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.
======================================================================================================================================================================================

Introduction: Per Wikipedia, China uses bear bile as an ingredient in Traditional Chinese Medicine. To facilitate the bile milking process, the bears are commonly kept in extraction cages, also known as crush cages. The cages prevent the bears from being able to stand upright, or in some cases even greater restriction. Farmed bile bears are often malnourished and in poor health, living to an average age of five years.

France and Spain are among the many bile bears of the eurozone.

Berlin attacks EU’s easing of austerity demands

The German and Finnish finance ministries have issued a stinging rebuke of Brussels’ attempt to ease austerity demands on struggling eurozone countries, saying such flexibility improperly provided France and Spain with additional time to cut their budgets to meet EU deficit limits.

Translation: “Yes, we know the euro is a disaster. We know Euro users have surrendered the single most valuable asset they have: Their Monetary Sovereignty. So unless a monetarily non-sovereign nation has positive net exports (not all can), its money supply dwindles and its economy (the majority not part of the upper 1% income/power group) suffers.

“But, the 99% do not suffer enough. The gap between the rich and the rest does not grow fast enough. We want more, more, more blood from the ‘little’ people.”

The German and Finnish position is likely to reignite a bitter fight over whether the EU’s austerity-led crisis response has exacerbated economic stagnation in the eurozone, a debate that largely faded last year after Olli Rehn, the EU’s economic commissioner, awarded France, Spain and four other eurozone countries extra time to reduce their budget deficits below the EU-mandated cap of 3 per cent of economic output.

Translation: “There was a fight about whether reducing money growth cuts economic growth. There also is a fight about whether bleeding a sick patient further reduces the patients energy.

“But the fight ‘faded’ when the doctors agreed to bleed the patient more slowly than originally planned, allowing the patient to die more slowly.”

The memo comes the same week Mr Rehn issued economic forecasts that showed both France and Spain, even with an extra two years, were still failing to cut their deficits in line with EU recommendations.

Translation: “How dare these nations resist having their life-blood drained away. Don’t they understand that this is all for the benefit of their richest and most powerful?”

If you go to that truly excellent web site, http://www.tradingeconomics.com, you’ll find this graph demonstrating France’s financial bleeding:

and this graph demonstrating Spain’s:

These two countries are hemorrhaging euros, but their good neighbors feel they are not bleeding fast enough. (None of this would be a problem if France and Spain still were Monetarily Sovereign and could create their own money. It became a problem when they bound themselves to an alien currency, the euro.)

When the bleeding becomes so bad that the nations teeter on the precipice of death, they will be “saved” by a new loan from the EU or a “moderation” of the terms. Thus France and Spain (and the other euro nations with a negative balance of trade) will be kept alive as trading partners, but little else.

And it’s all to save the euro, the greatest device ever invented for draining a nation’s life-blood and widening the gap between the rich and the rest.

France and Spain (and Italy and Greece et al), you have volunteered to be Germany’s bile bears.

Enjoy your cage.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================
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. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (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. Federal deficit growth is absolutely, positively necessary for economic growth. Period.

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

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.
======================================================================================================================================================================================

A Reuters article in today’s Florida Sun Sentinal, was headlined:

Arizona goverernor kills bill on service to gays.

I wish I could tell you Governor Jan Brewer had a moral epiphany, and realized the proposed law was rank bigotry, and not the phony “freedom of religion” BS the Republicans claimed.

But, morality had nothing to do with it:

Arizon Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed a controversial bill Wednesday that critics see as a license to discriminate against gay in the name of religion, saying the measure could result in “unintended and negative consequences.”

Those “unintended and negative consequences” all were based on money.

A number of major business organizations and some Republicans had urged Brewer to veto the bill.

Question: Do you think even one of those major business organizations and Republicans mentioned anything about morality, bigotry or doing the right thing? Isn’t it more likely all the conversations began like this: “Governor, we’re going to lose a ton of money and you’re going to lose a ton of campaign bucks, if you sign this.”

Critics . . . threatened boycotts and other public-relations retaliation against Arizona unless Brewer vetoed the bill.

SEN. JOHN McCAIN, R-AZ (2/25/2014): This can affect tourism, it can affect our state’s economy and job creation.
JAN CRAWFORD, CBS (2/26/2014): The Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee says it could jeopardize plans for the state to host next year’s game.

Yes, many organizations threatened not to do bu$ine$$ in Arizona. Do you think that may have been “morally” persuasive?

Of course, there is the usual professorial (bought-and-paid-for) defense we have seen so often:

In a four-page letter sent this week to Brewer, 11 constitutional scholars (who?) said the Arizona law had been “egregiously misrepresented by many of its critics.” (How?)

“Some of us are Republicans; some of us are Democrats. Some of us are religious; some of us are not. Some of us oppose same-sex marriage; some of us support it,” the letter said. (How many of each?)

Nine of the signers (which nine?) of the letter said they supported the legislation; two were not sure (“Not sure,” but they signed the letter??). “But all of us believe that many criticisms (Which criticisms?) of the Arizona law are deeply misleading,” (Misleading in what way?) the letter said.

The federal government and 18 states have Religious Freedom Restoration Acts on their books. More than 12 other states have interpreted their state constitutions to provide similar protections to religious individuals.

Under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the government is barred from imposing a substantial burden on a person’s exercise of religion unless the government can offer a compelling justification for the burden and then minimize the burden as much as possible.

So you see, helping to put out the fire burning down a home owned by gays, would put a substantial “burden” on a firefighter’s exercise of religion, as would serving a gay person in a restaurant owned by a fundamentalist Christian. Oh, the burdens they are asked to endure.

It goes like this. “According to my interpretation of my religion, blacks marrying whites is a sin, as are the mixed race children of such a marriage. So President Obama, stay out of my restaurant, and if your house is on fire, I’m not going to help put it out, and if you’re being robbed, I won’t stop the robber. You, as a mixed race sinner, will not receive service from me.”

“And as for you women who don’t cover your heads or your faces — if you are being attacked or even raped, don’t expect any help from us Muslim police officers.

“Oh, and you pork eaters, sellers or cooks won’t get any service from us Jews and Muslims. And you Christians who pray to Mary, well we Jews consider that blasphemic idolitry, so don’t expect service from us.”

The Arizona-style bill, based on the kind of “freedom of religion,” which if carried to the fundamentalist logic it advocated, was sure to rip this nation apart.

We are a large nation — a “melting pot.” We all believe different things. We advocate different things; we object to different things. What is the “right” way? Is it the Catholic way? Is it the Protestant way? The Jewish way? (Reformed, conservative or orthodox?) The Muslim way? (Sunni or Shiite?)

If you are Catholic, and do not adhere to the strictures of Sunni Islam, does a Muslim have the legal right to discriminate against you?

Bottom line, we either can be accepting and tolerant of our neighbor’s views, or we can be cruel and divisive if our neighbor doesn’t do everything we believe is correct.

Arizona found the answer. When money talks, money always is correct. Money is the great uniter.

Bucks beat bigots.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================
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. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (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. Federal deficit growth is absolutely, positively necessary for economic growth. Period.

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

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.
======================================================================================================================================================================================

It begins with this sign:

Then it continues with this story:

Nine out of 10 ‘most miserable’ states are red, surprising no one

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which interviewed more than 176,000 people from all 50 states last year, measures the physical and emotional health of Americans across the country.
So take a gander at the states with the most miserable people:

10. Louisiana
9. Oklahoma
8. Missouri
7. Tennessee
6. Arkansas
5. Ohio
4. Alabama
3. Mississippi
2. Kentucky
1. West Virginia

O.K., in my opinion no survey could possibly measure the average (mean? median?) “well being” (whatever that is) of all the people in an entire state. Yet . . .

Yet . . . is it pure coincidence that nine of the ten “most miserable” states are right-wing?

I [the author] took the (50% of) states ranked (least miserable) and colored them green, while those (most miserable are) red. This is what it looks like:

You can see more details about each of these states, and why their residents supposedly are more “miserable,” here.

I don’t want to spend too much time on this, because I consider it a bullshit survey. That said, I would have been amazed if the results had been otherwise.

Part of the problem may be due to the right-wing penchant for sucking up to the upper .1% income/power group, while pushing down on the rest. So you get, for instance, 9% of Louisiana residents saying they don’t have easy access to clean water and 12% saying they don’t have easy access to medicine!

And relatively few Alabamans saying they had enough money to afford medicine, food and adequate shelter. And more than 1/4th of Mississippians saying that at times in the previous year, they didn’t have enough money for food and health care.

When you are ruled by a party whose goal is to cut food stamps and other poverty aids, cut Medicare, cut Social Security, cut unemployment compensation and cut Medicaid — a party that demeans the needy as worthless “takers” — is it any wonder the people feel miserable? Could it really be otherwise?

But its more than that. I believe Nixon’s, right-wing, “Southern Strategy,” a hugely successful voting strategy based entirely on hatred and bigotry, has come back to haunt the haters and the bigots. A hater cannot be happy. A bigot cannot be happy.

So these “red state” citizens, who for decades, have been fed by their leaders, a steady diet of spite, meanness, bitterness and bile, now are completely full.

You are what you eat.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================
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. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (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. Federal deficit growth is absolutely, positively necessary for economic growth. Period.

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

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.
======================================================================================================================================================================================

As we have said many times, the upper .1% power group has bribed virtually all politicians (with the connivance of the right-wing Supreme Court), via campaign contributions and promises of lucrative employment later. The goal: To continue widening the gap between the rich/powerful and the rest.

Clearly, the extreme right-wingers (the Republicans) are more in the pockets of the rich than are the less-right-wingers (the Democrats). But don’t think Democrats are blameless.

Remember, they do control the Presidency and the Senate. So the widening of the gap couldn’t happen without their participation.

In that vein, I bring you the entire text of a letter I just today received from my Democrat Senator, Dick Durbin:

Dear Mr. Mitchell:

Thank you for contacting me about Congress raising the debt ceiling. I appreciate hearing from you.

Actually, I contacted him about eliminating the debt ceiling, but he changed it for his own convenience.

On October 16, 2013, the Senate passed a bill (H.R. 2775) to extend the debt limit through February 7, 2014.

I am not willing to gamble with the full faith and credit of the United States by not raising the debt ceiling. Forcing the federal government to default on the nation’s debt would be the single most irresponsible act we could do to our economy as it continues to rebound.

Refusing to raise the debt ceiling would force the government to limit or suspend payments to a whole host of federal beneficiaries, from Social Security and Medicare recipients, to military personnel, veterans, federal workers, defense contractors, student loan recipients, state governments, and our bondholders throughout the world.

He is correct, although why would he include student loans in his list. The government, cruelly and needlessly, makes money on those.

The worst economic recession since the Great Depression sent our national debt soaring. Although recent increases in spending were necessary as we worked to jumpstart our economy, we cannot sustain deficits of this magnitude over the long term. We must work toward real solutions that will reduce the deficit in a responsible and balanced way.

This is 100% bullcrap. The politicians have been saying exactly the same thing at least since 1940 (!) and surely well before that. In those days the deficit and debt were called “ticking time bombs,” so as to scare the public.

Those phony time bombs still are ticking, and the public still is scared.

Over the past several years, I have worked with my colleagues to reduce the national debt and to control our federal deficits.

In other words, this bribed Senator, who pretends to be a friend of the middle class, has be conspiring to reduce the amount of money in the economy — a situation that always affects the poor far more than the rich and powerful.

I was honored to have served on President Obama’s Bipartisan Fiscal Commission, spending much of that time learning from experts who explained the risk that our growing debt poses to our national well-being. I also have worked with a bipartisan group of my colleagues in the Senate to craft a balanced plan for controlling our federal deficits.

He wants me to believe that increasing the money supply poses a risk to our “national well-being.” He previously wanted me to believe that deficit spending (i.e. increasing the money supply) helped get us out of the Great Recession.

Hmmm . . . does anyone see anything wrong here?

And yes, “bipartisan” and “balanced.” What could possibly be wrong with something that is “bipartisan” and “balanced” — oh, except for a bipartisan and balanced scheme to widen the gap between the rich and powerful, and the rest of us.

There are only two honest ways to reduce our debt: cut spending and raise revenues. I am committed to pursuing proposals that do both. This is going to require sacrifice from both sides of the aisle.

If those are “honest,” we’d be better off with dishonest. Oops, we already have that. It’s called the Big Lie.

No, it won’t require sacrifice on either side of the aisle. You bribed politicians will not feel any sacrifice. None at all. It will be we citizens who do the sacrificing.

This is not a partisan problem, it is an American problem. I will continue to work to find commonsense solutions to rein in our ballooning debt without risking the economic recovery or breaking promises to senior citizens, working families, and future generations.

What can one say about such Big Lies? Hes’ going to cut the deficit “without risking the economic recovery.” He’s going to cut the deficit without “breaking promises to senior citizens, working families, and future generations.”

Really? What is his next magic trick? Building highways, free? Repairing the infrastructure, free. Fund medical research, free. Inspect food and drugs, free?

And what about the billions spent secretly spying on Americans? Will that now be free, too?

Or will you cut spending on Social Security? On Medicare? On federal employment? On regulating Wall Street? On food stamps? Where exactly are you going to cut spending?

And as for increasing revenues (the euphemism for “taxes), will you “broaden the tax base? Increase FICA — again? What exactly will you do to screw the middle and lower income groups even more? Institute the Obama “grand bargain,” potentially the biggest screwing of all time?

Thank you again for contacting me. Please feel free to stay in touch.

Sincerely, Richard J. Durbin United States Senator
RJD/bc

That he should write me such a letter, and expect me to believe even one of his Big Lies, tells me he is confident I am stupid enough to believe them.

But then, most Americans do believe them, so what is my problem?

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================
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. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (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. Federal deficit growth is absolutely, positively necessary for economic growth. Period.

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY