Mitchell’s laws:
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor, which leads to civil disorder.
●Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
●Everything in economics devolves to motivation.
=====================================================================

Can you find the connection among the following stories?

Financial Fraud Conviction Scorecard:
CONVICTED: Bush 1300+, Clinton 1000+, Obama 0.0 (+/-)

Not a word of complaint from a single Democrat in Congress, which is especially infuriating given the broad bi-partisan agreement among voters that criminal bankers need to do time.

Too concerned with keeping up appearances and the next election cycle, neither side of the false left-right paradigm of American politics is capable of exposing its own filth when it comes to legitimate scandal, and this DOJ non-prosecution madness involving Goldman Sachs certainly qualifies as sordid.

Unfortunately, since it appears to the mainstream media that this is a partisan issue, and Obama is the anointed one, this story will get zero coverage.

Obama, Democrats, Republicans and media fail to demand that wealthy bankers be prosecuted for criminal actions that cost Americans trillions of dollars. Why?

Timothy Geithner Says Justice Is Nice but Banks Are Just the Best
By: masaccio Thursday January 24, 2013

The Secretary of the Treasury discusses the rule of law

The soon-to-depart Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner confirmed to Liaquat Ahamed of The National Review that his goal was to protect bankers:

… My own view was that it was going to be very hard, if not impossible to design a financial rescue that was going to be effective in protecting all the innocent victims hit by the crisis and still satisfy the completely understandable public desire for justice and accountability. Those things were in direct and tragic tension, never resolvable at that time.

I always felt that the only preoccupation for people in policy at the time should be to fix the problem as quickly as we could, as effectively as we could, and only after that would other things be possible, including how to figure out not just how to clean up the mess, but reform the financial system.

That’s just silly. There is no tension between protecting the innocent victims and locking up the criminals who caused the Great Crash. None.

And his claim that he wanted to do anything for the “innocent victims” is laughable. The truth is what he told Elizabeth Warren and Neil Barofsky: he wanted to foam the runway with the financial corpses of the victims of mortgage and foreclosure fraud so that the banksters and the feral rich would have a soft landing.

Tim Geithner would not, did not and never will demand that the rich criminals be prosecuted. He uses the old, “We must do this, before we do that” excuse for inaction. Why?

Government Protects Criminals by Attacking Whistleblowers

Government Prosecutes and Harasses those Who Expose Criminal Wrongdoing
by Washington’s Blog

It’s now obvious to everyone that – even though criminal fraud dominates Wall Street – the Obama administration refuses to prosecute white collar crime. Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton each prosecuted financial crime more aggressively than Barack Obama.

Of course, the lack of a fair and even-handed legal system destroys prosperity and leads to the breakdown of society.

National security claims are also used to keep financial fraud secret (and people who protest runaway criminality by the big banks are targeted as terrorists). And when those in the private sector blow the whistle on potential crimes, they are targeted also.

But it’s not like the government isn’t aggressively using the legal system … it’s just using it to silence the truth. Specifically, the Obama administration has prosecuted more whistleblowers than all other presidents combined.

Government employees also go out of their way to smear whistleblowers, threaten reporters who discuss whistleblower information and harass honest analysts.

Indeed, even high-level government employees are in danger. For example, after the head of the NSA’s spying program – William Binney – disclosed the fact that the U.S. was spying on everyone in the U.S. and storing the data forever, and that the U.S. was quickly becoming a totalitarian state, the Feds tried to scare him into shutting up:

[Numerous] FBI officers held a gun to Binney’s head as he stepped naked from the shower. He watched with his wife and youngest son as the FBI ransacked their home.

Later Binney was separated from the rest of his family, and FBI officials pressured him to implicate one of the other complainants in criminal activity. During the raid, Binney attempted to report to FBI officials the crimes he had witnessed at NSA, in particular the NSA’s violation of the constitutional rights of all Americans.

However, the FBI wasn’t interested in these disclosures. Instead, FBI officials seized Binney’s private computer, which to this day has not been returned despite the fact that he has not been charged with a crime.

Other NSA whistleblowers have also been subjected to armed raids and criminal prosecution.

Not only do Obama and both political parties ignore criminal activity, but they actively prosecute innocent people who report criminal activity. Why?

Economy to be Obama’s focus in State of the Union

The parties are at odds over ways to reduce the deficit. Republicans favor spending cuts; Obama prefers a combination of spending cuts and increasing tax revenue.

The president said he would address taxes and looming across-the-board budget cuts, known as the sequester, in the speech. The White House and Congress have pushed back the automatic cuts once, and Obama wants to do it again in order to create an opening for a larger deficit reduction deal.

“I am prepared, eager and anxious to do a big deal, a big package that ends this governance by crisis where every two weeks or every two months or every six months we are threatening this hard-won recovery,” he said last week.

Obama and both parties and the 400+ economics PhDs of the Counsel of Economic Advisers all are well aware that austerity crushes the middle- and lower income classes. Always has; always will. Yet, Obama and both parties engage in a shameful charade – a fake debate about the best way to institute austerity. Why?

Chris Altchek (caltchek@policymic.com)
10-Feb-2013

In the U.S., automatic budget cuts (called sequestration) are looking more likely to go into effect on March 1 as lawmakers struggle to agree on an alternative. The first cuts will total $85 billion from March through September. The Defense Department will absorb about half of the budget cuts. Economists project the sequester could reduce the national GDP by almost 0.6% this year.

Obama and both parties cannot all be ignorant of the facts. Yet they not only ignore criminal activity, not only prosecute those who report criminal activity, but engage in criminal activity themselves: The destruction of America’s freedoms and our middle- and lower classes.

Why?

Clearly, they have a strong motive, and the only motive that makes any sense is this: They are paid criminals, paid by the upper 1% income group to widen two gaps – the wealth gap and the freedom gap – between the rulers and the ruled.

Even the Republicans, who have proved they will do anything and say anything to gain votes and tar Obama with a thick, black brush, have not criticized him for prosecuting the innocent and ignoring, no supporting, the guilty. Why?

America is being ruled by the largest criminal enterprise in history. This criminal enterprise dominates every corner of the government. It dominates the media. It dominates the academic community. It dominates the minds of the public.

It is funded by the wealthiest .1%, the sole purpose being to increase their power, i.e. increase the gaps between the rich and the rest.

It dominates you.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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

Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D — for everyone
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
4. Long-term nursing care for everyone
5. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
6. Salary for attending school (Click here)
7. Eliminate corporate taxes
8. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
9. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99%

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. Two key equations in economics:
Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

.

Mitchell’s laws:
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor, which leads to civil disorder.
●Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
●Everything in economics devolves to motivation.
=====================================================================

Stephanie Kelton, Ph.D. is Associate Professor and Department Chair, for the economics department at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, probably the best economics department in the country if not the world.

Why do I say “the best”? Because the UMKC people are among the few who understand, speak and write why federal deficits are important for economic growth. They understand Monetary Sovereignty / Modern Monetary Theory, and they absolutely understand that austerity is a death sentence – an unnecessary death sentence — for any economy.

Lately, Professor Kelton has been interviewed many times on the radio and TV. She currently may have the “loudest” voice in modern economics. During her interviews, she explains how federal deficits are private sector surpluses, and she even provides a graph to demonstrate this point.

Professor Kelton has not yet used her loud voice to ask WHY Congress favors this death sentence for our economy. She has not asked, “What is the motivation?”

In other posts, I have suggested she ask such questions as:

“Do you think it is possible that the President of the United States, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Chairman of the Fed, the Counsel of Economic Advisers and their 400+ PhD economists and all 535 members of Congress — NOT ONE of these experts — understands that federal deficits are private sector surpluses?”

“If it isn’t possible that none of them understands, why does not one of them say it? What is their motive for denying the facts?”

“Is it possible the motive is that the politicians are paid by the upper 1% (via political contributions and promises of lucrative employment later) to widen the income gap between them and the 99%?”

“The gap is what makes people rich. If there were no gap, no one would be rich, and the wider the gap, the more power the rich have. Does it sound reasonable that wealthy people like the Koch brothers and Pete Petersons of the world — wealthy people who also own most of the major media — spend millions, if not billions from their personal wealth, to widen the gap?”

“What other motivation sounds logical?”

Perhaps it would be helpful if we all wrote to Professor Kelton and suggested she ask those questions, or similar questions, during her future interviews. A discussion of the parties involved, and their possible motives, might establish a basis for communicating the economic facts. The voters might accept what’s happening if they understood why its happening.

Professor Kelton’s email address can be found at: UMKC economics people.

Drop her a note of encouragement.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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

Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D — for everyone
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
4. Long-term nursing care for everyone
5. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
6. Salary for attending school (Click here)
7. Eliminate corporate taxes
8. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
9. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99%

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. Two key equations in economics:
Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Mitchell’s laws:
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor, which leads to civil disorder.
●Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
●Everything in economics devolves to motivation.
===========================================================================================================

The euro nations are in financial trouble, because they voluntarily surrendered their Monetary Sovereignty, and now are unable to create their sovereign currency (having no sovereign currency.)

Thus, they are short of euros which means their private sectors cannot grow their GDPs. All are in a death spiral — deficit cuts leading to recession, leading to more deficit cuts, leading to worse recession, sinking ever deeper into depression.

Their solution to a shortage of euros in the private sector is to reduce the number of euros in the private sector — the same solution advocated by U.S. politicians.

Financial Times
EU leaders seal long-term budget deal
EU leaders agreed a seven-year budget after a bargaining session in Brussels lasting more than 24 hours.
Herman Van Rompuy, European Council president and chair of the negotiations, tweeted: “Deal done! #euco has agreed on #MFF for the rest of the decade.”

No further details were available but it is thought that fiscal hawks, including the UK and Germany, have prevailed over those member states seeking more robust spending.

The EU motive is the same as the U.S. Congress’s motive: They are bribed by the upper 1% income group (via political contributions and promises of lucrative employment) to widen the income gap by destroying the middle- and lower classes. The wider the gap, the more power the 1% has over the 99%.

Europe is doomed. And unless the U.S. public begins to understand the 1%’s bribery, the U.S. middle- and lower-classes too, are doomed to servitude.

Now all that is needed to seal the fate of the American public is a federal surplus or even a reduction in the deficit.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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

Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D — for everyone
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
4. Long-term nursing care for everyone
5. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
6. Salary for attending school (Click here)
7. Eliminate corporate taxes
8. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
9. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99%

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. Two key equations in economics:
Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

============================================================================================================================================================================================================
Mitchell’s laws:
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor, which leads to civil disorder.
●Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
●Everything in economics devolves to motivation.
============================================================================================================================================================================================================

[Slow slicing (Lingchi)] Death by a thousand cuts: In this form of execution, the condemned person was killed by using a knife to methodically remove portions of the body over an extended period of time. Wikipedia)

The richest 1% wish to cut federal spending. They claim “big government” is bad. Why? No one knows.

However, we do know the vast majority of federal spending benefits the 99%. The 1% wish to widen the gap between them and the 99%. It is the gap that makes the 1% rich and powerful. Without the gap, no one would be rich, and the greater the gap, the greater the power of the rich — and the gap has been growing.

[Wikipedia: A “Gini” coefficient of zero expresses perfect equality, where everyone has an exactly equal income. A coefficient of 100 expresses maximal inequality, where only one person has all the income)]

So, at the behest of the 1%, we cut Social Security; cut Medicare; cut aid to education; cut anti-poverty initiatives; cut the military; cut science; cut research and development; cut bank, food and drug regulation. Each day, little pieces are cut from America’s greatness.

And now, another little piece of America is cut:

Washington Post
Postal Service plans to end Saturday mail delivery by August
Posted by Ed O’Keefe on February 6, 2013

The financially struggling U.S. Postal Service announced Wednesday that it plans to stop delivering mail on Saturdays — but will continue delivering packages — starting Aug. 1. The move will save about $2 billion a year for the postal service, The Postal Service said that it suffered a $15.9 billion net loss for fiscal 2012, which ended Sept. 30. That’s three times the loss recorded a year earlier.

Though the Postal Service is a quasi-governmental, self-funding entity, its worker compensation and retirement plans are tied to the federal budget.

Is the Postal Service “financially struggling.” Yes, because Congress has forced it to struggle. The Postal Service is an agency of our Monetarily Sovereign government. Because the federal government never can run short of dollars, no agency of the federal government will run short of dollars, unless Congress deliberately makes that happen.

What will the $2 billion savings accomplish? Not much, against a $15.9 billion annual loss. But it will reduce Postal Service employment and payroll. Impoverishing the 99% is the easiest way to widen the gap, and that is the real goal of the rich.

Will the U.S. suffer great harm from “no-mail-on-Saturdays“? No, this is just one more small slice in the death by a thousand cuts our once-great nation suffers at the hands of the wealthy. Diminishing the people is how the wealthy maintain and grow their power.

A majority of Americans support ending Saturday mail, according to national polls conducted in recent years, and President Obama has proposed halting deliveries as part of his budget-cutting proposals.

Why would a majority of Americans want less mail delivery? There is but one reason. They have been brainwashed by the wealthy into believing the Postal Service needs to be “cut in order to save it”. Does that sound familiar?

It should, because it’s the mantra of the rich: “Social Security needs to be cut in order to save it.” “Medicare needs to be cut in order to save it.” “Aid to the poor needs to be cut in order to save it.”

According to the politicians and the media, all controlled by the rich, benefits to the middle- and lower-classes need to be cut in order to “save” them. That is what the 99% has been told and that is what they believe. If you are part of the 99%, why do you believe what the media and politicians tell you?

The gap grows. as America diminishes. The rich do not diminish. Only the 99% diminish. Bit by bit. Slice by slice by slice. . .

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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

Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D — for everyone
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
4. Long-term nursing care for everyone
5. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
6. Salary for attending school (Click here)
7. Eliminate corporate taxes
8. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
9. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99%

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. Two key equations in economics:
Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY