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

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 ultimately 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 motive.
=====================================================================

If ever there needed to be even more proof the “religious” right wing is the morally wrong wing, here it is.

New York Times
Supreme Court Invalidates Key Part of Voting Rights Act
By ADAM LIPTAK, Published: June 25, 2013

The Supreme Court on Tuesday effectively struck down the heart of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by a 5-to-4 vote, freeing nine states, mostly in the South, to change their election laws without advance federal approval.

At the core of the disagreement was whether racial minorities continued to face barriers to voting in states with a history of discrimination.

“Our country has changed,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority. “While any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions.”

The current system, Roberts wrote, is “based on 40-year-old facts having no logical relationship to the present day.. Congress — if it is to divide the states — must identify those jurisdictions to be singled out on a basis that makes sense in light of current conditions.” It cannot simply rely on the past.”

Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. joined the majority opinion.

[Remember, these are the same right wing “justices” (What a misuse of that word!) who gave rich corporations virtually unlimited power to bribe politicians, and said there is no evidence this would increase the risk of corruption or the appearance of corruption. (Try not to laugh, Koch Brothers and Pete Peterson.]

Justice Roberts also included in his opinion, these prophetic words: “Had prior Courts never gone against stare decisis, for example . . . “ the Government could wiretap ordinary criminal suspects without first obtaining warrants”.

Once again Roberts is extremely right! Instead, the Government wiretaps ordinary non-criminal, non-suspects, without first obtaining warrants.

New York Times
After Ruling, States Rush to Enact Voting Laws
By MICHAEL COOPER
Published: July 5, 2013

State officials across the South are aggressively moving ahead with new laws requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls after the Supreme Court decision striking down a portion of the Voting Rights Act.

Within hours, Texas officials said that they would begin enforcing a strict photo identification requirement for voters. In Mississippi and Alabama, state officials said that they were moving to begin enforcing the laws.

Some North Carolina Republican lawmakers said that they would move as soon as next week to pass a bill requiring voters to present photo identification at the polls. And some Republicans there are considering cutting back on the number of early voting days in the state, which were especially popular among Democrats and black voters during the 2012 presidential election.

See, those laws have “no logical relationship to the present day.” The South has changed.

Once again, Chief Justice Roberts simultaneously is extremely right and extremely wrong.

And his legacy will be written in shame.

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. Click here
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%

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

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

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

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 ultimately 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 motive.
=====================================================================

Here’s yet another writer, or group of writers, who equate a Monetarily Sovereign nation with a monetarily non-sovereign business, thereby coming to the same diametrically wrong conclusions as the rest of the austerity buffs.

The Daily Bell
Now They Tell Us: China Debt Levels ‘Unknown’
By Staff Report

A senior Chinese official said on Friday that the government did not know precisely know how much debt local governments had built up and warned that it could be more than previous estimates.

Fitch downgraded China’s sovereign debt rating in April.

Oh woe, a credit downgrading. We all know how accurate the credit reporting industry is. It gave AAA ratings to worthless securities and downgraded the U.S. debt, presumably because, as John Boehner lied, “We are broke.”

We didn’t understand how any economy could generate 10 percent growth per year for literally decades, but others seemed to feel that there were so many Chinese that normal economic rules did not apply.

No, that wasn’t the reason. Some of us “others” believed China understood Monetary Sovereignty, and was willing to keep pumping money into their economy. So long as inflation was controlled, the economy would grow.

Why? Basic algebra:
GDP = Government Spending + Non-government spending + Net Exports

In a modern central banking economy, the primary factor is monetary policy.

Actually, monetary and even more importantly, fiscal policy. But why quibble over semantics?

Earnings don’t matter; management doesn’t matter. In other words, you can have the best run company in the world with the number one product, but the real determinant of success at any given time will be the economy’s performance – subject to monetary policy.

We don’t mind the sarcasm. We do mind the ignorance that equates China with a company. The former is Monetarily Sovereign; the later is monetarily non-sovereign. Not understanding the difference equals not understanding economics.

China’s miracle was a central banking one, and monetary stimulation can cover up a host of sins.

True. Let the economy without “sin” (i.e. inefficiency) throw the first stone. All economies “sin.” All economies grow by so-called “covering up” — i.e. by increasing the percapita money supply. “All” meaning every growing economy in the history of the world.

The Chinese were printing money – lots and lots of it – and this was causing “all boats to float.” It was a kind of Potemkin Economy … Asian style. Now it seems the boats are sinking along with misconceptions about the realities of Chinese finance.

Ah, the old “printing money” epithet. Writers need only to utter the magic words “printing money,” and those who don’t understand economics will exclaim, “Ooooh,” and shake their heads in disgust.

But “printing money” is what Monetarily Sovereign governments do, must do, always do — unless they want recessions and depressions.

Whenever the U.S. has stopped, or even slowed, its so-called “printing” of money, we have had recessions and depressions, virtually all of which were cured by — yep, you guessed it — “printing” money.

(Never mind that money never is “printed.” It is created electronically by spending. Contrary to popular wisdom, a printed dollar bill is not a dollar.)

China’s localities have borrowed trillions. Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said Chinese banks have reported 9.54 trillion yuan in loans to local financing platforms.

Concerns have grown that the debts incurred could sour as many infrastructure projects in China are for public use and not profitable. Many local governments have also borrowed from companies in private arrangements at high cost, with the money often used in speculative real estate projects.

More fear-mongering out of ignorance. The Chinese central government could, if it wished, pay off all that local debt in one electronic instant. It simply could credit all debtors’ accounts by the amounts of their debts. Bingo! No local debt.

But wouldn’t all this so-called money “printing” cause inflation? Nope. Borrowing creates money and paying off loans destroys money.

If all the local borrowers somehow paid off their loans (say, by selling assets), the Chinese economy instantly would lose the above-mentioned 9.54 trillion yuan — a disaster.

However, if the central government “printed” the 9.54 trillion yuan to pay the loans, there would be no net increase in money supply, and no reason for inflation.

(And anyway, inflation can be controlled by increasing interest rates, which increases the value of money.)

The cycle hasn’t turned for China, or not fully. But it will. And so we say to Zhu … Just wait.

Waiting isn’t a bad idea. Learning is a better idea.

What is a bad idea? IMHO, taking economics advice from the Daily Bell staff.

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. Click here
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%

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

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

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

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 ultimately 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 motive.
=====================================================================

More agents, fencing may cut illegal immigration by half; Senate bill’s critics not satisfied
By Stephen Dinan-The Washington Times Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Spending $35 billion on new Border Patrol agents and fencing would only stop between a third and half of future illegal immigration, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) latest analysis released Wednesday.

Wait! We plan to spend an additional $35 billion to add to the existing wall between Mexico and us?? Is Mexico about to attack us?

If not, what the heck are the cowardly right-wingers so frightened about?

Where else in the world does such a wall of shame exist? O.K., Israel has a wall. But Israel is a tiny country surrounded by big countries that have vowed to destroy it, and in fact repeatedly have tried to destroy it, and Israel daily is attacked by rockets.

But, we are the United States of America, the most powerful nation in the history of the world. And Mexico is militarily weak and makes no threats against our existence. In every sense, Mexico is one of our allies.

So, what the heck are the cowardly right-wingers so frightened about?

Are these the same cowardly right-wingers who feel they need to stockpile guns — semi-automatic, military weapons — to protect themselves against . . . against what?

But it gets worse.

The “CBO estimates that the net inflow would be reduced by between one-third and one-half compared with the projected net inflow under current law.

The CBO also said that the additional legal workers will boost the economy and lead to nearly $1 trillion in new tax revenue over the next 20 years.

Get it? The cowardly right-wingers want to stop the flow of immigrants, and absolutely do not want to provide immigrants a path to citizenship. But additional legal workers will boost the economy.

So, what the heck are the cowardly right-wingers so frightened about?

To win GOP votes, senators accepted an amendment from Republican Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and John Hoeven of North Dakota to add fencing and border agents, which will bring the total number of agents on the southwest border to more than 38,400.

The additional security spending will cost $38 billion, the CBO said.

Security experts on all sides of the immigration debate have cast doubt on the efficacy of doubling the size of the Border Patrol, saying the return on investment is rather low.

The cowardly right-wingers are firmly against addition government spending for frivolous things like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, other poverty programs, food & drug inspection and bank supervision.

But there is $38 billion available to protect us from that dangerous, implacable bully, Mexico.

Visualize us citizens of the United States of America, all carrying guns (Thanks, NRA) and cowering behind our wall, protected from attacks by Mexico. And visualize us protected from the immigrants who would boost our economy.

I feel so much safer now. But I have one question:

Who will protect us from the cowardly right-wingers?

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. Click here
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%

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

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

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

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 ultimately 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 motive.
=====================================================================

In a previous post, I compared NSA, CIA, FBI et al to vicious guard dogs. They are necessary to protect us from dangerous enemies.

But they have slipped their leashes and gone out of control, and now have become more a danger to our freedoms than are the supposed enemies.

Here is another example of the uncontrolled arrogance and craziness of our security agencies — arrogance which is coming back to bite us:

Austrian officials searched the plane of Bolivian President Evo Morales for Edward Snowden on Tuesday at the request of the U.S.

Morales was forced to make a layover in Vienna on his way back from a Moscow energy conference when France and Portugal refused to let him fly through their airspace.

Bolivia is one of the two countries that say they will consider a request for asylum from Snowden. Bolivian officials were not happy about the search: “We’re talking about the president on an official trip after an official summit being kidnapped,” said Bolivia’s ambassador to the United Nations.

Now imagine the U.S. government forcing Russian President Vladimir Putin to land against his will. Take a moment to consider the dangerous repercussions.

Or imagine China forcing President Obama to land against his will. Would we be outraged? Would there be talk of war?

By what right do we force the president of a sovereign nation to land in a foreign country? Yes, Bolivia is small, but does that give our security apparatus legal jurisdiction over its president?

The answer is, “Yes.” NSA, for instance, is a secret nation, creating its own laws in secret. These laws are approved by judges in secret, based on secret testimony, and prosecuted and tried in secret with secret evidence.

Neither you, nor any lawyer, nor Congress nor the President knows those laws.

They are kept secret “for your protection.” Presumably you could be breaking one or more of those secret laws, just by reading this blog. There is no way to know.

This is neither new nor revelatory. Read: Testimony of Dawn E. Johnsen
Before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution
“Secret Law and the Threat to Democratic and Accountable Government”
April 30, 2008

The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution read:

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.

It says “all,” not some, criminal prosecutions. It says “public,” not secret, trial. It demands a the availability of a jury and the ability to face your accuser and knowledge of the evidence against you.

Sadly, the Supreme Court, over the years, has whittled away at those Constitutional protections, so that even a self-proclaimed “originalist” like Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, seemingly is not concerned about the drastic modifications of the Sixth Amendment.

Today, our government has determined it is not subject to the Constitution nor even to existing law. It creates laws at will and ad hoc. If you try to fight these laws, you will be told by the courts you don’t have standing.

See: If you are prosecuted, you may have no right to face your accuser, nor will you have a right to see the secret evidence against you.

America no longer is the land of the free. We are beginning to look more and more like China, the old Soviet Union or even North Korea, than to the America we thought we knew and loved.

Yesterday the government spied on you for no reason. Today the government grounds the plane of a sovereign nation’s president. Tomorrow — tomorrow, what? Are there any limits? If so, what are those limits?

Does this bother 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. Click here
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%

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

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY