Why the government can’t do its job.

This paper comes at a significant moment in our history.

The purpose of government is to improve and protect the lives of a nation’s residents. But here is why the American government can’t do that job:

In his March 1, 2022, State of the Union speech, President Biden promised to reduce the federal deficit and debt.

The audience stood and cheered, not knowing or not caring that what he really told them was, “I’m going to cut the net amount of money the federal government will send into the economy, and if I succeed, we’ll have a recession or depression.”

“Reduce the federal debt” means “take dollars from you Americans and give them to the federal government.” Is that something to cheer about? MYTHS - Calorie Control Council

Or is the need to cut the federal debt just a Common Myth?

Economics is filled with Common Myths that have no basis in data. For example:

Common Myth: The federal government should handle its finances like you and me.

Reality: In the beginning of the U.S., the federal government created laws from thin air, and some of those laws created the U.S. dollar from thin air.

There was, and remains, no limit to the number of laws the government can create, just as there was, and remains, no limit to the number of dollars the government can create.

This fact is known as “Monetary Sovereignty.“

Unlike state and local governments, unlike businesses, and unlike you, and me, the federal government cannot unintentionally run short of its own sovereign currency, the U.S. dollar. The U.S. federal government has available to it, infinite dollars.

The government creates dollars ad hoc, by paying its bills. The more bills the government pays, the more dollars it creates.

To pay a creditor, the government sends instructions, in the form of checks or wires (“Pay to the order of”), to each creditor’s bank, instructing the bank to increase the balance in the creditor’s checking account.

The instant the creditor’s bank obeys those instructions, new dollars are created and added to the M1 money-supply measure.

Common Myth: The federal debt should be reduced.
Reality: The federal “debt” is not a debt of the federal government or of taxpayers. It is not even a debt. It is the total of deposits into Treasury security accounts.

These accounts resemble safe-deposit accounts, the contents of which our government, being Monetarily Sovereign and having the infinite ability to create its own sovereign currency, never needs or touches.

Just as the contents of your bank safe deposit box are not your bank’s debt, the contents of T-security accounts are not the government’s debts. They are dollars you own in your T-security account that eventually you will transfer to your checking account.

The notion of the government struggling to reduce the debt is ludicrous. Not only does the federal government have absolute control over the amount of deposits in T-security accounts, but there is no reason to reduce these deposits.

They are not a burden on the government or on future taxpayers.

Common Myth: Taxpayers or your grandchildren will be liable for paying off the debt.
Reality: When you invest in a T-bill, T-note, or T-bond, you take dollars from your checking account and deposit them into your Treasury Security account. There your dollars remain, accumulating interest until account maturity, at which time your dollars are returned to you.

The federal government does not remove those dollars for any purposes.

Returning your dollars is no burden on the government or on future taxpayers. No tax dollars are involved. Your grandchildren will not pay for the federal “debt.”

To pay off the “debt,” (which isn’t a debt) the dollars in your T-security accounts simply are returned to you. It is a simple money transfer from your T-security account to your checking account.

Common Myth: When federal taxes are not sufficient to pay for things, the federal government borrows dollars via T-bills, T-notes, and T-bonds.
Reality: The federal government never borrows. The purpose of T-securities is not to provide spending money. Rather, the sole purposes of T-security accounts are to:
1. Provide a safe, interest-paying place to store unused dollars. This helps stabilize the dollar.
2. Help the Fed control interest rates by setting the rates of interest the government pays into T-security accounts.

Common Myth: Reducing the debt would be fiscally prudent.
Reality: By law, the federal “debt” matches the net total of federal deficit spending. Because federal deficits add dollars to the economy, they are economically stimulative.

Every time the debt has been reduced, we have a depression or recession.
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.

Even when the debt growth rate declines, we have recessions. Recessions are cured by increased deficit spending, i.e. debt growth increases.

Reductions in federal debt growth lead to inflation — **Recessions (vertical gray bars) follow decreases in federal debt growth. Recessions are cured by increases in federal debt growth.**

Common Myth: Federal deficit spending can lead to inflation
Reality: No inflation in history has been caused by government adding dollars to the economy. All inflations have been caused by shortages of key goods and services.

**Inflation (red) is not related to federal debt or deficit(blue).**

Massive government spending had been going on for many years without inflation. Yet suddenly, today, we have inflation. Why?

The spending did not cause inflation yesterday, nor did spending cause today’s inflation. Today’s inflation, and all past inflations, are is caused by shortages — in today’s case, shortages of energy, computer ships, shipping, food, labor, etc.

Today’s inflation can be cured by government spending to encourage energy production, computer chip production, shipping, and farming.

Labor can be encouraged by the reduction of the FICA tax and income taxes, both of which make jobs less attractive by reducing net income.

We have recessions (gray bars) when federal debt declines. Recessions are cured by debt increases.

Debt/GDP has no relationship to inflation. There is no historical relationship between changes in federal debt and changes in inflation.

Common Myth: The Debt/Gross Domestic Product fraction is too high.
Reality: The Debt/GDP fraction is meaningless. It neither determines the current, nor the future health of a nation’s economy.

Today, Japan’s ratio is above 200%. The U.S. ratio is near 100%. By contrast, Russia’s, Chile’s, Libya’s, Qatar’s and others are below 10%, all of which tells you nothing about their economies but says a great deal about the meaningless Debt/GDP ratio.

**There is no relationship between Debt/GDP and the health of an economy.**

The Debt/GDP ratio does not indicate “the country’s ability to pay back its debt.”

Mathematically, the fraction makes no sense. “Debt” is the net total of all federal deficits for the past 250 years. GDP is a one-year measure of all spending by both the public and private sectors.

A 250 year measure cannot be compared to a one-year measure. Further, the whole nation’s spending on goods and services, has no relationship to the federal government’s ability to transfer dollars from T-security accounts at the FRB to checking accounts at private banks.

The fraction also does not take into consideration Monetary Sovereignty. Some nations have it; others don’t. The fraction may have some meaning for monetarily non-sovereign entities, but for Monetarily Sovereign nations it is completely meaningless.

Common Myth: The Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds will run short of dollars unless taxes are increased or benefits are decreased.
Reality: These so-called “trust funds” are not real trust funds and federal taxes do not fund federal spending.

In fact, federal taxes (unlike state/local taxes, are destroyed upon receipt by the Treasury.

(Being Monetarily Sovereign, the government has infinite dollars. When you pay taxes, you take your dollars from your checking account, which is part of the M1 money supply. Because the government has infinite dollars, they are not counted as any part of any money supply, so your federal tax dollars cease to exist in any money measure. They effectively are destroyed. State/local tax dollars continue to exist, however, because those governments are not Monetarily Sovereign.

In summary, the false notion that the federal government must be “prudent” in its creation and distribution of dollars to the private sector has prevented Social Security for All, Medicare for All, Free College for All, repair of our infrastructure, support for science and exploration, and many other programs that would help narrow the Gap between the rich and the rest.

Common economic myths prevent the federal government from using its Monetary Sovereignty to improve and protect the lives of Americans.

The President of the United States lied about basic economics. It simply cannot be due to ignorance. He is surrounded by the most prominent economists in America.

Surely, he knows that what he said was myth. We only can assume:

He is afraid to tell the truth because he feels the American public will not believe the truth, or
He is lying to protect rich donors who do not want the public to know the government has the unlimited ability to provide Gap-narrowing benefits.

Take your pick.

[Why would any sane person take dollars from the economy and give them to a federal government that has the infinite ability to create dollars?]

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

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THE SOLE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT IS TO IMPROVE AND PROTECT THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE.

The most important problems in economics involve:

Monetary Sovereignty describes money creation and destruction.
Gap Psychology describes the common desire to distance oneself from those “below” in any socio-economic ranking, and to come nearer those “above.” The socio-economic distance is referred to as “The Gap.”

Wide Gaps negatively affect poverty, health and longevity, education, housing, law and crime, war, leadership, ownership, bigotry, supply and demand, taxation, GDP, international relations, scientific advancement, the environment, human motivation and well-being, and virtually every other issue in economics. Implementation of Monetary Sovereignty and The Ten Steps To Prosperity can grow the economy and narrow the Gaps:

Ten Steps To Prosperity:

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

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Why Does the Euro Area Have Such Low Growth and High Unemployment?

These people believe taking money out of the economy will grow the economy and benefit them.

It takes only two things to keep people in chains:
The ignorance of the oppressed
and the treachery of their leaders.

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In a May, 2010 talk at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, I said, “Because of the Euro, no euro nation can control its own money supply. The Euro is the worst economic idea since the recession-era, Smoot-Hawley Tariff. The economies of European nations are doomed by the euro.”

My reason was something that should have been obvious to anyone with even a smattering of knowledge about economics. Every euro nation was forced to surrender the single most valuable asset any nation can have: It’s Monetary Sovereignty.

A Monetarily Sovereign (MS) government has complete control over its own sovereign money. An MS government can control the supply and the value of its money. It can pay any debt denominated in its sovereign currency. It can create its sovereign currency at will, simply by paying bills.

An MS government never can run short of its sovereign currency, never can be “burdened” by debt, never can find debt “unsustainable,” and never needs to ask anyone (taxpayers or lenders) for infusions of its sovereign currency.

The U.S. government, for instance, has absolute power over the dollar, which gives lie to all the debt “Henny Penny’s” who for at least 77 years, have claimed the federal deficit and debt are in some vague way a threat to the government or to American taxpayers.

So it was with guilty but pleasurable feelings of “I told you so,” that once again I publish excerpts from an article that appeared in the “Naked Capitalism blog:

Why Does the Euro Area Have Such Low Growth and High Unemployment?
Posted on November 11, 2017 by Yves Smith
By Philip Arestis, Professor of Economics at the University of the Basque Country, Spain and Malcolm Sawyer, Professor of Economics, University of Leeds. Originally published at Triple Crisis

Since the euro was adopted as a virtual currency in 1999 (and the exchange rates between the currencies of the then 11 countries fixed en route to adopting the euro), growth among the euro-area countries has been lacklustre.

The euro-area annual growth rate was just under 2% in 2002 to 2007, followed by 0.3% in 2008, -4.5% in 2009, then 2% in 2010, and an average of 0.8% 2011 to 2016. Over the period 1999 to 2016, the average was 1.1%.

Unemployment declined through to 2007 down to 7.5%, then rose in the aftermath of the financial crises and the effects of fiscal austerity programmes to 12% in 2013, and has gently declined since to 10% in 2016 and likely to come close to 9% at the end of October 2017.

There are notable disparities between different countries’ experiences, with Italy’s growth 1998 to 2016 being an annual average rate of 0.2%, and unemployment in Greece over 23% and Spain close to 20% in 2016.

We pause to examine the term, “fiscal austerity,” which I bolded for your convenience. It is a term that describes a government’s efforts to limit or reduce its deficits and debt.

Fiscal austerity is inevitable, even mandatory, for all monetary non-sovereign nations.

In America, city, county, and state governments, all being monetarily non-sovereign, continually must practice fiscal austerity, lest they eventually be unable to pay their bills.

No monetarily non-sovereign government can survive long-term on taxes alone. All monetarily non-sovereign governments require money coming in from outside their borders.

U.S. cities survive by borrowing, by trade surpluses, and by receiving dollars from county and state governments. County and state governments survive the same way, and additionally by receiving dollars from the federal government, which the federal government provides by running deficits vs. the states.

The Monetarily Sovereign federal government can survive forever, even while running deficits, and even while collecting $0 in taxes.

The euro nations are much like U.S. cities, counties, and states, all of which require euros coming in from outside their borders, just to survive, let alone to grow economically.

But from where will these additional euros come? They can come from borrowing (which is limited by the need to repay), net exports (though not all nations can be net exporters), or from the European Union (which requires that the EU itself run deficits).

Gross Domestic Product = Government Spending + Non-government Spending + Net Exports

Increasing any of the three factors — government spending, non-government spending, or net exports — requires an increased supply of money. This formula tells you a growing economy requires a growing supply of money.

Mathematically, it is impossible for an economy to grow while its money supply shrinks.

This all boils down to one absolute truth: The long-term survival of monetarily non-sovereign governments requires input from one or more Monetarily Sovereign governments, which in turn, requires the MS governments to run deficits.

The launch of the single currency had a whole range of political forces behind it, but was viewed as enhancing economic integration and giving some boost to trade between member countries.

“Boosting trade” always was the public excuse to the euro. But trade does not grow the overall money supply; it only transfers money from one nation to another.

Because a growing money supply is necessary for a growing economy, intra-EU trade does not grow the overall EU economy.

Many of the “structural reforms” have detrimental effects on inequality and productivity. “Reforms” attacking the level of minimum wages and undermining the position of trade unions exacerbate inequality.

“Reforms” attacking employment protection and security of employment do not help to foster training and innovation. Indeed, “structural reforms” were promoted to reduce “structural unemployment” and yet it is notable that the rate of “structural unemployment” in 2016 was 8.9%, compared with an average of 9.0% in the period 1992-2001, and 9.1% over 2002=2011.

Those favoring austerity always title their actions “Reforms.” Thus today, in America, we have “tax reform,” the ostensible purpose of which is to reduce (beneficial) deficits and debt, but which really is designed to increase the Gap between the rich and the rest.

The operations of the euro area (and the Economic and Monetary Union) are hampered by restrictive fiscal policies which strive for balanced budgets.

The attempt at a uniformity of fiscal policy (with the common aim of a “balanced structural budget”) cannot take into account the differing needs of countries for infrastructure investments nor does it take into account the differing economic circumstances of countries.

Balanced budgets also do not take into account the fact that government deficits add money to the private sector. When any government entity, whether Monetarily Sovereign or monetarily non-sovereign, runs a surplus, the private sector it serves runs a deficit — which is recessive.

In America,for instance, economic growth has required not just deficits, but deficit growth. Reductions in deficit growth have led to recessions, while increased deficit growth has cured recessions.

The adoption of the euro took place without any thought to the current-account imbalances between the member countries, and without any perspective on the sustainability of those imbalances.

Translation: Some euro nations had net exports of goods and services (i.e. imports of euros) and so, prospered. The others had net imports of goods and services (exports of euros), so suffered.

The current-account imbalances grew in the first decade of the euro, with associated capital flows between countries. In the second decade of the euro, current-account deficits were drastically reduced as internal deflation brought imports down.

But the underlying pattern of imbalances has not been resolved, and countries with high unemployment seeking a return to prosperity will face severe constraints from their current-account position.

Translation: The net-import, monetarily non-sovereign nations have no way to stimulate their economies by growing their money supply.

The austerity policy agenda (from the Stability and Growth Pact, the “fiscal compact,” etc., with the drives for balanced budgets), the pursuit of “structural reforms,” and the failures to address the current account constraints on euro-area member countries have all contributed to the lacklustre economic performance.

In Summary:

Austerity (i.e. the reduction of deficits and debt), reduces the growth of a nation’s money supply, which in turn, reduces economic growth, and even leads to recessions and depressions.

Image result for austerity

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.

Monetarily non-sovereign governments are forced into austerity by their inability to create the money they use.

Monetarily Sovereign nations have the unlimited ability to create their own sovereign currency, but may intentionally be taken into austerity by government malfeasance on behalf of the rich.

Keep this in mind as Congress and the President debate tax “reform,” health care “reform,” and other so-called fiscal “reforms,” that are designed to widen the Gap between the very rich and you.

Deficit reduction guarantees economic death.

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

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THE WAY THINGS ARE:

•All we have are partial solutions; the best we can do is try.

•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.

•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money no matter how much it taxes its citizens.

•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes..

•No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth.

•Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.

•A growing economy requires a growing supply of money (GDP = Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)

•Deficit spending grows the supply of money

•The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.

•Progressives think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between the rich and the rest.

•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between the rich and the rest.

•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Six examples of how the media brainwash you.

STwitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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It takes only two things to keep people in chains: The ignorance of the oppressed and the treachery of their leaders.
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In just one, short article, the March 31 edition of THIS WEEK Magazine demonstrates how the media are complicit in the brainwashing of America.

First, it quotes Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post:

If the budget plan President Trump released is any guide, his new goal is to make the nation “dumber, dirtier, hungrier, and sicker.” Predictably titled “America First,” this brutal document calls for a 9 percent boost in annual defense spending, paid for with deep cuts to almost everything else.

Trump is proposing a stagggering 31% cut in funding to the Enviromental Protection Agency and would also deeply slash funding for foreign, aid, medical and scientific reserach and anti-poverty programs, eliminating funding for National Public Radio, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Image result for children pollution — Pollution and climate change don’t create jobs

No, those deep cuts to programs that improve your life and the lives of middle and lower income people, will not “pay for” anything, nor will they “create jobs,” as Trump claims.

Unlike state and local governments, the federal government is Monetarily Sovereign, meaning it never can run short of its own sovereign currency.

Even if tax collections fell to $0, the federal government could continue spending, forever.

The article then quotes Ed Rogers of the Washington Post:

“Spending cuts are always painful, but what choice do we have when every man, woman, and child in the nation is currently on the hook for $166,000 of our $19 trillion national debt.

“The reality is that we just can’t afford to keep spending at the rate that we are.”

That was 100% BS.

Not only can the federal government afford to spend as it has been, it can afford to spend far more. We have documented this lie about unaffordability since 1940, and it never changes.

We always are told “can’t afford” to keep spending at our current rate, but somehow, though we spend even more, we keep affording it.

The people of America are not liable for any of the so-called federal “debt.” Have you noticed any bill collectors coming to your door, to ask you for your $166,000 share?

Then there was the quote from Stephen Moore in Spectator.org:

“He (Trump) wants to surgically remove trillions of dollars of wasteful spending. The pushback from those groups, the welfare state, and the liberal media has already begun.”

Note the words, “welfare state.” Those are code for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other aids to the middle and lower income groups. Trump, being rich, disdains those groups (despite his phony pandering to coal miners).

The “liberal media” refers to anyone who wants to help the non-rich, a crime in the eyes of the rich.

Trump knows that the only way to “surgically remove trillions of dollars from (so-called) wasteful spending” is to gut social programs — or gut the military, on which he wishes to lavish more billions.

And the next bit of brainwashing comes from Nick Gillespie, in Reason.com:

“Overall federal spending will still come in around $4 trillion, with nearly the same deficit: $559 billion. Worse, for those of us who actually care about our spiraling national debt, Trump’s budget does nothing to curb spending on Medicare, Social Sercurity, and the other entitlement programs, which everyone knows are where the real money is.”

The so-called “spiraling national debt,” actually is the total of deposits in T-security accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank. These bank deposits are not a burden on the federal government or on taxpayers. Never have been; never will be. The federal debt scare is a fake.

Sure, we in of the upper 1% income group want to cut your Medicare, your Social Security, and your other entitlement benefits. Isn’t that what you want, too?

And yes, that’s where the real money is, so how will the conservatives cut the budget without cutting your benefits?

Always remember, budget cuts (aka “austerity”) mean cuts to the private sector (aka “the economy.”) Always.

Now, we move on to the quote from the WashingtonExaminer.com editorial.

“The goal of the budget is not to wipe out the deficit. Nor is Trump saying that medical research is a bad thing, or that children should go hungry”

“Wipe out” the deficit? More weasel words. The goal of the right wing is to reduce the deficit, though yes, some of the more extremist would like to wipe it out altogether. But, deficit spending is the federal government’s method for growing the economy.

Cutting the deficit to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.

And, uh, excuse me, if Trump cuts medical research budgets and the budgets for providing food to children, what exactly does he expect to happen?

“He’s just establishing the conservative principle that some activities are better handled by the private sector, or by a level of government closer to the individual.”

The phrase “better handled by the private sector” means privatizing — the 1%’s method for reaping big profits.

We often have written about privatization, for instance: “I smell the meat a’cookin’. The new privatization scam.” Anytime you hear a politician recommend turning some job over to the private sector, you can be sure he is salivating over unregulated, risk-free profits.

And that “level of government closer to the individual” means state and local government, which being monetarily non-sovereign, usually are cash strapped and must pay for services with increased taxes.

By contrast, the federal government is Monetarily Sovereign, so never can be cash strapped, and never needs to increase taxes. It doesn’t need taxes at all; the federal government creates dollars, ad hoc, by paying bills.

The rich love it when the middle and the poor have to pay more state and local taxes, because that widens the Gap between the rich and the rest.

And finally, we come to a more subtle bit of brainwashing, courtesy of Doyle McManus in the LATimes.com:

“With Congress in Republican hands, Trump has a golden opportunity to downsize federal spending and make it more efficient.“

No reason is given for why the word’s most powerful nation, a nation of 340 million people, needs a smaller government, while its underfunded cities, counties, and states should spend more.

And what is there in Trump’s suggestions that would make the government more efficient?

There, in just four paragraphs, THIS WEEK Magazine has used six quotes to brainwash you into believing federal finances are like state and local government finances, and like your finances.

If you want to know what federal finances really are like, read, Does the U.S. Treasury really destroy your tax dollars?

THIS WEEK wants you to believe the federal government can’t afford to pay for services that are valuable to you.

Meanwhile, know this: Anyone advocating federal deficit/debt reduction, or privatization, or shifting costs from the federal government to the states, is trying to scam you like a Nigerian prince.

Don’t believe them, and for heaven’s sake, don’t vote for them.

Or, you simply can send your money to that Nigerian prince.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

THE RULES

•All we have are partial solutions; the best we can do is try.

•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.

•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money no matter how much it taxes its citizens.

•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes..

•No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth.

•Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.

•A growing economy requires a growing supply of money (GDP = Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)

•Deficit spending grows the supply of money

•The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between the rich and the rest.

•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between the rich and the rest.

•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

–The creative guy who sold you the Planned Parenthood scandal myth

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

Mitchell’s laws:
•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money.
•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes. .
•Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.
•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and poor.
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..

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If you are outraged by Planned Parenthood, you should learn this:

James E. O’Keefe III is an American conservative activist.

O’Keefe has produced selectively edited, secretly recorded undercover audio and video encounters with public figures and workers in a variety of organizations, purportedly showing abusive or alleged illegal behavior by representatives of those organizations.

Due to his videos of ACORN workers allegedly aiding a couple in criminal planning, the US Congress voted to freeze funds for the non-profit.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) was a collection of community-based organizations in the United States and internationally that advocated for low- and moderate-income families by working on neighborhood safety, voter registration, health care, affordable housing, and other social issues.

At its peak, ACORN had over 500,000 members and more than 1,200 neighborhood chapters in over 100 cities across the U.S.

ACORN suffered an extremely damaging nationwide controversy after two conservative activists secretly made and released videos of staged interactions with low-level ACORN personnel in several offices, portraying them as encouraging criminal behavior.

Some media publicized the videos without investigation. These videos were later found to have been partially falsified and selectively edited by the activists, James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles.

Four different independent investigations by various state and city Attorneys General and the GAO cleared ACORN, finding its employees had not engaged in the alleged criminal activities and that the organization had appropriately managed its federal funding.

Their reports described the videos as deceptively edited to present the workers in the worst possible light. The national scandal resulted in the non-profit also losing most private funding before investigations were completed.

In March 2010, ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) was close to bankruptcy and had to close most of its offices.

The California State Attorney General’s Office and the US Government Accountability Office found that O’Keefe had misrepresented the actions of ACORN workers.

The loss of funds had been too damaging and by March 2010, ACORN announced it was closing its remaining state chapters and disbanding.

Hmmm . . . Does this sound familiar?
–O’Keefe misrepresented.
–Funds taken away without investigation.
–A valuable organization closed.

O’Keefe seems to be a serial liar:

O’Keefe was arrested in New Orleans in January 2010 during an attempt to illegally make recordings at the office of United States Senator Mary Landrieu, a Democrat.

(He) initially was charged with malicious intent to damage the phone system, a felony. The charges were reduced from a felony to a single misdemeanor count of entering a federal building under false pretenses. O’Keefe pleaded guilty on May 26.

Sadly, and with the cooperation of the media and the gullibility of the populace, the O’Keefe nonsense continues:

This time, O’Keefe claims his latest sting operation found Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign breaking the law, when in reality all that happened was the purchase of a t-shirt.

O’Keefe’s Project Veritas Action accused the Clinton campaign of allowing a Canadian tourist to launder money, in the form of allowing a t-shirt to be purchased.

In the video, representatives of the Clinton campaign point out to a woman from Montreal that that the campaign can’t take contributions from anyone who isn’t American.

An undercover activist from Project Veritas then makes the purchase on behalf of the Canadian.

As The Washington Post’s Dave Weigel points out: “There are just two catches. One: No one’s ever thrown the book at an American for purchasing merchandise from a campaign, then giving it to a foreigner as a gift.

Two: The person who takes the Canadian’s money and gives it to the Clinton campaign is the Project Veritas Action journalist.”

O’Keefe held a press conference September 1 to promote the video, where journalists reportedly asked him “Is this a joke?”

O’Keefe’s crew has reportedly already made multiple other attempts to sabotage the Clinton campaign.

Project Veritas last month released a video showing their operative undercover with the Clinton campaign, discussing the registration process and whether they can register people who don’t support Clinton.

A Clinton campaign staffer is then shown telling the Project Veritas operative that they will register anyone who asks, regardless of their presidential preference.

As Time reported, “Nothing in the video shows the Clinton campaign violating the law, or the campaign’s own policy.”

This approach to training volunteers is standard operating procedure across field campaigns, according to a Republican field staffer, who requested anonymity.”

Time reports that in addition to the t-shirt scheme, Project Veritas operatives approached the campaign and attempted to pass a cash donation to volunteers and interns while another told the campaign they wanted to illegally funnel donations through a third party.

These failure-laden sting attempts continue O’Keefe’s pattern of using deceptively-edited videos, childish costumes, and sometimes committing crimes, in a futile campaign to attack the left.

Even Fox News hosts have been embarrassed for O’Keefe, telling him to “give it a rest.”

O’Keefe, knowing the media is careless, the public is clueless and the right-wing is shameless, continues his “shoot-edit-release” efforts.

In recent years, conservative activists, under the guise of journalism, have been churning out undercover “sting” videos supposedly capturing reprehensible behavior by their mostly liberal targets.

Those targets have included low-level workers at ACORN, a fundraiser at National Public Radio, and now officials at Planned Parenthood, among others.

The activists release a series of videos in an effort to build a big takedown story, and the press usually plays along.

Meanwhile, activists coordinate with right-wing media players and members of Congress to generate simultaneous outrage over the clips.

The problem for the activists, and the problem for journalists who excitedly treat the clips as news, is that the videos invariably turn out to be doctored, filled with deceptive edits, and missing context in an effort to manufacture scandal.

The whole cycle has become a media cliché, but it’s one that conservative partisans cheer.

And they’re cheering again this month as the “Center for Medical Progress” releases edited clips to claim Planned Parenthood officials have been caught discussing how the organization “sells the body parts of aborted fetuses” and “haggling” over prices for “baby parts.”

Both incendiary videos have been proven to omit crucial context undermining their central claims.

If you hate Planned Parenthood, and are happy to see the right wing shut down the government unless funding for Planned Parenthood is eliminated, perhaps you should know at least a little about what this organization actually does.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) or often just Planned Parenthood is the largest U.S. provider of reproductive health services, with 97% of its clinical interactions focused on breast and cervical cancer screening, HIV screening and counseling, contraception, and 3% on abortion.

Services provided at locations include contraceptives; long-acting reversible contraception; emergency contraception; screening for breast, cervical and testicular cancers; pregnancy testing and pregnancy options counseling; testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases; comprehensive sexuality education, menopause treatments; vasectomies and tubal ligations.

They serve over five million clients a year, 26% of which are teenagers under the age of 19. According to PPFA, 75% of their clients have incomes at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty level.

The fact that Planned Parenthood serves the poor makes them a target for the Republicans, whose allegiance is to the rich.

While the abortions are legal, and comprise only a minuscule part of what PP does, the right wing wishes to “throw out the baby with the bathwater” by closing PP. For example:

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has attempted to sever the contract with Planned Parenthood in his state (where no abortions are provided), at a time when there is an epidemic of syphilis in New Orleans, and where Louisiana ranks first among the states in cases of gonorrhea, second in chlamydia, and third in syphilis and H.I.V., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As Republican Jindal is well aware, the rich can afford prevention and treatment for these diseases.

Planned Parenthood clinics in Louisiana last year administered approximately 20,000 tests for these infections, and provided gynecological examinations, contraceptives, screening for cancer, and other services for nearly 10,000 mostly low-income patients, and there is insufficient access to medical care for the people who now can’t be seen at Planned Parenthood clinics.

Without Planned Parenthood, these tests, screenings, contraceptives and other services would not be affordable for the poor.

Aside from repeated attempts to entrap PP employees via selectively edited videos, the “pro-life” right wing has engaged in horrendous, anti-life activities:

In the US, abortion providers have often been threatened with death, and facilities which provide abortions are frequently attacked or vandalized.

Planned Parenthood clinics have been the target of many instances of violence by anti-abortion activists, including bombing, arson, and attacks with chemical weaponry.

In the self-proclaimed, “religious,” right wing world, violence, bombings, shootings, arson and chemical attacks are considered “pro-life.”

And now we await the shutdown of the government by those who wish to shut down women’s health, all in the same “pro-life” name.

If you don’t see the irony in that, you aren’t as creative as James E. O’Keefe III, video editor, convicted criminal and the guy who sold you the Planned Parenthood myth.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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

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

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

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

THE RECESSION CLOCK

Recessions come after the blue line drops below zero.

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

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

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

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