Investopedia comments on the U.S. National Debt

And now comes Investopedia. Perhaps you will wish to reevaluate any positive thoughts you may have had for this “pedia” regarding federal financing. Here is why:

This Measure of National Debt is Highest Since World War II, Study Shows By Terry Lane Published June 26, 2024 02:34 PM EDT

1. U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio is the fourth largest among a group of nearly 40 developed economies, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Last year, the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio was the highest since World War II as spending designed to help Americans recover from the pandemic added to debt levels.

OECD said there is still room for the U.S. to narrow the gap between how much money it brings in and how much money it spends (i.e. reduce the debt).

U.S. national debt relative to its economic output is now among the highest for developed countries even as the economy chugs along, a report by an international economic agency showed.

See those six little words, “even as the economy chugs along.” Revise that phrase to: “which is why the economy chugs along,” because so-called “federal debt” (that isn’t federal and isn’t debt) adds growth dollars to the economy.

More federal debt adds more growth dollars, and less federal debt leads to recessions and depressions.

**A decline in federal “debt” growth (red) leads to recessions (vertical gray bars), which are cured by increased “debt” growth.**

This cause-effect relationship is so powerful, that when there is a decrease in the debt itself (i.e. a surplus) we usually have depressions.

Every U.S. depression has come on the heels of federal surpluses.

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.

The article continues:

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) warned U.S. debt increased to 122% the size of its gross domestic product (GDP) last year. The debt-to-GDP ratio is an often-used metric to gauge a country’s ability to repay what it owes.

The debt/ratio shows nothing of the kind. It is a useless, misinforming, number

For a Monetarily Sovereign government that ratio does not indicate anything about a nation’s ability or willingness to pay its creditors. (It does have some meaning for monetarily non-sovereign governments, because they rely on income to fund spending. Monetarily Sovereign governments do not.)

The U.S. national debt has grown in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic as policymakers voted to spend money to help stimulate the economy during that time.

The U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio is at its highest since World War II and is the fourth largest—behind only Japan, Greece and Italy—among the 38 OECD member states.

Unlike its peers, U.S. debt ratio has not returned to its pre-pandemic levels, the OECD found.

Federal deficit spending stimulates the economy. The article’s author, Terry Lane, wishes to reduce economic growth, seemingly because he doesn’t like the words “federal debt.” (?)

Never mind that the U.S. federal government has the infinite ability to create dollars and to pay for anything without collecting a penny in taxes. It’s just that darn phrase, “federal debt,” that, by the way, isn’t federal and isn’t debt.

It’s not “federal” because the contents of the T-security accounts upon which it is based are wholly owned by depositors. The federal government never uses that money. Those accounts resemble bank safe deposit boxes. The money in T-security accounts merely is held for safekeeping, not used to fund spending.

It isn’t debt because all federal deficit spending has already been paid for. No one owes the “federal debt,” not the government or taxpayers. For the same reasons, it also isn’t “borrowing,” a word often misused to describe T-securities.

Depositors are not lenders. The federal government could continue to pay all its bills, even if not on T-security was issued.

In summary:

The U.S. fiscal stimulus was large compared to most other countries.
Domestic spending rebounded faster than GDP, driven by demand for imported goods.
The trade deficit grew as imports surged and exports contracted; the dollar outflow made federal deficit spending even more critical.

fig1_gdp1 — **The author complains about this: The U.S. post-COVID GDP (yellow) grew faster than that of other nations.**

**Another look: Following COVID, the U.S. economy grew faster than other major economies. (China not included).**

China’s debt-to-GDP ratio was 288% in 2023. The consequence of that high ratio is that China’s economy is projected to pass America’s as the world’s largest economy. Deficit spending stimulates economic growth. The lack of deficit spending creates recessions and depressions, which must be cured by increased deficit spending.

**China’s debt/GDP ratio is higher than America’s. The result: Their GDP has grown faster**

The author continues:

There Is Opportunity to Lessen US Debt

That “opportunity” to lessen the debt also is an “opportunity” to send America into a depression.

At the same time, the group’s 2024 Economic Survey of the United States showed consumer spending, a strong labor market and eventual interest rate cuts should all help to keep the U.S. economy moving forward, albeit at a slower pace.

The OECD projected U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) to increase slightly in 2024 to 2.6%, before slowing to 1.8% in 2025.

Considering this formula: GDP = Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports, it’s quite amazing that the OECD can predict GDP without knowing any of the three right-hand terms of the equation. In economics, the technical term for that is a WAG (Wild Ass Guess).

Federal Spending also affects the other two terms. It’s like a football pundit who recommends fewer runs, passes, and kicks, then with no idea about any of the three, predicts football game scores.

“This strong recovery creates a good opportunity to start narrowing the budget deficit and put debt on a more prudent path,” said OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann, who urged the U.S. to enact a series of spending cuts and tax hikes in 2025 to begin pruning the budget deficit.

Translation: Increased budget deficits are necessary to increase economic growth, so cutting budget deficits is prudent.

The report noted the U.S. should consider making changes in its budgeting process, including eliminating the “debt ceiling” that has led to political standoffs.

Huh? First, they complain about the debt/GDP ratio; then, they (correctly) complain about the “debt ceiling,” which limits the government’s ability to grow the debt/GDP ratio.

It’s like complaining about weight-loss efforts and then complaining about being overweight.

“Replacing the debt ceiling with a simple medium-term debt ratio target would be simpler than existing legislative budget rules and would provide more clarity for public budgeting,” the report said.

Perfect. The author has adopted the worst of all worlds. He wants a debt/GDP limit, not a debt limit (Huh?, again). Why? “For clarity.”

To the people at Investopedia and its peers: Look at historical data rather than following intuition. There is a difference between Monetarily Sovereign debt and monetarily non-sovereign debt. Don’t just parrot popular misinformation.

SUMMARY

Every ounce of historical evidence demonstrates:

The federal government never can run short of dollars.
So, it never needs to borrow dollars.
What is commonly called “federal debt” is really deposits into accounts, the purposes of which are to provide dollar users with a safer place than private banks, to store unused dollars, and to help the Fed control interest rates.

Federal “bills,” “notes,” and “bonds” are not related to private sector bills, notes, and bonds.

Thus, the debt/GDP ratio is a meaningless fraction for a Monetarily Sovereign government (though it does have significance for monetarily non-sovereign entities). It tells nothing about the federal government’s infinite ability to pay its obligations or about any taxpayer obligations (zero).

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell Monetary Sovereignty Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell; MUCK RACK: https://muckrack.com/rodger-malcolm-mitchell

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The Sole Purpose of Government Is to Improve and Protect the Lives of the People.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

A Libertarian tells “the truth” about federal debt.

What follows is an article by a Libertarian, interspersed with a few whiffs of reality.

The national debt is over $34 trillion. It’s time to tell the truth about the U.S. government’s finances Story by Libertarian Alvaro Vargas Llosa

Yes, Mr. Vargas Llosa, it is time to tell the truth about government finances. Some might say, “Well, past time. Sadly, your article does not do it. The purpose of government financing is not to give the government more money. Because the U.S. federal government is Monetarily Sovereign, it already has infinite money.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan: “A government cannot become insolvent with respect to obligations in its own currency. There is nothing to prevent the federal government from creating as much money as it wants and paying it to somebody. The United States can pay any debt it has because we can always print the money to do that.”

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke: “The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost. It’s not tax money… We simply use the computer to mark up the size of the account.“

The purpose of the federal government — any government, in fact — is to improve the lives of the people. One measure of the improvement is Gross Domestic Product, the total amount of spending in an economy. Here is what federal deficit spending has done to Gross Domestic Product.

As deficit spending increasingly adds dollars to the economy, the economy grows.

While the self-proclaimed “truth-tellers” complain about federal deficits and debt (red), America’s Gross Domestic Product (blue) has risen enormously. “Ah,” they say, “but all that “money printing” has caused inflation, so Americans really are poorer now.” I call the “truth-tellers” attention to the following graph.

Real (inflation-adjusted) GDP **per person** has risen enormously for the past 90 years.

That graph shows that the average American is wealthier today than at any time in history. Federal deficit spending enriches Americans. But—and it’s a big “but”— averages don’t tell the full story because of the income/wealth/power Gap, You can read more about that at the link.

If anyone living in the United States in the decades immediately after the Second World War had predicted the self-inflicted financial mess the U.S. government now finds itself in, nobody would have taken that person seriously.

A normal human would say that a “financial mess” is a situation in which a person has difficulty paying his/her financial obligations. But as Messrs. Greenspan and Bernanke explain, the Monetarily Sovereign U.S. government has no such difficulty. It pays all its financial obligations simply by creating more dollars. So what does Mr. Vargas Llosa mean by “financial mess“? Nowhere in his article does he explain. Typical for “debt- truth tellers” who use frightening words to deceive.

For most of American history, until the mid-1970s, annual federal spending and revenue were roughly in balance—the exceptions being in wartime.

Contrast that with the federal deficit in fiscal year 2023, which topped $1.7 trillion, an amount larger than Mexico’s total economy (the 12th largest in the world).

It exceeded $1 trillion again in the first eight months of the current fiscal year and, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s latest forecast, released on June 18, will approach $2 trillion by the end of fiscal 2024.

Translation: In 2023, the federal government pumped 1.7 trillion growth dollars into the economy. In the first eight months of the current fiscal year, it pumped another 1 trillion growth dollars into the economy and expects to pump 2 trillion growth dollars into the economy by the end of fiscal 2024. These are dollars that go into the pockets of Americans at no cost to anyone — not to you, not to your friends and family, not to your neighbors. Why? Because federal taxes don’t fund federal spending. Even if federal tax collections totaled $0, the federal government could continue spending forever. The Monetarily Sovereign U.S. federal government neither needs nor uses income. (It is different for state and local governments, businesses, and euro governments, all of which are monetarily non-sovereign, and they do need and use income to fund spending.) The U.S. federal government destroys all the income it receives. Paying creditors is the primary process by which the federal government creates dollars. To pay a creditor, the federal government first creates instructions (checks, wires, etc.) instructing the creditor’s bank to increase the balance in the creditor’s checking account. The instant the creditor’s bank obeys those instructions, new dollars are added to the creditor’s checking account and to the M2 money supply measure. Those dollars are not deducted from the M2 money supply. The bank clears those instructions through the Federal Reserve. Thus the federal government approves its own instructions, which is why it never can run short of dollars. By contrast, when a local government sends instructions, M2 dollars are deducted from the local government’s checking account in a bank and added to a creditor’s bank account. No net dollars are created. They merely are transferred. Not understanding the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty marks one as ignorant about economics.

This has fueled a massive increase in the federal debt, which now totals $34 trillion, about $6 trillion more than America’s gross domestic product (GDP), the value of all the goods and services produced by America’s 330 million residents in a year.

If we count Social Security and Medicare liabilities, total debt is several times larger than GDP.

The debt/GDP ratio is meaningless. Those who quote it hope to scare you with irrelevant numbers. Federal debt is not a burden on the government or on taxpayers. It is nothing like private sector debt. Neither you nor anyone else pays for the federal debt—never has, never will. The so-called “debt” is nothing more than dollars deposited into T-security accounts. The contents of these accounts are wholly owned by the depositors and never used by the federal government. The purpose of T-accounts is not to provide spending money to the government. The purpose is to stabilize the dollar by:

Providing a storage place for unused dollars that is safer than any private bank account.
To help the Fed control interest rates by providing a “floor” rate.

Upon request by the owners, the dollars in T- accounts are transferred back to their owners. This is not a financial burden on the federal government, and no tax dollars are involved.

The consequences are sobering. Politicians like to use euphemisms to describe what they’re doing. Government spending, in the current vernacular, is referred to as “investment.”

Government spending, however, crowds out investment, which explains why private investment, the equivalent of 4.8% of GDP, is 30% lower than in 2000.

Government spending is more properly termed “investments,” not “debt. The economy doesn’t care where he investments come from. In fact, federal spending creates new growth dollars, while private investment only moves existing dollars. The “truth tellers” prefer the government to reduce its spending under the false narrative that this somehow will grow the economy. But:

GDP = Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports.

I have yet to communicate with a debt “truth-teller” who can explain the math of how cuts to federal spending will increase GDP.

At the same time, the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar, a reflection of both the federal government’s finances and the Federal Reserve’s money printing, also is down: by more than 50% since 2000.

That’s called “inflation,” and as we have seen, the economy has enjoyed real (inflation-adjusted) growth.

As a result of this economic mismanagement, the U.S. government will pay close to $900 billion this year just in interest payments on the national debt—and, according to Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projections, which assume an idyllic scenario of no major wars, no recessions, and no financial crises, debt service will steadily increase to some $5.3 trillion by 2054.

Translation: This year, at no cost to anyone, the government will pump 900 billion growth dollars into the economy in interest payments alone. In 2054, the government will pump 5.3 trillion growth dollars into the economy — also at no cost to anyone. Most of those dollars will go into the pockets of the American people.

It was hard enough sustaining a debt that stood at 106% of GDP during WWII, when the country’s savings rate was 24%, but sustaining a much higher level of indebtedness with today’s 3% savings rate defies the imagination.

Oh, Mr. Vargas Llosa, I’ll bet you’re not even trying to use your imagination. The only difficulty in “sustaining” the debt came from being on a gold standard, which limited the government’s ability to create dollars. But Nixon took us off the gold standard in 1971 (Roosevelt did it for domestic us in 1933), and since then the federal government has had the infinite ability to “sustain” any level of deficit spending. It never can run short of dollars. Private savings and the debt/GDP ratio are irrelevant to the government’s ability to “sustain.” but one must assume Mr. Vargas Llosa tosses in those numbers for fear effect, not because they make any sense whatsoever.

This catastrophe has been a long time in the making. In 1993, for instance, the annual deficit amounted to 3.8% of GDP, and the debt, which seemed astronomically high at a “mere” $4.4 trillion, was Lilliputian by today’s standards.

The U.S.’s real GDP was approximately $7.1 trillion in 1993. In 2023, it increased to approximately $21.6 trillion. And this is a “catastrophe”?? One hopes we continue to have “catastrophes” like that.

The trend goes back longer than that. The growth of the U.S. government in modern times is the story of post-WWII America.

President Dwight Eisenhower seems to have been the last guy in the post-WWII era who understood that the welfare state, the warfare state, and tax cuts not backed by tough spending cuts are incompatible with fiscally responsible government, or at least with reasonably-sized government.

During Eisenhower’s term, we suffered, not one, not two, but three recessions. One, called the “Eisenhower Recession,” occurred between 1957 and 1958. We had a sharp contraction in economic activity, high unemployment, and a decline in industrial production. Is that an example of “fiscal responsibility?”

The “wonderful” Eisenhower years. **Three recessions**. When federal deficit spending declined, GDP declined into recessions,

The 1953-54 recession was caused by the reduced deficit spending for the Korean War. This is a regular pattern: Reduced deficit spending leads to a recession, which is cured by increased deficit spending. See below.

A. Economic growth = B. Federal deficit growth + C. private sector spending. Cut B and C, and A declines into recession. Simple math.

The reason for the pattern is clear. Reduced deficit spending adds fewer growth dollars to the economy, so the economy sinks into recession. Curing the recession requires increased growth dollars.

Between 1950 and 1970, total debt (including government, household, corporate, and financial) was stable at about 150% of GDP. After Nixon did away with what was left of the gold standard in 1971, it was off to the races. Since then, total debt has grown by nearly 5,600%, more than double the U.S. economic growth rate.

This is another sleight-of-hand debt/GDP comparison that is meaningless. Nothing can be learned from comparing federal debt (i.e., the net cumulative total of deposits into Treasury Security accounts) vs. GDP (the total of all government and private spending in any given year). They are akin to comparing tons of butter eaten in the past 10 years with the number of butterflies born this year. Totally meaningless. If you don’t believe me, see Debt To GDP Ratio By Country. Scroll down to the middle of the page, where you will see every nation’s Debt/GDP ratio, from the highest (Japan) to tied for the lowest (Taiwan and several others). Look at those ratios, and you will see they tell you nothing about a nation’s ability to pay its bills.

There was a time, even in the middle of the Cold War, when government leaders, despite their international responsibilities and the onerous legacy of the New Deal and Great Society that nobody dared reverse, understood the need for fiscal discipline and containing the growth of government.

And there it is: The Libertarian belief in an “onerous legacy” of programs designed to aid middle and lower-income groups. That is the “onerous legacy” that gave us Social Security, Medicare, the War on Poverty, the Office of Economic Opportunity and the Economic Opportunity Act, a Job Corps for disadvantaged individuals, established work-study programs and community action initiatives, provided health insurance for elderly Americans, improving access to medical care, legislation addressing environmental concerns and conservation efforts, supported education, and Civil Rights Laws, focused on reducing racial injustice and promoting equality. Is it any wonder that a right-wing Libertarian should consider those “onerous?” After all, they cost dollars the government creates at the touch of a computer key, and much to Libertarian dismay, narrow the Gap between the rich and the rest.

The 12 years under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush averaged a 4% deficit due to defense spending increases, abandonment of domestic restraint—a legacy of Johnson’s “bread and butter” years and the Nixon-Ford presidencies’ about-face on most of the economic principles they previously had espoused—and the unfunded tax cuts influenced by Arthur Laffer’s notion that tax cuts would pay for themselves.

Oh, yes, cut defense spending to weaken the military at a time when we are the last hope for democracy. And eliminate the “bread and butter” for the poor and disadvantaged. Perfect. And then there were the “unfunded tax cuts,” which is an oxymoron. Taxes need to be funded by the people. No one needs to fund tax cuts. They don’t need to be paid for, and the government doesn’t need or use taxes. In fact, it destroys all tax dollars it receives.

The new millennium distorted matters even further, with the annual deficit from 2002 to 2023 averaging 5% over the two decades, 20% higher than nominal economic growth, which averaged 4.2%.

And yet again he mentions the meaningless debt/GDP ratio. It never ends for the Libertarians.

President Obama, under whom the deficit was double the Congressional Budget Office’s original projections, got the spending spree started, with Presidents Trump and Biden taking it to new levels.

And the economy grew massively.

It’s now come down to this. Unless a new generation of leaders has the courage to cut such “untouchables” as the defense, education, justice, and homeland security budgets, and privatize the Social Security program (as more than 40 countries wisely have done), sooner or later, the current trajectory of federal finances will lead to an extremely ugly place.

The above is a perfect description of the effort to widen the Gap between the rich and the rest, while weakening our economy and our national defense.

If you think things are bad now, just wait.

If we ever elect a right-wing, Libertarian fool to be President, along with our current, right-wing SCOTUS, and right-wing governors, things can get much worse. Rodger Malcolm Mitchell Monetary Sovereignty Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell; MUCK RACK: https://muckrack.com/rodger-malcolm-mitchell

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The Sole Purpose of Government Is to Improve and Protect the Lives of the People.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Religions, cults and the caste system come together in Gap Psychology

Gap Psychology dictates that to achieve superiority, one must claim inferiors and then distance oneself from those claimed inferiors. The greater the distance—i.e., the wider the “Gap,” the greater our superiority.

“Rich” and “poor” are comparatives, not absolutes. For one to be rich, someone else must be poor, or at least poorer.

A person with $100,000 is rich if everyone else has only $100, but he/she is “middle” if everyone else has $100,000. And he is poor if everyone else has $1,000,000.

Getting richer is not simply a matter of increasing one’s ownership of money. If a middle-income person has $100,000 and doubles that to $200,000, he still is “middle” if everyone else rises to $200,000.

Getting richer requires widening the Gap below and narrowing the Gap above. It is the Gap that measures wealth, not the wealth itself.

Gap Psychology describes the desire to widen the Gap below and to narrow the Gap above.

Gap Psychology enters into virtually all aspects of human existence, not only money or wealth. A person with an IQ of 130 is smart unless everyone else has an IQ of 170.

A 21-year-old man who can do 50 chin-ups is strong unless everyone else can do 150. A child who can read at age 4 is considered smart unless every other child can read at age 3. If you can run 100 meters in 9.5 seconds, you are blazingly fast unless you are a cheetah, which means you would be laughingly slow.

Self-improvement does not require improving yourself so long as you can widen the Gap below and narrow the Gap above.

You can be strong and do just two chin-ups if you hang a 300 lb. weight from everyone else’s ankles.

If you force everyone else to wear blindfolds, you can learn to read at age 8 and be considered smart. And if you tie everyone else’s legs together, you can be fast, running 100 meters in 20 seconds. Figuratively, that is how the rich treat the rest of us to widen the Gap. They falsely claim that the federal government “can’t afford” to provide benefits to the middle and lower classes while accepting tax benefits for themselves.

Gap Psychology even enters into the abortion controversy. The rich can easily obtain abortions and other medical procedures. It is the poor who must suffer from a lack of care. That is a Gap the rich wish to widen.

Gap Psychology leads to bigotry, classes, and the caste system. Here is an excellent summary:

Caste by Isabel Wilkerson

“The Eight Pillars of Caste” Summary

The Foundations of Caste: The Origins of our Discontents For more than half of American history, slavery was the dominant social institution in the South.

Wilkerson argues that even after emancipation, legally sanctioned violence, harassment, and displacement of African Americans remained—and still remains—an existential threat.

According to Wilkerson, these behavioral scripts and socially reinforced biases have become deeply encoded in the American psyche at all levels of society, which unconsciously perpetuates the system.

Her research demonstrates that all caste systems have the eight essential characteristics (Pillars) in common.

Pillar Number One: Divine Will and the Laws of Nature
Hindu cosmology holds that the caste system is an aspect of the birth of Brahma, the supreme god, who created and populated the world out of various parts of his body in a way corresponding to the social functions dictated by the traditional order.

The Judeo-Christian tradition has a contrasting story about the creation of the world’s different races descending from the three sons of the Old Testament patriarch Noah.

The two “good” sons who are rewarded for their honor become the fathers of the Eastern and Western races, while the cursed son, Ham, and his own son Canaan are fated to be people of the South, forsaken by God.

For there to be “good,” there must be “bad.”

All caste systems, religions, and cults (similar to religions but smaller and not as mainstream) identify members as “good” and outsiders as “bad” or lesser in some way.

At the time when Spain and Portugal were beginning their global circumnavigations, the native inhabitants of Africa and India were believed by Europeans to be descendants of the biblical outcasts and thus divinely ordained to suffering and subjugation.

Pillar Number Two: Heritability In India, caste is inherited through the father’s line, whereas the United States has historically determined caste through the mother.

In Judaism, to be Jewish, one must have a Jewish mother. The father can be Jewish or gentile.

Presidents Bush, father and son

Because enslaved mothers had no legal right to their own children, Black birth became a production process for slave labor, as Black children were regarded as valuable, durable commodities.

The major distinction between caste and class, Wilkerson writes, is that caste is predetermined, unchanging, and generationally upheld, whereas class implies an attainmentof certain conditions based on merit and effort and is much more inclusive within its respective caste “container.”

Yet we have the expressions “new” and “old” money, with “old money: considered superior by those whose ancestors were wealthy.

In the United States, the exclusion of African Americans regardless of their level of social or professional success—an exclusion based on superficial, inescapable, inherited characteristics—resembles in practice the treatment of India’s “untouchable” populations.

Pillar Number Three: Endogamy and the Control of Marriage and Mating It is essential for a caste system to separate and manage bloodlines in a way that preserves the impenetrability of the dominant gene pool by subordinate-caste DNA.

This protects the Gap between white and non-white. Most American parents prefer that their children marry within their religion and color.

To achieve this, miscegenation laws are passed that restrict marriage and reproduction along caste lines, a policy known as endogamy—and something Hitler admired about the American model.

The objective of this kind of social engineering is to achieve racial purity among the dominant caste, but it also concentrates resources, value, and empathy among the various levels of the dominant caste that are systematically denied to non-white subordinates.

America’s racial boundaries had been set from its earliest days, and coupled with the nation’s historic exclusion of non-European immigrants, endogamy laws effectively created a process of selective breeding that reinforced caste divisions while reserving for white men the ownership of Black reproduction.

Pillar Number Four: Purity Versus Pollution
The United States has its own unique system of gradations on a scale of racial purity that defines itself in opposition to an obsession with contamination by genetic material from a perceived inferior bloodline.

Not only was there the so-called “one-drop rule” that defined Blackness and which the Nazis found so extreme, but there was also an elaborate status-defining class subsystem within the subordinate caste based on skin tone and proportion of African ancestry.

Systems like the examples Wilkerson uses all share a rabid aversion to the idea of public spaces and utilities, particularly water and swimming pools, being similarly contaminated not by blood but by mere exposure to the skin, breath, sweat, or even shadow of the subordinate caste.

Hitler and Trump have spoken of those who “poison the blood” of the nation. Hitler primarily (though not exclusively) was talking about Jews.

Trump was talking about non-white immigrants.

Pillar Number Five: Occupational Hierarchy: The Jatis and the Mudsill Wilkerson returns to the architectural metaphor she introduced in chapter 2 to describe the house’s most important structural element, where the framing meets the foundation, known as a mudsill.

In the segregationist political tradition, the enslaved caste of African American servants and laborers constituted an analogous base to the American social order.

The lowly work they performed for lack of choice was seen as the limit of their capabilities and their purpose for existence, a permanent servile class upon which the American economy was built.

This is part of the belief that the poor are lazy, stupid, and cannot be trusted. It provides an excuse for widening the employment Gap.

It also alludes to benefits given to the poor, i.e., “Who is going to pick up the garbage if we give them money?”

One major difference between the subordinate Americans and Indian Dalit is that while the Indian system has many subdivisions, known as jatis, within each group that determined one’s work, the African American subordinate class has been limited in professional options with few chances to break out except as performers or athletes.

Until recently, even these luminaries were expected to reinforce popular racist stereotypes if they were to be accepted by the dominant culture.

Pillar Number Six: Dehumanization and Stigma In order to justify the extreme and often violent measures taken to maintain the oppressive status quo, dominant-caste authority invariably engages in a process of dehumanizing subordinate groups.

By denying subordinates equal regard for their virtue, dignity, and suffering, the dominant caste can so diminish subordinates’ humanity as to make them appear mere beasts of burden, pestilent scourges, or puppets on a string, insensitive to pain and humiliation.

The subordinate group thus becomes marked with pariah status, and their punishment is seen as just and moral, commensurate with the perceived bestiality and inhumanity that relegates them to ghettoization and marginalization.

This dehumanizing mindset is inculcated in generations of dominant-caste children who are raised believing in their superiority and entitlement, which desensitizes them to the victimization of others, even in brutal extremes.

Pillar Number Seven: Terror as Enforcement, Cruelty as a Means for Control Wilkerson describes the means necessary for the sustained oppression of an outcast group, which requires only that the members of the dominant class do nothing and remain silent, maintaining a complicity in which the order will thrive.

The image of the dreaded slaver’s whip encapsulates the violence and intimidation deemed necessary to hold the subordinates in their “container,” and the public complicity that allows the brutal enforcement of the order is the result of the racist attitudes bred into the dominant caste since childhood.

The savage business of terror seems like a part of normal life when it is tolerated by the majority of people.

Trump says he will deport a million undocumented immigrants. Imagine the terror these men, women, and children will feel waiting for their lives to be ripped apart when his brown shirts come banging on the door.

1. Ipsos Poll (2013): 30% think most illegal immigrants (with some exceptions) should be deported. 23% believe all illegal immigrants should be deported. Only 5% believe all illegal immigrants should stay legally, and 31% want most illegal immigrants to stay.

2. Pew Research Center (2021): 25% of adults say undocumented immigrants should not be allowed to stay legally, advocating for national law enforcement efforts to deport them.

3. Harris Poll (2024): Half of all Americans favor mass deportation of people who are illegally in the U.S.

Pillar Number Eight: Inherent Superiority Versus Inherent Inferiority
Wilkerson uses old Hollywood as an example of a cultural force that helped perpetuate popular stereotypes about African Americans’ inferiority and contributed to the same majority mindset that tolerated Jim Crow cruelty and injustice.

In the South, law and custom dictated at all levels of interaction between white and Black citizens that white people enjoy unquestioned superiority, while Black people were expected to treat the dominant caste with false deference and submission.

The consequence for African Americans is that these constant reminders from almost every aspect of American culture reinforce the generational effect of believing oneself inferior, resulting in defeatism and despair.

The eight pillars can be found not only in castes but in religions and cults.

Divine Will and the Laws of Nature
Heritability
Endogamy and the Control of Marriage and Mating
Purity Versus Pollution
Occupational Hierarchy: The Jatis and the Mudsill
Dehumanization and Stigma
Terror as Enforcement
Cruelty as a Means for Control, and Inherent Superiority Versus Inherent Inferiority

Look back at #1 through #8 and visualize religions and cults in America. They all implement some forms of the pollars, and all are related to Gap Psychology.

Gap Psychology is expressed secretly and overtly in various ways: Fear, hatred, disgust, avoidance, fanaticism, and the desire to inflict pain.

We each belong to groups that we view as extensions of ourselves. We find ways to view our groups as superior to others, which helps us feel superior.

These groups range from families to sports teams, cities, states, countries, political parties, tribes, social groups, religions, and cults.

What's the best and the worst thing about being a Bears fan? - Windy City Gridiron — Why is this so important to them? Gap Psychology

If our group “wins,” however that is defined, we win. And, if other groups “lose,” we win.

Personal note: In my younger days, I was a Chicago Bears football fan. I was nervous watching their games because winning meant so much. Finally, in 1985, they won a Super Bowl.

Crowds of screaming Bear fans clogged downtown Chicago. Logically, I had gained nothing, but I felt I had won. Gap Psychology is not based on logic.

When Donald Trump claims, against all evidence, that he won, MAGAs believe.

They disbelieve the 64 lawsuits he lost, the women who claim he attacked them, the criminality of Trump U. and the Trump Foundation, the many convicted criminals he surrounds himself with, and a trial’s 30+ criminal convictions.

To them, the evidence against Trump proves that someone else has committed crimes. (His attempts to overturn the election constitute the proof the election was stolen.)

That is an outcome of Gap Psychology. When Trump is compared to God, a huge branch of Christianity believes, because when your leader is Godlike, the superiority Gap between you and the non-believers widens.

Gap Psychology is not logical, but it is the single, most important factor ruling our lives. Centuries from now, if we encounter another intelligent species, we will wish to dominate them or fear they will dominate us.

That is Gap Psychology.

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The Sole Purpose of Government Is to Improve and Protect the Lives of the People.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Translation of what you were told last year

Here is an article from last year, expressing the common sentiment. I’ve translated it for you so you can evaluate that common sentiment.

The US is paying a record amount of interest on its debt. It’s only going to get worse By Tami Luhby, CNN, Tue February 14, 2023

Translation: The US is pumping a record amount of growth dollars into the economy. It’s only going to get better.

Powell urges Congress to solve growing US debt ‘sooner, rather than later’

Translation: Powell urges Congress to blame federal “debt” for the inflation, so he doesn’t get blamed. We’ve had massive “debt” (See: The “National Debt” isn’t national, and it isn’t a debt) in the past without inflation. Powell doesn’t tell you that because he is a member of the “Federal Debt is a Ticking Time Bomb” culture.

Like many Americans, the federal government is shelling out a lot more money to cover interest payments on its debt after a series of Federal Reserve rate hikes over the past year.

Translation: The federal government is nothing “like many Americans.” The federal government is Monetarily Sovereign, while the American people are monetarily non-sovereign. But we want you to believe the government is just like you.

The Treasury Department paid a record $213 billion in interest payments on the national debt in the last quarter of 2022, up $63 billion from the same period a year earlier.

Translation: The Treasury Department pumped a record $213 billion growth dollars worth of interest payments in the last quarter of 2022. That is $64 billion added to Gross Domestic Product (GDP)from the same period a year earlier.

The fourth-quarter tab was also nearly $30 billion more than in the prior quarter, which is the largest quarterly increase on record, said Jerry Dwyer, an economics professor emeritus at Clemson University.

Translation: The fourth-quarter addition to GDP was nearly $30 billion more than in the prior quarter, the largest stimulus to the economy on record.

Borrowing costs are expected to become an increasingly heavy burden in coming years. The Congressional Budget Office is set to provide its latest estimate on Wednesday.

The surge is due mainly to the Federal Reserve raising interest rates by 4.25% between March and December. The central bank increased the rate another quarter point in February.

Translation: The Federal Reserve is raising interest rates by 4.25%, which will increase the price of everything, in its effort to combat increased prices. Think about that.

Until recently, it cost the federal government very little to issue debt to finance its operations.

Translation: Until recently, it cost the federal government very little to create the dollars to finance its operations. Just the press of a few computer keys.

“It was almost free money,” Dwyer said. “You could borrow a trillion dollars, and if you financed it with Treasury bills, you paid almost no interest.”

Translation (courtesy of former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke): “The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost.” Translation (courtesy of former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan): “There is nothing to prevent the federal government from creating as much money as it wants and paying it to somebody.” So, why would the government borrow dollars? It doesn’t.

“But interest rates weren’t going to stay there forever.”

Translation: The Fed raises rates, which increases all prices, i.e., causes inflation, to fight inflation. It’s like a doctor bleeding a patient to cure anemia.

The national debt is once again in the spotlight now that the US has hit its $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, forcing Congress to take action or risk a catastrophic default.

Translation: The US has hit its $31.4 debt ceiling, which actually isn’t a “debt” ceiling. Everything has already been paid for, and nothing is owed. There is no debt. The dollars exist in T-security accounts. To pay off those accounts, the government merely returns the existing dollars. Congress created the fake “debt” ceiling to make itself look prudent to an ill-informed electorate.

Decreases in federal deficits (red) cause recessions (vertical gray bars), which are cured by increases in federal deficits.

Those who call for a decrease in deficit spending ignore the fact that economic growth relies on the federal government continuing to pump money into the economy.

The Treasury Department is taking extraordinary measures to allow the government to continue paying its bills in full and on time, which it expects to last at least until early June.

Translation (Courtesy of Alan Greenspan): “The United States can pay any debt it has because we can always print the money to do that.” so the “extraordinary measures” are a bunch of hokum. And so is the fake “debt ceiling.”

The spike in interest payments also contributed to the federal government hitting the debt ceiling that much faster.

And it adds to the pressure on Congress to raise taxes, cut spending or allow the government to borrow more to meet all its obligations.

Translation: The spike in interest payments added growth dollars to GDP much faster. This adds unnecessary pressure on Congress to take dollars out of the economy, thereby causing a recession.

Even if the Federal Reserve slows or stops raising rates this year, as many economists expect, the nation’s borrowing costs will continue to increase.

That’s because as the existing debt matures, the government issues new debt with the higher prevailing interest rates.

Translation: As existing Treasury Securities mature, the government will increase the amount of growth dollars it pumps into the economy.

The higher rates could increase the net interest cost on the national debt to about $9 trillion over the next decade, according to estimates by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a nonpartisan organization that seeks to raise awareness of America’s long-term fiscal challenges.

Translation: The higher rates could increase the amount of growth dollars pumped into GDP to about $9 trillion, according to the Peter B. Peterson Foundation, a right-wing organization that, on behalf of the rich, seeks to spread disinformation about America’s finances.

That’s up from the record $8.1 trillion that the CBO projected in May 2022 and the $5.4 trillion it projected in July 2021.

Translation: That’s up from a record $8.1 trillion growth dollars the CBO projected in May 2022, and the $5.4 growth dollars it tried to scare you about in July 2021.

By 2032, interest costs will triple to more than $3 billion per day and to at least $9,400 per household, on average, according to the foundation.

Translation: (Courtesy of Ben Bernanke) “It’s not tax money… We simply use the computer to mark up the size of the account.” By 2032, growth dollars will triple to more than $3 billion per day, and not costing any household a single penny. The federal government creates ad hoc every dollar it spends by pressing computer keys. No tax dollars are used.

They are on track to become the largest federal budget item, surpassing Social Security and Medicare by the middle of the century.

Translation: The government justifies paying too little to Social Security and Medicare by pretending it is short of money when, in fact, it has infinite money.

“Having rapidly growing interest makes it much more difficult for government to fund all the things that are important to our society,” said Michael Peterson, the foundation’s CEO.

Translation: To keep you from asking for benefits, we pretend that “Having rapidly growing interest makes it much more difficult for the government to fund all the things that are important to our society.” Why do we do that? Because the rich tell us to widen the income/wealth/power Gap between them and you. The wider the Gap, the richer they are. So, they bribe the main information sources to tell you the government can afford tax loopholes for the rich, but not Social Security and Medicare increases for the rest of you. Economists are bribed with university grants and promises of lucrative employment later. The media are bribed with advertising dollars and ownership. Politicians are bribed with political contributions and lucrative jobs in “think tanks.” All are bribed to tell you that increasing your benefits is unaffordable. SUMMARY The rich get richer when the income/wealth/Gap widens. So they promulgate the lie that your taxes pay for benefits, and your federal deficits are unsustainable. Rodger Malcolm Mitchell Monetary Sovereignty Twitter: @rodgermitchell Search #monetarysovereignty Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell; MUCK RACK: https://muckrack.com/rodger-malcolm-mitchell

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The Sole Purpose of Government Is to Improve and Protect the Lives of the People.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

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