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

============================================================================================================================================================================================================
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.
============================================================================================================================================================================================================

MMT followers have a loud voice. They are on TV and the radio, frequently. But progress is minimal, if that. The public remains convinced the federal deficit must be reduced.

I’ve been urging MMT to introduce the economic facts by first revealing the scandal, namely that the 1% intentionally are bribing politicians and the media to beat down the 99%. The bribes are in the form of political contributions and promises of lucrative employment, later. The media, of course, are owned by the 1%. The goal is to widen the gap between the 1% and the 99%; the wider the gap, the more power the 1% has.

The reason to disclose the scandal first is to provide a basis for the public to accept the truth about Monetary Sovereignty. First disclose the lies and the motive; then reveal the truth. That makes the truth more believable.

Sadly, MMT simply cannot bring themselves to accuse the 1%. Perhaps they feel it is beneath them. Or they don’t think the public would accept it (although there is ample evidence the public loves to believe the worst about the rich). So MMT continues trying to explain the facts in ever simpler terms, only to have the public repeatedly throw the facts back with sneers and derision.

Here is yet another example of how the rich want to work the public to death, by delaying and reducing Social Security benefits.

AARP
CEOs Want You to Work Till You’re 70

Financial planners have been urging us to work longer to save more for our retirement. Now a group of CEOs is pushing for a plan that would hike the retirement age to 70, meaning you wouldn’t be eligible for full Social Security benefits and Medicare until then.

Currently, workers are eligible to get early Social Security benefits at age 62 and full Social Security benefits at 66; for Medicare, it’s age 65. For workers born in 1960 or later, the eligibility age for full Social Security benefits is 67.

The plan by the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs from some of the largest U.S. companies, would raise the age for Social Security and Medicare for people who are age 54 and younger. Those 55 and older would be protected from the changes.

The CEOs released their proposal amid calls by some lawmakers for spending cuts as part of a deal to raise the $16.4 trillion debt ceiling. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said the government will not be able to make its payments, perhaps as early as mid-February, if the debt ceiling is not raised.

In summary, the CEOs of “some of the largest U.S. companies,” the core of the 1%, have decided to help the 99% by forcing us to work until we’re 70. Of course, we won’t be able to find jobs in our later years, so these largest U.S. companies will be able to hire us for pennies, or force us to beg for money, then criticize us for being sloths.

Additionally, to “save” Social Security, benefits will be cut. One method is to institute a new, cockamamie computation for inflation.

Interestingly, we tend to think the public is stupid for refusing to recognize the truth of Monetary Sovereignty. How stupid are we for refusing to recognize the truth of the 1%’s plan to enslave us?

MMT, are you listening?

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