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, and the motive is the gap.
======================================================================================================================================================================================

History always teaches.
Sometimes we listen.
The rest is ignorance,
or cruel intent.

VOYAGE OF THE ST. LOUIS
On May 13, 1939, the German liner St. Louis sailed from Hamburg, Germany, for Cuba, with 938 passengers. Almost all were Jews fleeing from the Third Reich.

The passengers, who held landing certificates and transit visas, did not know that entry to Cuba now was denied to all those without written authorization from the Cuban Secretaries of State and Labor and a $500 bond.

Right-wing Cuban newspapers deplored its impending arrival and demanded that the Cuban government cease admitting Jewish refugees.

Like the United States, Cuba struggled with the Great Depression. Many Cubans resented the refugees, because they appeared to be competitors for scarce jobs.

Hostility toward immigrants fueled both antisemitism and xenophobia. Both agents of Nazi Germany and indigenous right-wing movements hyped the immigrant issue in their publications and demonstrations, claiming that incoming Jews were Communists.

Reports about the impending voyage fueled the largest antisemitic demonstration in Cuban history. Grau San Martin, a former Cuban president, urged Cubans to “fight the Jews until the last one is driven out.” The demonstration drew 40,000 spectators. Thousands more listened on the radio.

When the St. Louis arrived in Havana, the Cuban government refused to admit its 908 passengers.

Though US newspapers generally portrayed the plight of the passengers with great sympathy, only a few journalists and editors suggested that the refugees be admitted into the United States.

Leaving Cuba, the St. Louis sailed to America. Coming so close to Florida that they could see the lights of Miami, some passengers on the St. Louis cabled President Franklin D. Roosevelt asking for refuge. Roosevelt never responded.

A State Department telegram sent to a passenger stated that the passengers must “await their turns on the waiting list and qualify for and obtain immigration visas before they may be admissible into the United States.”

US quotas strictly limited the annual combined German-Austrian immigration quota to 27,370, which was filled. In fact, there was a waiting list of at least several years.

Public opinion in the United States continued to favor immigration restrictions. The Great Depression had left millions of people in the United States unemployed and fearful of competition for the scarce few jobs available. It also fueled antisemitism, xenophobia, nativism, and isolationism.

President Roosevelt could have issued an executive order to admit the St. Louis refugees, but general hostility to immigrants and the gains of isolationist Republicans in the Congressional elections of 1938, militated against taking this step in an unpopular cause.

Three months before the St. Louis sailed, Congressional leaders in both US houses allowed to die in committee a bill sponsored by Senator Robert Wagner (D-N.Y.) and Representative Edith Rogers (R-Mass.). This bill would have admitted 20,000 Jewish children from Germany above the existing quota.

Following the US government’s refusal to permit the passengers to disembark, the St. Louis sailed back to Europe. Jewish organizations negotiated with four European governments to secure entry visas for the passengers.

Although numbers vary widely, it has been estimated that about half the Jews were killed and half survived the war.

History taught us, but did we listen?

Republican congressman: Immigrant children might carry Ebola

The unaccompanied minors crossing into the United States from Mexico could be imperiling Americans by exposing them to Ebola, Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Ind warned. Also, “ultimately your property taxes are going to go up” because they’ll be able to enroll in school.

Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., warned about the possibility of heightened “swine flu, dengue fever, Ebola virus and tuberculosis.”

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. wants a fully lit and well-staffed fence to span the entire border between the United States and Mexico, and to combat this “war against the American people,” up taxes on 100 percent of undocumented immigrants.

Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala. pivoted from his defensive against a Democratic “war on whites” to indicate that even immigrants who’ve lived in the United States their entire lives would lack the necessary patriotism.

“These individuals (are) gonna have access to all sorts of military weaponry, even to the point of having access to weapons of mass destruction like our nuclear arsenal. And I’m gonna have much greater faith in the loyalty of an American citizen than someone who is a citizen of a foreign nation.”

And then there is:

House Republicans unveil bill to speed deportations of border children

An Associated Press survey indicated two-thirds of Americans say the law should be changed to send the children home quickly.

And as always:

Discrimination Against Latin Americans

In 2002, 47 percent of people classified discrimination against Latinos as a major problem, compared with 61 percent in 2010. Seven out of 10 immigrant Latinos indicated that discrimination is a significant barrier that keeps Latinos from succeeding in the United States.

But not everyone:

Democratic leaders labeled the Republican proposal inhumane, given the poverty and gang violence that many of the children are fleeing. “We must have a heart and look into our souls to guide us in our treatment of these desperate children,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

Groups that advocate for immigrants condemned (various) House bills as appeasing the GOP’s large tea-party contingent. “How pathetic,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, which advocates for immigrant rights. “They have approved a package that would send Central American children who are fleeing murder and rape back to the violence they escaped.”

History has taught us. But in America today, are we witnessing ignorance or cruel intent?

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================
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. 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
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)

10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

—–

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

THE RECESSION CLOCK

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

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, and the motive is the gap.
======================================================================================================================================================================================

Please click the links to read two articles on immigration: I couldn’t have said it better, except for two things

Children, You’re Not Welcome Here!

A country that claims to value religious principles is beyond redemption if it cannot offer its safety to innocent children.

We can’t have it both ways. We are either a nation that lives by its religious principles and takes care of the least of these, or we are hypocrites publicly crying “lord, lord” as we turn and look the other away.

The author provides the moral reasons for accepting children. Clearly, the right wing, that claims so much religiosity, acts in the most immoral fashion.

The claim that there is no room in our life raft, or that even providing a life raft, encourages more refugees, is so repugnant, so hypocritical, and so wrong, it is difficult to understand how any person can harbor these beliefs and claim to be religious.

Attending church doesn’t put you in good with God. It’s what you do to your fellow man (or child) that counts.

Shame, shame on our religious leaders for not speaking out. What the hell is the good of religion, if it teaches “Screw you, I’ve got mine”?

And if you need further evidence, please read:

Hope Dwindles for Hondurans Living in Peril

Gangs move from house to house demanding “rent” or a “war tax,” or the property itself. Night after night, families flee in terror to other parts of Honduras, to Mexico, to the United States, many of them part of the wave of child and family migrants overwhelming American detention centers in the Southwest.

Many young people have left, but many more have stayed, living locked in their homes and harboring dreams of escape.

Yes, the situation is horrifying. Children brave dangers coming to America, not because they are tempted by an “easy” life, but simply to live, to survive, to grow to be adults.

Aside from the moral issues, there are two other issues the authors don’t address:

1. Helping these children doesn’t cost us anything. Our taxes do not pay for federal spending. Our government is Monetarily Sovereign. It creates dollars ad hoc, by spending dollars. So whether caring for refugee children costs a billion dollars or a trillion dollars, our federal government can afford it, and no taxes needed.

There are plenty of dollars to care for refugee children, while caring for our own citizens, too. It’s not either/or.

2. These children will grow up to be contributors to the American economy. They will work, produce, create and pay local taxes. Children are our greatest asset. They are our future, and always have been. When we deny admittance to children, we deny America’s past and America’s destiny.

In summary, admitting children is moral, free and productive. Building the wall higher makes no moral or logical sense. It’s an exercise in meanness and stupidity.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================
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. 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
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)

10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

—–

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

THE RECESSION CLOCK

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

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, and the motive is the gap.
======================================================================================================================================================================================

Laurence J. Kotlikoff is a professor of economics at Boston University and the co-author of “The Clash of Generations: Saving Ourselves, Our Kids, and Our Economy.”

Here are excerpts from an article he published on August 1, 2014:

HOUSEHOLDS can’t spend, on a continuing basis, more than they earn. Countries can’t either, at least not over the long run. But countries can certainly leave the bill for their current spending to the young and to future generations.

In just three short sentences, this economics professor demonstrates everything that is wrong with the teaching of economics in America:

1. His first sentence is correct. Households, being monetarily non-sovereign, can’t spend more than they earn, long-term. They can’t create money at will.

2. His second sentence is wrong for two reasons: First, he doesn’t differentiate between Monetarily Sovereign countries (U.S., Canada, UK, Japan, Australia, China et al), which have their own sovereign currency vs. monetarily non-sovereign entities (all euro nations, cities, counties and states, individuals and businesses) which don’t have their own sovereign currency.

A Monetarily Sovereign nation creates its sovereign currency from thin air, by passing laws that make that currency possible. The laws are under the total control of the nation, which has the unlimited ability to change those laws and to create its currency, at any time it wishes. A Monetarily Sovereign nation cannot run short of its own sovereign currency.

Monetarily non-sovereign entities, like you and me and Kotlikoff, don’t have a sovereign currency and so, cannot create money at will. We can run short of money.

3. His third sentence compounds the ignorance by assuming Monetarily Sovereign governments need to borrow or tax in order to pay their bills. They don’t. Why would they? They have the unlimited ability to create their own sovereign currency.

But the ignorance gets worse:

Official borrowing is the old-fashioned way to do this: Sell Treasury bonds, and other securities, and spend the proceeds. But borrowing in broad daylight has a drawback: The more you do it, the more lenders worry about repayment, and the more interest they charge for their loans.

The federal government sells Treasury bonds but it doesn’t “spend the proceeds.”

When you buy a Treasury bond, dollars are transferred from your personal checking account to your personal T-bond account, at the Federal Reserve Bank, where the dollars stay nice and safe. To “pay you back,” the Federal Reserve Bank merely transfers those dollars back from your Treasury Bond account to your checking account. No new dollars needed.

So lenders (you and I who buy those T-bonds) don’t worry about being paid back. And we don’t determine how much interest to charge. The Fed does that. Really, look around you. Have you seen T-bond interest rates going up, despite massive sales of T-bonds?

But incredibly, the ignorance gets even worse:

Social Security . . . takes in money, via payroll taxes, while promising hefty retirement benefits in return. Dig deep into the appendix of the most recent Social Security Trustees Report, and you’ll find that the program’s unfunded obligation is $24.9 trillion “through the infinite horizon” (or a mere $10.6 trillion, as calculated through 2088). That’s nearly twice the $12.6 trillion in public debt held by the United States government.

Ooooh! How scary! Two unrelated numbers (Social Security “debt” and federal “debt”) and one is bigger than the other. Oooooh!

A Monetarily Sovereign government, owing its own sovereign currency, has zero “unfunded obligations.” All its obligations are paid for (“funded”), ad hoc. When the U.S. government pays a bill, it sends instructions (not dollars) to the creditor’s bank, telling the bank to increase the numbers in the creditor’s checking account.

At the moment the bank does as it is instructed, dollars are created. Sending instructions is the way the U.S. government funds all its obligations. The government never can run short of instructions, so all federal debt is funded.

Oh, but the ignorance continues:

The prospect of formal default by the United States is remote. Informal default via the inflationary, easy-money policies of the Federal Reserve since 2007, is more likely. (Social Security is pegged to inflation, so while inflation would help with our official debts to creditors, like China, it is far from a panacea.)

First, those “easy money policies” have resulted in low inflation rates, below the 2.5% – 3% Fed target rate

And second, and more important, inflation does not “help with our official debts to creditors, like China.” Two reasons:

First, we “pay off” China’s “debt” (i.e. T-bonds), simply by transferring China’s money — dollars that are in China’s T-bond account at the Federal Reserve Bank — to China’s checking account, also at the Federal Reserve Bank. It’s just a transfer of existing funds.

Second, U.S. debts are paid with dollars. The value of those dollars (i.e. inflation) is irrelevant. If the U.S. owes someone a thousand dollars, it makes no difference whether those thousand dollars can buy a car or a loaf of bread. The U.S. simply sends instructions to the creditor’s bank, telling the bank to increase the number in the creditor’s checking account by one thousand.

And the beat goes on:

The fiscal gap — the difference between our government’s projected financial obligations and the present value of all projected future tax and other receipts — is, effectively, our nation’s credit card bill. Eliminating it, would require an immediate, permanent 59 percent increase in federal tax revenue.

Or, professor, we simply could continue as we have for the past 240 years, and pay our bills by sending instructions to banks. Better yet, we could cut federal taxes, thereby enriching the private sector and assuring we never again would have a recession. (Federal Deficit = Private Sector Income)

And now for the truly scary part:

Even if we do nothing, we should at least be transparent about our insolvency. A bill introduced last year . . . would require the Congressional Budget Office, the Government Accountability Office and the Office of Management and Budget to conduct such “generational accounting.”

Former government officials from both parties, and more than 1,200 economists, including 17 Nobel laureates, have endorsed the legislation, known as the Inform Act. It would keep our government honest, and sound an alarm.

OMG! Is it possible for all these “experts” to be completely ignorant of Monetary Sovereignty? Are they descendants of the people who insisted the earth is the center of the universe?

Or have they been bribed by the rich, to widen the gap between the rich and the rest? (Cutting federal spending hurts the lower income groups more than the upper income groups, thus widening the gap.)

We know the politicians are bribed via campaign contributions and promises of lucrative employment, later. We know the university professors do what the big contributors tell them to do. And of course, the media are owned by the rich.

The nonsense Kotlikoff spreads is what a person who has zero understanding of economics believes. It’s the belief government finances are the same as personal finances.

I seriously doubt Kotlikoff is that ignorant. I believe he knows that what he is saying is a pack of lies (aka the Big Lie).

So really, Professor Kotlikoff, have you no sense of pride?

Why are you doing this to our children? For the money?

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================
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. 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
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)

10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

—–

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

THE RECESSION CLOCK

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