–I’m not alone. Yet another voice telling how the rich bribe politicians to impoverish you.

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.
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BACKGROUND: The “debt” innuendo

The so-called federal “debt” is nothing more than the total of deposits in Treasury Security accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank. The word “debt” is just an obsolete and misleading scare term, to convince you, the public, it’s some sort of danger and is “unsustainable.”

When you transfer dollars from your personal checking account to your T-bill account at the Federal Reserve Bank (also known as buying a T-bill), how the heck is that transfer a danger to, or unsustainable by, the U.S. government? Obviously, it isn’t. It’s just a bank deposit, pure and simple.

And when you’re told how awful it is that federal “debt” is a high percentage of GDP, you might ask why total deposits in Treasury Security accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank are supposed to be a low percentage of GDP? You might ask, but you won’t get a coherent answer, because there is no answer.

And when you are told your children and grandchildren will owe your deposit in the Federal Reserve Bank, it’s complete nonsense. Actually, your children and grandchildren will own that deposit, if you leave it to them, just as they will own, not owe, all your bank deposits.

And when you see a so-called “debt clock” showing you how the total of deposits in the Federal Reserve Bank (aka “debt”) have increased, this is supposed to shock you. But why? No one knows. It’s all innuendo.

IT’S THE GAP, STUPID:

For years I’ve railed about the real problem facing America, not the phony “debt” figure, but THE GAP between the rich and the rest. If you scroll back through this blog, you’ll see such titles as:

More evidence for those who doubt the 1%’s scheme to beat down the 99%. It’s the gap, stupid
Tuesday, Feb 5 2013

Yet another effort by the 1% to widen the gap and screw the 99%. Enough never is enough.
Friday, Jan 25 2013

The indecisive and the deceptive join forces to increase the gap between the 1% and the 99%
Saturday, Aug 11 2012

How you can help close the gap. (No, writing to politicians and newspapers won’t do it.)
Monday, Jun 25 2012

Saving America by closing the gap: A suggestion for #OWS
Friday, Dec 9 2011

Closing the gap between rich and poor: Eliminate all local taxes
Tuesday, Sep 13 2011

How the poor get screwed. Why deficit reduction increases the gap between rich and poor.
Monday, Jun 6 2011

A partial solution for the gap between rich and poor: Education
Sunday, Jul 11 2010

While I’ve deplored the growing gap between the rich and the rest – a gap caused by deficit-cutting austerity – I initially had thought the gap was the result of ignorance by our politicians. Only in the last few years have I come to the conclusion that it simply is not possible for every single one of our political leaders, to have the same ignorance.

The President and all his advisers, the Secretary of the Treasury and all his advisers, the Chairman of the Fed and all his advisers, the Counsel of Economic Advisers and its 400+ PhDs in economics and the entire 535 members of Congress – it is beyond reason to assume that not one of these thousands of educated people understands how reducing the federal deficit will punish the middle- and lower-income people and widen the gap. Yet not one of them admits it.

So clearly, they know what they are doing. The only possible motive for their destroying our lives and ruining America is they are being paid to do it – bribed by the rich (via political contributions and promises of lucrative employment later), whose sole goal is to widen the gap. It is the gap that makes them rich. Without the gap, no one would be rich, and the wider the gap, the richer they are and the more power they have over us.

And since the politicians already know what they are doing, educating them won’t change their minds. And the voters have no desire to learn economics, especially since they have been brainwashed into believing federal “debt” is a bad thing. So all the educational efforts by adherents to Modern Monetary Theory and Monetary Sovereignty have fallen on deaf ears.

I’M NOT ALONE!:

Finally, MMT is starting to understand what needs to be said. Today, I received an Email from Stephanie Kelton, Editor-in-Chief, New Economic Perspectives and Economics Professor at UMKC – and a great voice for MMT. She suggested I read the article: The Democratic turncoats behind the “Fix the Debt” attack on Medicare & Social Security.

What a great article.

Stephanie gives many interviews, and she has edged closer and closer to the outright truth that the rich have bribed the politicians to widen the gap by cutting federal spending.

Social Security cuts? The rich want them. Medicaid cuts? The rich want them. Federal employment cuts? The rich want them. Medicare privatization? The rich want it. Federal spending, almost of all of which benefits the middle- and lower-income people? The rich want it cut.

America’s greatest enemies are the rich, and their stooges are the politicians. The rich are traitors to America. This is what the public needs to be told. The rich (and I mean the very rich – the billionaire class) are screwing you, and they have brainwashed you into believing you should be screwed. Their goal is to widen the gap and increase their power over you.

The “debt” is phony. Cutting the debt is “phony.” Bribing the politicians to cut the “debt” to widen the gap by impoverishing the middle- and lower-income people – that is real.

Read the article.

I’m not alone.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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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

–The Dems are right. The GOP is right. And the 1% laugh all the way to the bank

The Dems are right. The GOP is right. And the 1% laugh all the way to the bank

The Dems are right to deplore federal program cuts, virtually all of which would dramatically burden the middle and lower classes. Spending cuts not only limit dollar growth in the economy. Further, because most spending benefits the 99%, spending cuts directly punish all but the top 1%.

The GOP is right to insist there be no tax increases (other than, tellingly, Obama’s outrageous increase in FICA, which already has begun to burden the middle and lower classes). Tax increases on anyone, rich or poor, remove dollars from the economy, thereby depressing the economy.

So, in a way, everything the Dems and GOP propose is right, and everything they plan to do will dramatically burden the middle and lower classes.

So who came up with this truly harmful sequester idea? The Dems conspired with the GOP. For those who may doubt there is a conspiracy to widen the gap between the 1% and the 99%, the sequester is prima facie evidence. Both parties voted for it and now for political purposes, both parties deny they voted for it.

The purpose of today’s political jockeying merely is to disguise the fact that both parties want austerity. Why? It’s what the 1% pay them to do. That’s what the Citizens United decision was designed to facilitate.

And while the 99% voters buy into the nonsense that the deficit and debt are too big, the 1% laugh all the way to the bank.

Examples:

Washington Post
Pentagon warns workers may need to take unpaid leave if sequester kicks in
By Zachary A. Goldfarb and Ernesto Londoño, Published: February 20

The Pentagon warned 800,000 civilian employees worldwide Wednesday that they will be forced to take unpaid leave if deep budget cuts take effect next week, fueling growing anxiety about the impact of the automatic spending reductions on the nation’s economy and security.

In the most detailed account of the ramifications of across-the-board cuts, called the sequester, Defense Department officials said civilian personnel could be put on leave one day a week for 22 weeks — effectively cutting their pay by 20 percent for nearly six months.

And the 1% laugh all the way to the bank.

Budget cuts could result in up to 20 percent pay cut for federal workers
Joe Davidson

Agriculture: Plans to furlough about one-third of its workforce, which would lead to “a nationwide shutdown of meat and poultry plants during a furlough of inspection personnel.”

Commerce: “Up to 2,600 NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) employees would have to be furloughed, approximately 2,700 positions would not be filled, and the number of contractors would have to be reduced by about 1,400.” Census vacancies would remain vacant.

Justice: “The Department estimates that it would lose the equivalent of more than 1,000 federal agents . . . as well as 1,300 correctional officers.”

Education: The sequester “would likely require the Department to furlough many of its own employees for multiple days.”

Energy: “Sequestration would affect thousands of jobs among Federal, contractor and grant awardee personnel.”

Homeland Security: “Sequestration would necessitate furloughs of up to 14 days for a significant portion of our frontline law enforcement personnel, and could potentially result in reductions in force at the Department.”

Housing and Urban Development: “Furloughs or other personnel actions may well be required to comply with cuts mandated by sequestration.”

Interior: Sequesters would limit the department’s “ability to sustain a full complement of seasonal employees needed for firefighting, law enforcement and visitor services.”

NASA: Some inspector general vacancies would go unfilled.

National Science Foundation: The agency would have to cut nearly 1,000 research grants.

Social Security Administration: Sequestration would lead to more than 5,000 positions lost through attrition and termination of more than 1,500 temporary and other employees and a general elimination of overtime.

Transportation: The vast majority of the Federal Aviation Administration’s nearly 47,000 employees would be furloughed for about one day per pay period through September.

Treasury: Most Treasury employees would face furloughs, which would have a cascading effect on employees’ families as well as on the economy at large.

And it’s not “just” the massive job losses. These agencies perform valuable functions, the lack of which will negatively affect you as a member of the 99%. Want less inspection of meat and poultry? Done.

Want fewer law enforcement personnel? Done.

Want less scientific research? Done.

Want less help from Social Security personnel? Done.

Want fewer air controllers? Done.

And the list goes on and on. All the services the federal government provides, reduced. That is what austerity means.

Middle- and lower class voters. You demanded austerity. Now, you have austerity. The deficit will be reduced; the government will be reduced; your lives will be reduced. Enjoy.

And the 1% laugh all the way to the bank.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

–Kings, serfs and Congress

The true story of an ordinary man who wins the queen’s heart and starts a revolution. Centering on the intriguing love triangle between the ever more insane Danish King Christian VII, the royal physician who is a man of enlightenment and idealism Struensee and the young but strong Queen Caroline Mathilda.

A Royal Affair is the gripping tale of brave idealists who risk everything in their pursuit of freedom for their people.”

The movie also is about a menagerie of butt kissing, boot licking sycophants, whose sole mission in life is to agree with whomever has most power currently, so as to gain power for themselves, despite horrible damage to their nation and its people — in short, exactly like the U.S. Congress.

Recently, I’ve been in touch with Warren Mosler and Stephanie Kelton, two of the more influential people in Modern Monetary Theory. They are interviewed repeatedly, though sadly, I don’t see as much positive result as one might hope.

Here is the text of my 2/15/13 note to Stephanie:

Hi Stephanie,

You may be our best hope. I just wrote to Warren, and gave him my usual doubts that Obama, Bernanke, the Counsel of Economic Advisors et al don’t understand economics. Warren’s response was, “they are afraid the deficit will bring down ‘the whole house of cards’ like greece“

I then said, All of them are afraid? The thousands of political leaders in America and around the world, and their economists, all are ignorant of the economic facts? I have trouble believing that you and I and a few dozen professors (mostly from UMKC) and a handful of others are the only knowledgeable people on earth.

His response was, “yes, bunch of sheep. some might not be, but they are ‘team players’ who follow their leader and don’t think at all.”

So there it is. All those politicians and PhD economists are “ignorant, sheep or team players.”

My belief: It’s more than ignorance and “sheepness.” Has to be. The 1% are paying politicians to create austerity and widen the gap, and the sooner we all accept that, the sooner we’ll be able to do what’s necessary to turn things around.

In short, I believe it’s not ignorance but rather bribery. Warren agrees it’s not ignorance, but he thinks it’s “sheep following their leader,” something like King Christian VII’s kiss-ups.

Stephanie, then wrote me today:

I can tell you that I had lunch with a WH aide last month. He told me that everyone in Congress is a total wimp. no one — not a single one — wants to make a decision or think for themselves. He was quite adamant. Everyone wants to be told what to do. Both sides of the aisle.

The D’s divide into two camps: those who view their mission as supporting the President 100% — cheerleaders for Obama — and those who are concerned only with attacking the R’s. On the other side of the aisle are those who care only about attacking and undermining Obama and those who care only about brand loyalty and the Rep. base.

It is only about “winning” as defined by these narrow missions. No one cares about policy — only politics. He is very well connected and totally disgusted.

So when you ask whether it is possible that no one understands the economic facts, I wonder if that is even the right question. They seem to have ZERO interest in economic facts or economic policy itself. They are minions on a mission.

I believe Stephanie, her White House contact and Warren all are correct. The sheep know the truth, but they follow the leader. Their motive is the same as the King’s followers, i.e. no one ever got fired (or beheaded)for laughing at the King’s jokes.

All of which begs the question, “What is are motives of the leaders?” I can think of two:

1. The leaders suck up to the voters who are absolutely, positively certain the federal deficit is too high, and demand that something be done about it.

and

2. The leaders are being bribed by the upper .1% income group to widen the income gap by legislating against the best interests of the 99.9%.

Why do the voters believe the Big Lie that the deficit is to large? Partly its a feedback mechanism. People tend to listen to and believe ideas they already believe. That’s why anti-black, anti-brown, anti-poor, anti-immigrant and anti-gay bigots and gun nuts are more likely to watch Fox “News” and less likely to watch MSNBC — more likely to believe what Republicans say and less likely to believe Democrats.

Of equal importance is the fact that most media are owned by the upper .1%, who want austerity, because austerity injures the middle class and widens the gap between the very rich and the rest.

So, if the media continually (for more than 40 years) pound away at the Big Lie, that the deficit must be reduced, the voters believe it, and the politicians reinforce what the voters already believe, especially when the .1% pay them to do so.

Where does that leave us if we wish to save America, especially the middle and lower income groups? Trying to educate the politicians and their lackeys is useless. They already know the truth, but are motivated not to admit it.

Trying to educate the voters also is useless, because they will not listen. They want to hear what they already believe.

Which brings us back to my suggestion made several weeks ago. We first must shock the public with a scandal — the scandal that the politicians are being bribed by the rich to screw the poor.

We must make the voters angry enough for them to open their minds to a different idea.

Once we get them angry enough so they are shouting out their windows, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more,” then we come to them and say, “If you’re that angry, here’s the solution.” And we explain the simplicity of Monetary Sovereignty.

Scandal first; educate after.

By the way, I believe Stephanie agrees with this, and if I’m right and she does, and if she will have the courage to say so, again and again, and if UMKC and the rest of MMT support her, she may become the most important economist in America.

Let us pray.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

–“Shotgun Joe” solves the gun problem

Joe Biden’s is President Obama’s point man on gun control. Here is his advice to his wife:

“I said, ‘Jill, if there’s ever a problem, just walk out on the balcony here … walk out and put that double-barrel shotgun and fire two blasts outside the house, I promise you whoever’s coming in is not going… you don’t need an AR-15.’”

Then, go directly to jail, because shooting someone who is standing outside your house very likely will be considered murder, almost everywhere except perhaps, Texas.

Thanks for the advice, Shotgun Joe. That clarifies the Obama position. Rather than calling the police and letting the law take care of the situation, take the law into your own hands and murder someone with a double barreled-shotgun.

We don’t need no dang courts ‘roun hyar, right Joe?

And do be careful not to let the spray hit anyone else.

Here, I thought the NRA was nuts.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

P.S. On Thursday, the Vice President will be at a conference on ways to prevent gun violence just outside Newtown, Connecticut.
Hank Weinbloom, FOX News Radio.
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#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

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