Dumb comment of the week (by someone who should know better

This will be short and sour.

News item:

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen drop-kicked the idea — popular online — of minting a trillion-dollar coin as a potential debt-ceiling exit ramp. She told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week”:

“I wouldn’t be supportive of a trillion-dollar coin. I think it’s a gimmick. And it jeopardizes the independence of the Federal Reserve. You would be asking to essentially print money to cover the deficit.“

If Yellen really means what she said, she should be fired immediately for gross ignorance. She’s the Secretary of the Treasury, for heaven’s sake.

First, she objects to a “gimmick” for solving the real “gimmick,” the debt-ceiling. What could be more of a “gimmick” than a 1939 law that tells the U.S. federal government it no longer should pay for what it already has bought and agreed to pay for?

What could be more of a gimmick than Congress repeatedly voting, for purely political purposes, to ignore, then reinstate, the law for various periods of time?

What could be more of a gimmick than these “extraordinary” steps the Treasury takes to suspend the debt limit?

Second, doesn’t that law, in itself, threaten the “independence of the Federal Reserve” by making it legal — even mandatory — for U.S. Treasury checks to bounce?

Third, the so-called debt limit doesn’t cover the deficit; it covers the so-called “debt,” which isn’t really a federal debt. It’s the total of all Treasury security accounts owned by the public, which are paid off simply by returning the dollars in them

Fourth, what the heck does she think the government does now, if not “print money” to pay for what it owes?

Ben Bernanke: “The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost.”

Does Treasury Secretary Yellen really believe that the U.S. federal government needs to borrow and tax in order to acquire spending dollars — the dollars the government previously created from thin air, way back in 1780?

If Yellen really cared about her job, she would say, “The debt limit is a gimmick that should be ended, today. It does nothing to protect America. It’s based on a lie, and all it does is make us look like potential deadbeats, whose word can’t be trusted, and who might not pay for what we already have purchased.”

It’s no wonder the public is so easily confused by liars when we have damn fools like Janet Yellen in positions of influence.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty
Twitter: @rodgermitchell
Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

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THE SOLE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT IS TO IMPROVE AND PROTECT THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE.

The most important problems in economics involve:

1. Monetary Sovereignty describes money creation and destruction.
2. Gap Psychology describes the common desire to distance oneself from those “below” in any socio-economic ranking, and to come nearer those “above.” The socio-economic distance is referred to as “The Gap.”

Wide Gaps negatively affect poverty, health and longevity, education, housing, law and crime, war, leadership, ownership, bigotry, supply and demand, taxation, GDP, international relations, scientific advancement, the environment, human motivation and well-being, and virtually every other issue in economics. Implementation of Monetary Sovereignty and The Ten Steps To Prosperity can grow the economy and narrow the Gaps:

Ten Steps To Prosperity:

1. Eliminate FICA
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D, plus long-term care — for everyone
3. Social Security for all
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
5. Salary for attending school
6. Eliminate federal taxes on business
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction, annually. 
8. Tax the very rich (the “.1%”) more, with higher progressive tax rates on all forms of income.
9. Federal ownership of all banks
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99.9% 

The Ten Steps will grow the economy and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY