Donald J. Trump fired his 3rd National Security advisor after ignoring their recommendations and relying on his gut, which repeatedly has failed America.
His gut secretly scheduled, then canceled, peace talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan. His gut entered into a costly, no-win trade war with China
His gut ended the successful compact with Iran, and now Iran is making nukes. His gut has engaged in his pitiful, almost laughable attempts to persuade North Korea to give up their nukes
And his gut told him that his coddling of Russia’s Putin, and encouraging interference in America’s democratic elections would help him obtain funds for a Trump Tower, Moscow.
This doesn’t even include his angering of virtually all our remaining allies, with his insufferable criticisms of everyone.
Nor does it include is his taking of billions of dollars from our military to fund his useless wall, which will do nothing to save America from drugs or criminals.
The chaos in his administration grows day by day because his gut has surrounded him with criminals, liars, incompetents, hookers, criminal enterprises, and know-nothing family members, among which are:
Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, HUD Secretary Ben Carson, Campaign manager Paul Manafort, Deputy campaign manager Rick Gates, National security adviser Michael Flynn, Personal lawyer Michael Cohen, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Rep. Chris Collins, Rep. Duncan Hunter, mobster Salvatore Testa, mobster Fat Tony Salerno, Roger Stone, Felix Sater, Jeffrey Epstein, Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta, Trump Campaign Foreign Policy Adviser George Papadopoulos, Alex Van der Zwaan, Konstantin Kilimnik, Ralph Shortey, Timothy Nolan, Trump University, Trump Foundation, Stormy Daniels, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Donald Trump, Jr.
Trump could not have failed worse if he had set out to fail.
The question I like to ask my business-owning friends: “What would happen if you hired an ego-driven, crooked, semi-literate, psychopathic fool to run your company?”
The description of Step #9 of the Ten Steps to Properity (below), “Federal Ownership of All Banks,” begins this way:
Banks are involved in most U.S. dollar creation. Even the dollars created at the direction of the federal government originate with banks.
The two primary dollar-creation methods in the U.S. are bank lending and federal spending:
Each time a banklends, it simply increases the numbers in the borrower’s checking account. That instantly adds dollars to the money supply.
When the federal government spends, it sends instructions to a creditor’s bank, instructing the bank to increase the numbers in the creditor’s checking account. When the bank does as instructed, dollars are added to the money supply.
This participation in the vast majority of all dollar creation gives banks enormous financial power, and as we all know — and the “Great Recession of 2008” reminds us — power corrupts banks, especially when multiplied by a profit motive and government complicity.
Although the federal government also is powerful and corrupted, it does not suffer from a profit motive, and that makes all the difference. The government neither needs nor uses profits, and unlike bank employees, federal government employees do not receive remunerations based on federal agency profits.
Because the vast majority of banks are not federally owned, and so are monetarily non-sovereign and directed by the profit motive, America’s money supply is subject to criminality and insolvency.
Now, the Trump administration wishes to make an extremely dangerous situation even worse:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Trump administration officials on Tuesday defended their plan to Congress for ending federal government control of mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, clashing with Democratic senators on whether the change would raise home borrowing costs and neglect lower-income homeowners.
The two finance companies nearly collapsed in the financial crisis 11 years ago and were bailed out at a cost to taxpayers of nearly $190 billion.
Bailing out Fannie and Freddie would have been unnecessary had they been owned by the federal government. The government, being Monetarily Sovereign, cannot unintentionally be insolvent.
Former Federal Reserve Chairman, 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.”
Because the federal government cannot run short of dollars, no agency of the federal government can run short of dollars, unless Congress and the President will it.
As agencies of the federal government, Fannie and Freddie and all of America’s banks, never unintentionally would run short of dollars.
The “Great Recession” of 2008 was exacerbated by privately-owned banks running short of dollars, requiring “bailouts” by the federal government.
Though these bailouts cost taxpayers nothing (no tax was levied as a result and federal taxes do not fund federal spending), the need for bailouts did inject fear and uncertainty into the economy, which acted accordingly. The fear and uncertainty were nearly as harmful as the actuality.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, along with regulator Mark Calabria, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, testified before the Senate Banking Committee on the plan for returning Fannie and Freddie to private ownership.
The companies have become profitable again and have fully repaid their bailouts. Under the plan, their profits would no longer go to the Treasury but would be used to build up their capital bases as a cushion against possible future losses.
If Freddie and Fannie were owned by the federal government, there would be no need to “build up their capital bases as a cushion against possible future losses.” Having an unlimited supply of money, the federal government creates money, ad hoc.
Former Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan: “A government cannot become insolvent with respect to obligations in its own currency.”
Fannie and Freddie together guarantee roughly half of the $10 trillion U.S. home loan market. They don’t make home loans.
They buy them from banks and other lenders, and bundle them into securities, guarantee them against default and sell them to Wall Street investors.
Calabria said Fannie and Freddie’s capital must be bulked up “to match their risk profiles” and avoid another bailout. “In their current financial condition, the (companies) are not equipped to withstand a downturn in the housing market,” he testified, adding, “It keeps me up at night.”
Mr. Cabria would not need to “stay up at night” if Fannie and Freddie were owned by the federal government.
The federal government would not have to “bulk up to match and risk profile” and never would need a bailout.
The administration promises in the plan to preserve homebuyers’ access to 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages, which are the pillar of housing finance.
The plan “would preserve the longstanding government support of the 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage loan,” Mnuchin said. “That support, however, should be explicitly defined, tailored and paid for.”
The administration’s “30-year” promises are humorous at best and deceptive at worst. Not only does this administration have zero credibility (the President lies incessantly), but at worst he will be in office for only five more years. What happens when a new administration takes over?
(Would you buy life insurance from a company that doesn’t pay its policyholders, and is guaranteed to go out of business in five years?)
Mnuchin acknowledged that for prices of 30-year mortgages to remain close to current market levels, some level of government support would be needed.
The most secure “level of support” would be ownership.
The administration initially looked to Congress for legislation to overhaul the housing finance system and return the companies to private shareholders.
But Congress hasn’t acted, and now officials say they will take administrative action for the core change, ending the Fannie and Freddie conservatorships. They haven’t given a timeline for the administrative action.
“Administrative action is even less secure than a law. It easily could be changed, without Congressional action, by the next administration. IF (big “IF”) legal, it still would be a silly step, even for the feckless Trump administration.
“The Trump plan will make mortgages more expensive and harder to get,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, the committee’s senior Democrat.
A flashpoint came over the issue of affordable housing. Fannie and Freddie currently have mandated targets for helping low-income and minority borrowers to buy homes.
A change outlined in the plan, which would have to be approved by Congress, would replace Fannie and Freddie’s affordable housing goals with more “tailored support” for first-time homebuyers and low- and moderate-income borrowers. “We want to do it in the most effective way,” Mnuchin said.
For a Trump appointee, “the most effective way” means a way that will most benefit rich investors.
And then we come to the always dependable Trump toady, Ben Carson:
Under Carson, HUD proposed last month to make it harder for people to prove unintentional discrimination, known as “disparate impact,” against mortgage lenders and landlords.
And finally, we come to the single most humorous comment in the article:
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., implored the officials to put a proposal before Congress. “This whole thing is a car wreck; it’s a dumpster fire,” Kennedy said. Put it before the committee, “and let senators be senators.”
Letting senators be senators is something that has not happened under the leadership of Sen. Mitch McConnell, who frequently has vowed not to bring any legislation to the floor unless Donald Trump approves of it.
So in what way will senators be senators?
As we said in Step #9:
Allowing private ownership of banks and expecting honesty is like putting meat on a dog’s tongue, and expecting him not to swallow.
Privatization is favored by the very rich because it almost always puts dollars into their pockets, while seldom working for the public. That is the Trump administration’s reason for wanting to privatize Fannie and Freddie.
All bank problems boil down to the profit motive.
We should eliminate those fundamental problems, and there is no better way to eliminate the profit motive than to put all banks under total federal government control, i.e. ownership.
Contact your Senators and tell them not to allow Trump and his cronies to steal at your expense.
The most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the richer and the poorer.
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 The Ten Steps To Prosperity can narrow the Gaps:
Intelligent Americans long have recognized that our future national success rests on the shoulders of our educated populace. They are the ones who will lead us.
That is why today, every municipality offers free education for grades K-12.
On April 23, 1635, the first public school in what would become the United States was established in Boston, Massachusetts. Known as the Boston Latin School..
After the U.S. Revolution, northern states especially emphasized education and rapidly established public schools.
Private academies also flourished in the towns across the country, but rural areas (where most people lived) had few schools before the 1880s.
By the close of the 19th century, public secondary schools began to outnumber private ones.
We live in the 21st century, when a widespread college education is as important to America’s success as a high school education was in the 19th century. Yet still, we cling to the archaic notion that while elementary school and high school are paid for by governments, college and beyond must be paid for by individuals.
The time has come to realize that American leadership always has required universal education, the only difference being that in the 1800’s an elementary school, and then later a high school education were sufficient, while here in the 2000’s, advanced education has becomes necessary.
Sadly, we have not yet learned that lesson. We insist on making it difficult for American students to receive the best possible education:
U.S. student loan debt outstanding reached a record $1.465 trillion last month.
American college students are drowning in debt.
“Over 90% of student loans are guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Education, meaning that if a recession causes a rise in youth unemployment and triggers mass defaults, this contingent liability could prove burdensome for the U.S. government budget,” said Paul Della Guardia, economist at the Institute of International Finance in emailed comments.
Get it? Mr. Della Guardia is more concerned about a non-existent burden on the U.S. government than on the real problems of youth unemployment and mass defaults.
The so-called “burden” on the U.S. government is non-existent because the U.S. government is Monetarily Sovereign. It never can run short of its own sovereign currency, the U.S. dollar. It can pay any size debt denominated in dollars. Federal debt, no matter how large, never can be a burden on the federal government.
Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan:“A government cannot become insolvent with respect to obligations in its own currency.”
By contrast, indebted students are monetarily non-sovereign. They can and often do, run short of dollars and become insolvent.
A Bloomberg analysisfound that students who took a loan in 2012 have had a much more difficult time making their monthly payments compared to students who received loans shortly before and after — students who have had a similar amount of time to pay them down.
A large percentage of those who took out loans in 2012 are currently 24-33 years old, an age where many are generally establishing themselves in their careers.
Borrowers in this group entered the labor force when the unemployment rate was twice as high as today and may have found it difficult to find a career track in their desired field.
Further adding to the difficulties faced by this group was that finding a position in 2012 took almost three times longer than today, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The interest rate for a direct student loan disbursed on or after July 1, 2018, and before July 1, 2019, is more than 100 basis point higher than those issued in 2012 adding to the concern about the size of student loan debt outstanding.
Many student loan borrowers face significant debt burdens. Over 2.7 million borrowers owe in excess of $100,000, of which, about 700,000 owe $200,000 or more, according to data from the U.S. Department of Education. One year earlier, 2.5 million owed in excess of $100,000.
The single largest asset on the Federal government’s balance sheet is Student Loans— the amount students owe to the federal government, which neither needs nor uses the money.
By not recognizing the national importance of advanced education, we have doomed an entire generation to failure — a failure that significantly will reduce America’s competitive and strategic successes.
This is more than shortsighted. It is part of the same plan that attempted to eliminate ACA (“Obamacare”), cut Medicare, cut food stamps, cut Social Security, and cut consumers’ protections against business fraud.
It is a reflection of the Gap Psychology of the rich who run America.
Gap Psychology is the desire to distance oneself from lower-income/wealth/power people, while coming closer to the higher income/wealth/power people.
There were times in America, when Gap Psychology ruled:
When immigration from Ireland was blocked: “The refugees seeking haven in America were poor and disease-ridden. They threatened to take jobs away from Americans and strain welfare budgets. They practiced an alien religion and pledged allegiance to a foreign leader. They were bringing with them crime. They were accused of being rapists. And, worst of all, these undesirables were Irish.” (Does this sound familiar?)
As is usual with the very rich, Gap Psychology is far more important than compassion for the less fortunate or concern for America’s future. Thus anything that would benefit the middle- and lower-income groups, i.e. narrow the Gap, is strenuously resisted.
Even some in the middle-classes are complicit, when they adopt the shortsighted, “If I had to pay, they should pay” position.
It’s the old question, “Why can’t crabs escape a bucket? Answer: When some try to climb out, the others pull them back down.” That is a version of Gap Psychology in which a man doesn’t want former peers to succeed, opening a new Gap between him and them (aka, “envy.”)
And that is why today, we do not have a national system of free advanced education. It’s urgently needed, but the rich don’t want it.
For the majority of U.S. families, public education is the only option. Public elementary and secondary education money usually flows from three sources: the federal, state and local governments. According to the U.S. Department of Education, states contribute nearly as much as local governments, while the federal government supplies the smallest share.
Yet, it is the federal government that is best able financially to pay for education.
We’ll close with excerpts from the following article:
Seth Frotman, who resigned in protest in August 2018, expressing outrage at the then-leadership’s treatment of the nearly $1.5 trillion student loan industry, asserted that things have gotten even worse since his departure.
“I honestly don’t say this lightly, but I don’t know how you could look at the things that have happened over the last year … [and] under the new leadership of the bureau and not say that it is a complete failure in doing its job on behalf of student loan borrowers,” Frotman said. “The current political leadership at the CFPB has prioritized the interests of the student loan industry over the very real plight of the 44 million Americans who have student loan debt.”
We have suggested as part of the Ten Steps to Prosperity, Steps #:
See: 4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone (Tuition, supplies, transportation, meals, etc. all should be funded by the federal government.) See: 5. Salary for attending school (Many students drop out of high school to enter the employment world early because they and their families need the money. Even with scholarships, many families cannot afford to send their children to high school, let alone to college and beyond.)
In summary
Millions of our best and brightest young people are hamstrung by lack of money. Not only do finances force children to leave high school or college early, but those who are able to attend college face onerous loan repayments to a government that has unlimited money and does not need to collect money from students.
These loan repayments prevent many young people, who are in the usually most productive growth years of their lives, from investing time, money, and talent into businesses and scientific pursuits that would have benefitted America. Lack of finances turns productive years into lost years.
America is forgoing the national benefits that these young brains could provide.
–30 years ago, America was the leader in quantity and quality of high school diplomas. Today, our nation is ranked 36th in the world.
–1.3 million high school students don’t graduate on time yearly. States with highest rates (80-89%) are Wisconsin, Iowa, Vermont, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. States with lowest (less than 60%) are Nevada, New Mexico, Louisiana, Georgia and S. Carolina.
–A student living in poverty is 13 times less likely to graduate high school on time.
–In the workplace, 85% of current jobs and 90% of new jobs require some or more college or post-secondary education.
–Only half of the students who enter a 4-year school will receive a bachelor’s degree within 6 years.
Advanced education is as important a protector of America’s future as is the military. The government should be doing everything possible to fulfill this need.
The federal government should stop resisting education, and pay off all student loans, then eliminate the need for student borrowing and student indebtedness. America needs an educated populace.
The most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the richer and the poorer.
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 The Ten Steps To Prosperity can narrow the Gaps:
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 