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

Cynthia Tucker, winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for commentary and a visiting professor at the University of Georgia, wrote a blog post from which we’ll quote a few passages:

Last month, the GOP-dominated House passed an agriculture bill that omitted funding for the food stamp program — partly because the Republican caucus disagreed over whether cuts to the program should be merely harsh or extremely severe.

Not so long ago, hardliners sought to cloak this sort of cruelty in the language of the greater good: the need to reduce government spending. But last month’s bill didn’t even attempt that pretense: It included billions in agricultural subsidies for wealthy farming interests, including some Republican members of Congress.

Of course, the “need” to reduce government spending is in itself a lie that is cloaked. There is absolutely no such need.

In fact, reductions in government spending lead to recessions and depressions, while increases in government spending lead to recoveries. The reason is straightforward: Mathematically: Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports.

Basic algebra shows that reduced federal spending growth must result in reduced GDP growth. No economic mechanism exists whereby spending decreases can increase economic growth.

Spending decreases increase the gap between the rich and the rest — which is why those politicians most bribed by the rich are most in favor of reductions in federal deficit spending.

Further, no one pays for federal deficit spending — neither taxpayers, nor taxpayers’ children nor grandchildren. Not now. Not in the future. No one pays anything. That’s the way it works in a Monetarily Sovereign government.

So why does the middle class resent cost-free federal spending for food stamps, unemployment compensation and other forms of welfare?

About 20 percent of [Atlanta Food Bank] beneficiaries report that this is the first time they’ve ever asked for assistance from government or charitable programs. Among them are people who once belonged to the secure middle class; some were formerly donors or volunteers at the food bank.

Bill Bolling, founder and executive director of the Atlanta Community Food Bank, said, “They’re keeping their part of the social contract. They are getting up every day and going to a job, maybe two jobs. If a man gets up and goes to work every day, I don’t care what his job is, he ought to be able to feed his family.”

And a government, having the unlimited ability to create money, ought to help its citizens feed their families. But, of course, that is not want the rich want. Destitution and desperation help build a large servant class for the rich.

Conservative critics speak contemptuously of those struggling to make ends meet, to describe a lazy “47 percent” who want nothing but handouts, to dismiss those who can’t make ends meet as responsible for their own hard luck.

Some of that hostility toward struggling Americans can be explained by a racial antagonism that presumes that most of them are black or brown.

That’s the “food stamp mama” image implanted in the public’s mind, by the rich-owned media — a false image as it turns out.

Programs like food stamps are understood by whites to largely benefit shiftless black people.

[But] the Great Recession laid waste to the finances of many white families, too. They (whites) account for about 35.5 percent of food stamp recipients. Black Americans are disproportionately represented, but account for only about 23 percent. Latinos account for about 10 percent of recipients

The motivation of the rich to bully the middle and lower classes is clear: To widen the income/wealth/power gap. But why is the middle class so ready to join in the bullying?

And that is the key word: “Bullying.” Children do it. When a weak child is bullied by a strong child, many others will join in. Why?

Not being a professional psychologist, I can only guess that the motive is self-protection. A child may feel the need to distance himself from the weak and to align himself with the strong. If he can join in kicking the weak, he himself will not be kicked, and he even may gain approval from the strong.

So we have the spectacle of middle- and even lower-income people sneering at those receiving food stamps, unemployment payments or other poverty-associated benefits, when they themselves soon may need such benefits. It’s illogical, but instinctive, and instinct beats logic every time.

Instinct allows the so-called “religious” right to turn people against themselves. The populace actively wants to believe those right-wing lies that the poor are worthless, good-for-nothings, who would rather wallow in poverty and feed from the government trough, than work to earn an income.

This belief supplies the weak with a justification for bullying the weaker.

I know such people. A couple are even in my own family. I’ve found that no facts, no statistics, no logical proofs will sway them. They simply know in their hearts that the poor must be treated with a firm, ruthless hand to “teach them a lesson” and to keep them from “beating the system.”

Thus as the rich watch laughing, the middle-class does their dirty work, an effort that always turns back against the middle.

The middle class is finding that what goes around, comes around. Will the lesson never be learned?

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================
Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
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. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (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

As the lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the lines rise.

#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.
======================================================================================================================================================================================

If President Obama’s appointment of billionaire Penny Pritzker wasn’t sufficient evidence . . . If his “Grand Bargain” and his FICA increase didn’t do it for you . . .

If his oft-repeated desire to cut Social Security and his false claim that the government must live within its means, just like you and me, wasn’t conclusive . . . And if his failure to adopt or even discuss Medicare for All (vs. Obamacare) could simply be attributed to ignorance and not to bribery . . .

And despite the fact that all of the above help widen the gap between the rich and the rest, you need even more evidence of bribery by the rich, (via campaign contributions and promises of lucrative employment later), here is yet one more clue:

MARKET PULSE
Sept. 13, 2013, 1:55 a.m. EDT
Obama set to name Summers as Fed chief: report

U.S. President Barack Obama plans to name former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers as the next chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board of Governors, according to a report Friday by Japanese newspaper Nikkei, which cited unnamed sources. An announcement is expected as early as late next week, following the conclusion of the Fed’s policy meeting on Wednesday.

Yes, that Larry Summers, the guy who has screwed up every job he has held and has favored the moneyed crowd at every turn, and as a result, has been promoted to even more prestigious jobs.

Click on his name and you will see what he is all about: Larry Summers

To appoint Summers is to tell the world, “I don’t give a damn what happens to the middle- and lower-income groups in America. I just want to suck up to the rich, so that Penny will build me a nice, big Obama library in Chicago.”

What an abject failure Obama has been. What a disappointment to those who elected him. What a sad Presidency.

What next? Repeatedly change course on Syria? (Oops. Done that, already.)

Watch GINI make a big leap.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================
Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
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. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (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

As the lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the lines rise.

#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.
======================================================================================================================================================================================

Long-term unemployment is a uniquely human phenomenon. No animals are unemployed, at least, not for long.

The job of a hawk is to eat mice, birds and other small creatures, and to rear little hawks. If the hawk doesn’t do his job, he starves to death, as do his kids. There are no long-term unemployed hawks. All hawks are self employed. No rich hawks benefit from the labors of poor hawks.

The job of a hippo is to eat grass, ward off crocodiles and raise little hippos. If hippos are long-term unemployed, they and their young die. Hippos too, are self employed. No rich hippos benefit from the work of poor hippos.

Now, some animals, cold-blooded especially, can laze without eating for many months, but even lazing is part of their job. It conserves energy.

For all animals, the goal is not work, but rather, survival, and not just survival, but comfort.

Which is why the whole notion of basing economic progress on human unemployment ratios, has become outmoded. People do not seek work. People seek survival and comfort, and it just happens that the way things have been arranged, work brings money, and money brings power, which enables survival and comfort.

But work, as we know it, is growing obsolete. Your great grandchildren may not work at all, or if they do work, their work will require few hours and little effort.

In January, 2012, this blog posted: “Again I lay my head on the MMT chopping block. Why JG (formerly ELR) is obsolete” in which I criticized one aspect of Modern Monetary Theory (a theory with which I mostly agree):

To create “full employment with price stability.” There is, in fact, a Center for Full Employment and Price Stability at the University of Missouri at Kansas City (UMKC), the heart of MMT in America.

The association of full employment with price stability is an important part of MMT. But while price stability (or at least, price control) is a worthwhile goal, full employment no longer is, and perhaps never was.

Technology, combined with Monetary Sovereignty, has taken us past that notion. Read from an article in NewScientist Magazine:

Future factories let workers build a car from home
04 September 2013 by Paul Marks

Machines that can be controlled over the internet open up the possibility of factory workers joining the home-working revolution

The factories of the future will look very different from those today, with not a person in sight. Instead, workers will log into robot-assisted manufacturing “cells” to make what they want from the comfort of their own home.

You won’t even need to be employed by the factory: people on online social networks will be able to log in and set laser cutters and 3D printers to work, bashing out gadgets to order.

Say you want a car. You log on to a car-manufacturing website, build a car remotely, then automatically drive the car to your door — all without being “employed” in the usual sense.

How was the car factory built? Remotely, of course.

Admittedly, there is a chicken/egg consideration. Humans had to work to build the machines that built the machines that made this all possible. But once those machines are built, they could build other, even smarter, more talented machines, until human labor no longer is needed.

It already has begun:

In 1972, about 57% of the U.S. population was employed in outside-of-the-home jobs (blue line). As more women entered the labor force, by 2000, more than 64% of the population was employed. Today, less than 59% is employed.

But look at the increase in productivity (red line). It has gone up, up, up, with occasional dips for recessions. It isn’t people who are more productive; it’s machines.

Throughout human history, we have viewed ourselves as typical animals. “You don’t work; you don’t eat.” One of Aesop’s best known fables is the Ant and the Grasshopper. Hard work is extolled, while those who do not work are condemned.

Work not only has a practical purpose, but is a moral imperative.

The fable includes this counter-moral: Those who do not work deserve to suffer, earning neither pity nor charity.

For humans, however, the rich never have been expected to work. For them, there is no moral imperative. The rich always have been privileged. The poor not only are expected to work, but they are not considered deserving of assistance from the rich.

That moral is deeply embedded into the psyche of those who consider themselves conservatives. It is the self-serving, mean-spirited rationale for deficit reduction, which by its very nature, punishes the “have-nots” and benefits the “haves.”

The rich have promulgated the notion that hard work is the path to heaven, so as to maintain a ready supply of servants. If one doesn’t struggle and sweat for his masters, not only will he starve in this life, but he will burn in the next — except if he is rich, of course.

Today, among of the prime measures of a nation’s economic success (or failure) are the various unemployment ratios. The Fed talks of reducing its fake stimulus when one unemployment ratio reaches a certain, arbitrary level. And MMT’s stated goal is something called “full employment.”

But as productivity rises, employment becomes less economically meaningful. This reduced need to hire employees, combined with deficit reduction, creates a growing, more desperate servant class for the rich. As the demand for jobs grows, and the availability of jobs shrinks, the rewards for work can become more stingy.

We see it already. Real unemployment remains high while corporate profits have soared.

The servants work harder for less, and are punished for not finding work. It’s a perfect arrangement for the wealth class.

The point of the above is that we have been duped into seeking the wrong goal. The objective of humans should not be work, but rather, survival and comfort.

As productivity increases, the rewards should not be doled just to a shrinking minority, but to everyone. Legal working hours should be cut substantially from the traditional eight, minimum wages should be increased and social services (Medicare, Social Security et al) expanded.

Technology and Monetary Sovereignty together make it possible.

Yes, there always is the spurious argument, “What if nobody worked?” Actually, one day, that may come about, and we all may be happier for it. Until then, the measure of our economic success should not be employment, but rather, equality.

GINI is a measure of inequality. A GINI ratio of 0, would mean everyone earns the same. A GINI ratio of 1 would mean one person earned everything. As the line rises, enequality grows.

The goal of government should be to bring that line down. Our leaders should be judged by their success in reducing inequality.

Employment is not the goal; it is just the current means to the real goal of survival and comfort. Employment is a means that benefits the rich and enslaves the rest to a lifetime of labor.

It is cruel. It is unnecessarily. We need not be hawks nor hippos.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================
Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
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. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (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

As the lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the lines rise.

#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.
======================================================================================================================================================================================

The Chicago Tribune, my favorite owned-by-the-rich, to-hell-with-the-rest newspaper, published today an editorial ironically titled, “More of the same — unfortunately.”

For the Tribune, it really was more of the same — unfortunately.

The editorial decried the slow pace of job creation.

The weak recovery is failing to gain momentum. Many Americans are being left behind — sidelined, underemployed or otherwise underutilized — while their skills atrophy.

The (unemployment) rate dropped 0.1 percent in August almost entirely because 312,000 Americans exited the workforce. So even though 115,000 fewer people held jobs in August, the rate went down because many Americans no longer are trying to find work.

The trend reflects an aging population that is retiring, as expected. But the numbers also were up for “discouraged workers,” those who have given up looking for jobs because they don’t think they’ll ever find one.

The Affordable Care Act gives some employers and workers an additional incentive to go part time, so as Obamacare kicks in over the next year, don’t be surprised to see part-timing spike.

It’s a right-wing hint, hint: Getting rid of Obamacare somehow will grow the job market — perhaps by dooming millions more people to the abject poverty associated with ill health.

Never mind that employers hire the number of workers needed to accomplish tasks, and never mind that employers pay what the market forces them to pay. When employers try to employ part timers, they need to hire more part timers to do the same work.

And this doesn’t even consider reduced efficiency, job skills, commitment and loyalty. Having owned several businesses, I can assure you, part timers are no bargain.

Job creation is proceeding at far too slow a pace to make up for what was lost.

Washington, regrettably, has more talking points than good answers. The most aggressive response has come from the U.S. Federal Reserve, which is pumping $85 billion into a bond-buying program designed to stimulate growth.

The so-called “bond buying” program adds nothing to the money supply. It’s sole effects are to reduce long-term interest rates and to reduce the money supply!

Why, reduce? Because with low interest rates and with fewer T-securities outstanding, the federal government pays less interest into the economy. That is not stimulative; it is recessive.

The Fed’s latest program, nicknamed QE3, simply isn’t delivering enough economic growth — enough jobs. It’s past time for the Fed to give it up.

Right. QE3 delivers zero jobs, so yes, give it up. And stop pretending it is stimulative.

And now, here are the Tribune’s big ideas, their “more of the same — unfortunately” grand plan:

To give business confidence and truly get the economy moving again, Washington needs to make progress on three big issues:

First, reform entitlement programs so employers won’t fear future tax hikes to rescue them.

In Tribune, right-wing-speak, “reform” is a euphemism for “slash.” What they really mean, but don’t have the honesty to say is, “Slash the programs that benefit the poor and middle-income groups.

“Slash Social Security. Slash Medicare. Slash Medicaid. Slash food stamps. Slash job creating initiatives like road and bridge building, education, crime prevention and pharmaceutical research. Slash food regulation, drug regulation, stock and commodity market regulation and above all, slash bank regulation.

“Finally, increase FICA, the most regressive tax in U.S. history.”

Second, revamp (and simplify) a federal tax code that, because it chooses winners and losers, discourages muscular hiring and investment.

All taxes “choose winners and losers,” but the real point is: “Revamp (and simplify)” are euphemisms for tax the lower income groups more, and reduce taxes on the rich (the self-proclaimed “job creators.”)

Every tax “simplification” plan ever proposed by the right-wing, increases the tax burden on the middle class.

Third, stop amassing an unaffordable national debt — almost $17 trillion and rising. Repaying that obligation threatens to devour too much of future workers’ incomes.

The usual, right-wing bullsh*t. The national debt is nothing more than the total of privately owned T-security accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank. T-security accounts essentially are bank savings accounts.

The so-called “debt” could be eliminated tomorrow, at a cost of $0 to current or to future workers, simply by transferring the balances in holders’ T-security accounts to their checking accounts.

It would be the same as transferring dollars from your savings account to your checking account. No cost to anyone.

The Tribune has learned that “more of the same — unfortunately” continues to fool the populace and to benefit the Tribune’s rich owners. So why not continue the charade?

If the people keep buying snake oil, keep selling it. If it works, keep doing it. So they do.

When I played “fetch” with my dog, I sometimes would fake a throw. He would run to find the non-existent stick. After I did this a few times, he learned I was faking, and quit being fooled.

The American populace, having not yet learned the media and politicians are faking when claiming the debt is “unaffordable,” still continue to be fooled. In that sense, they are not as smart as my dog.

Unfortunately.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================
Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
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. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (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

As the lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the lines rise.

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY