story. You’ll be treated to them daily, for the next few months.
Let’s just say that in a fit of bully anger, this Republican Presidential Candidate decided essentially to close the busiest bridge in America, so as to punish a couple of Democrats, and in the process endangered the lives of several critically ill people, while inconveniencing thousands and costing a community hundreds of thousands.
And though this scandal began months ago, Christie somehow never asked anyone about it, only recently discovered it, denies ever knowing about it, feels sad he did it though he didn’t do it, and to protect his own butt, he fired a few people, who trying to stay out of jail, now have taken the Fifth.
Whew!
Hmmm . . . Let’s see. Boss is a mean, vindictive SOB. He hires underlings in his own mold. His underlings are only too happy to screw anyone in the Boss’s way. But they slip up and are caught doing something illegal. Of course, the Boss denies everything and to protect himself, he fires everyone. It all sounds so familiar. Hmmm . . .
Song Lyrics:
Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell And Dean
(written by Bob Warren)We’re Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and Dean
The way we’ve been treated is really obscene
To think that a bug worth hardly a shrug
Could end up by getting us tossed in the jugWe all got the gate for no reason or rhyme
You’d think we’d committed some horrible crime
Our minds may be dirty, but our hands are clean
We’re Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and DeanWe’re Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and Dean
Our job was to see that the White House stayed green
We might have had flaws, like bending the laws
But God only knows it was for a good causeThere’s no power shortage where we were concerned
And what little profit resulted, we earned
For lovelier fellows you never have seen
Than Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and DeanWe’re Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and Dean
Our past has been fat, but the future looks lean
With backs to the wall, we’re taking the fall
But dammit, we only robbed Pete to pay PaulJust when we were getting to be well-to-do
The Watergate turned into our Waterloo
And now everybody is out to demean
Poor Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and DeanYes, we’re Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and Dean
We’re perfectly willing to spill every bean
We’ve nothing to hide, with God on our side
He knows we were only along for the rideBut so it won’t come as terrible blow
There’s one little thing that we think you should know
Whatever we say isn’t quite what we mean
We’re Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and DeanOh yes, we’re Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and Dean
Things won’t be the same when we’re gone from the scene
But people will still recall with a thrill
Our sell-out performance on Capitol HillIt just isn’t fair to take all of the blame
When all we were doing was playing the game
Now all of Washington’s caught in between
Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell and Dean
Economics may be the dismal science, but you can’t beat politics for entertainment.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty
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Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
8. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here)
—–
10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt
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:
1. Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
2. Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports
THE RECESSION CLOCK
As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the lines rise.
#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 
More on (moron) Christie: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/10/1268645/-Christie-They-should-ve-thought-about-that-before-they-opened-their-mouths
But of course, this is a digression from the real issue: The gap. But aren’t digressions fun?
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[1] Christie claims that he never pursued the endorsement of Democratic mayor Mark Sokolich of Fort Lee, NJ. Thus, Christie did not set out to cause mayhem for Fort Lee in the hope that locals would blame Sokolich for it.
However, Rachel Maddow notes that Christie was furious with Democrats in the NJ state senate who kept blocking Christie’s nominees to the NJ Supreme Court. At a press conference, an enraged Christie called the Senate Democrats “animals.” The next day he moved against the leader of the Senate Democrats, Loretta Weinberg, whose district includes Ft. Lee.
Therefore, access lanes to the bridge were closed on the morning of 13 Aug 2013, the first day of school, causing severe mayhem. Children were stranded on school buses for hours. Countless businesses lost money. Christie’s ego might have killed many people if there had been a fire, since emergency vehicles could not have gotten through the traffic jam, which had backed up into the small side streets, causing the entire city to become gridlocked.
Christie is a typical Republican, concerned only with widening the gap between the rich and the rest. His hypocrisy is as massive as his girth: in late 2012 he threw a major tantrum when his own party held up disaster relief in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. And when Christie gets caught, he throws his own people to the wolves. Not even W. Bush did that. Bush only fired people who stood in his way, or whose incompetence could no longer be swept under the rug (e.g. Donald Rumsfeld).
Anyway, it amuses me to see Christie squirm.
By the way, I loathe and detest traffic jams, so I can appreciate why the people of Ft Lee are outraged. Their traffic jam was epic.
[2] Speaking of Republicans, AYN RAND LIVES!
U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn (Republican, Oklahoma) says Social Security and Medicare are “unsustainable” because of the “national debt crisis.” In 2012 Coburn published a book titled “The Debt Bomb,” which laments that America’s “national debt” is bigger than America’s GDP.
(This is like complaining that JPMorgan Chase’s $2.44 trillion in assets are bigger than the JPMorgan’s transactions in a single fiscal year. So what?)
Coburn says that because of the “national debt,” everybody (i.e. the middle and lower classes) must “sacrifice” (to the rich). He says that Social Security and Medicare must be given to Wall Street in order to stop fraud, and that they represent $131 trillion in “unfunded liabilities,” which future children must pay unless we “broaden the tax base” (i.e. raise taxes on the middle and lower classes). He says that Greece shows what happens to all “welfare states” including the USA. Coburn has voted repeatedly against funding disaster relief around America.
He is now undergoing chemotherapy for prostate cancer, and he will likely need surgery. He has battled colon cancer and melanoma in the past, and had brain surgery six years ago to treat a tumor.
Coburn is like Ayn Rand (need Alisa Rosenbaum), who disparaged Social Security and Medicare all her life, and then signed up for them in order to manage the lung cancer that she voluntarily caused via heavy smoking. Social programs kept Ms. Rand alive for another six years.
The moral of the story?
When anyone demands more austerity, they mean austerity for other people, not for themselves.
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Now comes Christie’s long-time personal friend, former Mississippi governor Haley Barbour, defending his fellow Republican by blaming the entire scandal on the owned-by-the-rich, ultra-conservative “liberal media.” Barbour claims that the only reason why Christie is getting hammered in the (pro-Republican) media is that Christie is a Republican.
Nonsense. Christie is being pilloried by his own party for disloyalty and for clumsiness. He regards his own friends and constituents as expendable, no matter how loyal they are. In late 2012 he repeatedly blasted his fellow Republicans for holding up relief aid after Hurricane Sandy. And last Thursday, in a futile attempt to dodge this latest fiasco, Christie fired his deputy chief of staff Bridget Anne Kelly and his two-time campaign manager Bill Stepien. U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman of the Justice Dept. is reviewing the lane closures, and could launch a criminal investigation.
Christie is an oaf, and it amuses me to watch him cry and squirm like a harpooned walrus. He is so obese that many people legitimately fear he could die in office. Christie whines that “My own children saw that on TV, and they’re asking me if I’m going to die.”
Well boo hoo.
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With great selfishness comes great harm to the larger picture. Reminds me of a rock album cover of 30 years ago entitled “welcome to the machine” where a huge thoughtless robot with a blank face is holding a tiny human being in his hand covered in blood as if to say “Gee, did I kill somebody. I really I didn’t mean for everything to get so out of control. If I only had brain and mind and could actually think for myself instead of getting directed by others!”
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A typical right wing star:
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Rodger! You and Quatloosx are ‘chips off the ole block’! Wearily iterative and
‘back-slapping’ supportive! But will either of you, despite the other, answer this: Who should be the next Prez? Let’s hear from both BROs!
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Sorry to be so wearisome. Perhaps I should begin to say things like, “The deficit is unsustainable,” and “Social Security is bankrup,” just to keep your interest.
Anyway, in answer to your question: The one who understands Monetary Sovereignty, and is strong enough to implement the “Nine Steps to Prosperity.”
No one? O.K., the closest might be Bernie Sanders or Warren Mosler.
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No! You needn’t be defensive! you’ve got throngs of silent supporters whom, though, grapple with the foundation question you continually elide! Time to take it head on?
In an MS world, assuming the citizenry, etal. are fully tuned in, how would PREZ Mitchell allocate and budget for what everyone then fully grasps are limitless dollars? On what basis could you turn down any state, local, business, or private individuals’ request for ‘More Critically Needed’ dollars?
What would be your controlling administrative criteria in an MS capitalistic
U.S.? And, wouldn’t everyone want to be PREZ? ………….
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DanB, after saying we are “Wearily iterative and
‘back-slapping’ supportive!,” asked us not to be “defensive.”
Cute.
Then DanB asked, “What would be your controlling administrative criteria in an MS capitalistic
U.S.?”
DanB actually is talking about two problems: Total distribution and allocation of distribution.
Total distribution is limited only by an inflation that cannot be controlled with interest rates, alone. The U.S. never has had such an inflation. This has been discussed many times.
Allocation of distribution is controlled by Congress, according to numerous criteria.
Our suggested allocation is described in the “Nine Steps to Prosperity,” which has been listed at the end of every single post for almost two years — perhaps 100 posts.
Not sure what he means by “elide.”
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Careful Rodger! Trick question! How does one administer (i.e. allot/ limit) what you’ve successfully defined as limitless?
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A company has the unlimited ABILITY to create shares of stock, with the only, self-imposed limit being a stock price that is too low, that cannot be controlled with dividend payments and company growth, alone.
The federal government has the unlimited ABILITY to create dollars, with the only self-imposed limit being an inflation (low dollar value) that cannot be controlled via interest rates, alone.
To date, the U.S. never has reached that limit
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Rodger, would appreciate your fuller response to my Ques.6. It’s the pragmatic administrative side of your M.S. philosophy that, to my mind, begs to be probed!
I repeat, ‘In an MS world, assuming the citizenry, etal. are fully tuned in, how would PREZ Mitchell allocate and budget for what everyone then fully grasps are limitless dollars? On what basis w/could ‘you’ turn down any state, local, business, or private individuals’ request for ‘More Critically Needed’ dollars?’
This unarticulated practicality may underlie resistance to MS & MMT
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Currently, Congress turns down requests, using the false excuse that the nation can’t afford them.
Again, in the MS world, Congress would turn down requests based on an inflation that cannot be prevented/cured with interest rate control.
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Rodger, I deeply appreciate your responses. But, think we need constructively to get into the nuts and bolts of how an MS economy could be effectively designed and managed.
Think this is where you’ve moved the issue. “Is an MS Economy administratively feasible”? (I’m unsure!) Would encourage you to devote one of your excellent treatises to that topic!
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It isn’t as complex as you seem to think it is. No changes in government operations are required.
All that’s needed is for Congress and the President to stop opting for austerity. Stop telling America that the debt and deficit are “unsustainable.”
Sure, we could stop selling T-securities, but aside from that, the government’s administration could remain unchanged.
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