Tag: debt ceiling

A Debt Parable. How ignorance and superstition destroyed our wonderful land

Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
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Ignoring all facts and evidence to the contrary, America’s Congress, our President, our media, and most of our old-line economists intuitively knew the earth is flat, and if an American boat sailed far enough it would fall off the edge.

So to protect our shipping from this never-seen edge, Congress installed a barrier, preventing our boats from sailing too far.

Every few years, Congress moved the barrier farther out to sea, and while no American boat ever had fallen off the edge, nor had any American even experienced an edge, many wise men predicted this would happen “eventually,” and the repeated movement of the barrier was “unsustainable.” The media termed the edge of the world a “ticking time bomb.” They derided those who wanted to end the barrier with invective and such sarcasms as: “Are you saying ships can sail forever?”

Some foreign boats that were not seaworthy – rowboats, rafts and the like – had sailed out beyond the horizon, and never seen again. Proponents of the American barrier offered this as absolute proof the barrier was needed, and the edge actually existed.

Though the barrier prevented American boats from circling the earth, which limited our trade, and hurt our nation’s economy, and though we already were in a recession, Congress decreed the barrier would be moved no more. No American boats were allowed to sail beyond it. Our economy was not allowed to grow.

Meanwhile, other nations discovered the edge of the world was a myth. They did not limit their ships. Their trade expanded and these nations grew wealthy, as America slipped steadily into a deepening depression, until we were no more.

And that is how ignorance and superstition destroyed our wonderful land.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com


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No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. It’s been 40 years since the U.S. became Monetary Sovereign, , and neither Congress, nor the President, nor the Fed, nor the vast majority of economists and economics bloggers, nor the preponderance of the media, nor the most famous educational institutions, nor the Nobel committee, nor the International Monetary Fund have yet acquired even the slightest notion of what that means.

Remember that the next time you’re tempted to ask a teenager, “What were you thinking?” He’s liable to respond, “Pretty much what your generation was thinking when it ruined my future.”

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

What is it that all 500 of America’s most powerful people don’t know?

The debt hawks are to economics as the creationists are to biology. Those, who do not understand Monetary Sovereignty, do not understand economics. If you understand the following, simple statement, you are ahead of most economists, politicians and media writers in America: Our government, being Monetarily Sovereign, has the unlimited ability to create the dollars to pay its bills.
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The United States Senate has 100 members. The United States House of Representatives has 435 members plus six non-voting delegates.

In addition, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said, “Today (3/31/11), over 64 prominent budget experts and economists wrote a letter to President Obama and Congressional leadership urging them to take action on our debt and deficits.

Add to that the President of the United States and his cabinet and advisors, and we have at least 500-600 of the most powerful people in America, not one of whom has any understanding of Monetary Sovereignty, but who direct our economy. Does that bother you? No?

Well how about the latest Tea (formerly Republican) Party chant, “Cut it or shut it,” meaning if cutting the federal budget won’t do sufficient damage to our economy , let’s just shut down the government and finish the job.

Does that bother you?

No, how about this story from ABC News:

Tea Party Hypocrisy? Some Lawmakers With Tea Party Ties Are on the Government Dole, by Jonathan Karl and Avery Miller, March 31, 2011

The Tea Party swept into the 112th Congress with promises of cutting government spending. But according to a report out today, at least five lawmakers with Tea Party connections have been longtime recipients of federal agricultural subsidies. “There’s nothing too surprising about hypocrisy in Washington,” Ken Cook, president of Environmental Working Group, told ABC News. “This particular group, you not only have to look at the hypocrisy but you need to watch your wallet.”

While the majority of American farmers receive no government money at all, at least 23 current members of congress or their families have received government money for their farms — combining for more than $12 million since 1995 according to a new report from the Environmental Working Group.

The biggest recipient was Rep. Stephen Fincher, a Republican from Frog Jump, Tenn.

While the self-described Tea Party patriot lists his occupation as “farmer” and “gospel singer” in the Congressional Directory, he doesn’t mention that his family has received more than $3 million in farm subsidies from 1995 to 2009, according to the Environmental Working Group.

When asked whether he would be willing to see all his subsidies go away, Fincher would not directly say he would no longer take any more subsidies.

“We need a good, better, we need a better farm program and we need to streamline it,” he said. “We need to look at many many options. And that’s a long way off.”

Frankly, it doesn’t bother me at all, that the Tea (formerly Republican) Party members are taking government money. It’s hypocritical, but it benefits the economy. What bothers me is the universal ignorance of our nation’s leaders.

I’m waiting for just one person in Congress or in the Executive Branch, to demonstrate even a rudimentary understanding of Monetary Sovereignty. Is that too much to ask?

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com

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

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

–Who will be at fault for the return to recession?

The debt hawks are to economics as the creationists are to biology. Those, who do not understand Monetary Sovereignty, do not understand economics. If you understand the following, simple statement, you are ahead of most economists, politicians and media writers in America: Our government, being Monetarily Sovereign, has the unlimited ability to create the dollars to pay its bills.
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The horror the politicians will visit on us, all in the name of winning:

Former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean said he would be “quietly rooting for” a government shutdown. “I know who’s going to get blamed – we’ve been down this road before.”

Yes, who cares whether the nation burns down so long as we point at the Republicans as arsonists.

South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint (R),“I just hope that we are not so afraid of a government shutdown that we are not willing to make the right decisions. That is what the tea party is for.”

Ah, so that’s what the Tea Party is for: Closing down the government.

The politicians are playing games with our lives, but don’t blame them. They’re politicians, i.e immoral, amoral, ignorant, selfish, uncaring and untruthful. You know it, so why do you listen to such people? The fault lies with you who allow yourself to believe the absolute lie that the federal deficit is unsustainable and should be reduced. The fault lies with you who refuse to heed the facts showing federal deficits are absolutely necessary for economic growth, and the federal debt easily could be eliminated tomorrow, at the click of a computer key.

The fault lies with you who stand meekly aside while the sneering, insulting, foul-mouthed debt hawks dominate the discussion to deride the people bringing you the truth. The fault lies with you who ask for no evidence to support what the liars tell you, but rather allow yourselves to be led like lambs to the slaughter, and even grow angry when you are not led more quickly.

And when the Tea Party has its way, and valuable government services are emasculated or eliminated, and the economy enters another recession, perhaps worse than the previous one, the fault will lie with you who surely will whine and complain you didn’t realize this is what less government really means. “It’s not my fault. I didn’t know. Why didn’t they warn me I would lose my hopes and my dreams and my family and my life?”

You were warned. You just refused to listen. Who gave the Tea Party its power? “They sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind.” Though the Tea Party is sowing the wind, it is you, and the rest of us, who will reap the whirlwind.

Ignorance provides its own reward.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com

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

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

-The debt ceiling illusion

An alternative to popular faith

      Sometime in October, the federal debt will touch the legal ceiling of $12.1 trillion, and Congress will decide whether or not to raise it. Surely, the debt ceiling law is among the nation’s silliest.
      Visualize this: All year, you recklessly spend more than you earn, and at the end of the year you announce that you will not pay your bills because you are frugal.        That’s Congress.
      Congress authorizes federal spending and federal taxing. So Congress already has control over the federal debt. It is Congress that has created the $12 trillion debt. Now, Congress will decide whether to pay for what Congress has authorized.
If Congress doesn’t increase the debt, several bad things could happen. The U.S. could default on its debts, thereby removing forever the trust other nations and our own citizens have in our money. Borrowing would become much more difficult and the world would begin to dump its T-securities – a financial calamity. Would Congress be that stupid? Well, it’s Congress.
      Or, the recovery from this recession could end, and we could plunge into a depression of unprecedented magnitude. Would Congress be that stupid? Well, it’s Congress.
      Or, the Treasury could implement some accounting tricks like redeeming government employee retirement funds, now invested in T-securities. Or the Treasury could stop paying interest on government trust funds. Both actions are internal devices without substance, merely delaying the inevitable, as does the vote on the debt ceiling.
      No responsible person, who cares about America, would vote against raising the debt ceiling, but we’re talking about Congress, a group that often embraces style over substance. The debt ceiling has two results. First, it is a shameful admission by members of Congress they know or care little about the bills they vote for, and focus on the individual, pork-barrel amendments they can sneak in. Generally, Congress is a “You-vote-for-mine-and-I’ll-vote-for-yours” club.
      Second, the debt ceiling gives members of Congress political cover — the ability to vote for spending for their constituencies, while voting against spending as a whole, thus to demonstrate how frugal and disciplined they are.
      There should not be a debt ceiling. If Congress wishes to be frugal, it should do so when authorizing, not when paying, its debts. Any Congressperson who speaks against raising the debt ceiling is a phony. Or is that statement a tautology?

Oh, and by the way. Limiting the creation of debt limits economic growth, but that is a subject discussed in many posts on this blog.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
For more information, see http://www.rodgermitchell.com