Author: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

MBA Northwestern, business turnaround expert, economist

–The Motley Fool and its writers, add their names to the fools’ club. Buyer beware!

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

Mitchell’s laws:
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●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.
●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.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap.
==================================================================================================================================================================

I seldom have read The Motley Fool, though I understand that many people do. I don’t know about its success record in predicting stock prices or predicting anything else about our nation’s economy.

Perhaps I shouldn’t be too surprised to read the following article authored by Brian Stoffel, who “has been a Fool since 2008, and a financial journalist for the Motley Fool since 2010.”

Based on the article, I suspect he has been a Fool for much longer than “since 2008,” but you can decide for yourself.

Will the Social Security System Go Broke in the Next 20 Years?
By Brian Stoffel, Dan Dzombak, and Dan Caplinger | April 11, 2015

It’s no secret that Social Security, in its current form, is in trouble. Many young workers today are told to plan for retirement as if Social Security will no longer be around.

And many soon-to-be retirees lose sleep over whether or not their safety net will be in place when their Golden Years begin.

Social Security “in its current form,” is an agency of the Monetarily Sovereign U. S. federal government.

Here is a little secret the politicians and journalists don’t tell you: Unlike the states counties and cities, and business and individuals — all of which are monetarily NON-sovereign — the U.S. government has the unlimited ability to create its own sovereign currency.

The federal government never can run short of dollars.

Even if all taxes fell to $0 and all so-called federal “borrowing” also fell to $0, the U.S. government could continue paying all its bills, forever. It never needs to ask anyone for dollars — not you, not me, not China.

Social Security, being an agency of the U.S. federal government, also cannot run short of dollars, unless Congress wishes it.

The article continues:

The program has current workers pay for the benefits of retirees. If there’s a relative balance between the number of workers and the number of retirees, then the program runs fine.

But with a wave of baby boomers entering retirement — and living longer than any generation before them — the program is out of whack and spending much more than it’s taking in.

This would be true if Social Security were operated and owned by privately-held insurance companies. All such companies are monetarily non-sovereign, so indeed they require incoming dollars to pay for outgoing dollars.

(Republicans want to privatize Social Security, which would guarantee that it would, in fact, run short of dollars.)

Federal agencies require no incoming dollars. The federal government creates dollars from thin air.

You can’t. I can’t. Illinois, Cook County and Chicago can’t. But the federal government can and does.

That is the difference between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty.

We asked three Motley Fool analysts whether they thought the program would go broke within 20 years. Here’s what they had to say.

Dan Caplinger: [Dan Caplinger is a contract writer for The Motley Fool. In addition to his writing, Dan works as an independent financial consultant and estate-planning attorney.]

No — technically, it can’t (go broke).
Strictly speaking, the Social Security system won’t go broke so long as there’s payroll-tax revenue coming in to fund it.

Wrong, Dan. Contrary to popular myth, payroll tax revenue (aka FICA) does not pay for Social Security. In fact, FICA pays for nothing.

When FICA dollars are received by the Treasury, they no longer are part of the money supply. They cease to exist as money. When Social Security benefits are paid, new dollars are created, like this:

The Treasury sends instructions to each benefit recipients’ bank, telling the bank to increase the balance in the recipient’s checking account. At the moment the bank obeys those instructions, new dollars are added to the money supply.

You may ask, “Why then is FICA collected?” The answer: To give the illusion that people pay for Social Security as though it were an insurance annuity.

It has been said that President Roosevelt knew this, which is why he created FICA. Supposedly, his idea was that so long as people believed they paid for Social Security, the politicians would not have the nerve to cut benefits.

He didn’t reckon with the gall of today’s politicians.

Dan Caplinger is ignorant of Monetary Sovereignty. I personally would be reluctant to take his advice on anything related to the U.S. economy.

Dan Dzombak: [Dan Dzombak joined the Motley Fool through its Analyst Development Program in 2008. After completing the 1-year program, he became the Motley Fool’s Energy Editor, focusing on the oil and natural gas markets.]

Yes, the Social Security system will go broke in the next 20 years.

The current status of the Social Security system is like someone who has a huge savings account but spends more than their paycheck each month and has to draw down their savings.

Dan Dzombak thinks the Monetarily Sovereign federal government’s finances are like monetarily non-sovereign personal finances. Another example of economic ignorance.

Perhaps he should focus his gas on the oil market.

Brian Stoffel: [For six years after graduating from Grinnell College, Brian Stoffel was a middle school teacher. Five of them were spent in inner-city Washington DC at a KIPP charter school that focused getting 100% of students accepted to college.]

No — Congress will eventually figure something out

It’s difficult to understate just how important Social Security is to today’s (and tomorrow’s) retirees. The program’s Office of Policy estimates that “Social Security will account for about two-fifths of projected income for baby-boomer retirees.” That’s an enormous amount.

While I agree with Dan Dzombak that raising taxes to help close the funding gap will be a politically difficult task, I don’t think we should underestimate the political force tomorrow’s retirees will have.

I believe these combined forces will help usher in political leaders who are able to work out some solution to the depletion of Social Security’s Trust Fund.

Another Motley Fool writer — this time a middle school teacher — who seems to know nothing about Monetary Sovereignty and federal financing.

Here is MY advice. If you plan to accept THEIR advice, consider its value in light of their knowledge about the U.S. economy.

Buyer beware!

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
The 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. Federally funded, 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. (Refer to this.)
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)

Initiating The Ten Steps sequentially will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
——————————————————————————————————————————————

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

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

THE RECESSION CLOCK
Monetary Sovereignty

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

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

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

–The National Rifle Association is not doing what it’s paid to do.

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

Mitchell’s laws:
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●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.
●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.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap.
==================================================================================================================================================================

What conclusions can you draw from this bit of news?:


April 9, 2015 6:00 am / National News, Tribune News Service

The 310 million firearms estimated to be in private hands in the United States are disproportionately owned by people who are prone to angry, impulsive behavior and have a potentially dangerous habit of keeping their guns close at hand.

People owning six or more guns were more likely to fall into both of these categories than people who owned a single gun.

A rational human being might conclude that allowing gun ownership to virtually anyone who can breathe, is dangerous and likely will cause murders.

That rational human being also might conclude that allowing guns in taverns, schools and sport events — anywhere that immature people might become excited, angry or delusional — is foolish.

But, the National Rifle Association is way too smart for us. It has implemented a plan that is sheer genius.

First, they work very hard (on behalf of, and paid by) gun and ammo manufacturers, to spread the myth that the Constitution says we all belong to a “well regulated militia,” and so everyone should be able to carry semi-automatic, military-style guns loaded with hollow point, exploding bullets — everywhere except where politicians work, because politicians lives are too valuable to risk.

And then, here’s the genius part: Once the NRA has armed everyone, they spread the myth that because they were so successful in arming the nut cases, everyone else needs to carry guns, to protect themselves from the nut cases the NRA previously armed.

It’s perfect. Create the problem; then claim that the solution to the problem you created is more of the problem.

So, for instance, when a nut case walks into a school and mows down a few innocent kids and their innocent teachers, the solution is not to reduce the availability of guns to every cut case who wants one.

Oh, no.

The solution is to give more nut cases guns in the hopes that these nut cases will prevent the other nut cases from killing the innocent.

And this is what the gun lovers have been brainwashed into believing.

The findings, published Wednesday in the journal Behavioral Sciences and the Law, suggest that measures to reduce gun injuries and deaths should focus less on diagnosed mental illness and more on a history of violent behavior.

What?? The United States actually has measures to reduce gun injuries and deaths?? Really? You mean gun training classes so that guys like the one who killed the American sniper can get better at using guns? Those measures?

In 2012, 11,622 people in the United States were killed by a firearm discharged during an intentional act of violence, and an additional 57,077 were injured.

Although mass shootings have focused lawmakers’ attention on the need to keep guns out of the hands of those with a serious mental illness, the new study implies that doing so would make only a small dent in this tally of morbidity and mortality.

Hey, there is nothing in the Constitution that says crazy people shouldn’t have guns — so long as they belong in a “well-regulated militia,” like everyone else does.

Expect the NRA to call that omission to Congress’s attention, in the unlikely event a deranged person ever is denied a gun.

Fewer than one in 10 of those angry people with access to guns had ever been admitted to a hospital for a psychiatric or substance abuse problem, the study found.

Their behavioral history might suggest a propensity for violence, according to the study. But nothing in their medical histories would bar them from legally purchasing guns under existing mental health related restrictions.

Jeffrey Swanson, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University School of Medicine said, “The traditional legal approach has been to prohibit firearms from involuntarily committed psychiatric patients.

“But now we have more evidence that current laws don’t necessarily keep firearms out of the hands of a lot of potentially dangerous individuals.”

As National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre famously said, “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.”

Sheer genius.

(Of course, no one knows how to identify the good guys from the bad guys, so just to be “safe,” we arm everyone.)

By the way, where in the Constitution does it say that a 5-year-old American citizen is not allowed to take daddy’s gun to kindergarten?

Would she have to join a militia?

C’mon NRA, do what the arms manufacturers pay you to do. You’re missing a chance to add more guns — for safety.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
The 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. Federally funded, 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. (Refer to this.)
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)

Initiating The Ten Steps sequentially will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
——————————————————————————————————————————————

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

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

THE RECESSION CLOCK
Monetary Sovereignty

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

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

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

–Megan, Ramesh and Bloomberg, oh my! Keep your hand on your wallet at all times.

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

Mitchell’s laws:
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●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.
●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.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap.
==================================================================================================================================================================

“Megan McArdle is a Bloomberg View columnist who writes on economics, business and public policy.”

This says very little about Megan McArdle and even less about Bloomberg.

It’s sad, frustrating and angering that an organization like Bloomberg can have Megan McArdle as their economics writer. Here is her latest Bloomberg exercise in ignorance.

RETIREMENT
The Left Gets It Wrong About Social Security
APR 7, 2015, By Megan McArdle

Americans are underprepared for retirement. And given this sad fact, there’s a growing movement on the left saying we need a government solution, stat: specifically, an expansion of Social Security benefits.

Instead of reluctantly agreeing to a compromise where Republicans let some taxes rise and Democrats agree to entitlement cuts, (progressives are) demanding bigger tax hikes to fund bigger entitlements.

Get it? Americans don’t have enough money to retire in dignity, so Megan’s compromise “solution” is to increase FICA and reduce Social Security benefits. Huh?

Does it get any sillier than that? How in the name of common sense, will a FICA increase and a Social Security benefit decrease help Americans save more and have more for retirement?

(I should mention that since FICA does not fund Social Security benefits, the Democrats “solution” would be silly too, but at least it involves raising benefits.)

At the core of their argument is a good point: Americans really do need more money for retirement. Missing, however, is a realistic discussion of where that money might come from.

The (Social Security trust fund) trustees’ report predicts that by 2023, the gap between taxes collected and benefits paid will be almost $170 billion. The only reason that the system isn’t in the red already is the net interest the government is paying itself on the bonds in the trust fund.

Now, this should make any rational person stop and think: “Hmmm . . The government pays itself interest, and that interest has kept Social Security out of the red.

“Hmmm . . . again. If the government can do that, why can’t the government simply pay for Social Security and keep the whole program solvent?”

But, of course, that requires a rational person’s thinking.

If we want to pay Social Security beneficiaries more money than we are collecting in payroll taxes, the money has to come from somewhere, and ultimately, that “somewhere” is the United States taxpayer.

And there is where Megan McArdle, demonstrates her abject ignorance about federal financing. She simply refuses to understand or admit the fundamental differences between a Monetarily Sovereign government and a monetarily non-sovereign entity.

The former creates its sovereign currency, in this case dollars, ad hoc, simply by the very act of paying bills. The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, neither uses nor needs FICA. It does not need income because it creates dollars.

The latter is like you and me (and the states, counties and cities), which have no sovereign currency and do indeed rely on income or tax dollars to pay their bills.

State and local taxpayers do pay for state and local spending. Federal taxpayers do not pay for federal spending. It’s that simple.

How can an economics writer for a significant publication not understand the difference? How can the publishers of that significant publication not know the difference?

Beyond belief. And in fact, I don’t believe it. I do believe they know exactly what they are doing: Widening the Gap between the rich and the rest..

Then Megan goes on and on about where to get the tax dollars to pay increased Social Security benefits, and that it certainly should not come from rich people (like her employers)

She continually and conveniently ignores the fact that TAX DOLLARS DO NOT PAY FOR FEDERAL SPENDING. TAX DOLLARS DO NOT PAY FOR SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS.

Period.

And just when you thought Bloomberg couldn’t be more misleading, we come to the the following article:

SOCIAL SECURITY
Elizabeth Warren Is Delusional About Social Security
11 APR 8, 2015 By Ramesh Ponnuru, a Bloomberg View columnist, (and) a senior editor for National Review, where he covers national politics.

Social Security has a long-term funding gap that just keeps growing. Neither political party has a plan to pay for the promises we’ve already made to people contributing to the system. But Democrats are bringing a new idea to the table: make even more promises.

Liberals are exulting that (Massachusetts’s Elizabeth) Warren has shifted the politics of Social Security to the left: Where once we were debating cutbacks to the program, now we’re debating benefit increases.

Too bad that also means the debate is shifting further away from fiscal reality.

Yes, too bad indeed, for the fiscal reality is that the U.S. federal government has the unlimited ability to pay any debt denominated in its own sovereign currency, the dollar.

Sadly, Ponnuru either is intentionally or unintentionally ignorant about that basic fact in economics.

To them it is horrible that we’re not talking about cutting Social Security benefits, but rather we’re talking about (gasp) increasing benefits to our elderly. How awful!

Social Security is becoming a worse deal for each generation. Those now joining the workforce are expected to pay more into the system than they get out of it.

Of course, the U.S. federal government never needs to ask anyone for its own sovereign currency, so those above-mentioned expectations are on the part of those who don’t understand federal financing.

Warren’s plan is to shower more money on the current generation of retirees, but without increasing the deficit over the next 10 years.

If her real plan is not to increase the deficit, one must ask, “Why?” The midleadingly termed deficit” is, in actuality, a surplus to the economy. Because the economy, as a whole, is monetarily non-sovereign, and the federal government is Monetarily Sovereign, the economy needs continual inputs of money (aka “deficit spending”) from the federal government.

It may be that Sen. Warren, realizing that the public neither understands, nor would believe, the facts of Monetary Sovereignty, has decided not to tilt windmills, but just go along with popular myth — so long as she can accomplish the Social Security benefits.

Sad, but possibly true.

Social Security has always been a combination of forced savings and redistribution.

Wrong. FICA is not savings, and Social Security benefits are not redistribution. FICA is taking and SS benefits are giving. There is no connection between the two.

FICA could be collected without providing benefits (as with a person who dies too young), and benefits could be paid without FICA.

And now comes the pitch for the rich:

People joining the workforce now should be promised a flat universal retirement benefit set at a level that keeps all seniors out of poverty.

At the same time, they should be auto-enrolled in retirement savings accounts that would include an option to invest in index funds, with the mix of investments shifting from stocks to bonds as workers approached retirement.

And there you have it: The stock and commodity brokers’ and bankers’ college tuition and retirement fund.

All those delicious dollars just waiting to be handed over to your greedy banker or broker, so he can invest for you (with commissions, of course).

This has been the mantra of the rich for years, now. Bush II tried it, but things got a bit dicey when the stock market went south. And now, here we are again, with the same old story:

Just give us rich your retirement money, and after we deduct our fees and commissions, we’ll give some of your money back to you. Maybe.

(My relative of mine tried that with the Illinois college savings plan. When the recession came, she lost half her money.)

Megan, Ramesh and Bloomberg, oh my! Keep your hand on your wallet at all times.

By the way, if you sense that all this makes me angry, you’re right. I’m angry that the multi-billionaire owner of Bloomberg hires sycophants like McArdle, Ponnuru et al to brainwash the populace into supporting programs that will do nothing but widen the Gap between the rich and the rest.

My god, man, don’t you have enough money? Can’t you, at long last, help narrow that Gap?

Is greed all you have?

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
The 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. Federally funded, 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. (Refer to this.)
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)

Initiating The Ten Steps sequentially will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
——————————————————————————————————————————————

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

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

THE RECESSION CLOCK
Monetary Sovereignty

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

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

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

–Immigration scare tactics revealed

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

Mitchell’s laws:
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●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.
●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.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap.
==================================================================================================================================================================

Yesterday, a reader, golfer1john, expressed concern about the amount of immigration to America. You can read my response in the comment section of the previous post.

To put today’s post into context, on average, about 884,000 foreigners have migrated to the U.S. per year, since 2001.

America has 320 million people. So each year, less than 3 tenths of 1% of our population came here as immigrants.

Here’s an example of scare tactics for xenophobes, from the right-wing Washington Times:

Illegal immigrant children surge across border at highest rate since last summer’s peak
By Stephen Dinan

The second wave of unaccompanied illegal immigrant children has begun, with more than 3,000 of them surging across the Mexican border into the U.S. last month — the highest rate since the peak of last summer’s crisis and a warning that another rough season could be ahead.

Immigration officials warned that they expected another surge as the weather improved. Although the numbers are down some 40 percent compared with last year’s frenetic pace that sparked a political crisis for the Obama administration, fiscal year 2015 is shaping up to mark the second-biggest surge on record.

Let’s parse these two short paragraphs. Including the title, the word “surge” repeatedly was used. (Three thousand, down from 5,000 is a “surge”?)

Three thousand a month comes to 36,000 a year, which is just 4% of the average immigration rate. Wow, a 4% “surge”!

Further, the paragraphs manage to include such words as “frenetic pace,” “wave,” “crisis,” “rough season,” “warning,” and of course, the inevitable, “illegal,” all designed to scare you.

And all this scary rhetoric for just 3,000 children, down from 5,000.

In reading those two paragraphs, one might think (as you are supposed to think), that we are being swarmed with brown-skinned children, smothering us like locusts.

In reality, a relative handful (compared with the size of America) of frightened children are begging for sanctuary here, to avoid being enslaved or raped or killed, or simply to find a decent life.

And the right-wing Washington Times wants us to send them back to misery because . . . because what?

Will these children take our jobs? Obviously not. They are children.

Will they take our tax money? No, not in a Monetarily Sovereign country, where federal taxes do not fund federal spending.

Are we so crowded that we don’t have room for the children? No, America still is mostly empty land.

So what is the reason?

Bigotry and xenophobia. The children have brown skins. There is no outrage about Canadian or European immigration.

Authorities report having captured 15,647 children traveling without parents who tried to jump the border in the first six months of the fiscal year. Through this point in 2014, they had apprehended 28,579.

Oh, thank goodness we compassionate Americans were able to capture these vile children and send them back to the horrors they bravely tried to escape, because they represent such a danger to us and to our pure American way of life.

Yes, they are illegal, and why are they illegal? Because we created their illegality.

We created an unnecessarily harsh system whereby children must wait many years to achieve legality.

We created the classic “gotcha” system, a kind of “speed-trap,” in which a hick town sets up a 25MPH speed limit on a 70MPH highway, and arrests anyone who “breaks the law” by going too fast.

The U.S. has created an immigration speed trap and now we are horrified that anyone should break our terrible law.

Just as worrisome is the rate of whole families — usually mothers with young children — who are crossing. So far this fiscal year, authorities have captured 13,911 “family units,” down 30 percent from last year.

Isn’t that wonderful? Doesn’t that make you proud? Our authorities have arrested 13,911 family units — you know, those 13,911 evil mothers and children who are overwhelming America.

Jessica Vaughan, policy studies director at the Center for Immigration Studies said the Obama administration and Congress have not taken steps to end the “pull factors.”

Who? The Center for Immigration Studies? Who are they?

Here’s how they describe themselves:

The Center for Immigration Studies is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit, research organization.

The data collected by the Center during the past quarter-century has led many of our researchers to conclude that current, high levels of immigration are making it harder to achieve such important national objectives as better public schools, a cleaner environment, homeland security, and a living wage for every native-born and immigrant worker.

Many of us at the Center are animated by a “low-immigration, pro-immigrant” vision of an America that admits fewer immigrants but affords a warmer welcome for those who are admitted.

Isn’t that sweet? “Independent, non-partisan,” but also “low-immigration,” while being “pro-immigration.” (Huh?)

And of course, they want to give immigrants a “warmer welcome.” (By sending them back south to a warmer climate.)

And are we really to believe that supposedly “high” levels of immigration make it hard for us to have better schools, a cleaner environment, homeland security and a living wage?

I’ll tell you what makes these things hard, and it’s not immigration.

It’s the cut-federal-spending, austerity policy of the Tea Republicans that have destroyed our schools.

It’s the anti-environment policies of the Tea Republicans that have created the pollution that dirties our environment.

It’s the anti-worker, pro-corporation policies of the Tea Republicans that have prevented a living wage.

And as for homeland security, do you really believe that these 3,000 children a month represent a threat to America’s security?

In short, this self-proclaimed “independent, non-partisan, research organization” has an agenda. It is nothing but a mouthpiece for the austerity-inducing, Tea Republican, anti-brown-skin xenophobes.

Legitimate, unbiased research indicates that immigrants, on balance, benefit America.

Further, the whole notion of sending innocent children back to the horrors they bravely try to escape, is repugnant to me as an American and as a human being. It should be repugnant to you, too.

But that is what the xenophobes do to us. They destroy our moral code. They blind us with scare tactics. They make us cruel to innocent children and innocent mothers.

It’s simply disgusting. Especially for Americans.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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The 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. Federally funded, 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. (Refer to this.)
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)

Initiating The Ten Steps sequentially will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
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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
Monetary Sovereignty

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

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

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY