America lost

We are born, we live, we die. The few hours we have been given are precious, though what we do in those few hours lives after us.

Our voyage is short, and we are buffeted by the winds of circumstance, but we have our hands on the tiller. We can at least try be what we wish to be.

The question now: What do we wish to be?

Once we Americans were a welcoming people with open arms, joyful and generous. We were admired for our caring and compassion. Our parents and grandparents came across oceans to build their lives, and in so doing, built America.

We were courageous. We were the greatest generation. We were America the beautiful.

That America is lost.

It is the right-wing, especially, that has changed. The change is is tragic. Eisenhower was not this way. Ford, Reagan, and the two Bushes were not this way. Even Nixon was not this way.

It may have begun with Newt Gingrich, and his “make ’em work” approach to poverty. Or, it may have begun with the Tea Party, a group espousing a philosophy of closed-fisted stinginess and covetousness.

Whatever and however, it has become the “I’ve got mine, to hell with you” Party of the Rich. And it has morphed downward from there.

Today, we no longer are joyful and generous, no longer are admired for our caring and compassion. We no longer are courageous.

We fear. We fear the unfortunate weak, begging for entry. We fear them as invading hoards, trying to steal our culture. We fear the black, brown, and yellow. We fear the gay. We fear the Muslim.

America the brave has become a land of selfish cowards, cringing behind a Wall, afraid to welcome or to share.

But no Wall is high enough or long enough to remedy our terror. Another $5 billion to make it taller and billions more to guard it, and still that will not be enough. More guards, more guns, more Walls — cowardice knows no limits

And, no cruelty to the poor is sufficient. Take away their food; take away their health; take away their homes and their education; take away their children. They deserve whatever misery we can foist on them.

In this vein, Breitbart, a publication of the right, wrote a story about an undocumented father and his young daughter, trying to enter America. They made the perilous journey because he is a father wanting the best for his daughter.

Like most parents, like you and me, the father was desperate to give his daughter a better, longer life than she would have had. But after all the adversity, and before they could reach their goal, the young girl dies.

I’m sure you can visualize the horror. I know you can imagine the grief. You are human.

But Breitbart’s tale is devoid of sympathy or humanity. It focuses on blaming the father for his daughter’s death.

The purpose of the article was to demonstrate that immigrants are not real people, not to be pitied or aided, but rather to be despised and blamed for their own despair.

Deceased Migrant Girl’s Father Did Not Report Illness for 7 Hours, Says CBP

Officials said the agents asked the father the questions in Spanish and translated his answers to English for documentation on the form. The father reportedly checked the box on the I-779 immigration form that said his daughter had no current illnesses.

Travel time by bus on these highly primitive roads in mountainous desert terrain takes about two to three hours. Officials stressed that bus transportation is the fastest means available in this area — keeping in mind that the father had not yet reported the girl to be ill.

At about 4:30 a.m., the bus began loading family unit migrants, including the little girl and her father. At about 5 a.m., the father reported the little girl was ill and vomiting. Border Patrol agents on the bus reportedly called ahead to the station to advise the girl’s condition and request EMT trained agents to meet them on arrival.

At about 6 a.m., the bus arrived at the Lordsburg Station and the girl had reportedly stopped breathing. Agents revived the girl and arranged transportation for her to a children’s hospital in El Paso by helicopter.

The helicopter arrived at 7:45 a.m and took the girl to El Paso. The agents provided ground transportation for the father. During the flight, the girl reportedly suffered cardiac arrest and was revived by the aircrew.

Doctors said the girl suffered brain swelling and liver failure. She died later that day.

She was an innocent little girl, with her full life ahead. She wished for what little girls wish. Her crime and her father’s was to strive for a happy life. Her punishment for that dream was early death.

At the end of the article, dozens of readers commented. Nearly all were of the same ilk: Cruelty and hatred.

Read these comments, representative and word-for-word. They are typical of what you will find at the end of all Breitbart articles:

Son of Snake Plissken Michaelg8 • 6 hours ago
The father is guilty of child abuse and negligent homicide that is for sure.
The lies put out by the Left wing government and the propaganda bureaus disguised as media are an outrage. This homicide lies with them as well.

LuckyStrike Son of Snake Plissken • 6 hours ago
The father – if indeed he is the real father – as well as MURDERED that little girl.
That man should be tried for child abuse and murder and sent to prison for LIFE.
Repatriate ALL illegal aliens!

MaximusBraveheart LuckyStrike • 6 hours ago
Repatriate ALL illegal aliens; immediately! They are in a race… a mad, dangerous and illegal race to get more Democrat voters!

Homeschool Momma MaximusBraveheart • 5 hours ago
Instead of focusing on the extraordinary efforts to save the girl, all the open borders fascists will do is focus on the fact that the girl died…as if that was somehow the fault of border patrol.

Budda Homeschool Momma • 5 hours ago
The father needs to be charged with child abuse, endangering a minor and manslaughter.

SkipMayfield Budda • 5 hours ago
I believe ALL of the adults arrested in this group need to be charged with the same crime.

sgb1 SkipMayfield • 5 hours ago
They must have all known the child was terribly ill. It makes me wonder if it wasn’t deliberate in order set up a body to carry on about.

gman sgb1 • 4 hours ago
Of course the media will blow this up as being Trump’s fault for not having the Welcome Wagon at the border.
Will the mainstream media report that this child was already sick in Mexico?
Nope.
The parent or Guardian should be charged with child neglect.
What would happen to you or I if we brought our child along during an illegal act?
The mainstream media should be so outraged over American children killed by illegal aliens.

Trump Train aka Honey Badger gman • 4 hours ago
The Mob Dems are the real Murderers for enticing the illegal invaders to come here and break our laws in the first place.
0bama in coordination with the propaganda media and deep state globalists orchestrated this to destroy US.

uvm73 Trump Train aka Honey Badger • 4 hours ago
For me, the sickest part of this story is that we still do not know what illness killed this girl. The invaders are bringing 3rd world diseases with them. Unlike Ellis Island, where there was a natural quarantine period, along with a significant body of water to protect Americans, these invaders carry all kinds of diseases to infect American citizens, including these Border Patrol agents & their families.

Son of Snake Plissken uvm73 • 3 hours ago
A POX on all the children and grand children of the media and Government officials who support this madness. Hate to wish for such but they have caused it so bring it only to the ones who earned it.

Stormwaves uvm73 • an hour ago
Apparently a new form of polio is affecting children in the United States. The media has gone suddenly silent, as has the CDC, on the numbers of children who are now suffering paralysis and what is causing it.

gman Trump Train aka Honey Badger • 4 hours ago
While nobody wants to see a child sick or perish,
I believe they do say not to drink the water in Mexico.
Dumb parents making dumb decisions putting their children in danger.
Everyone of these selfish people could have applied for asylum in their home countries.
Child endangerment at its finest.
They have nobody to blame but themselves

Andrew Scott Carlisle gman • 4 hours ago
The “Father” is just upset he lost his get out of detention free card, probably should have shared some of his water with her instead of keeping it all to himself. The child died BECAUSE of the catch and release policy for illegals traveling with children, get rid of that and he would have left her at home.

Tom Alstadt John Penhale • 2 hours ago
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” Mat 5:7 This verse is referring to forgiveness against others and showing compassion. It is not a requirement to overlook civil law and allow others to destroy your community, family, and nation.

JessZ John Penhale • 2 hours ago
Jesus said give to Ceasar what is Ceasars and give to God what is God….I take that to mean obey the laws of the Country and obey Gods laws..legal immigrants are all welcome but for those bypassing our laws they are disobeying not only the Countries laws but Gods law…

Daniel Hertlein Trump Train aka Honey Badger • an hour ago
You are dumb as literal dirt. I don’t know how you are able to breath.

Don Wadd Gail Brooks • 2 hours ago
Ever seen a WHITE landscaper in the last 10 years?

Tom Alstadt Don Wadd • an hour ago
Yes. Quite a few. We want LEGAL IMMIGRANTS and cannot tolerate illegal aliens.

JessZ Don Wadd • an hour ago
Actually a lot of the landscapers in our area are white….

Ribert Koonce Don Wadd • 2 hours ago
Nope, like construction workers, they were trashed for cheaper laborers from south of the border more than 30 years ago.

Angela Moore Don Wadd • an hour ago
Go to any majority-white state and you’ll find white people working construction, landscaping, pumping gas, waiting tables, cleaning hotel rooms, etc etc etc. Go to Bernie Sanders state and sit on a park bench for an afternoon, and see all the jobs white folks want to do, you total SFB.

SuperPrivileged Trumpisaliarhiswifeisawhore • 2 hours ago
They won’t hire you because libtards are worthless and incapable of hard work.

Kawboy Trumpisaliarhiswifeisawhore • 2 hours ago
Whatever,the frigging prisoners should be picking the crops instead of sitting on their azzes watching tv or working out? And if migrants are needed then when picking season is over they go home. The illegals and the cheap azzes who hire them ruined the construction industry

This is how far the Republican party has sunk, dark, cold and hate-filled. And with Donald Trump, it has reached its nadir.

There is no warmth, no love. Compassion is derided as weakness. Hatred is strength. Nazis are “good people.” Murderous dictators are admired. Power and realpolitik are all we have.

We are hatred and hated.

Ronald Reagan: “America is a shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere. I’ve spoken of the Shining City all my political life. …In my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That’s how I saw it, and see it still.”

That Shining City upon a hill is gone, replaced by the faux gold of a Trump Tower and a hideous Wall.

The America we once knew and loved is lost.

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

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

The single most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the have-mores and the have-less.

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:

Ten Steps To Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA

2. Federally funded medicare — parts a, b & d, plus long-term care — for everyone

3. Provide a monthly economic bonus to every man, woman and child in America (similar to 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 you.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

More on tariffs. Moron tariffs

We often have written about the giant misunderstandings regarding tariffs.

Many (most?) people believe import tariffs benefit America by:

Protecting Americans’ jobs
Providing the federal government with dollars

This is not even laughably wrong. It is tragically wrong.

To paraphrase the comedian, Henny Youngman, “Take this article, please”:

US reaps more than $1.4 billion from steel and aluminum tariffs, report finds
By Stephanie Dhue, Kayla Tausche, Published Mon, 13 Aug 2018

*Between March 23 and July 16, the U.S. collected $1.4 billion from levies on foreign imports of steel and aluminum.
*That figure could reach $7.5 billion this year, based on last year’s import levels.
*Tariff revenue is impacted by Commerce Department exclusions and President Trump’s change of heart.

In less than five months, the Trump administration has collected more than $1.4 billion in new revenue from steel and aluminum tariffs, according to a recent report prepared for members of Congress.

The Congressional Research Service estimated that, between March 23 and July 16, the U.S. reaped $1.1 billion and $344.2 million from levies on foreign steel and aluminum, respectively.

Those earnings are on the rise as trade negotiations with allies linger on and President Donald Trump moves to hike tariff rates on countries like Turkey.

CRS says the new tariffs could reap the U.S. some $7.5 billion — $5.8 billion on steel and $1.7 billion on aluminum– based on last year’s import levels.

Whom do you think will pay that $7.5 billion? Not Turkey. Not Canada. Not China. Not any foreign nation.

The answer: You, the American consumer, will see $7.5 billion taken out of your pockets, and transferred to the U.S. government, where all $7.5 billion will be destroyed.

That’s right, destroyed. As soon as those dollars hit the Treasury, they no longer will exist as part of any money-measure. The government doesn’t need or use those dollars.

To pay creditors, the government creates brand new dollars, ad hoc. Paying creditors is the only method by which the government creates U.S. dollars.

Those federal tariffs constitute a $7.5 billion tax on the American economy, a net loss for the private sector and a net gain for no one.

Just as a tax cut is stimulative, a tariff not only is recessive, but it also is inflationary, as it increases prices.

Trump has suggested the tariffs – originally unveiled as a national security provision – could have the added benefit of reducing the federal deficit, which rose to $77 billion in July, wider than the July 2017 budget deficit of $43 billion.

And the Treasury’s borrowing to fund government operations is set to top $1 trillion this year for the first time ever.

There are only two ways to reduce the deficit: Increase federal taxes and/or cut federal spending. Both are recessionary. They reduce the number of growth dollars coming into the economy.

A growing economy requires a growing supply of money. Reducing the deficit is the worst possible act if one wishes the economy to grow.

Red line shows changes in federal debt. **Reductions in debt growth lead to recessions** (vertical gray bars) by taking dollars from the economy. **Increases in federal debt growth cure recessions** by adding dollars to the economy.

Because of Tariffs we will be able to start paying down large amounts of the $21 Trillion in debt that has been accumulated,” Trump tweeted on Aug. 5. “At minimum, we will make much better Trade Deals for our country!”

As usual with Trump pronouncements, this is false. Tariffs do not in any way help pay down the federal debt.

The debt is paid down by returning the dollars that already exist in Treasury security accounts. No taxes are used for this.

And in any event, paying down debt causes depressions.

1804-1812: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 48%. Depression began 1807.
1817-1821: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 29%. Depression began 1819.
1823-1836: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 99%. Depression began 1837.
1852-1857: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 59%. Depression began 1857.
1867-1873: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 27%. Depression began 1873.
1880-1893: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 57%. Depression began 1893.
1920-1930: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 36%. Depression began 1929.
1997-2001: U. S. Federal Debt reduced 15%. Recession began 2001.

In short, while tariffs may protect a relatively few jobs in a chosen industry, they cost jobs overall by being recessive and inflationary.

Taking $7.5 billion from the economy in an attempt to save jobs is moronic.

Rather than destroying $7.5 billion, the government could, if it wished, support those chosen industries by:

Reducing their taxes
And/or buying from them
And/or giving them money

Though we have come to expect moronic ideas from Trump, we also receive the same moronic ideas from “respected” sources. For instance:

What to learn from Trump’s accidental tariff success
THE WEEK, Ryan Cooper

President Trump’s economic choices over the last two years have been terrible. When he wasn’t busy shoveling vast piles of cash into the suppurating maw of the top 1 percent, he busied himself starting a flailing trade war with China and Europe.

So far, so good, but why is that trade war failing? Because all trade wars fail.

However, there have been some accidental side benefits. The tax cuts provided a bit of badly needed fiscal stimulus that jolted the economy half-awake (despite being otherwise monstrous policy).

Right. The tax cuts are stimulative, because they add dollars to the economy. Unfortunately, the primary benefits of Trump’s tax cuts went to Trump and his rich pals.

And, as an Economic Policy Institute report details, his tariffs on aluminum have restored some employment and production in that sector.

Whereas nearly the entire American aluminum industry had vanished between 2010 and 2017, after tariffs went up in March of this year, production is up 67 percent, three smelters have been reopened, and one has been expanded, resulting in 1,000 new jobs and $100 million in new investment.

Taking billions from the economy does not create “new” jobs. It shuffles jobs from one industry to another, while costing the economy money and inflating the price of all things made with aluminum.

Not that tariffs are always and everywhere good, but they can be an important tool for managing trade and the economy.

Tariffs are taxes. Taxes are not a tool for managing the economy; they are a tool for shrinking the economy.

Sure, some tariffs have been pretty lousy or misguided. For instance, the Smoot-Hawley tariffs of 1930 at a minimum utterly failed to cure the Great Depression — and quite possibly enabled a protectionist race to the bottom that ultimately worsened the situation.

Tariffs, being taxes, cannot cure anything. As you have seen from the above data, recessions are caused by reduced money growth, and are cured by increased money growth. Taxes (tariffs) take dollars from the economy.

But, free trade (especially of capital) under a fiat currency regime can fuel devastating financial crises just as it did in the 1920s.

The depression of 1929 was caused by ten years of federal surpluses (taxes exceeding spending).

What the world and America need is a global trade regime that allows poorer nations to get started on the development ladder, but without creating (politically disastrous) severe trade imbalances, or requiring the United States to run a gigantic trade deficit until the end of time so nations can settle their international accounts.

Utter nonsense. “Trade imbalances” (i.e. more money leaving a country than entering it) are no problem for a Monetarily Sovereign government. Such a government creates its own sovereign currency at will, and at no cost.

The U.S. consistently runs trade deficits, which actually are beneficial. Trade deficits allow the federal government to obtain valuable goods and services in exchange for dollars they produce at the touch of a computer key.

Past Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke: “The U.S. government has a technology that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost.”

This is discussed further at: Questions about the trade deficit illusion. Do we even have a trade deficit? Monday, Dec 10 2018

A world trade system like Bretton Woods (but better) would be best — but tariffs can absolutely be part of such an effort in the meantime.

Bretton Woods was the last of a series of gold standards which inevitably fail because they tie money creation to the availability of a physical chemical. Nations that are short of gold cannot grow, just as nations that are short of money cannot grow.

For the author, Mr. Cooper, to mention Bretton Woods favorably, demonstrates an abject ignorance of economics.

Trump’s tariffs show they do pretty much exactly what they say on the tin: change the price structure to make domestic production more feasible.

No, tariffs cost both people and nations money, and have zero positive value.

It’s long since time China (and Germany, for that matter) rebalanced its economy to be less export dependent.

Cooper does not even understand that Germany is monetarily non-sovereign. It cannot create its own sovereign currency at will, as it does not have a sovereign currency. So Germany, and all euro nations, must be net exporters (i.e import money) to survive.

The U.S., by contrast, does not need exports in order to import money. It can create its money at will.

As John Maynard Keynes suggested, a trade system favoring neither surpluses nor deficits is a much more sensible way to structure the global economy.

“A trade system favoring neither surpluses nor deficits” would be a zero growth trade system.

Bottom line: A Monetarily Sovereign nation should not levy tariffs, ever. It can encourage any of its industries and their jobs, if it wishes, simply by supporting those industries financially.

A tariff is a tax. Just as a tax cut is stimulative, a tariff not only is recessive because it takes dollars from the private sector, but it also is inflationary because it increases prices.

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

The single most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the have-mores and the have-less.

Implementation of The Ten Steps To Prosperity can 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. Provide a monthly economic bonus to every man, woman and child in America (similar to 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 you.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

A debt question from Quora, asked and answered

Quora is a site where people ask questions, and other people answer them. Many people ask about the U.S. federal “debt,” and I’ve tried to illuminate the world, one candle at a time.

Here, for example, is a typical question and answer, with a follow up by one reader. The original question and answer were:

Why would Trump state “I Won’t Be Here” when asked about the looming debt crisis?

Answer from Rodger Malcolm Mitchell: Contrary to what others are telling you, there is no “debt crisis.”

The federal government, unlike you and me, is Monetarily Sovereign. And unlike you and me, it never can run short of dollars with which to pay its debt. In fact, paying debts is the method by which the federal government creates new dollar.

In fact, the so-called “federal debt” isn’t even debt. It is the total of deposits into Treasury Security accounts, similar to savings accounts.

To “lend” to the federal government, you instruct your bank to send your dollars to your Treasury Security account.

There your dollars remain – they are not used by the federal government. Then when your account matures, your dollars, plus interest are returned to you.

Alan Greenspan: “A government cannot become insolvent with respect to obligations in its own currency.”
Ben Bernanke: “The U.S. government has a technology that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost.”
St. Louis Federal Reserve: “The government is not dependent on credit markets to remain operational.”

It is not a burden on our Monetarily Sovereign government, nor is it a burden on federal taxpayers.

Federal taxing does not fund federal “debt.”

People who worry about the federal debt do not understand Monetary Sovereignty.

The so-called “debt” has increased an astounding 40,000% since 1940, and here we are, with the economy healthy and growing, and inflation near the Federal Reserve target.

Pay no attention to the debt Henny Pennys who have been calling it a crisis for 78 years. These people don’t learn from reality.

Then came the follow-up question and its answer:

Chamchadik
You’re right- being fiat, the us federal reserve can just print as much currency as it wants and settle all debt: I would like to hear your reasoning on why they haven’t done this already?

————————–Reply——————————————-

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
The so-called federal “debt” is merely the total of outstanding Treasury securities (T-bills, T-notes, T-bonds). It isn’t “debt.” It is “deposits.”

The government does not issue T-securities to obtain dollars. It creates all the dollars it needs.

Issuing T-securities has two primary purposes:

1. To provide a safe, interest-paying, storage place for holders of dollars. This helps stabilize the dollar.

2. To assist the Fed in controlling interest rates. This helps control inflation.

Yes, the government could eliminate all federal “debt” tomorrow, if it wished, simply by returning the dollars in the T-security accounts, back to the owners.

But, there is no reason why the government would want to reduce the “debt.” These T-securities serve valuable functions, and the “debt” is no burden whatsoever on the government, on taxpayers or on anyone else.

The word “debt” confuses people. If instead, it was properly called “deposits,” no one would want it reduced.

Perhaps, the next time someone tells you the federal “debt” should be reduced, you might answer, “Why would the government want fewer deposits into Treasury security accounts? These deposit accounts are valuable to the government and are no burden on anyone.”

Just a thought.

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

The single most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the have-mores and the have-less.

Implementation of The Ten Steps To Prosperity can 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. Provide a monthly economic bonus to every man, woman and child in America (similar to 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 you.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Questions about the trade deficit illusion. Do we even have a trade deficit?

Here are a few questions about the “trade deficit.” We could begin by asking, “What is a trade deficit”?

Some say a country has a “trade deficit” when it imports more goods and services than it exports.

A trade deficit is felt to be “bad,” and a trade surplus is felt to be “good.” At least, that is the common belief as expressed by politicians and most economists.

The U.S. imports more goods and services than it exports, so this is called a “trade deficit.” But the U.S. exports more U.S. dollars than it imports.

I. If exports are “good,” why isn’t this export of dollars called a “trade surplus”?

You run a trade deficit with your butcher, your baker, and your candlestick maker. Is this a bad thing for you?

II. Should buy fewer goods and services from them, until they buy more goods and services from you?

Why or why not?

III. Your employer runs a services trade deficit with you. You export more services to your employer than he exports to you. Is this a bad thing for your employer?

IV. Should your employer buy less of your services until you buy more of his services?

What if to pay your butcher, baker, and candlestick maker you are allowed to use something you can obtain in limitless amounts — for instance spoken words.

That is, imagine your butcher tells you, “I’ll sell you all the meat you want, and you pay me by saying a few words.” Would you be concerned about running a “trade deficit” with him, i.e. paying him more words than he gives you?

You probably wouldn’t be concerned about this “trade deficit” because you will receive meat, something that is scarce to you, and in return, you will give him words, of which you have infinite.

Image result for ben bernanke — 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.”*

And that is the exact description of the U.S. trade deficit.

Because the U.S. is Monetarily Sovereign, it can produce an infinite amount of dollars, at virtually no cost, and it can exchange those dollars for valuable and scarce goods and services.

V. If I give you something that is valuable and difficult to obtain, in exchange for something that costs you nothing, is that a trade deficit you would want to reduce?

Think about that as we explore excerpts from these articles:

Why aren’t Trump’s tariffs closing the trade deficit?
By Jeff Spross

President Trump, as he recently reminded us, is a “Tariff Man.” He’s slapped tariffs on America’s imports of steel and aluminum from around the globe, and on roughly half of our imports from China.

The president’s enthusiasm for tariffs is largely driven by his antipathy for America’s massive trade deficit, which Trump regularly denounces as evidence that the rest of the world is ripping us off.

But a funny thing happened on the way to Trump’s trade war: America’s trade deficit actually went up.

The purpose of tariffs is to make imports more expensive. That should discourage Americans from buying from abroad, reduce our imports, and thus bring our imports and exports into closer balance.

There is no purpose served by “bringing our imports and exports into closer balance.”

VI. If the U.S. can, as former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke reminds us, “produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost,” why would we wish to reduce our imports?

VII. And why would we wish to make the American people pay more for those imports, thereby exacerbating inflation?

The article explains why, despite “Tariff man” Trump’s efforts, the U.S. trade deficit actually has gone up, and ends with this:

There’s simply not a lot Trump can do to reduce America’s trade deficit. In this arena, at least, he remains at the mercy of the rest of the world.

There is zero value to America in trying to reduce the amount we import relative to the amount we export. We create an unlimited supply of U.S. dollars, at no cost to us, and exchange them for valuable goods and services.

The more, the better. What’s not to like about that arrangement?

And then, there is this article:

How John Maynard Keynes’ most radical idea could save the world
By Ryan Cooper

The basic problem with international trade is that imbalances can develop: Some countries get big export surpluses, while others necessarily develop big trade deficits (since the world cannot be in surplus or deficit with itself).

And because countries typically must borrow to finance trade deficits, it’s a quick and easy recipe for a crash in those countries when their ability to take on more debt reaches its limit.

It’s not as bad for surplus countries, since they will not have a debt crisis or a collapse in the value of their currency, but they too will be hurt by the loss of export markets.

This problem has haunted nations since well before the Industrial Revolution.

Keynes comments apply to the time when virtually all nations had surrendered their Monetary Sovereignty in favor of “pegging” their currency to gold, silver, or to another currency.

Pegging eliminates a government’s unlimited ability to create its own currency, and thus diminishes its sovereignty over its own sovereign currency.

Today, Keynes comments do not apply to such Monetarily Sovereign governments as the U.S., Canada, Mexico, China, the UK, Japan, Australia, et al.

Those countries do not need to “borrow to finance trade deficits.” The U.S., for example, issues Treasury Securities, but the dollars paid for those T-securities are not used to finance trade deficits.

Instead, the dollars a deposited into privately owned T-security accounts, and held there until the securities mature, at which time the dollars are returned to the account owners.

Thus, there is no time when the U.S.’s “ability to take on more debt reaches its limit.” Nor will the U.S. ever have “a debt crisis or a collapse in the value of their currency.”

Being Monetarily Sovereign, i.e sovereign over its own currency, the U.S. has absolute control over the value of its currency (by interest rate control and/or by fiat).

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Nations like Germany with a large export surplus often portray it as resulting from their superior virtue and technical skill.

But the fundamental reality of such a surplus is that it requires someone to buy the exports.

Without some sort of permanent mechanism to recycle that surplus back into deficit countries, the result will be eventual disaster.

It’s precisely what caused the initial economic crisis in Greece that is still ongoing.

No, the economic crisis in Greece came about because it voluntarily surrendered its Monetary Sovereignty to the European Union. Greece no longer uses the drachma, over which it was sovereign, but currently uses the euro, over which the EU is sovereign.

Unlike a Monetarily Sovereign government, monetarily non-sovereign governments must have a net money inflow in order to survive long term. To achieve this inflow, they must borrow money and or sell goods and service.

The governments of Boston, and Illinois, and France, and Greece are examples of monetarily non-sovereign governments that must have a net inflow of money to survive long term.

If the ability to borrow and export goods and services hits limits, these governments are forced to take money from their citizens, aka “austerity.”

Austerity, in turn, causes recessions, which inevitably must lead to deeper recessions, until money can be supplied by some outside source like the EU or the International Monetary Fund or the U.S. government.

For the euro nations, this reduces them to permanent beggar status.

In Summary

There is no reason why a Monetarily Sovereign nation considers a trade (money) “deficit” to be any sort of threat.

The U.S. trade “deficit” merely reflects the facts that the U.S. has the unlimited ability to create dollars at no cost, and never can run short of dollars. Dollars are not scarce to it.

Exchanging these no-cost dollars for valuable goods and service benefits America.

The greater the trade “deficit,” the more valuable goods and service enter America — at no cost to the government.

America doesn’t have a trade deficit. We simply buy more than we sell, using dollars we create at no cost. Concerns over the size of the trade “deficit” are economically ignorant.

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

The single most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the have-mores and the have-less.

Implementation of The Ten Steps To Prosperity can 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. Provide a monthly economic bonus to every man, woman and child in America (similar to 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 you.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

ity to create money.

The U.S., Canada et al, need no net inflow of money. They have the unlimited ability to create their sovereign currency.

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