Bexit: The EU PR lie machine grinds away.

In June, we published, What will Brexit mean?

Later in June, we published, Brexit: How Obama “bailed then failed”

Then, this month, we published, How not to run a Brexit

The theme running through all three articles can be summarized as:

  1. The EU is a device invented by rich bankers, to control entire nations.
  2. The euro nations were foolish to surrender the single most valuable asset any nation can have: Their Monetary Sovereignty (as well as their territorial sovereignty), to bankers.
  3. Brexit is a great idea — it will allow the UK to control its own borders and finances — and easily will be accomplished, unless the leaders of the UK have been bought by the European bankers.
  4. Those rich bankers will try every trick they know, to preserve the goose laying those golden eggs, i.e to punish the UK, and dissuade any other nations from following suit.

And now, here comes the EU sycophants and the anti-exit Public Relations:

THE BREXIT HANGOVER JUST GOT WORSE, by Henry Porter
Those who supported a departure from Europe are only now coming to terms with the crippling economic realities—including the fact that many didn’t quite understand the rules and the whims of their neighbors.

Denmark’s former foreign minister Uffe Ellemann-Jensen,told Bloomberg, “Basically, the British need to take time to understand what an enormous task they took upon themselves. . . . Asking for a Brexit and expecting it to be clear-cut simply can’t happen.”

After all, the government minister in charge of Brexit only realized in the last few months that it would not be possible for the U.K. to forge individual trade deals with different E.U. member states.

British Conservative politicians hope that Britain can, like Norway, become a member of the European Free Trade Association, which allows a country to enjoy the benefits of the single market while not being a member of the European Union.

Not unreasonably, Norway is raising objections. “It’s not certain that it would be a good idea to let a big country into this organization,” said the country’s European-affairs minister, Elizabeth Vik Aspaker.“It would shift the balance, which is not necessarily in Norway’s interests.”

If Britain were to lose access to the single market, or British-based banks were stopped from trading freely in Europe through the “passporting” arrangements with the E.U., it would take very little to end the City of London’s reign as the de facto financial capital of Europe.

In fact, Britain could pretty soon be broke on account the enormous tax revenue the City produces.

Once new tariffs are brought in, as they surely will be to protect what little remains of British manufacturing industry, it will make things that much harder for British exporters of every kind to trade with our neighbors.

This is to say nothing of the effect on the cost of living in the U.K., as the pound sinks, or on the country’s finances.

In summary, The UK will be broke, and Brexit will make trade more difficult and cause inflation in the UK., all of which might be true for a monetarily NON-sovereign nation, but not for a Monetarily Sovereign nation that has 100% control over its money supply and its money value. 

First, the UK cannot “be broke.” It never can be unable to pay any bill denominated in pounds or in any other currency exchangeable for pounds.  NEVER. 

A large, Monetarily Sovereign government simply cannot run short of its own sovereign currency, and the author of the article should know it.

Now, let’s talk trade:

In fundamental effect, exports of goods and services really are imports of money. Because the UK is Monetarily Sovereign, it does not need to import pounds. It creates pounds at will, by paying bills. It never can run short of pounds.

If any of the UK manufacturing industries were to begin to suffer from lack of sales or exports (i.e. imports of pounds), the UK government simply could  support these industries in any number of ways (Reduced taxes; purchases of product; fund payrolls, etc)

In fundamental effect, imports really are exports of money together with acquisition of goods and services.

Because the UK has unlimited supplies of UK pounds, it can pay any amount to EU nations for their goods and services. Try to imagine EU nations refusing to accept British pounds, in exchange for goods and services.

Will the impoverished French refuse pounds in exchange for wine; will the impoverished Italians refuse pounds in exchange for pasta; will the impoverished Spanish refuse pounds in exchange for olive oil? (All impoverished by the euro.)

Oh, you think so? Then you don’t understand commerce.

But let’s say a miracle happens, and those struggling euro nations along with the bankers, and starve themselves of British money, just to make a point.

Will they also refuse U.S. dollars, which the UK easily can obtain in exchange for pounds? Will they refuse to sell to a U.S importer, who pays in dollars and immediately exports to the UK?

Not a chance.

The UK can import all the goods and services it wants, and doesn’t need to import money.

But what about inflation — the so-called “rising cost of living as the pound sinks.”

Being Monetarily Sovereign, the UK has total control over the value of the pound by its control over interest rates.  The formula is: Value = Demand/Supply

If the Demand for pounds rises faster than the supply, inflation is defeated. How is Demand increased? The formula is: Demand = Reward/Risk.

The Reward for owning any form of money is Interest. All the UK would need do is increase the rate of interest it is willing to pay on government bonds, and there would be a mad dash for the pounds necessary to buy those bonds.

The pounds would become more valuable and inflation would be defeated.

The U.S. Fed does this all the time, to control inflation.

Bottom line: There is absolutely nothing the EU can do to punish the UK, if the leaders of the UK don’t want to be punished (big “IF.”)

Britain is too big, too strong and too Monetarily Sovereign to be punished by the EU’s bankers.

The ONLY way Brexit can run into problems is if the UK’s leaders have been bribed by the EU’s bankers.

No need for the UK to struggle through trade negotiations. The euro nations need the British pounds that the UK creates by the touch of a computer key.

And the UK easily can obtain euro nations’ goods and services directly or indirectly, also by creating pounds.

And finally, the UK has total control over domestic inflation.

Watch, as the rich EU banksters and their bribed UK politicians make Brexit seem “oh-so-difficult,” which will require punishing the British people (via totally unnecessary increased taxes and shortages of goods and services).

The game has begun. If the referees are bribed, the British people have lost.

You’ll know who has been bribed simply by the statements they make

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. ELIMINATE FICA (Ten Reasons to Eliminate FICA )
Although the article lists 10 reasons to eliminate FICA, there are two fundamental reasons:
*FICA is the most regressive tax in American history, widening the Gap by punishing the low and middle-income groups, while leaving the rich untouched, and
*The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, neither needs nor uses FICA to support Social Security and Medicare.
2. FEDERALLY FUNDED MEDICARE — PARTS A, B & D, PLUS LONG TERM CARE — FOR EVERYONE (H.R. 676, Medicare for All )
This article addresses the questions:
*Does the economy benefit when the rich afford better health care than the rest of Americans?
*Aside from improved health care, what are the other economic effects of “Medicare for everyone?”
*How much would it cost taxpayers?
*Who opposes it?”
3. PROVIDE AN ECONOMIC BONUS TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN AMERICA, AND/OR EVERY STATE, A PER CAPITA ECONOMIC BONUS (The JG (Jobs Guarantee) vs the GI (Guaranteed Income) vs the EB) Or institute a reverse income tax.
This article is the fifth in a series about direct financial assistance to Americans:

Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Employer of Last Resort is a bad idea. Sunday, Jan 1 2012
MMT’s Job Guarantee (JG) — “Another crazy, rightwing, Austrian nutjob?” Thursday, Jan 12 2012
Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Jobs Guarantee is like the EU’s euro: A beloved solution to the wrong problem. Tuesday, May 29 2012
“You can’t fire me. I’m on JG” Saturday, Jun 2 2012

Economic growth should include the “bottom” 99.9%, not just the .1%, the only question being, how best to accomplish that. Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) favors giving everyone a job. Monetary Sovereignty (MS) favors giving everyone money. The five articles describe the pros and cons of each approach.
4. FREE EDUCATION (INCLUDING POST-GRAD) FOR EVERYONEFive reasons why we should eliminate school loans
Monetarily non-sovereign State and local governments, despite their limited finances, support grades K-12. That level of education may have been sufficient for a largely agrarian economy, but not for our currently more technical economy that demands greater numbers of highly educated workers.
Because state and local funding is so limited, grades K-12 receive short shrift, especially those schools whose populations come from the lowest economic groups. And college is too costly for most families.
An educated populace benefits a nation, and benefiting the nation is the purpose of the federal government, which has the unlimited ability to pay for K-16 and beyond.
5. SALARY FOR ATTENDING SCHOOL
Even were schooling to be completely free, many young people cannot attend, because they and their families cannot afford to support non-workers. In a foundering boat, everyone needs to bail, and no one can take time off for study.
If a young person’s “job” is to learn and be productive, he/she should be paid to do that job, especially since that job is one of America’s most important.
6. ELIMINATE CORPORATE TAXES
Corporations themselves exist only as legalities. They don’t pay taxes or pay for anything else. They are dollar-tranferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the government (the later having no use for those dollars).
Any tax on corporations reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all corporate taxes come around and reappear as deductions from your personal income.
7. INCREASE THE STANDARD INCOME TAX DEDUCTION, ANNUALLY. (Refer to this.) Federal taxes punish taxpayers and harm the economy. The federal government has no need for those punishing and harmful tax dollars. There are several ways to reduce taxes, and we should evaluate and choose the most progressive approaches.
Cutting FICA and corporate taxes would be an good early step, as both dramatically affect the 99%. Annual increases in the standard income tax deduction, and a reverse income tax also would provide benefits from the bottom up. Both would narrow the Gap.
8. TAX THE VERY RICH (THE “.1%) MORE, WITH HIGHER PROGRESSIVE TAX RATES ON ALL FORMS OF INCOME. (TROPHIC CASCADE)
There was a time when I argued against increasing anyone’s federal taxes. After all, the federal government has no need for tax dollars, and all taxes reduce Gross Domestic Product, thereby negatively affecting the entire economy, including the 99.9%.
But I have come to realize that narrowing the Gap requires trimming the top. It simply would not be possible to provide the 99.9% with enough benefits to narrow the Gap in any meaningful way. Bill Gates reportedly owns $70 billion. To get to that level, he must have been earning $10 billion a year. Pick any acceptable Gap (1000 to 1?), and the lowest paid American would have to receive $10 million a year. Unreasonable.
9. FEDERAL OWNERSHIP OF ALL BANKS (Click The end of private banking and How should America decide “who-gets-money”?)
Banks have created all the dollars that exist. Even dollars created at the direction of the federal government, actually come into being when banks increase the numbers in checking accounts. This gives the banks enormous financial power, and as we all know, power corrupts — especially when multiplied by a profit motive.
Although the federal government also is powerful and corrupted, it does not suffer from a profit motive, the world’s most corrupting influence.
10. INCREASE FEDERAL SPENDING ON THE MYRIAD INITIATIVES THAT BENEFIT AMERICA’S 99.9% (Federal agencies)Browse the agencies. See how many agencies benefit the lower- and middle-income/wealth/ power groups, by adding dollars to the economy and/or by actions more beneficial to the 99.9% than to the .1%.
Save this reference as your primer to current economics. Sadly, much of the material is not being taught in American schools, which is all the more reason for you to use it.

The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

A shameful graph

Education is important to America.

Of the many investments the federal government could make, few would have a greater positive impact on the American economy than education.

When you visualize the things that make America special compared to other large nations, like China and India, advanced education is one of the first things that comes to mind.

So it is sad that Americans believe making advanced education difficult to afford, somehow is normal or acceptable.

Steps #4 and #5 of the Ten Steps to Prosperity (below) tell why the federal government can and should fund college educations for all those who want them.

Instead, we have the following shameful graph.

STUDENT DEBT

In case you wonder why we intentionally put our students into debt, the answer is quite simple: Student loans widen the Gap between the rich and the rest.

Gap widening, rather than mere income, is the primary motivation of the rich. It is the Gap, not just their own incomes, that makes them rich (Without the Gap, no one would be rich; we all would be the same). The wider the Gap, the richer they are.

Thus, keeping the non-wealthy down is just as important to the rich as lifting their own incomes up. Either way, the Gap is widened.

Every wealth stratum wants the Gap between them and those lower, to be widened. That is why so many lower-to-middle-income people resent aid to the poor. Such aid narrows the Gap, bringing the poor uncomfortably closer to those in the middle.

When the federal government lends to students, interest payments remove stimulus dollars from the economy,  and all loan repayments punish borrowers, who primarily are middle-income (The rich don’t use student loans).

The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, neither needs nor uses any form of income. To pay its bills, the government creates dollars ad hoc. There is no economic purpose for student loan payments to a government that has no use for the money.

When the lender is a private bank, the bank is enriched by a loan that is difficult to discharge in bankruptcy.  It is a “forever” loan, passed down through the generations — perfect for Gap widening:

Business Insider: America’s crushing surge of student debt, now at $1.2 trillion, has bred a disturbing new phenomenon: School loans that span multiple generations within families.

Weighed down by their own loans, many parents lack the means to fund their children’s educations without sinking even deeper into debt.

  • School loans increasingly belong to Americans over 40. This group accounts for 35 percent of education debt, up from 25 percent in 2004
  • Student loan balances average $20,000 for Generation X adults — those from 35 to 50 years old.
  • Gen-X parents who carry student debt and have teenage children have struggled to save for their children’s educations. Many of their children will need to borrow heavily for college, thereby perpetuating a cycle of family debt.
  • Student debt is surpassing groceries as a primary expense, with the gap widening most for younger families.

And if the above weren’t shameful enough, consider this graph, also supplied by Business Insider:

w704

Student loans are listed on the government’s books as its largest financial asset. Millions of American families are in debt to the federal government for educating children.

In reality, this is all just record-keeping. The federal government has no need for financial assets, because as mentioned earlier, it creates all the dollars it needs, ad hoc, when it pays its bills.

Thus, the government has discovered yet another, powerful Gap-widening device, designed to keep millions of families in financial bondage for many years, even for generations.

(Among such Gap-widening devices are federal sales taxes, FICA, and high-end income taxes on 401k mandatory distributions.) 

State and local governments are monetarily non-sovereign. They need income in order to pay for K-12 education.

The federal government is Monetarily Sovereign. It needs no taxes or loan repayments to fund a college education for every American who wanted one.

All those additional educated minds would greatly benefit America. No one knows how many potential Nobel winners America has lost lack for of the finances to attend college.

Even the time away from work is too expensive for many people. The federal government should pay for that, too.(Step #5)

But the rich don’t want federal funding for college; it would narrow the Gap. Despite what Presidential and Congressional campaigning may indicate, the rich, not the politicians, run America.

College debt is another destgructive result of The Big Lie, the lie that federal taxes fund federal spending.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
===================================================================================
Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. ELIMINATE FICA (Ten Reasons to Eliminate FICA )
Although the article lists 10 reasons to eliminate FICA, there are two fundamental reasons:
*FICA is the most regressive tax in American history, widening the Gap by punishing the low and middle-income groups, while leaving the rich untouched, and
*The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, neither needs nor uses FICA to support Social Security and Medicare.
2. FEDERALLY FUNDED MEDICARE — PARTS A, B & D, PLUS LONG TERM CARE — FOR EVERYONE (H.R. 676, Medicare for All )
This article addresses the questions:
*Does the economy benefit when the rich afford better health care than the rest of Americans?
*Aside from improved health care, what are the other economic effects of “Medicare for everyone?”
*How much would it cost taxpayers?
*Who opposes it?”
3. PROVIDE AN ECONOMIC BONUS TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN AMERICA, AND/OR EVERY STATE, A PER CAPITA ECONOMIC BONUS (The JG (Jobs Guarantee) vs the GI (Guaranteed Income) vs the EB) Or institute a reverse income tax.
This article is the fifth in a series about direct financial assistance to Americans:

Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Employer of Last Resort is a bad idea. Sunday, Jan 1 2012
MMT’s Job Guarantee (JG) — “Another crazy, rightwing, Austrian nutjob?” Thursday, Jan 12 2012
Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Jobs Guarantee is like the EU’s euro: A beloved solution to the wrong problem. Tuesday, May 29 2012
“You can’t fire me. I’m on JG” Saturday, Jun 2 2012

Economic growth should include the “bottom” 99.9%, not just the .1%, the only question being, how best to accomplish that. Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) favors giving everyone a job. Monetary Sovereignty (MS) favors giving everyone money. The five articles describe the pros and cons of each approach.
4. FREE EDUCATION (INCLUDING POST-GRAD) FOR EVERYONEFive reasons why we should eliminate school loans
Monetarily non-sovereign State and local governments, despite their limited finances, support grades K-12. That level of education may have been sufficient for a largely agrarian economy, but not for our currently more technical economy that demands greater numbers of highly educated workers.
Because state and local funding is so limited, grades K-12 receive short shrift, especially those schools whose populations come from the lowest economic groups. And college is too costly for most families.
An educated populace benefits a nation, and benefiting the nation is the purpose of the federal government, which has the unlimited ability to pay for K-16 and beyond.
5. SALARY FOR ATTENDING SCHOOL
Even were schooling to be completely free, many young people cannot attend, because they and their families cannot afford to support non-workers. In a foundering boat, everyone needs to bail, and no one can take time off for study.
If a young person’s “job” is to learn and be productive, he/she should be paid to do that job, especially since that job is one of America’s most important.
6. ELIMINATE CORPORATE TAXES
Corporations themselves exist only as legalities. They don’t pay taxes or pay for anything else. They are dollar-tranferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the government (the later having no use for those dollars).
Any tax on corporations reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all corporate taxes come around and reappear as deductions from your personal income.
7. INCREASE THE STANDARD INCOME TAX DEDUCTION, ANNUALLY. (Refer to this.) Federal taxes punish taxpayers and harm the economy. The federal government has no need for those punishing and harmful tax dollars. There are several ways to reduce taxes, and we should evaluate and choose the most progressive approaches.
Cutting FICA and corporate taxes would be an good early step, as both dramatically affect the 99%. Annual increases in the standard income tax deduction, and a reverse income tax also would provide benefits from the bottom up. Both would narrow the Gap.
8. TAX THE VERY RICH (THE “.1%) MORE, WITH HIGHER PROGRESSIVE TAX RATES ON ALL FORMS OF INCOME. (TROPHIC CASCADE)
There was a time when I argued against increasing anyone’s federal taxes. After all, the federal government has no need for tax dollars, and all taxes reduce Gross Domestic Product, thereby negatively affecting the entire economy, including the 99.9%.
But I have come to realize that narrowing the Gap requires trimming the top. It simply would not be possible to provide the 99.9% with enough benefits to narrow the Gap in any meaningful way. Bill Gates reportedly owns $70 billion. To get to that level, he must have been earning $10 billion a year. Pick any acceptable Gap (1000 to 1?), and the lowest paid American would have to receive $10 million a year. Unreasonable.
9. FEDERAL OWNERSHIP OF ALL BANKS (Click The end of private banking and How should America decide “who-gets-money”?)
Banks have created all the dollars that exist. Even dollars created at the direction of the federal government, actually come into being when banks increase the numbers in checking accounts. This gives the banks enormous financial power, and as we all know, power corrupts — especially when multiplied by a profit motive.
Although the federal government also is powerful and corrupted, it does not suffer from a profit motive, the world’s most corrupting influence.
10. INCREASE FEDERAL SPENDING ON THE MYRIAD INITIATIVES THAT BENEFIT AMERICA’S 99.9% (Federal agencies)Browse the agencies. See how many agencies benefit the lower- and middle-income/wealth/ power groups, by adding dollars to the economy and/or by actions more beneficial to the 99.9% than to the .1%.
Save this reference as your primer to current economics. Sadly, much of the material is not being taught in American schools, which is all the more reason for you to use it.

The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Voting for lies is necessary. The dangerous season of hatred

In case you didn’t see this in a previous “Comments” section, reader “Vincent” wrote: “It is not enough that politicians should be honest; they need to appear honest.”

My response was:

Some politicians appear to be honest. None actually are.

All politicians believe the public is relatively ignorant, and cannot be trusted with the truth. In that, they are correct.

So, you will not hear the truth from Trump, Clinton or Johnson. They all lie.

For instance, they all tell you The Big Lie (Federal taxes fund federal spending.) They believe that you, the public, will punish them for telling the truth, and they probably are correct.

As a voter, the best you can do is determine your own leanings, and select the one candidate most in line with those leanings.

Personally, I cannot subscribe to the basis of libertarianism (less government regulation, which allows the rich and powerful to rule the weak). So that eliminates Johnson.

For similar reasons, I cannot subscribe to the right wing belief that the rich and powerful should rule the weak). So that eliminates the Republican candidate.

By the process of elimination, I am left with the candidate that comes closest to my own beliefs (narrow the Gap between the rich and the rest), even though she still is too right wing for my tastes.

While listing Trump’s and Clinton’s lies is entertaining, in the National Enquirer vein, it is not a good basis for voting.

Then reader “Elizabeth Harris” wrote:

Hillary has the unanimous support of bankers, of neocons, of Wall Street, and the One Percent. She will deliver everything they demand, including mass privatization, the TPP, endless war (perhaps a world war with Russia) and a wider-than-ever gap between the rich and the rest.

For average people, life under Hillary will be a nightmare. And the more it becomes a nightmare, the more they will comfort themselves with the delusion that “Trump would have been worse.” This despite the fact that Trump is opposed by all those who will create the nightmare.

Among common folk, non-stop Trump-bashing is a desperate attempt to deny what they know inside about Hillary and her rich backers. It is a desperate attempt to deny the reality that in many ways, Trump is the de facto Democrat, and Hillary is the de facto Republican. Such people camouflage the economic realities of Hillary by focusing on the social inanities of Trump, such as his proposed border wall, which Congress would never agree to. They focus on Trump’s verbal gaffs about Muslims, while they ignore Hillary’s track record of exterminating Muslims. (Hillary cheered for the destruction of Libya, and has publicly vowed to nuke Iran.)

As President, Trump would not be able to get the US Congress to agree to anything he wants. However Trump would be able to veto the US Congress, and thereby trip up things like the TPP, and war with Russia.

What we need is an ineffective Trump, not an effective neocon-neoliberal Hillary.

And I responded:

True, Trump is not a Republican, but he would appoint more Scalias to the Supreme Court, which would be a disaster for America — unless you like unlimited political contributions, unlimited guns, the reduction in minority voting rights, a theocracy, and jurists who accept free “hunting trips” from the wealthy.

And, Trump’s crazed hand above the button — he wants to nuke ISIS — gives one pause. (Please give me your references for Hillary’s desire to nuke Iran and for her cheering the destruction of Lybia. I’ve not seen those)

And to describe Trump’s vow to exclude Muslims as merely a “verbal gaff” is unbecoming to you, Elizabeth. Is deporting 11 million undocumented Mexicans also just a “gaff”?

By the way, when was the last time any Congress voted for war, and the President vetoed it? Doesn’t it always go the other way?

Unfortunately, Hillary is a continuation of Barack’s policies, which as poor as they may be, still exceeded Bush II and today’s Congress, by a long way,

Sorry, but you can’t shine up a broken Trump. A vote for Trump is a vote for a male version of Sarah Palin with a tinge of Hannity.

The point: Today’s election campaign is more hate-filled and dangerous than any I can remember.

On the one side we have people who simply hate Bill Clinton and partly by extension, also hate Hillary Clinton. They say (rightly) that the Clintons are liars and crooked and will endorse war and everything else that benefits big bankers (aka contributors).

On a second side are the people who hate Trump. They say (rightly) that Trump is a liar and crooked, and an incompetent loose cannon who spreads hatred for minorities and hatred for foreigners, and who will appoint fellow bigots to the Supreme Court.

Then, on yet another side, we have the people who hate the federal government because it’s “big” (but seem O.K. with state and local governments — even more crooked and incompetent than the federal government — and hate the laws that protect the poor from the rich.

And we have the Bernie Sanders people and the independents, and the Greens, and all of them lie and hate the others for lying.

Maybe this is the way it always has been, and it only feels like more hatred than ever.

But, none of this would matter much, if you simply do what I suggested to Vincent, and merely vote for the candidate who comes closest to your own leanings.  Heaven knows there are plenty of candidates from which to choose.

There is however, a huge problem with my suggestion: If no candidate receives 270 electoral votes, the Republican majority in the House of Representatives will select the President from the top three candidates, and they will choose Donald Trump for President.

The Republican majority in the Senate will select the Vice President from the top two candidates, and they will select Mike Pence.

Bottom line: If you want Trump/Pence in the White House, vote for Trump or for Johnson, or for Sanders or for Stein (Green Party) or for an independent or even for yourself in a write-in.  They all would be votes for Trump.

There is yet another possibility, of course: The House of Representatives could pick someone else altogether — someone the voters did not select — but that would lead to the destruction of America’s political system. 

These are dangerous times, indeed.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. ELIMINATE FICA (Ten Reasons to Eliminate FICA )
Although the article lists 10 reasons to eliminate FICA, there are two fundamental reasons:
*FICA is the most regressive tax in American history, widening the Gap by punishing the low and middle-income groups, while leaving the rich untouched, and
*The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, neither needs nor uses FICA to support Social Security and Medicare.
2. FEDERALLY FUNDED MEDICARE — PARTS A, B & D, PLUS LONG TERM CARE — FOR EVERYONE (H.R. 676, Medicare for All )
This article addresses the questions:
*Does the economy benefit when the rich afford better health care than the rest of Americans?
*Aside from improved health care, what are the other economic effects of “Medicare for everyone?”
*How much would it cost taxpayers?
*Who opposes it?”
3. PROVIDE AN ECONOMIC BONUS TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN AMERICA, AND/OR EVERY STATE, A PER CAPITA ECONOMIC BONUS (The JG (Jobs Guarantee) vs the GI (Guaranteed Income) vs the EB) Or institute a reverse income tax.
This article is the fifth in a series about direct financial assistance to Americans:

Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Employer of Last Resort is a bad idea. Sunday, Jan 1 2012
MMT’s Job Guarantee (JG) — “Another crazy, rightwing, Austrian nutjob?” Thursday, Jan 12 2012
Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Jobs Guarantee is like the EU’s euro: A beloved solution to the wrong problem. Tuesday, May 29 2012
“You can’t fire me. I’m on JG” Saturday, Jun 2 2012

Economic growth should include the “bottom” 99.9%, not just the .1%, the only question being, how best to accomplish that. Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) favors giving everyone a job. Monetary Sovereignty (MS) favors giving everyone money. The five articles describe the pros and cons of each approach.
4. FREE EDUCATION (INCLUDING POST-GRAD) FOR EVERYONEFive reasons why we should eliminate school loans
Monetarily non-sovereign State and local governments, despite their limited finances, support grades K-12. That level of education may have been sufficient for a largely agrarian economy, but not for our currently more technical economy that demands greater numbers of highly educated workers.
Because state and local funding is so limited, grades K-12 receive short shrift, especially those schools whose populations come from the lowest economic groups. And college is too costly for most families.
An educated populace benefits a nation, and benefiting the nation is the purpose of the federal government, which has the unlimited ability to pay for K-16 and beyond.
5. SALARY FOR ATTENDING SCHOOL
Even were schooling to be completely free, many young people cannot attend, because they and their families cannot afford to support non-workers. In a foundering boat, everyone needs to bail, and no one can take time off for study.
If a young person’s “job” is to learn and be productive, he/she should be paid to do that job, especially since that job is one of America’s most important.
6. ELIMINATE CORPORATE TAXES
Corporations themselves exist only as legalities. They don’t pay taxes or pay for anything else. They are dollar-tranferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the government (the later having no use for those dollars).
Any tax on corporations reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all corporate taxes come around and reappear as deductions from your personal income.
7. INCREASE THE STANDARD INCOME TAX DEDUCTION, ANNUALLY. (Refer to this.) Federal taxes punish taxpayers and harm the economy. The federal government has no need for those punishing and harmful tax dollars. There are several ways to reduce taxes, and we should evaluate and choose the most progressive approaches.
Cutting FICA and corporate taxes would be an good early step, as both dramatically affect the 99%. Annual increases in the standard income tax deduction, and a reverse income tax also would provide benefits from the bottom up. Both would narrow the Gap.
8. TAX THE VERY RICH (THE “.1%) MORE, WITH HIGHER PROGRESSIVE TAX RATES ON ALL FORMS OF INCOME. (TROPHIC CASCADE)
There was a time when I argued against increasing anyone’s federal taxes. After all, the federal government has no need for tax dollars, and all taxes reduce Gross Domestic Product, thereby negatively affecting the entire economy, including the 99.9%.
But I have come to realize that narrowing the Gap requires trimming the top. It simply would not be possible to provide the 99.9% with enough benefits to narrow the Gap in any meaningful way. Bill Gates reportedly owns $70 billion. To get to that level, he must have been earning $10 billion a year. Pick any acceptable Gap (1000 to 1?), and the lowest paid American would have to receive $10 million a year. Unreasonable.
9. FEDERAL OWNERSHIP OF ALL BANKS (Click The end of private banking and How should America decide “who-gets-money”?)
Banks have created all the dollars that exist. Even dollars created at the direction of the federal government, actually come into being when banks increase the numbers in checking accounts. This gives the banks enormous financial power, and as we all know, power corrupts — especially when multiplied by a profit motive.
Although the federal government also is powerful and corrupted, it does not suffer from a profit motive, the world’s most corrupting influence.
10. INCREASE FEDERAL SPENDING ON THE MYRIAD INITIATIVES THAT BENEFIT AMERICA’S 99.9% (Federal agencies)Browse the agencies. See how many agencies benefit the lower- and middle-income/wealth/ power groups, by adding dollars to the economy and/or by actions more beneficial to the 99.9% than to the .1%.
Save this reference as your primer to current economics. Sadly, much of the material is not being taught in American schools, which is all the more reason for you to use it.

The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

An easy solution to violent crime

There is a way to prevent and cure violent crime.

O.K., there is no way entirely to prevent violent crime, but it can dramatically be reduced.

First, let me remind you about what doesn’t work.

  1. Mass incarceration doesn’t work. We’ve tried that.

    Wikipedia: “In October 2013, the incarceration rate of the United States of America was the highest in the world, at 716 per 100,000 of the national population.

    “While the United States represents about 4.4 percent of the world’s population, it houses around 22 percent of the world’s prisoners.”

    Mass incarceration has minimal (if any) effect on crime, but it creates a huge subset of the population that is stigmatized.

    Stigmatization encourages future crime, as many legitimate jobs are closed to convicted felons.

  2. Guns in the hands of “good guys” doesn’t work. We’ve tried that.

    No one knows who the “good guys” are today, and who they might be tomorrow. The mild-mannered librarian can turn into a raving lunatic on the road.

    A “good guy” who loses his job, his house or his wife, can become a “bad guy” instantly.

    And an untrained “good guy” can be an unintentional menace to other good guys.

  3. The “war on drugs” doesn’t work. We’ve tried that.

    By now, America’s disastrous experiment with Prohibition should have taught us that prohibiting something people want, only encourages consumption — and crime.

    Gun owners surely understand the concept. Every time there is a concern guns might be banned, gun sales go up.

To prevent violent crime, we first must identify the people who most commit those crimes, the places where they commit them, and their motivation.

And that is fairly obvious, isn’t it?

Criminals live and operate in high-crime areas (a tautology), and high-crime areas are relatively poorer areas.

People commit crimes to satisfy their wants, and it is human nature to want at least as much as your neighbor has.

If no one had a TV set (as was the case in the 1800’s) those lacking TV sets would not feel the desire to steal one. But if some people have TV sets, those lacking sets are motivated to steal them.

Generally, criminals steal the way they know best. People whose educational and social background helps them to understand accounting, salesmanship, psychology and other paths to scamming, prefer “white collar” crime.

It usually is not violent. Upscale suburbs, for instance, seldom see violent crime.

Violent crimes in upscale city neighborhoods generally are committed by lower-income non-residents.

The crime low-income people know best is more confrontational and violent. They have seen it and been victims of it. They understand it, well.

If relatively low income is a common precursor to violent crime, the prevention of violent crime requires the elimination of relatively low income.

Why should we deny social benefits to those poorer than us, only to spend time and money protecting ourselves from violent crime? Wouldn’t we be wiser, and much safer, to lift the poor out of poverty, so to give them less motivation to attack us?

Yes, some may resent so-called “lazy” welfare recipients, receiving money and other “free stuff” without working.

But does it make any sense to encourage people into violent crimes that will hurt us? Rather than advocating mere punishment, wouldn’t we be smarter to add a nice, juicy carrot to that stick?

Implementing Steps #2 – 5 of the Ten Steps to Prosperity immediately would reduce America’s poverty rate and reduce America’s violent crime rate.

It would grow America’s economy, enrich you and your loved ones, and make you and your family safer.

Just because it’s obvious and easy, doesn’t make it wrong.

​Reduce violent crime by reducing poverty. Reduce poverty by implementing the Ten Steps to Prosperity.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. ELIMINATE FICA (Ten Reasons to Eliminate FICA )
Although the article lists 10 reasons to eliminate FICA, there are two fundamental reasons:
*FICA is the most regressive tax in American history, widening the Gap by punishing the low and middle-income groups, while leaving the rich untouched, and
*The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, neither needs nor uses FICA to support Social Security and Medicare.
2. FEDERALLY FUNDED MEDICARE — PARTS A, B & D, PLUS LONG TERM CARE — FOR EVERYONE (H.R. 676, Medicare for All )
This article addresses the questions:
*Does the economy benefit when the rich afford better health care than the rest of Americans?
*Aside from improved health care, what are the other economic effects of “Medicare for everyone?”
*How much would it cost taxpayers?
*Who opposes it?”
3. PROVIDE AN ECONOMIC BONUS TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN AMERICA, AND/OR EVERY STATE, A PER CAPITA ECONOMIC BONUS (The JG (Jobs Guarantee) vs the GI (Guaranteed Income) vs the EB) Or institute a reverse income tax.
This article is the fifth in a series about direct financial assistance to Americans:

Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Employer of Last Resort is a bad idea. Sunday, Jan 1 2012
MMT’s Job Guarantee (JG) — “Another crazy, rightwing, Austrian nutjob?” Thursday, Jan 12 2012
Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Jobs Guarantee is like the EU’s euro: A beloved solution to the wrong problem. Tuesday, May 29 2012
“You can’t fire me. I’m on JG” Saturday, Jun 2 2012

Economic growth should include the “bottom” 99.9%, not just the .1%, the only question being, how best to accomplish that. Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) favors giving everyone a job. Monetary Sovereignty (MS) favors giving everyone money. The five articles describe the pros and cons of each approach.
4. FREE EDUCATION (INCLUDING POST-GRAD) FOR EVERYONEFive reasons why we should eliminate school loans
Monetarily non-sovereign State and local governments, despite their limited finances, support grades K-12. That level of education may have been sufficient for a largely agrarian economy, but not for our currently more technical economy that demands greater numbers of highly educated workers.
Because state and local funding is so limited, grades K-12 receive short shrift, especially those schools whose populations come from the lowest economic groups. And college is too costly for most families.
An educated populace benefits a nation, and benefiting the nation is the purpose of the federal government, which has the unlimited ability to pay for K-16 and beyond.
5. SALARY FOR ATTENDING SCHOOL
Even were schooling to be completely free, many young people cannot attend, because they and their families cannot afford to support non-workers. In a foundering boat, everyone needs to bail, and no one can take time off for study.
If a young person’s “job” is to learn and be productive, he/she should be paid to do that job, especially since that job is one of America’s most important.
6. ELIMINATE CORPORATE TAXES
Corporations themselves exist only as legalities. They don’t pay taxes or pay for anything else. They are dollar-tranferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the government (the later having no use for those dollars).
Any tax on corporations reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all corporate taxes come around and reappear as deductions from your personal income.
7. INCREASE THE STANDARD INCOME TAX DEDUCTION, ANNUALLY. (Refer to this.) Federal taxes punish taxpayers and harm the economy. The federal government has no need for those punishing and harmful tax dollars. There are several ways to reduce taxes, and we should evaluate and choose the most progressive approaches.
Cutting FICA and corporate taxes would be an good early step, as both dramatically affect the 99%. Annual increases in the standard income tax deduction, and a reverse income tax also would provide benefits from the bottom up. Both would narrow the Gap.
8. TAX THE VERY RICH (THE “.1%) MORE, WITH HIGHER PROGRESSIVE TAX RATES ON ALL FORMS OF INCOME. (TROPHIC CASCADE)
There was a time when I argued against increasing anyone’s federal taxes. After all, the federal government has no need for tax dollars, and all taxes reduce Gross Domestic Product, thereby negatively affecting the entire economy, including the 99.9%.
But I have come to realize that narrowing the Gap requires trimming the top. It simply would not be possible to provide the 99.9% with enough benefits to narrow the Gap in any meaningful way. Bill Gates reportedly owns $70 billion. To get to that level, he must have been earning $10 billion a year. Pick any acceptable Gap (1000 to 1?), and the lowest paid American would have to receive $10 million a year. Unreasonable.
9. FEDERAL OWNERSHIP OF ALL BANKS (Click The end of private banking and How should America decide “who-gets-money”?)
Banks have created all the dollars that exist. Even dollars created at the direction of the federal government, actually come into being when banks increase the numbers in checking accounts. This gives the banks enormous financial power, and as we all know, power corrupts — especially when multiplied by a profit motive.
Although the federal government also is powerful and corrupted, it does not suffer from a profit motive, the world’s most corrupting influence.
10. INCREASE FEDERAL SPENDING ON THE MYRIAD INITIATIVES THAT BENEFIT AMERICA’S 99.9% (Federal agencies)Browse the agencies. See how many agencies benefit the lower- and middle-income/wealth/ power groups, by adding dollars to the economy and/or by actions more beneficial to the 99.9% than to the .1%.
Save this reference as your primer to current economics. Sadly, much of the material is not being taught in American schools, which is all the more reason for you to use it.

The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY