Author: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

MBA Northwestern, business turnaround expert, economist

Confused myths about the poor and what to do about them.

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

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Here is what people (and not just the upper 1%) tend to think about those below them on the income/wealth scale:

Myth 1. The poorer (than us) are lazy, unintelligent, immoral and unmannerly.
Myth 2. Being lazy, they always have their hands out for welfare and other “free stuff.”
Myth 3. If you give them even small amounts of money, they will cease work, and happily live on charity.
Myth 4. They are born criminals, as are their children, and the only way to deal with them is by punishment.

Never mind that the poor generally work harder than do the rich. (One of my acquaintances opined that the poor are lazy, while we relaxed at our country club pool, and watched the gardeners toil and sweat in the heat.)

And never mind that the vast majority of the rich got that way, not by innate superiority, but by fortuitous opportunities, less available to those who are poorer. (My parents had enough money to feed, clothe and house me, and enough left over to send me to college. I didn’t have to leave high school to work full time. That made a big difference.)

And never mind that very few people know anyone who would rather receive the pittances offered by welfare, than to work for real money. Millions of working poor belie the myth, despite the sneering, bigoted comments about “welfare mamas.”

And never mind that there are few, if any, “born criminals,” and despite American locking far more people into jail than any other nation, crime remains rampant. Poverty is the single most important predictor of criminality.

Seemingly, facts will not erase the myths. Humans have an emotional need to demonize others, as a way to enhance their own self-esteem. “They” generally are viewed as less worthy than “us.”

The result is an ever-widening Gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots,” a self-fulfilling circle of poverty begetting poverty. Ultimately, when the Gap becomes wide enough and harsh enough, there comes a revolution, much to the detriment of a nation as a whole.

So what is to be done? Can we find a way to lift the poorer, without threatening the richer?

One way would be to provide services — the same services for everyone. A good model is the federal highway system.

Poor and rich alike benefit from it, and I haven’t seen any sneering that the poor take unfair advantage of a service that is free to all.

If you look at the Ten Steps to Prosperity (below), you’ll see several possibilities:

Step 1: Eliminate FICA. As we have seen in many other posts, our Monetarily Sovereign government neither needs nor uses tax dollars to fund its spending.

Not only is FICA unnecessary, but it is a most regressive and burdensome tax, punishing lower income people far more than the rich.

And it is doubtful anyone could claim the elimination of FICA, while greatly beneficial to the 99%, would in any way contribute to the so-called “laziness” of the poorer.

Step 2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone. Like usage of the federal highway system, rich and poor would benefit equally. Everyone receiving Medicare benefits does not motivate “lazy” people to stay home.

Step 4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. We already provide everyone with a free education for grades K-12. This free education is a great benefit to all of America.

No advantage to America exists for ending this free education at grade 8. Free education cannot make the poorer lazy. Quite the opposite. It encourages work by fostering a belief their work will be rewarded.

Step 5. Salary for attending school This would provide dollars to everyone, but would be most meaningful to those who otherwise cannot afford to substitute education for work.

It would accomplish exactly what the richer want: Discourage sloth and create a better workforce.

Step 7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually Again, this does not encourage laziness, but merely allows the poorer to retain more of their earned income.

Summary: While we probably never will eliminate bigotry, i.e. negative beliefs about people who are members of a different group (from us), we can take steps to narrow the Gap between the 1% and the 99%.

Rather than stigmatize the poor by putting them on the dole, we should provide them with services available to everyone — like the federal highway system — that would encourage and allow them to step up.

And no more sneering from the ignorant, bigoted richer.

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 grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.
========================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

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. A common phenomenon is for the line briefly to dip below zero, then rise above zero, before falling dramatically below zero. There was a brief dip below zero in 2015, followed by another dip – the familiar pre-recession pattern.
 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.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

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..

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

 

Why Bernie will lose

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

============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

Today is Super Tuesday, so fearlessly, before the results are in, I will tell you why Bernie Sanders will lose.

First, let me tell you that I prefer Bernie to Hillary. She is a right-wing, establishment Democrat in the Obama mold, though thankfully she is tougher than him.

While Hillary cares little to nothing about the middle- and lower-income groups, she ironically will get the black vote. (Yes, there is a black vote, a white vote, an Hispanic vote and a religious-racist vote.) Bernie will get none of those, and there is a reason.

Bernie’s “Medicare for All” and free college for all are great ideas, not only for the poor and middle, but for all America. If implemented, they would “make America great again” much faster than Donald’s self-proclaimed greatness.

But, Bernie has fallen into the trap of accepting the enemy’s starting position.

The enemy is the GOP, the Party of the Rich, whose every thought, every waking moment, is devoted to widening the gap between the 1% and the 99%.

It began with the Tea Party, whose “cut taxes” raison d’etre meant, “Cut the taxes on the rich,” but also meant “Cut spending on social programs that benefit the 99%.

That was the sneaky part, because according to the Tea Party, once you cut taxes, you also have to cut spending, and where is the big spending? Social programs.

Which brings us to the trap, otherwise known as “The Big Lie.”

I can express “The Big Lie.” in just five words: “Federal taxes fund federal spending.”

Those five little words have done more damage to the American economy, especially to the 99% of us who are not rich, than any phrase in the English language.

They are a lie. Even if the federal government didn’t collect a penny in taxes, it could fund all of the “Ten Steps To Prosperity” (See below), with no difficulty.

Unlike state and local taxes, which are used for state and local spending, there is no fiscal relationship between federal taxes and federal spending. The state and local governments are monetarily non-sovereign; the federal government is Monetarily Sovereign. And that makes all the difference.

When you pay federal taxes, the dollars go to the U.S. Treasury, where they are destroyed. Destroyed?? Yes, destroyed. And here is the proof:

Throughout the year, the U.S. Treasury will receive about $3.3 trillion tax dollars. But, if ever you wish to know how many dollars the Treasury has, you never will be able to find the answer. The U.S. Treasury has no dollars.

How is that possible? How does the Treasury pay its bills?

To pay a bill, the Treasury sends instructions (not dollars) to the creditor’s bank, instructing the bank to increase the balance in the creditor’s checking account.

At the instant the bank obeys those instructions (and not before), dollars are created and the U.S. money supply increases.

The bank then sends the instructions to the Federal Reserve, which in turn, asks the Treasury whether those instructions are valid. The Treasury says, “Yes,” and the instructions “clear.”

And all that time, the Treasury doesn’t own a dime, not a penny. Even those thousand of sheets of dollar bills the Treasury prints every day aren’t money.

The money supply does not include tax dollars received by the Treasury. Not “M1,” not “M2,” not “M3,” not L, not “total debt.” No measure of America’s money supply includes federal tax dollars received. They cease to exist, once they are received.

Why does the government levy taxes? There are several reasons for this, mostly having to do with history, but none of these reasons has to do with today’s federal spending.

The sole result of federal taxation is to reduce the money supply. (By contrast, state and local taxes do not reduce the money supply)

And this brings us back to Bernie. He hired Professor Stephanie Kelton to head up his economics advisory. She is an expert in Monetary Sovereignty. She knows federal taxes don’t fund federal spending.

Despite the advice she must be giving him, Bernie has tied himself into knots, trying to explain how taxpayers won’t pay for his Medicare for All, and college for all, and other social programs — because he will raise taxes on the rich.

And no one believes his explanations, because he begins with “The Big Lie.”, that federal spending is funded by federal taxes. He should have explained the real reason why no tax increases will be needed — also in five little words: Federal taxes don’t fund federal spending.

Bernie will lose because he is playing the political game. He doesn’t believe Americans are smart enough to understand the truth.

Here is what he should have said: The speech. (Click the link to read it)

Early on, had he told America the truth, and given voters time to absorb and to discuss and debate the truth, he not only would have won the election, but more importantly, he would have built America faster and more powerfully than any President in history.

The truth would have set Bernie free, but he missed his chance, and now we all will pay for it.

Next November, hold your nose and vote for Hillary. She’s not much, but she still is better than anything the Republicans offer.

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 grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.
========================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

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. A common phenomenon is for the line briefly to dip below zero, then rise above zero, before falling dramatically below zero. There was a brief dip below zero in 2015, followed by another dip – the familiar pre-recession pattern.
 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.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

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..

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Must you die? The fight for immortality.

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

============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

Here is a post with many questions and few answers. It is a “think-piece,” designed to help us ponder the future of humanity.

Life exists, so it must have had a beginning.

I don’t know where life on earth began. Here on earth? On other planets of the solar system? Other galaxies?

I don’t know when earth’s life began. Was it a one-off, or has it begun here many times?

I don’t know how life began. What precipitated the merger of chemicals that led to the long-running time line leading to you and me.

I don’t know why life ages as it does. An insect may live a day; a mouse, a year or two; a human, a century; a tortoise, a couple of centuries; a tree, several centuries. Some cancers seemingly are immortal. Why the differences? What causes the differences?

Are there evolutionary purposes?

We living things all have one thing in common: We continuously battle mortality.

And yet, in one sense, nature has solved the problem. Nature has given us immortality. I am part of a line that extends back billions of years. I have been alive, or some past version of me has been alive, that long.

If life began just once (that “one-off” possibility) I am related to every living thing — to all the insects, mice, people, tortoises and trees in history. On one vast tree of life, I am a leaf.

Or if life began more than once, is it a forest of life, in which I am a leaf on one tree?

I have children, grandchildren, cousins, nieces and nephews, some of whom also have younger relatives. My long, multi-billion line of life will continue.

I don’t know exactly what life is. That is, I don’t know the boundary between life and non-life. Is life RNA? Is a virus alive? Here is a definition I found on the Internet:

Scientifically, living things have major unifying characteristics. They are composed of cells, have genetic material, need energy, reproduce, respond to stimuli, maintain homeostatis and adapt to their environment.

That author suggests life requires cells. If so, a virus isn’t alive. Is that the boundary? Cells?

Nature solves the mortality problem very simply, by what we call “reproduction”: An old cell divides and magically produces two young cells. What are the characteristics of “old” that allow a cell to divide and somehow eliminate those characteristics?

Some old men can produce viable young sperm, which when merged with an egg, young or not so young, will result in a zygote, the youngest of all cells.

What was lost or gained by that merger? Age was lost and youth was gained, but specifically what does that mean?

What are the characteristics of an old cell? In reproduction, does something “old” leave the cell? Does something “young” enter the cell? Or is this all accomplished by a simple rearrangement of existing parts?

It’s as though I purchase a new car, drive it for 20 years, then by a rearrangement of its parts, create two new cars.

At best, we have learned how to delay death. We live longer now. For billions of years, nature brought my life span to the mid-30s. Now depending on the country, people live to 80.

The big jump has taken place in the past century, thanks to science.

For billions of years, a comparatively short life span was part of human evolution, and being part of evolution, it had evolutionary benefits.

For reasons I don’t understand, dying after 30+ years worked for our line. Humanity was created and survived. Economically and evolutionarily, the formula was successful.

Now, in a relatively sudden change, we live more than twice as long. How did the shorter life span provide an evolutionary advantage? Would humanity be at less risk if we were, for instance, more like insects, who live short lives but reproduce faster? Or would we be safer to be more like trees, living even longer and producing many seeds?

Barring an earth-ending astronomical event, humanity will continue in some form. But in what form?

Will our longer life change our environment, and if so, how will our new environment change our life?

In this regard, we have published two articles: Are we the interim species? and The human interim species: If we can’t save the pale blue dot, how can we save ourselves?

They both discuss adaptation, primarily in terms of Artificial Intelligence — adapting our brains to changes in the environment by copying our brains into computers.

That is one form of life-extending evolution, whereby we become an electronic species. Here is another:

Inside the cloning factory that creates 500 new animals a day
Mark Zastrow

Woo Suk Hwang has been cloning domestic dogs for years and now wants to help endangered species.

His team also routinely clones pigs with genes susceptible to disease to be used for drug tests, and breeds of cattle prized for their meat. In total, the group produces about 500 cloned embryos every day across all species.

Next up is the Ethiopian Wolf. Low numbers of individuals creates low genetic diversity that can reduce the ability of a species to reproduce and survive.

The Sooam lab hopes to preserve these gene pools by cryogenically banking the cells of as many individual wolves as possible. If an animal dies in the wild, Sooam could thaw its stored cells, create clones using domestic dog surrogates, and reintroduce them.

The lab also hopes to start work later this year on the dhole, fewer than 2500 of which remain in the wild.

The dhole will test Sooam’s cloning expertise: it is more distantly related to the domestic dog and classified in a separate genus. Can cloning actually help conserve endangered species?

Luigi Boitani, a conservation biologist at the University of Rome, thinks cloning is a “waste of resources” that should be reserved for extreme, near-extinction situations.

Sooam says its main aim is to provide the technical means to make clones – it’s up to governments or conservation organisations to decide when to produce clones, at what scale, and how to reintroduce them. And canids may just be the start.

There is no deal-breaker for cloning humans, other than morality and scientific desire. Nature creates identical twins, daily. Presumably, we repeatedly could clone from individuals who live long, i.e. resist death from certain environmental challenges: Heat, cold, radiation, sunshine, lack of water, etc. Eventually, the entire species could own those attributes.

Or, we could evolve our species in another way:

First fully approved ‘off the shelf’ stem cells launch in Japan
Steve Gschmeissner/SPL
The long anticipated age of the stem cell is upon us. Temcell prevents organ transplants attacking their hosts but will be followed by therapies for more common problems

AFTER decades of hope, hype and disappointment, say hello to the world’s first fully approved, mass-produced stem cell product.

Bags of Temcell are packed with 72 million living human cells, and will be launched in Japan later this month as a treatment for people whose organ transplants have turned against them.

The stem cells in Temcell come from healthy donors and can be multiplied to produce billions of standardised cells.

Developed by a company called Mesoblast in Melbourne, Australia, Temcell will be sold in Japan by JCR Pharmaceuticals. Mesoblast is now carrying out the extra trials that are needed if Temcell is to be approved by US regulators next year.

The launch is a milestone, because it propels stem cell therapy into the mainstream pharmaceutical industry. Stem cells from a donor can be cheaply manufactured in large batches, and supplied off the shelf using a business model much more like that for typical drugs.

In a few decades, stem cell therapy could be as normal as prescribing conventional drugs. Whether it is eyes, hearts, lungs or spinal cords that need repairing, living cells could be available to do the job, coming pre-packed in syringes or bags, or taken from centralised stem cell banks.

Temcell is just the first of a wave of products that bring this dream closer to reality. Mesoblast has similar products in advanced clinical trials for treating more common conditions, including chronic heart failure, lower-back pain and rheumatoid arthritis. And other companies are hot on its heels. “I believe this is the first of many successes that will be seen over the next several years,” says Stephen Huhn, chief medical officer of StemCells in Newark, California.

We can lengthen our lives by creating electro-mechanical proxies for our aging or damaged body parts — arms, legs, organs, Artificial Intelligence brains.

We can lengthen our lives by creating real replacements for our aging or damaged body parts via stem cell therapy.

We can lengthen our lives by adjusting our environment to be more agreeable to our cellular being, including not just protecting the ecology, but by the prevention of wars, murders, diseases and even impacts from meteors.

And if we give ourselves longer lives, will this gift have a black side? Will the earth become unsustainably burdened with humans? Or will we, to compensate, lose our sexuality and as a result, our diversity?

What will a world of humans having a median life span of 200, 300, 500 years look like? How will its economics reflect the new type of population.

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 grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.
========================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

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. A common phenomenon is for the line briefly to dip below zero, then rise above zero, before falling dramatically below zero. There was a brief dip below zero in 2015, followed by another dip – the familiar pre-recession pattern.
 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.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

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..

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Two reasons Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee

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

============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

There are two reasons why Donald Trump will be the Republican Presidential nominee:

1. The other Republican candidates. Never, in my memory, have I seen such a group of worthless, irreligious, unpatriotic, weak, lazy, ignorant, lying, incompetent, unqualified lo-o-o-o-osers (thanks Donald) as this bunch.

a. Ben Carson: The words lying, ignorant and unqualified were created for him. He doesn’t believe in Evolution, which may be fine for someone who runs an elevator or drives a bus, but too ignorant for someone who wishes to run a country.

His lies are so ludicrous as to be comparable to a two-year old’s.

But let’s face it. Carson is not, and never was, a real candidate. He’s in it because of the Lindsay Graham rule. Graham famously said, “I’m thinking about running for president. You get a house and a car and a plane. It’s a pretty good gig.”

Carson’s sole value in this election year is for the humorous, bumbling incompetent, comic relief he brings to an otherwise angry atmosphere.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

b. John Kasich: He also isn’t, and never was, a real candidate. And although he isn’t as ignorant, lying (or as sleepy) as Carson, he too, may be following the Graham rule.

Or, he simply may enjoy the role of Don Quixote:

“I don’t know if my purpose is to be president. My purpose is to be out here doing what I think I need to be doing, and we’ll see where it ends up. And if it’s not this crusade, it’ll be another one, and maybe it’ll be a really small one, somewhere in my kid’s school – who knows? Because it doesn’t matter the size of the crusade – it’s the fact that you are in a crusade.”

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

c. Jeb Bush: If mental confusion and woeful weakness were requirements for office, Jeb would be President already. No voting needed.

He couldn’t decide whether his brother’s ego-based, life destroying invasion of Iraq was, or was not, a mistake. And he allowed himself to be Donald Trump’s human punching bag.

Perhaps the defining moment in his entire campaign was when he came to a dramatic moment in a speech, and met silence. Sadly, he looked out at the audience and said, “Please, clap.”

We’ll skip right by the 16 other ridiculous candidates, most of whom cynically tried to “out-religious,” out-rightwing” and “out-nutty” the others, based on their belief Republican voters demand extreme crazy.

Let us move on to Trump’s real competition, such as it is:

d. Ted Cruz: While Carson is incompetent, Kasich is ambivalent and Jeb is weak, Cruz is mean-spirited. He hates everyone and everyone hates him, even the people in his own party.

Mistakenly, he has confused meanness with strength, and while people will follow strength, sometimes even mean strength, they will not follow meanness as a dominant characteristic.

“Tricky Ted,” the Republican’s latest entry in the “be like Nixon” competition, not only loves Nixonian dirty tricks, but fired a staffer who was caught doing Ted’s dirty work.

For him, shutting down the government, just to get his way, was a legitimate political effort, despite the damage such actions cause, not just to the government, but more importantly, to Americans. ment

Can you imagine him as President of the United States, shutting down the United States, unless everyone agreed with him?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

e. Marco Rubio: This master of leisure seldom voted and seldom even attended the Senate job for which he was paid, though it is difficult to learn what exactly he did with all that spare time.

When Rick Santorum, who endorsed Rubio, was asked by Joe Scarborough to name a Rubio accomplishment, he famously was unable to name even one.

He said, “The bottom line is there isn’t a whole lot of accomplishments, Joe, and I just don’t think it’s a fair question.”

Any time I had a job interview, I was asked about my accomplishments. But apparently it’s unfair to ask a job-seeker about his accomplishments (or lack thereof) if he’s seeking the top job in the world.

His sole excuse seems to be that Barack Obama didn’t have many accomplishments during his Senate tour. Sad isn’t it, when Republicans defend a candidate by equating him with the most hated man in the Republican world, Barack Obama.

So, one reason why Trump is dominating the pack: His Presidential competition, a group whose main focus is anti-Obama. No real ideas. No real proposals. No real solutions. Just . . . anti-Obama. America’s voters want more than “anti.”

Then there is the second reason Trump dominates:

2. Trump is the least crazy of the serious Republican candidates.

I never thought I’d write that, but it’s true.

Yes, he wants to have his storm troopers kick down doors, and drag 11 million men, women and innocent children from their homes, stuff them into hot or freezing cattle cars and ship them hundreds or thousands of miles across the border.

And yes, he wants to spend many billions of dollars, while usurping public and private lands, to build a gigantic, thousand-mile Trump-wall (with his name at the top?) all along our border with Mexico, just because of his belief that “Mexicans are criminals and rapists” (though he also claims to love Mexicans).

And yes, he wants to deny the Constitution which states that everyone born here is a citizen, despite their parentage, because of his aforementioned love for Mexican criminals and rapists.

And yes, he wants to deny one of the fundamental reasons people originally fled Europe to create America — freedom of religion, a freedom enshrined in the Constitution — by doing his “Hitler” imitation against Muslims.

And yes, by normal human standards Trump is the scariest, craziest, man to run for office in the past 100 years.

But we are not talking about normal human standards here. We are talking about Tea Party standards. We are talking about evangelical and fundamentalist standards. We are talking about anti-science, anti-foreigner, anti-women, anti-gay, anti-black, anti-brown, anti-yellow, anti-poor, anti-non-Christian standards.

We are talking about today’s Republican standards, and by those standards, a boastful liar and bigot who uses shouts and insults in place of actual ideas, is believed to be someone who “tells it like it is.”

Now I bear no special brief for Obama, whom I consider to be a weak President, of the Jimmy Carter model as well as a right-winger pretending to be a liberal. And I am cool to Hillary and less cool to Bernie, though in truth, Hillary’s Email account makes me yawn, and Bernie’s so-called “socialism” merely is an extension of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Thank goodness for those “socialist” ideas.

Anyone thinking those human benefits constitute “socialism,” has not graduated past the 18th century.

Neither Bernie nor Hillary fills me with the same terror as the thought of a Trump or Cruz or Rubio Presidency.

The bottom line to this diatribe is: Trump is leading the Republican field because he is slightly less loathsome than his competitors. He is the lesser of several evils, and that is about the best I can say of him.

As for Republican voters, I empathize with you for your lack of a good choice. As Trump himself said, “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”

This must be frustrating for people having intelligence and morals. But when someone bases their beliefs on fear and hatred, this is the result.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

 

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Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually Click here
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.
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10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK

Recessions begin an average of 2 years after the blue line first dips below zero. A common phenomenon is for the line briefly to dip below zero, then rise above zero, before falling dramatically below zero. There was a brief dip below zero in 2015, followed by another dip – the familiar pre-recession pattern.
 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.

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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..

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY