Month: January 2016

Trust the private banks? Trust the politicians?

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 the rest..
•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..
============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

If you haven’t already, I heartily recommend that you see the movie, “The Big Short.”

It is a fundamentally accurate (though somewhat modified for viewer interest) depiction of what was a principal cause of the 2008 Great Recession: Banker criminality abetted by credit agency criminality, aided by political criminality.

Briefly, the movie showed how the major banks knowingly gave mortgages to people who couldn’t repay, then bundled these worthless mortgages into packages to which compliant credit agencies gave AAA ratings, and sold these worthless packages to the banks’ customers.

Why? The profit motive:

–Profit motive: Bank sales people made millions in commissions with each mortgage they sold.
–Profit motive: The credit agencies like S&P and Fitch were paid millions by the banks to provide AAA ratings for worthless products.
–Profit motive: Banks made billions by packaging and selling the mortgages to their unsuspecting customers, who lost billions.
–Profit motive: No criminal banker ever was prosecuted by the federal government; the banks bribed the politicians with campaign contributions.
–Profit motive: The bribed politicians have made sure no regulatory agency bothered the principals of these criminal banks, exacting only meaningless “fines.”
–Profit motive: Today, even after the disaster of the Great Recession, the bribed politicians, especially the Republicans, refuse to fund or allow regulatory agencies to interfere with ongoing bank criminality, which continues today.

Millions of Americans lost their homes, their jobs and their lives because of bank criminality. It was the worst financial disaster in history. Yet, you hear scant mention of it in the Republican candidate debates.

They yammer about Benghazi and Emails  and terrorism and Bill Clinton’s indiscretions — all of which pale in comparison to the Great Recession — but no one wants to talk about bank criminality

The Republicans have been bribed by the banks not to talk about it. The bribed Obama administration doesn’t want to talk about it. Hillary Clinton doesn’t want to talk about it. Apparently, these bought and paid-for politicians want you to believe nothing really happened — except to the 99%.

The rich did just fine.

Only Bernie Sanders has been talking about it. Only he wants to do something about it.

You know Bernie, that wild-haired guy the bribed politicians and their media lackeys don’t want you to take seriously. He’s not as slick as Trump or as mean-spirited as Cruz or as baby-faced clueless as Rubio.

Your know Bernie, that self-proclaimed “socialist” (He really isn’t), who wants to protect the middle and lower classes by expanding Medicare and Social Security — and breaking up the banks.

Isn’t he awful for caring about the 99%?

Step #9 of the 10 Steps to Prosperity (see below) reads: Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)

My wife asked me, “Can the federal government do a better banking job than the private sector?”

My answer: “Absolutely. For one major reason: No profit motive.

The profit motive was the root of all the evil that caused the Great Recession.

So far, only one politician in this entire nation is willing to renounce the profit motive — just one in the whole country: Bernie Sanders.

That’s why, if given the chance I’ll vote for him.

Anyway, see the movie. “The Big Short”. It’s a great action film. You’ll enjoy it and you’ll learn a lot.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
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.
——————————————————————————————————————————————

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

Recessions begin an average of 2 years after the blue line first dips below zero. There was a dip below zero in 2015. Recessions are cured by a rising red line.

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

Donald Trump: A President of whom America can be proud

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 the rest..
•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..
============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

Donald Trump clearly is the kind of person Americans can look at with pride — a perfect representative of American ideals — a perfect President for the United States of America.

Donald Trump Vs. The ‘Son Of A B****’ Microphone Man

Donald Trump found the latest person to hate and insult at his rallies, during an event Wednesday night in Pensacola, Florida: The sound man at the venue, at whom Trump lobbed various profanities to express his terrible displeasure at the quality of the microphone.

“By the way, I don’t like this mic. Whoever the hell bought this mic system, don’t pay the son of a bitch that put it in,” Trump said, as the crowd applauded “I’ll tell you, these people.

This mic is terrible — stupid mic keeps popping! Do you hear that, George? Don’t pay him — don’t pay him! You know, I believe in paying — but when somebody does a bad job, like this stupid mic, you shouldn’t pay the bastard.

“Terrible, terrible. It’s true. And you gotta be tough with your people, ’cause they’ll pay. They don’t care. They’ll pay. So we’re not gonna pay. I guarantee I’m not paying for this mic!”

The billionaire schoolyard bully doesn’t want the poor sound man (“the bastard”) to be paid because the microphone popped. How dare that sound man allow a microphone to pop, and to displease The Great Donald. How dare he?

Unless you’re a billionaire, you know what the rich think of you. You know what the smug guy, who is leading with Republican voters, thinks about you non-rich “bastards”.

Yes Donald, the poor need to be taught a lesson. Don’t pay them for their work, unless everything is perfect and meets the demands of the arrogant rich.

Popping mike. Oh, the terrible things we rich must suffer from the poor.

And while you’re at it, Don, let’s deport all those Mexicans and Muslims. Deport ’em all. Teach those poor people a real lesson.

Trump is exactly what we want the world to think of when they think of an American President. Boastful arrogance, bigotry, and a total lack of human compassion.

(“Who knows himself a braggart, let him fear this, for it will come to pass that every braggart shall be found an ass.”  WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, All’s Well That Ends Well)

Perfect Presidential material.

 
Read more at http://www.notable-quotes.com/b/bragging_quotes.html#kDwcuK7e7KzKYBvB.99

 

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
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.
——————————————————————————————————————————————

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

Recessions begin an average of 2 years after the blue line first dips below zero. There was a dip in 2015. Recessions are cured by a rising red line.

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

A vacuum always sucks — the myths of American security

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 the rest..
•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..
============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

By tradition, reason and by constitution, American’s don’t like dictators (unless they are our dictators). After all, we began our history by freeing ourselves from an English dictator.

To prevent our becoming a dictatorship, our Constitution incorporates three offsetting branches of government, and that system almost works, except when it doesn’t.

What works even better is the comparatively recent 2-term limit on the Presidency, which should be matched by term limits for Congress. (Unfortunately, that never will happen. The Presidential term limit Amendment came during the time when the then President — Harry Truman — favored it. Congress never favors term limits for itself.)

Because we don’t like dictators, we feel it incumbent upon ourselves, as the epitome of righteousness, to rid the world of those dictators we don’t control or who otherwise aren’t nice to us.

Unfortunately, deposing dictators often leaves a power vacuum, and as everyone knows, vacuums suck.

President George W. Bush decided that to make his name in history, he needed to outdo his father, and what better way than to finish what dear old Dad didn’t finish: Depose the President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein.

So he told some lies about the dangers to America posed by Saddam, and in 2003, as Bush, The Younger’s, self-serving, ego inflating sign said, “Mission Accomplished.”

Unfortunately for dubya’s Presidential ratings, he did not take into consideration the fact that Iraq was the single most important bulwark against Iranian power expansion.

He also did not consider what would be done about the power vacuum in Iraq, when Saddam was hanged.

That vacuum has drawn in all manner of miscreants including, but not limited to al-Qaeda, ISIL, Hamas, Tawhid and Jihad, The Sheibani Network and assorted other nasties, and today, after thousands of young Americans unnecessarily have lost their lives and limbs, the situation in Iraq still sucks.

Then, having learned nothing from the Bush debacle, President Obama thought he would try his hand at regime change, this time in Libya:

Moammar Gadhafi Warned U.K.’s Tony Blair That Ousting Him Would Open the Door to Jihadis
Truthdig, Posted on Jan 11, 2016

Transcripts of two fraught telephone conversations between the U.K.’s Tony Blair and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in 2011 show Gadhafi warning that his removal from power would enable jihadi groups to seize control of Libya and use it as a staging ground to attack Europe.

Blair, who was not Britain’s prime minister at the time, reportedly decided to act as an intermediary between Gadhafi and the West because of the contact the two men had while Blair was in office. Blair confirmed that both London and Washington, D.C.—presumably meaning Hillary Clinton, then-secretary of state and current Democratic presidential candidate—were aware of the calls.

In the first call, at 11.15am on 25 February 2011, [Gadhafi] gave a warning in part borne out by future events: “They [jihadis] want to control the Mediterranean and then they will attack Europe.”

In the second call, at 3.25pm the same day, the Libyan leader said: “We are not fighting them, they are attacking us. I want to tell you the truth. It is not a difficult situation at all. The story is simply this: an organization has laid down sleeping cells in north Africa. Called the al-Qaida organization in north Africa … The sleeping cells in Libya are similar to dormant cells in America before 9/11.”

[Gadhafi] added: “I will have to arm the people and get ready for a fight. Libyan people will die, damage will be on the Med, Europe, and the whole world. These armed groups are using the situation [in Libya] as a justification – and we shall fight them.”

Three weeks after the calls, a Nato-led coalition that included Britain began bombing raids that led to the overthrow of [Gadhafi]. He was finally deposed in August and murdered by opponents of his regime in October.

Well, that went just fine — for terrorists like ISIS, Ansar al-Sharia , and friends. (Save Libya from terrorists) Not so good for us or the Libyan people.

And please don’t ask about our fight against the dictator of Syria, Bashar Hafez al-Assad. There, we don’t know who to bomb next. The Shiites, the Sunnis, the rebels — If it’s Thursday, let’s bomb ISIS. Bombs, like guns, always seem to be America’s first talking point.

The only near question is: If and when al-Assad goes, and leaves the inevitable vacuum, which terrorist group will replace him?

The long-range question is: What are we trying to accomplish with our repeated efforts at regime change?

1. Is it that our leaders actually believe in American exceptionalism — that we are a “shining city upon a hill, the light of the world” to which all nations and all peoples aspire? Do our leaders truly believe the world would be a better place if only everyone could be just like us?

2. And do our leaders actually believe the vacuum left by a departing dictator will be filled via a democratic election of a noble, progressive, empathetic president — a leader who will follow American policy wherever it leads?

3. Or do our leaders actually believe we arbitrarily can replace the dictator with the above-mentioned president, and set him upon a willing, even eager, populace — a populace that in their sheer gratitude, will embrace America’s puppet?

4. Or, do our bribed leaders simply kowtow to the military industrial complex, which promotes war as the economic best of worlds?

This last idea certainly works here in the U.S., where the gun manufacturers not only rule Congress via unfettered bribery (Thank you right-wing Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision), but have infused a gullible public with the astounding belief that more guns on the streets makes Americans safer. (Ask anyone living in the slums of Chicago’s west side.)

As a nation, we have been hypnotized by the films of wildly cheering French who after WWII, welcomed those proud, powerful, conquering American troops with flowers and coition.

But France is not Syria. Christianity is not Islam. World War II is not a Mid-east conflict.

Remember, it has taken Christianity nearly two thousand years to be dragged slowly, reluctantly from theocracy toward (though not yet “to”) democracy.

And even here, in America, every time we hear a bigoted politician claim “we are a Christian country,” and our own Supreme Court defends exceptions to secular law based on religion ( as in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby), visions of theocracy dance in our heads.

Many Christians still pull toward theocracy, so there is little wonder that Islam, being younger, has miles to go before its most powerful leaders can move away from sectarian bigotry and strife.

Attempts at regime change in Islamic nations are doomed to failure, if “success” is defined as a peaceful transition to a democratic state or even just to a state that likes us.

By trying to force it to happen, we assure additional hatreds heaped upon the existing hatreds. You can’t buy love with a bomb.

Finally, and this may be the most important point of all: Terrorism is not a big threat to America. It doesn’t even classify as a small threat..

The Middle East, with its raging crowds, its colorful threats, its beheadings and its incessant strife, may seem like a significant danger, but in reality it is a small, weak, fractured place.

The total population of all 17 nations in the Middle East is only about 6% of the world’s population.

It’s more than 5,000 miles away, far across a great ocean, and 16 of those nations (except Israel) are militarily puny. Not one of them has the military capability to cause more than a pinprick on the skin of America.

Despite what fear-mongering politicians like Donald Trump (“Kill their families”) and Ted Cruz (“The world is on fire”) say, you have a far better chance of being killed by lightening than by a jihadi terrorist.

So what’s a well-meaning President of the U.S. to do?

First, defend Americans. That means not just protect Americans from foreign attack, but don’t put Americans in harm’s way.

President Bush II is responsible for more American deaths and mutilations than all the terrorists who ever have lived. (See: <font color="#0000ff"Service Member Statistics, Page 6)

Second, do not encourage terrorist attacks against America by intervening in Middle Eastern wars.These ostensibly sectarian wars actually have very little to do with religion, and everything to do with power.

In a cynical, realpolitik way, these little wars are good for American security. The more the terrorists focus on each other, the less they will threaten us, which is one of the reasons why we should avoid injecting ourselves into their conflicts.

No more Vietnams. No more Pakistans. No more Afghanistans. No more Iraqs, Libyas, and Syrias. Not one of these unprovoked wars has accomplished anything other than to kill and maim our children and to incite hatred for Americans.

We were safer when Iran and Iraq fought each other than we are now.

The primary reason why the terrorists hate us is not because we are Judeo-Christian “infidels,” but because we keep bombing them, and killing and maiming their children.

Third: Protect the nations we consider allies: Europe, Israel, Japan, et al, by helping them financially and even by supplying them with weapons (making the arms makers happy), but don’t send troops (aka “advisors”) and don’t send bombers.

Fourth: Don’t create political vacuums and don’t try to install foreign leaders. A bad government is far better than no government. A bad leader is far better than no leader.

We in America have had many bad leaders and many bad governments. We’ve survived with our mores intact. But heaven help us if we ever fall into anarchy.

From a political vacuum, most often there emerges the meanest, most bloodthirsty, immoral murder machine.

In every way, a vacuum sucks.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
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.
——————————————————————————————————————————————

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

Recessions begin an average of 2 years after the blue line first dips below zero. There was a dip in 2015. Recessions are cured by a rising red line.

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

The making of poverty

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 the rest..
•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..
============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

Before we describe how poverty is made, we must answer the question, “What is poverty?”

The U.S. Census Bureau counts “only cash income in determining whether a family is poor; cash welfare programs count, but benefits from noncash programs, such as food assistance, medical care, social services, education and training, and housing are not included.

“Taxes paid, such as Social Security payroll taxes, and tax credits received, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, are also excluded from poverty calculations.

Is “poverty” simply lack of income as the Census Bureau seems to think?

Imagine you and your family are the only people occupying a small island. You have plenty of food, water and clothing, and a tent provides warm shelter. You have zero income, because there is no money on this island. Are you poor?

Imagine you and your family live among several other families on that island. You still have the same amount of food, water, clothing and a tent, but other families have far more and far better food and drink, far more and better clothing and they live in large, centrally heated houses, not in tents. Are you poor?

For years, money had not been necessary on that island. People grew their own food, sewed their own clothing and built their own houses. If any family lacked anything, they traded with a neighbor.

Now, the population of the island has grown, and the lack of money has made commerce more difficult. So, the elders of the island come together and decide to create money to facilitate trade.

The money will consist of a large wooden board, kept at the center of the island, on which is written the names of every resident. After each name is written a number showing how much money each resident has.

The board is called the “Money List,” and the keepers of the list are called “The Money Committee.”

For reasons lost to history, the residents decide to call their money “dollars.”

Initially, “The Money Committee” decides to write the number “1000” after each resident’s name. In essence, each resident now “has” 1,000 dollars, though all this means is that each resident has “1000” written after his/her name.

The Money Committee could have decided to write “10” or “100000,” or any other number. It just arbitrarily decided on “1000.”

If resident “A” sells something to resident “B,” the number after “A” will be increased and the number after “B” will be reduced. Nothing physical will change hands. All that will happen is the numbers on the Money List will change.

This leaves the question, “What is a dollar worth?” which easily is determined.

Each resident, knowing he/she has 1000 dollars, estimates how many of his dollars he is willing to sacrifice to acquire one pound of beef, a loaf of bread, or a candle. Similarly, the butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers decide how many dollars they will ask.

As those decisions are made thousands of times each day, a consensus develops regarding how many dollars should be added after the butcher’s, the baker’s, and the candlestick maker’s names in return for their goods and services.

And this consensus becomes known as “The Consumer Price Index.”

Notice that dollars have no physical existence. They merely are numbers on a list. And the Money Committee is not limited in the size of the numbers on the list. The “1000” was just an arbitrary starting point.

The Money Committee has the power to create more dollars as needed, merely by increasing the numbers on the Money List.

One day, the Money Committee decides it wants to build a large new building in which to house a huge, fancy Money List. This will require the labor of many carpenters, who will demand many dollars. The Money Committee will need to increase the numbers next to the names of those carpenters.

But the Money Committee has no dollars of its own. There is no line on the Money List that says, “Money Committee.”

So where will the Money Committee obtain the dollars to pay the carpenters? It simply can increase the numbers next to the names of the carpenters. Remember, it created the original numbers — the 1000 dollars per person — arbitrarily and from thin air. It can continue to create more numbers, arbitrarily and endlessly.

Some residents object, saying that increasing the carpenters’ numbers will decrease the value of everyone else’s numbers (aka “inflation). Instead, they want the Money Committee to reduce the numbers next to other people’s names, to equal the increase in the carpenter’s numbers.(This is known as “taxation.”)

The Money Committee knows it easily can maintain the value of numbers (dollars), i.e. prevent inflation, by increasing the demand for owning numbers (as opposed to owning goods and services), by awarding the owners of numbers a small stipend (aka “interest.)

Let’s summarize to this point:

1. “Poor,” being the basis of “poverty,” is a comparative, not an absolute. For instance, living in a tent might be considered poor in some societies, but quite normal, even rich, in others. If you live in a tent, and everyone else lives in the open, you might be rich. But if you live in that same tent, while everyone else lives in a house, you might be considered poor.

2. The Money Committee arbitrarily created dollars out of thin air, simply by putting numbers on a list. The Money Committee never can run short of dollars, nor does it ever need to ask anyone for dollars.

The Money Committee neither needs to borrow nor to tax. It can pay all its bills forever, by increasing the numbers on that list.

3. The Money Committee can maintain the value of dollars, i.e. maintain the demand for dollars, by paying interest to owners of dollars.

All of the above is logical and mathematical, but it ignores the sometimes illogical, emotional human desire to win, to grow, and to be superior.

The island residents could be taught that the Money Committee never needs to tax or to borrow dollars — it can change the numbers at will — but that is not the information the few, most influential residents want the rest to have.

No, the influentials want the rest to believe the Money Committee somehow is limited in its number-changing ability. The purpose: To put distance between themselves and the rest (i.e. “the Gap”).

So they disseminate the false information (“The Big Lie“) that the Money Committee must reduce some residents’ numbers before it can increase other resident’s numbers.

By controlling the Money Committee, the influentials control money creation and dispersal. Thus, it is the influentials who create poverty on the island.

Poverty never is necessary or inevitable. It always is created by the influentials.

So when you see poverty, anywhere in the world, know this: Poverty is not caused by the poor. Poverty is not the result of laziness or any other character weaknesses on the part of the impoverished.

Poverty is made — made intentionally — by the rich, to widen the Gap and to create a servant and subservient class.

Always.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
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.
——————————————————————————————————————————————

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

Recessions begin an average of 2 years after the blue line first dips below zero. There was a dip in 2015. Recessions are cured by a rising red line.

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY