–The phony Greek “stimulus” and how it affects you.

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

Mitchell’s laws:
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes. .
Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening
the gap between rich and poor.
●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.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive,
and the motive is the Gap.
==================================================================================================================================================================

Let’s say you own bonds with a current market value of $10,000, and you agree to sell them to the federal government for $10,000.

The government instructs your bank to increase your checking account by $10,000, and you now no longer own those bonds.

Has your wealth been stimulated? Are you richer? Has the U.S. economy been stimulated?

Of course not.

Because the federal government purchased those bonds, they no longer are part of the economy. There is no economic measure that includes federal ownership of bonds. It’s as though they never existed.

Since privately-owned bonds are part of the broad money supply, the total money supply has not changed. Money merely has been shifted from bonds to a checking account.

It’s a simple asset transfer. No dollars created or destroyed.

What I have described is known as QE (Quantitative Easing). It’s what the Federal Reserve has used again and again to er, uh . . . “stimulate” the economy.

You might ask how the above process stimulates anything. Indeed you might. And while you are asking, consider this article from The Street:

ECB Announces $1.2 Trillion Stimulus Program, Bigger Than Expected
BY Pete Guest, 01/22/15

The European Central Bank has announced more than €1 trillion ($1.15 trillion) in stimulus for the eurozone, in the form of combined monthly asset purchases of €60 billion ($69 billion) until at least the end of September 2016.

The asset purchase program will begin in March, and will include investment-grade euro area sovereign, agency and EU institution securities, ECB president Mario Draghi said on Thursday.

“Investment grade” — good as money. No bad debts for those folks.

Every month, $69 billion worth of bonds, currently in private hands, will be handed over to the ECB, in exchange for $69 billion in euros. An even trade is a stimulus??

Now, if the ECB planned to add $69 billion to the EU economy — by sending money to the euro nations, no strings attached, that would be a stimulus.

But trading money for an equal amount of money is no stimulus. It’s called “busywork” — frantic, but meaningless activity as a substitute for real, meaningful action. The ECB wants to look like it is “doing something,” just as the Fed wanted to pretend it was “doing something.”

Draghi confirmed that the ECB had reached a compromise, and that euro area central banks will buy their own sovereign debt, meaning that stronger economies will not need to share the risk of heavily indebted peripheral countries.

“In addition, 20% of any losses on assets bought by central banks will be shared throughout the eurozone,” Draghi said.

If it seems to you that the above two sentences are in conflict, you’re pretty observant.

The ideal program would be unconstrained in size, would front-load the stimulus by quickly pumping a lot of money into the markets, and would be designed so that all of the eurozone economies would share the risk of sovereign bonds.

QE doesn’t pump any money. It exchanges one form of money for another. About the best that can be said is that for a very short time, more liquid euros will be exchanged for less liquid euros.

Consider it a temporary bandage that later will be ripped off, to disclose that nothing has been cured. The wound remains.

Markets had been unsteady on fears that the stimulus could be neutered by internal disputes and concerns by Germany — the eurozone’s largest economy — that stimulus might allow weaker economies to loosen their austerity regimes.

The compromise buying plan seeks to allay those fears.

And there you have it. Austerity must be maintained. To hell with the people. The more they suffer, the better, because in their suffering they become slaves of the rich.

The key is that the rich are not allowed to lose money, the poor are pressed down, down, down and the Gap between the rich and the rest is widened.

“For the eurozone, the problems they face are not problems that will disappear overnight as a result of QE,” Abi Oladimeji, head of investment strategy at Thomas Miller Investments said.

“The troika, the IMF, the EC and the ECB will have to accept the reality that Greece, basically, cannot repay its debt. Greece is not in a position to grow out of its debt. That reality has to sink in at some point.”

In essence, the troika are gangster loan sharks. They continue to lend money to someone who has no job and no assets, and tell him to get the money from his parents and children — or else.

Greece agrees to talk to creditors in EU debt progress
BY RENEE MALTEZOU AND INGRID MELANDER
BRUSSELS Thu Feb 12, 2015 2:28pm EST

(Reuters) – Greece agreed on Thursday to talk to its creditors about the way out of its hated international bailout in a political climbdown that could prevent its new leftist-led government running out of money as early as next month.

Greece already has run out of money. Being monetarily non-sovereign Greece cannot create its sovereign currency out of thin air. (Like our local governments, Greece has no sovereign currency; it uses the euro.)

So where does the troika think Greece will get the euros to pay its debts? From the Greek people, of course. The poor and middle classes (aka the 99%), which have been suffering from austerity, are supposed to suffer more and more, with no end in sight.

The shift by Tsipras marked a potential first step towards resolving a crisis that has raised the risk of Greece being forced to abandon the euro, which could spark wider financial turmoil.

How awful. Greece could abandon the euro, re-adopt its own sovereign currency, and thereby eliminate any possibility of running short of money or of forcing austerity on its people.

What could be worse — worse for the rich — who might lose the slave labor of the Greek people. No more kneeling down by desperate people, who will do whatever they are told, in order to acquire a few crusts of bread.

Yes, the rich do not want that sort of “financial turmoil.”

Tsipras won election last month promising to scrap the 240 billion euro ($273 billion) bailout, end cooperation with the “troika”, reverse austerity measures that have cast many Greeks into poverty and negotiate a reduction in the debt burden.

Or, just get the hell out of the euro, the worst financial idea since answering Email letters from a Nigerian prince.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said, “Europe always aims to find a compromise, and that is the success of Europe. Germany is ready for that. However, it must also be said that Europe’s credibility naturally depends on us respecting rules and being reliable with each other.”

Translation: Hitler was stupid to try to dominate Europe with war. We’ve found a much better solution: Enslave you with a currency you can’t control, and keep you in perpetual austerity.

Deutschland über alles!

But lest you offer too much of your pity to the Greeks, French, Spanish and the rest of the euro nations (most of which will follow Greece in supplication), remember this: You are hardly better than the Greeks:

–Your government, particularly the Republican party, has brainwashed you that austerity is prudent and necessary.
–You have been brainwashed that FICA funds Social Security and Medicare
–You have been brainwashed that federal government financing is like local government financing or your own financing.
–You have been brainwashed that the federal government “can’t afford” [insert project or payment here].

So you believe Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and all other aids to the poor and middle classes are “unsustainable,” without tax increases or benefit decreases.

And so long as you believe these lies, the rich own you, your family and your friends.

And when you ask yourself why you have so much difficulty saving money, or paying your mortgage, or putting your children through college — and why you will starve when you retire, while the 1% live luxury — the answer is this:

You believe the BIG LIE, just like the Greeks.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
The Ten Steps to Prosperity:

1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Federally funded, free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually. (Refer to this.)
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

Initiating The Ten Steps sequentially will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
——————————————————————————————————————————————

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.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK
Monetary Sovereignty

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

–The Jobs Guarantee (JG) mouse

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

Mitchell’s laws:
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes. .
Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening
the gap between rich and poor.
●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.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive,
and the motive is the Gap.
==================================================================================================================================================================

I just had a “discussion” with advocates for MMT (Modern Monetary Theory). The “discussion” consisted of me questioning their JG (Jobs Guarantee) and them telling me I’m wrong.

As regular readers know, I agree with MMT on just about everything regarding their descriptions of economic reality, but disagree with some of their recommendations.

Past posts on this blog describe why I believe JG is unworkable, a Rube Goldberian partial solution to unintentional unemployment.

MMT is so wedded to JG that for many years they have had a “Center for Full Employment and Price Stability.”

Clearly, MMT advocates (of which, on most things, I am one), are somewhat averse to eliminating JG as a prime goal. More than “somewhat.”

Among the many, many problems I have with JG is that it seems like a great deal of bureaucratic effort to solve a tiny problem.

You see, when I suggested to the adherents of MMT, that a better economic approach would be to focus on the adoption of the “Ten Steps to Prosperity” (See below) they said that MMT already is mostly in favor of the Ten Steps, but JG would take care of those people who still are unemployed, even after the Ten Steps are adopted.

But, nearly all economists favor some measure of unemployment — anywhere from 1% to 5%, as a safeguard against inflation.

So, MMT’s focus is on the relatively tiny fraction of the American populace, who are unable to find work, even after the Ten Steps are instituted, and also are not part of the 1%-5% economically desirable unemployed.

That made JG sound like “The Mountain Labored and Brought Forth a Mouse,” wherein MMT is the mountain and JG is the mouse.

A far better focus would be on narrowing the Gap — the distance between the rich and the rest — which affects the vast majority of Americans and of people in the world. MMT should consider something like a “Center for Economic Growth and Equality.”

Of course this suggestion has two chances: Fat chance and slim chance. But I thought I’d plant the seed.

Anyway, in regard to the Gap, you might find the following article of interest. The rich always love to portray themselves as the over-taxed minority, supporting the U.S. on their backs.

Well . . .

HSBC Admits Failings After Reports Reveal Subsidiary Helped Rich Hide Money
Reuters

British bank HSBC Holdings Plc admitted failings by its Swiss subsidiary in response to media reports it helped wealthy customers dodge taxes and conceal millions of dollars of assets.

The client list included royalty such as Morocco’s King Mohammed, politicians, corporate executives including former Santander chairman Emilio Botin, who died last year, and wealthy families, the ICIJ said.

A spokesman for the Moroccan royal palace declined to comment.

Yes, the income tax rates are higher for the rich than for the rest of us, but the amount left over, after taxes actually are paid, is monumentally higher for the rich.

In short, when talking about taxes, the rich come out “like” bandits.

And that doesn’t even include the ridiculously regressive FICA and sales taxes, that punish the 99% and leave the rich unscathed.

Bottom line, a group like MMT, with its broad following, and Stephanie Kelton working on the “inside” of government, should not focus on minutia.

The real problem is the Gap. And the MMT focus should be on the Ten Steps to Prosperity, not on the “mouse” of JG.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
The Ten Steps to Prosperity:

1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Federally funded, free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually. (Refer to this.)
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

Initiating The Ten Steps sequentially will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
——————————————————————————————————————————————

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.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK
Monetary Sovereignty

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

–Do Modern Monetary Theory and Monetary Sovereignty really hate each other?

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

Mitchell’s laws:
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes. .
Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening
the gap between rich and poor.
●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.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive,
and the motive is the Gap.
==================================================================================================================================================================

Do proponents of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and Monetary Sovereignty MS) really hate each other?

One might think so, based on the tone of the comments below the post, “Another word on MMT’s Jobs Guarantee and ‘The Rise Of Bullshit Jobs’,” Wednesday, Feb 4 2015

But, nothing could be further from the truth. Our disagreements are more like wrestling matches between twins. I very much like and respect Warren Mosler (the father of MMT), Stephanie Kelton, Randy Wray and all the folks at UMKC (the heart of MMT academics).

I mention this, because reader “tetrahedron 720” recently commented on the above-mentioned post:

“I somehow think this should be MS and MMT working together to complement each other’s strengths, not one OR the other in a battle to the finish. MS provides the demand and subsequent employment followed by the JG to capture what the private sector cannot. No?”

To the degree these sister philosophies can be summarized in a few, short sentences, here is what I see:

In describing the facts of federal and non-federal finances, MS and MMT are essentially the same. I know of no important differences.

Both schools agree that the federal government cannot run short of dollars, federal taxes do not fund federal spending, federal deficits are necessary for long-term economic growth, and federal “trust funds” (example: the Social Security “trust fund”) are nothing more than accounting conveniences and not real repositories of dollars.

Where MMT and MS differ most is in some of the recommendations, based on those very same facts.

MMT appears to believe that unemployment and price instability are our primary economic problems. They even created a “Center for Full Employment and Price Stability” at UMKC.

MS believes that the growing income/wealth/power Gap and the slow-growing overall economy are our primary problems. So MS focuses on narrowing the Gap, and growing the economy.

———————

While MMT welcomes low-paying jobs as an improvement over unemployment, MS believes low-paying jobs are a trap — the rich’s method for increasing wage slavery and widening the Gap.

———————

While MMT would seek directly to provide low-paying jobs as a partial cure for unemployment, MS would seek directly to provide funds to the “not-rich” as a partial cure for the too-wide Gap.

———————

While MMT asks for more direct government control over employment, MS asks for more government funding for private sector employment.

———————

While MMT believes inflation should be controlled by government balancing of deficits, MS believes inflation should be controlled by government balancing of interest rates.

———————

While MMT is discussed and presented in academic terms (except for Warren’s excellent book), MS is discussed and written in lay terms.

———————

The are many exceptions to the above. For instance, MS believes all banks and utilities should be federalized, and I suspect some in MMT may agree. We all agree on the elimination of FICA.

Interestingly, despite overwhelming similarities, each philosophy was created separately. MMT was created first, and later, MS was created without the knowledge that MMT existed.

One could think of it as “convergent evolution” (the process whereby different organisms, independently evolve similar traits, based on facing similar problems).

So in answer to the question, “Do proponents of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)and Monetary Sovereignty (MS) really hate each other?,” the answer is most assuredly, “No.”

We stand side-by-side in the fight against the widespread economic ignorance, fostered by the rich and powerful.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
The Ten Steps to Prosperity:

1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Federally funded, free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually. (Refer to this.)
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

Initiating The Ten Steps sequentially will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
——————————————————————————————————————————————

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.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK
Monetary Sovereignty

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

–Can you afford to live? Can the federal government afford you to live?

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

Mitchell’s laws:
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes. .
Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening
the gap between rich and poor.
●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.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive,
and the motive is the Gap.
==================================================================================================================================================================

Can you afford to live? Can the federal government afford you to live? Should America have a “Medicare for Everyone” program?

The following article appeared in the January-February issue of AARP Bulletin:

How Do You Pay for a $1,200 Pill?
Specialty drugs can mean miracles and heartbreak
By Bill Hogan

Sue Trevor (has a) disabling form of psoriasis. “The pharmacist called to let me know my Stelara was ready. She said, ‘I wanted to let you know that you now have a copay.’ It was $1,578 for each injection, four times a year.”

Trevor was able to pay for only one treatment, and that was with financial help from a nonprofit group.

Since then, here share has increased to $2,728 per injection.

Can Sue Trevor afford to live?

By giving new hope to patients with cancer, hepatitis C, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis, to name a few, specialty drugs are the Rolls-Royces of the pharmaceutical industry.

But these drugs come with costs to match. Solaris, for instance, which treats two life-threatening blood diseases, costs $440,000 per year.

Can our Monetarily Sovereign federal government afford to pay for such drugs?

Right wing budget cutters will tell you, “No,” and that people should be self-sufficient, and not be takers, who receive federal help.

Leigh Purvis, director of health services research at the AARP Public Policy Institute says, “There are lots of great new medications out there, but the sad fact is that many of them are so expensive that consumers may not be able to afford them.”

A key factor driving up health care costs (is) specialty drugs. Nineteen of the 28 drugs approved by the FDA were specialty drugs, the third year in a row that specialty drugs accounted for the majority of approvals.

John Rother, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Health Care, warns of “a tsunami of expensive medicines that could literally bankrupt the health care system.”

Really?? Bankrupt the U.S. government, which being Monetarily Sovereign, creates unlimited dollars ad hoc, simply by paying bills?

Sovaldi, a medication that’s been shown to cure about 90% of common cases of hepatitis C, which, if left untreated, can lead to liver damage, cirrhosis, liver cancer and death.

A typical 12-week regimen costs $84,000.

An estimated 3.2 million Americans are infected, 75% of them boomers.

So, debt hawks, what shall we do about these Americans? Tell them to be self-sufficient, because our Monetarily Sovereign government refuses to pay?

How insurance plans arrive at prices for prescription medicine is hugely complicated. Drugmakers set a sticker price and insurers bargain over the price.

Plans organize covered drugs by tiers. A generic drug might require a flat $10 copayment. But a drug in the fourth or fifth tier — the specialty tier — might require patients to pay as much as 33% of the cost.

For Medicare Part D, 95% of all plans had at least one drug in the specialty tier.

Unlike Medicaid and Veterans Affairs, Medicare is forbidden by law from using its strength in numbers to negotiate lower prices. Instead, negotiations are left to private insurance companies, which which drugs to offer and prices and cost sharing rules.

Think about that. The law prevents Medicare even from negotiating. The payers decide what to pay, based on profitability.

If Medicare Part D were a single-payer (government) plan (Part D for everyone), profitability and affordability would not be considerations. More people could have relief from their suffering, plus longer lives.

But it gets even worse:

While Part D enrollees can accept drugs provided at no cost by their manufacturers, Medicare bars manufacturers from offering any kind of co-pay assistance or other financial help.

In the United States, our so-called “1st world country,” being sick, while not being rich, can mean a lifetime of preventable misery or even a death sentence.

Why? Because the debt hawks tell you to be self-sufficient and not to accept help from the government. They tell the Big Lie that our Monetarily Sovereign government could run short of its own sovereign currency, the dollar.

And you believe it!

And its not just medicine. Another AARP article says:

Millions of older Americans rely on community-based programs funded by the Older Americans Act, created 50 years ago to help people live independently as they age.

It funds nutrition services (including Meals on Wheels), caregiver support, transportation and a host of other services for vulnerable older Americans.

But congress has been unable to reach an agreement on reauthorizing this important law.

To the debt hawks, the suffering of actual people is not a problem; the problem is the federal deficit.

Why? No one knows. For a Monetarily Sovereign nation, deficits are absolutely necessary for economic growth. The deficit cutters won’t tell you that. They want to cut what makes the economy grow.

And the beat goes on:

Where’s the War on Alzheimer’s?
As research funding lags, cases are increasing — with staggering costs.
By. T. R. Reid

The most expensive disease in america is devouring federal and state health care budgets, and depleting the life savings of millions of victims and their families.

Recent studies show that the cost of caring for Americans with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias has surpassed the cost of treatment for cancer patients or victims of heart disease.

“If we don’t get some control over this disease, says Huntington Potter, a neurobiologist at the U. of Colorado School of Medicine, “its going to bankrupt both Medicare and Medicaid.”

No, these federal agencies cannot be bankrupted. But real, live Americans are being bankrupted by Alzheimer’s disease (not to mention the horrors of the disease, itself.)

The disease is costly, and the ignorance about federal financing is even more costly.

Washington has committed some $5.4 billion this fiscal year to cancer research, about $1.2 billion to heart disease and $3 billion to HIV/AIDS. Research funding for Alzheimer’s will reach just $566 million.

The disease can linger for years or decades. That makes the cost, both for government insurance programs and for families, extremely high.

Our Monetarily Sovereign federal government can afford the cost, and never go bankrupt, but doesn’t pay it. The bitter irony: Families cannot afford the cost, and do go bankrupt, while trying to pay it.

Ah, the list goes on and on — things the federal government can and should fund, to improve our lives, but won’t do because of the Big Lie that the federal government “can’t afford it.”

And right about now, I hear the wailing, the crying and the moaning about “inflation,” and not just inflation but “hyper-inflation,” as the names “Weimar, Zimbabwe, Argentina” come spilling out.

Never mind that though people are suffering and dying right now, today, from lack of federal assistance, while America never, in its history has had hyper-inflation.

And never mind that the Fed controls inflation quite well, simply by controlling interest rates.

And never mind that there has been no relationship between federal spending and inflation, but rather the relationship has been with oil prices. See: “Oil causes inflation.”

And never mind that despite those “terrible” deficits, we are sinking into deflation, which most economists say is more devastating than inflation.

monetary sovereignty

The Risk Of Deflation In America Is Rapidly Escalating
WALTER KURTZ, JAN. 11, 2015, 2:10 PM

Unlike a number of other nations — especially some countries in Europe — the US is currently not dealing with general price declines. However, the risks of such an occurrence have increased materially.

This for example can be seen in the intermediate-term market-based inflation expectations, which have fallen to 2009 levels — when deflation was a serious concern.

One key data point supporting these rising risks came from last Friday’s jobs report. The report showed wage growth falling from a fairly stable level of 2% per annum. In particular, “production and nonsupervisory employees” saw a sharp decline in wage growth — in spite of robust growth in payrolls.

Translation: There has been a big increase in low pay jobs. The Gap is widening.

Bottom line:
1. The federal government needs to spend more on health R&D and on health care.
2. Federal “affordability” is not an issue. People’s affordability is the issue.
3. The “threat” of possible inflation is way overblown, especially as compared with the reality of human suffering.
4. The “world leader” should provide a federally funded, fully funded (no deductibles) Medicare Parts A, B and D, plus home and nursing care, for all Americans.

It’s not what the rich want, but it’s what the 99% need, if we are to be able to afford to live.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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The Ten Steps to Prosperity:

1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Federally funded, free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually. (Refer to this.)
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

Initiating The Ten Steps sequentially will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
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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.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK
Monetary Sovereignty

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY