Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Mitchell’s laws:
•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money.
•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes..
•Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.
•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and poor.
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..
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The article, France’s Tragic Irony, By Michael Galli, was written in response to the recent terrorist actions.
The article makes reference to France’s contributions to our Constitution.
The great American experiment owes much to our brothers and sisters in France. Long before the emergence of the U.S. Empire, the works of Descartes (gift of reason), Voltaire (separation of church and state), and Rousseau (power derives from the people), helped underpin the framing of our Declaration of Independence and subsequent Constitution.
In fact, another French philosopher, Montesquieu (separation of powers), was cited more often by America’s Founding Fathers than any other historical figure save for St. Paul of the bible.
Yet when the government of France applied the reasoning of these same enlightened philosophers to oppose America’s 2003 preemptive war in Iraq, many in our nation heaped scorn upon the French.
The American press called them “wimps and weasels,” state rep Stephan Bararr sponsored a bill to ban the sale of French wine in Pennsylvania, and Congressmen Walter Jones and Bob Ney were responsible for changing the name of “french fries” to “freedom fries” in three D.C. congressional restaurants.
It is hard to escape the tragic irony visited upon France considering that the rise of ISIS is a direct result of the 2003 invasion of Iraq that her government opposed.
Yes, it is an irony that France now suffers the effects of President Bush’s misguided invasion of Iraq. But this irony has nothing to do with our Constitution, for our Constitution was obsolete before the ink dried.
Although the Constitution masquerades as a set of laws, by which the nation must abide, it is nothing of the sort.
The Constitution is a statement of desires, — an “I-hope-the-country-will-be-like this” list — written by powerful men who lived more than two centuries ago, well before antibiotics, computers, atomic bombs, airplanes, automobiles and the Internet.
The Constitution doesn’t speak of abortion or gay marriage, though the Supreme Court pretends it does. The Constitution was written and interpreted to allow for slavery, but not for women voting.
The Constitution, like the bible, says whatever the priests want it to say. In the case of the Constitution, the “priests” are the Supreme Court.
Thus suddenly, after more than 200 years, the priests tell us the Constitution now “says” everyone has the right to carry a gun down the street, and rich people can spend as much as they wish, to swing elections, and money is free speech and corporations, being people, are capable of having sincere religious beliefs.
References to the Constitution, as a means to prove a point, usually demonstrate intellectual dishonesty. One might as well reference the bible, to justify stoning a woman to death for not being a virgin — or for being gay.
Yes, the Constitution is obsolete. All that matters are the Supreme Court and the desires of the rich. They bend the Constitution as they see fit.
To quote one of the commenters on the above-mentioned post, Dale Ruff:
The Constitution did not embody the core democratic values of the Declaration of Independence (equality and consent of the governed); the Constitution was written by a totally different group of men 95% slaveowners, who feared democracy and created a strong central government controlled by rich white males (literally the 1% who were allowed to vote and run for office) in the earliest elections.
It’s time to abandon the myth/lie that the Declaration and the Constitution share the same democratic values. They do not. The Constitution was a counter-revolution, and until we understand that fact and deal with it, we will continue to be a plutocracy ruled by the 1%, pretending to be a democracy.
Until we come to terms with the anti-democratic character of our Constitution, we will fail to understand our own history and continue to make false comparisons with other nations, including France.
And therein lies the greatest danger of the widening Gap between the rich and the rest — not just the impoverishment of the middle classes and the poor, but the excessive, corrupted power of the rich.
The Constitution neither is democratic nor anti-democratic, as Mr. Ruff claims. Rather it is a general wish list, to be interpreted by whomever is in power.
It was obsolete from the very beginning, being nothing more than an all-purpose crutch to support any conceivable argument.
Because power corrupts, the only solution is to reduce the comparative power, i.e to reduce the Gap, and this would require some measure of economic understanding by the populace.
The rich don’t riot or commit personal acts of terror. They send the poor, and justify it all with corrupted interpretations of an obsolete Constitution or bible.
Muslim leaders stoke anger at non-Muslims and Christian leaders stoke anger at non-Christians. So they lash out at one another. But the anger is misdirected.
It should be aimed at the leaders who interpret our sacred documents: Our Constitution, our bible, our koran.
They shouldn’t be angry at the documents or the followers of the documents.
They should be angry at the priests.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty
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Ten 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 Click here
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)
The Ten Steps will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
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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.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.
THE RECESSION CLOCK
Vertical gray bars mark recessions. Recessions come after the blue line drops below zero and when deficit growth declines.
As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recessions, each of which has been cured only when the growth lines rose.
Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.
#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 
I agree with Rodger. The U.S. Constitution — like all “authoritative texts” — means whatever the rich and powerful want it to mean.
If we agree with the will of the rich and powerful, then we say that they have “interpreted the Constitution correctly.” If we do not agree, then we say they have interpreted it incorrectly – but no one cares about our views (unless we are rich and powerful).
Question: What the Second Amendment mean by a “well-regulated militia”?
Answer: It means whatever the rich (and their puppet government) want it to mean.
It is the same with international treaties . The Outer Space Treaty says, in part, that “Outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.”
The USA and 103 other nations ratified this treaty.
Nonetheless, this week the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Space Act of 2015, which grants U.S. citizens or corporations the right to legally claim ownership of natural resources in outer space. Americans can own it and exploit it, but not have “sovereignty” over it (as if that makes any difference).
Humans write documents that supposedly enshrine “freedom and justice” – until the rich decide to ignore them. Later the government issues a formal apology, and the cycle repeats (e.g. the WW II internment of U.S. citizens of Japanese ethnicity).
On a different matter, Dale Ruff says the Declaration of Independence contains “democratic values,” but the U.S. Constitution does not.
That is odd, since the Declaration of Independence (written by Thomas Jefferson) refers to Native Americans as, “merciless Indian savages.”
Also, is a nation a “democracy” if women can’t vote?
Actually the USA has always been a pure democracy. One dollar equals one vote. The more dollars you have, the more votes you have.
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“Question: What the Second Amendment mean by a “well-regulated militia”?
Answer: It means whatever the rich (and their puppet government) want it to mean. ”
no it doesn’t. the rich weren’t the ones that challenged the interpretation of the 2nd amendment in the 70s, it was the white gun toting masses, who were overwhelmingly not the rich. I suggest you read up on the subject…. as for this country, and its democratic aspirations, rodger is correct that it is a ‘wish list’, evidence being the amendments (amendments being correctives). the constitution is a living being, not to be viewed as the morons Thomas, Scalia, Alito, Kennedy, and Roberts would have the masses believe they believe. they aren’t truly “strict constructionists’, because they routinely ignore the language and meaning of the statute and the legislative history. their judicial activism works to the detriment of the masses, as has most of conservative judicial activism since this country’s founding. regrettably, the masses believe that if you hold a certain job, you are to be viewed as intelligent or trustworthy. or, the masses have their racism and bigotry confirmed by the positions of the Supremes, without realizing their own positions are being compromised. if there is anything about this country that has been consistent, it is the white masses working against their own self interest because of prejudice.
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The second Amendment is interpreted by the Supreme Court, despite what the “white, gun-toting masses” think.
The Supreme Court has been purchased by the rich. Ask Scalia where he went on his last vacation.
These justices love flying in private planes and attending parties with the upper crust. It tickles their egos.
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Statistically speaking, Christian nations have slaughtered, enslaved, displaced, and impoverished more people than the rest of the world combined. Christian Spaniards slaughtered and enslaved millions of Native Americans. Christian whites enslaved millions of black people. Christian Americans nuked Japanese civilians, and put Japanese Americans in prison camps. Christian Britons kept India under their heel for 400 years, and brought China to its knees by flooding China with opium. Christian King Leopold II of Belgium ordered the slaughter of tens of thousands of people in Congo. And since Jews were mentioned above, Christian King Edward II expelled all Jews from England in 1290. Christian King Ferdinand ordered all Jews to convert or to leave Spain in 1492. Christian nations attacked each other in both world wars. Christian USA attacked Vietnam, plus many countries in the Middle East, and also fought a proxy war against Nicaragua and many other nations. Christian USA has overthrown governments around the world, and installed puppet dictators. Christian-backed drones blast civilians in several nations. Christian nations supported Muslim fundamentalism against secular Arab nationalism, then against the Soviets in Afghanistan, then against secular Libya, secular Syria, and secular Iraq.
I could go on, but my point is that no religion, race, ethnic group has a total monopoly on violence, or is totally free of guilt. (For example, some African and Native American tribes killed and enslaved each other.)
Regarding violence by Muslims, someone wrote above, “Enough is enough.” The U.S.-backed war on Syria has killed half a million people. Some of the survivors, it seems, also said, “Enough is enough.”
It seems to me that there is violence on all sides.
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I don’t trust any religious book written centuries ago. The further you go back in time the greater the level of ignorance. The only people you can come close to really trusting are the scientists who try to think naturally and objectively and even they can screw up, e.g. dark matter, alternate universes, time travel.
One storehouse of knowledge, The Library at Alexandria, was destroyed several times by invaders, once or twice by Muslims.
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“One storehouse of knowledge, The Library at Alexandria, was destroyed several times by invaders, once or twice by Muslims.”
True. Another storehouse of knowledge was the House of Wisdom in Baghdad. It had a collection of international books and scrolls that (by all accounts) was far larger than the Library at Alexandria. Although Muslin-sponsored, it was religiously ecumenical. It had astronomical observatories, and was at that time an unrivaled center for the study of humanities, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, chemistry, zoology, and geography and cartography. By the middle of the ninth century, the House of Wisdom was the largest repository of books in the world.
The Mongols obliterated it all during their Siege of Baghdad in 1258. It was said that for weeks the “Tigris River ran blue” from the ink of the countless manuscripts that the Mongols threw into the river.
Of course, from the dawn of recorded history, Muslims have been the only true “barbarians.” This was “true” for centuries before Muslims even existed. 🙂
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Hi Roger,
What is your source for; “the Constitution was written by a totally different group of men 95% slaveowners, who feared democracy and created a strong central government controlled by rich white males (literally the 1% who were allowed to vote and run for office) in the earliest elections.”
Thanks!
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As I said, “To quote one of the commenters on the above-mentioned post, Dale Ruff:”
The Declaration of Independence mostly was written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776, with help from others.
The Constitution was written by the 55 delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention.
James Madison wrote the Bill of Rights (1st 10 Amendments) in 1789.
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“Michael Galli is the Dean of Students at Rivendell Academy,
a small 7-12 interstate public school on the New Hampshire / Vermont border, where he teaches classes on media and U.S. foreign policy”…………. gotta love it.
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Hey, don’t be a resume snob. 🙂
Brains aren’t restricted to schools like Harvard. In fact, some of the dumbest economists on the planet come from Harvard.
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and just to be clear, my comment with regard to his CV, was in response to his teaching of “US foreign policy”, not his credentials……..
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Rodger, some MMT people are again chattering about the “platinum coin” thing like they did in January 2013.
I think the idea is unnecessary. Even with a platinum coin valued at 100 trillion dollars, government spending would still have to be approved by the U.S. Congress. And we would still have the “national debt” hoax, and therefore the “debt ceiling” antics. Moreover, if such a coin were “deposited” at the Fed, it could blur the important distinction between monetary and fiscal policy.
Instead of chattering about “platinum coins,” why not demand an increase in government spending?
“Because the platinum coin makes people more receptive to the facts about government money.”
Oh? And has it worked? No. The Big Lie is as strong as ever.
MMT people: your “platinum coin” idea is feasible, but it is another weird fixation, like your “jobs guarantee.” I think it is silly, because it is unnecessary.
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Elizabeth, the purpose of the platinum coin is to “pay off” the debt.
With the mythical debt “paid off,” even the slowest of us would see that the debt is meaningless. (Gee, if the government can create a trillion dollar coin whenever it wants to, and there is no inflation, there must not be a debt problem.)
The people may not understand MS, or the need for deficit spending, but the coin would mark the end of the debt ceiling and “unsustainable borrowing” other financial myths.
It’s a case of two wrongs actually making a right.
So the question is, why is there no trillion dollar coin? Because the rich don’t want it, and Obama is a creature of the rich.
Solving the “debt problem” is the last thing they want to do.
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Are you saying Rodger that the purpose of the platinum coin chatter it to get people to realize that the “national debt crisis” is a hoax, and that the Big Lie keeps them in poverty?
If that is the MMT rationale, then I dispute its effectiveness. For most people, the only thing that matters is maintaining the Gap below them. Their logic or reason serves this drive, as do all facts and evidence. The platinum coin would serve it too. Anything and everything is appropriated to justify the Big Lie, in order to justify the Gap below.
Example…
“They minted a twenty-trillion-dollar platinum coin? Oh no! They gave themselves permission to put us another twenty TRILLION in debt! Each day they drag us closer to a collapse, creating money out of thin air with nothing to back it up! Now they create twenty TRILLION dollars at a whack! Weimar Germany here we come! How do they expect to keep twenty-trillion-dollar coins from being stolen? And how could they compress twenty trillion dollars in platinum bullion into the size of a coin? That’s twenty TRILLION dollars of our future sweat and our taxes that they have chained us to! In fact, it’s FORTY TRILLION when we consider all the interest and late fees we will have to pay!”
As you can see, the human mind is endlessly creative in devising ridiculous “reasons” to justify its cravings and insecurities. The platinum coin would be just another tool to serve the idiocy.
As for “paying off the national debt,” this could only happen if the Fed moved everyone’s deposits from his Fed savings account to his personal checking account, regardless of the T-securities’ maturity dates. And even then, the (fake) “national debt” would continue to accumulate, unless the Treasury stopped selling T-securities. This would give rise once more to the “debt ceiling” antics.
“No it wouldn’t,” one might object, “since everyone would know that the Treasury has trillion-dollar coins in its account.”
Really? Politicians would claim that the trillion dollars has been “spent,” as easily as politicians claim that the U.S. government is “broke,” and Social Security is “insolvent.” Politicians would also claim that the platinum coin added a trillion dollars to the (fake) “national debt.”
Who could stop them? On January 12, 2013, the Treasury and the Fed announced they would not mint a platinum coin. No one opposed them. No one even realized that the Fed does not mint coins, and never did, platinum or otherwise. None of this mattered to people. What mattered was the Gap below. Instead of being disappointed, most people were relieved. The USA would not become Weimar Germany. The middle class would not fall into the lower class. The Gap below would not be narrowed (although the Gap above would grow massively wider.)
Even if the public somehow overcame all this silliness, the public would invent still more silliness, using the platinum coin. Most people invent whatever silliness is necessary to justify the Gap below them. And also to justify their resentment of the Gap above them. For example, the delusion that the U.S. government runs on tax revenue serves the desire to tax and punish the rich. It sustains the “Robin Hood” nonsense that money is limited. Therefore money should be taken from the rich and given to the poor. Why not just give to the poor, and leave the rich alone? Because that would not alleviate the resentment.
>>>For these reasons I consider the trillion-dollar coin to be just another useless MMT fixation, like the “jobs guarantee.”
In fact, this topic exposes one of the major failings of MMT people; namely that they have no concept of “Gap dynamics.” This is why MMT people say that politicians are simply “misguided,” and that trillion-dollar platinum coins would solve everything. Nonsense.
Instead of MMT mumbo jumbo, I favor Rodger’s approach because…
[1] It is clear, concise, and to the point.
[2] It recognizes the crucial role of “Gap dynamics.”
[3] It treats economics as a moral inquiry. How can we reduce suffering?
Economics discourse without these three ingredients is empty chatter that no one cares about.
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Rodger today I had a surprising experience involving Monetary Sovereignty.
I sometimes receive notices in the mailbox telling me that I have a twenty thousand-dollar tax lien pending from the IRS.
This is a common scam in which boiler room thieves impersonate the IRS, and they offer to “resolve” your “tax lien” for a modest fee — say a third of your (fictitious) “lien.” “Send us $6,600 and we’ll fix it.”
Usually I throw such garage away, but this time I was annoyed. I have a soft heart, and it angers me to think of some “little old lady” somewhere being robbed by these scammers. So I traced the scammers to a specific building with a specific address in Glendale CA. Then I called the FBI field office in my city, which forwarded me to the U.S. Treasury in Washington DC, which took my report.
Anyway a friend walked into my house while I was talking on the phone with the FBI, and then Washington. After I was all done, she and I talked about federal taxes, and I said, “Of course, the federal government has no need or use for tax revenue.”
I was curious how to see how she would react to this, since we had never discussed MS or economics before. Not once. Not ever.
Here is what happened…
HER: I can see that. They just print as much money as they want to. In fact, they don’t even print it. They –
ME: Create it on a computer board. It’s just like changing numbers on an electronic scoreboard.
HER: Yeah. That’s the only explanation that makes sense.
ME: Do you know that only one person in fifty thousand understands that?
HER: Really? I’ve never thought about it, but it’s logical.
Then I gave her a quick tutorial in all the major points in Monetary Sovereignty. She instantly understood and agreed with everything I said. She does not read articles about economics, and she had never before discussed this topic with me — yet she got it right away, which surprised me. I attribute this to the fact that she knew nothing about economics, and therefore did not consider herself to be “brilliant.” I was able to pour knowledge into her mental “cup,” since it was not already full.
The moral of the story is…
Take hope, o ye MSers. You never know when you might run into someone who is actually teachable. People can sometimes surprise us.
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Now, how do we reach the other “one person in fifty thousand” who are open to understanding it?
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TODAY’S STUPIDITY OR INSANITY — YOU VOTE:
O.K., vote. Has the right wing gone stupid or insane?
Comment below.
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