–“We’d be better off leaving the euro and returning to the pound. We don’t want to end up like Greece.”

Mitchell’s laws:
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor,
which leads to civil disorder.
●Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive.

=====================================================================

Euro zone urges Cyprus to spare smaller savers from bank levy
By Michele Kambas and Harry Papachristou
NICOSIA/ATHENS | Mon Mar 18, 2013 5:22pm EDT

(Reuters) – Euro zone ministers urged Cyprus to let smaller savers escape a levy on bank deposits, before a parliamentary vote on Tuesday that will either secure the island’s financial rescue or threaten default.

A weekend announcement that Cyprus would impose a levy on bank accounts as part of a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout by the European Union broke with previous practice that depositors’ savings were sacrosanct.

Translation: To a bankster, “sacrosanct” is money in their pockets. These are the same criminals President Obama refuses to prosecute. Mr. Obama doesn’t bite the hand that feeds him.

Under the deal struck in Brussels on Saturday, bank deposits under that level would have faced a levy of 6.7 percent, ripping up the protection savers thought they enjoyed on insured deposits up to that limit, while those above would be stung for 9.9 percent.

“All Eurogroup ministers said today they wished there was no tax below 100,000 euros but you can’t force a country to not do that,” the Greek source told Reuters.

“Cyprus doesn’t want to impose a large tax above 100,000 because the money will flow out. Two thirds of deposits are from abroad.”

Translation: A tax on deposits below 100,000 euros is economically destructive. A tax on deposits above 100,000 euros also is economically destructive. So let’s do both.

The decision to target bank accounts stunned Cypriots . . . Residents emptied cash machines over the weekend and investors feared a precedent had been set that could reignite turmoil in the single currency area that the European Central Bank has calmed in recent months with its pledge to do whatever it takes to save the euro.

Translation: The ECB calmed the eurozone with a pledge to do “whatever it takes” – i.e. “takes” from the people and gives to the banks.

“It is up to the government alone to decide if it wants to change the structure,” European Central Bank policymaker Joerg Asmussen, who was pivotal in the weekend negotiations, told reporters in Berlin. “The important thing is that the financial contribution of 5.8 billion euros remains.”

Translation: It’s not up to the people; it’s up to the government. The people are not important; the banks are.

“They are treating us like guinea pigs,” said Takis Georgiou, 49. “We’d be better off leaving the euro and returning to the pound. We don’t want to end up like Greece.”

Translation: We’d be better off if our government had not voluntarily surrendered the single most valuable asset our nation has – its Monetary Sovereignty. Who would have thought?

“The most important question is what would happen the following day if the bill isn’t voted,” Cyprus central bank governor Panicos Demetriades told parliament.

“What would certainly happen is that our two big banks would need to be consolidated. This doesn’t mean that they would be completely destroyed.”

Translation: Oh horrors. Consolidate our banks? We would rather punish our citizens than inconvenience the banksters.

“If I were a saver, certainly in Spain or maybe Italy, I think I’d be looking askance at these measures and think this could yet happen to me,” said Peter Dixon, global financial economist at Commerzbank.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, who has talked with his EU counterparts, was monitoring developments closely and expected a “fair” solution, Washington said.

Translation: As a member of the Obama team (following the the footsteps of Tim Geithner), Lew feels a “fair” solution is one that rewards criminals at the expense of the public.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, a conservative elected just three weeks ago, said in a TV address that the tax was an alternative to a disorderly bankruptcy. It was painful, but “will eventually stabilize the economy and lead it to recovery”.

Translation: “Disorderly” means the banksters would lose money. “Stabilize” means the public will lose money.

“Essentially parliament is called to legalize a decision to rob depositors blind, against every written and unwritten law,” said Yiannakis Omirou, speaker of parliament and head of EDEK, the small Socialist party.

Translation: Right. That’s the Obama/Geithner approach. Any problem?

And then something amazing happened:

Cyprus lawmakers reject bank tax; bailout in disarray

(Reuters) – Cyprus’s parliament overwhelmingly rejected a proposed levy on bank deposits as a condition for a European bailout on Tuesday, throwing euro zone efforts to rescue the latest casualty of the currency area’s debt crisis into disarray.

Translation: The battered woman refused to be raped again by her attackers, throwing the criminals into disarray.

The vote by the small state’s legislature was a stunning setback for the 17-nation euro zone, after lawmakers in Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy had repeatedly accepted unpopular austerity measures over the last three years to secure European aid.

Translation: “We screwed our citizens. Why can’t you do the same?”

French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said the euro zone could not lend Cyprus any more, since the country’s debt would become unmanageable.

Translation: “Your debt is too big. You can’t pay it back. So, we suggest making your debt even bigger. But first you must impoverish your people further.”

The one smart person in the eurozone: “We’d be better off leaving the euro and returning to the pound. We don’t want to end up like Greece.”

We could use his wisdom in the U.S. Here, the President and Congress pretend we are not Monetarily Sovereign. The purpose: To widen the income/wealth gap between the rich and the rest.

The people are unemployed, but bribery works.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================

Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D — for everyone
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
4. Long-term nursing care for everyone
5. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
6. Salary for attending school (Click here)
7. Eliminate corporate taxes
8. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
9. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99%

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia. Two key equations in economics:
Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

–Another great Bill Black article, needing just one addition

Mitchell’s laws:
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor,
which leads to civil disorder.
●Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive.

=====================================================================

Bill Black is a professor at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, a school that seems to have a near monopoly on economics professors who understand economics.

While the U. of Chicago, Harvard, Stanford et al, have seemed to receive the accolades, UMKC has the single best economics department in America, if not the world.

Put the names Bill Black, Randy Wray, Mat Forstater and Stephanie Kelton, all UMKCers, on your list of economists who know what they are talking about (There are more, but I don’t know them well enough). One day, someone should tell me who is responsible for all these people coming together into one department.

Anyway . . .

Bill Black recently wrote another in a long list of terrific articles that appeared in

New Economics Perspectives, titled, “Slate Agrees that Obama’s Vanity Drives the Grand Betrayal – and Praises the Betrayal.

Quoting from the article:

Obama is driven by concerns for his “legacy.” In more human terms, he is intensely vain about how history will perceive him. . . Obama sees inflicting the “Grand Bargain” on the Nation as his means of achieving his legacy.

The “Grand Bargain,” which Black calls the “Grand Betrayal” is Obama’s willingness (lust, actually), to effect a so-called compromise with Republicans by doing what he always has wanted to do: Gut social programs and dismantle the New Deal and Great Society – programs that have benefited the 99.9% and helped close the income/wealth gap between the ultra rich and the rest of us.

I urge you to read Black’s artile.

After reading the article, I wrote Bill the following note:

Bill,

As usual, your most recent article (“Slate Agrees that Obama’s Vanity . . . Betrayal”) was brilliantly written. I take issue with one conclusion, however.

While I agree that legacy is Obama’s motivation, there is more to it.

As a lifelong Chicagoan, I understand the Chicago political way. Consider how Obama rose from “community organizer” (whatever that means??) through state Senator, federal Senator and President of the United States, all without doing anything of significance.

How? By doing exactly what he was told by the moneyed interests. He was, in short, “dependable.”

The moneyed interests want the income/wealth gap, between the .1% and the 99.9% widened. The gap is what makes them rich, as without the gap, no one would be rich, and the wider the gap, the richer and more powerful the rich are.

Yes, Obama craves his legacy, but merely cutting the deficit won’t do it, especially when the economy will suffer. Austerity is not a legacy vehicle.

So how does he get his legacy? It must be bequeathed to him by the .1%.

They must build an impressive Obama Library, here in Chicago, that will provide an everlasting memorial to his greatness, and Chicago billionaire Penny Pritzker will make sure it’s built.

The media, virtually all owned by the rich and powerful, must write about him in Godlike terms. They must anoint him a saint. They must re-write history.

Since the rich have the power to re-write history, and Obama knows this, he will continue to do what the rich want. It lifted him to where he is today. Why change now?

It even got him his Chicago house. And though the guy who gave it to him (Tony Rezko) languishes in jail, Obama was lifted up and up to glory, by obeying the rich and powerful.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

It worked for Bill Clinton, who left office in the midst of a personal disgrace, and who caused a recession by running a federal surplus at the end of his term. But, because he widened the gap, he was rewarded by the rich, and was resurrected by the (rich-owned) media into a very wealthy, and much honored and revered ex-President.

Heroes and saints are not created by the masses. They are created by the rich and powerful.

Obama may be a weak President who punishes the poor, but he understands politics and he takes orders well. So as his reward, the media and the .1% just might give him that beautiful legacy he so desperately craves.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================

Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D — for everyone
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
4. Long-term nursing care for everyone
5. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
6. Salary for attending school (Click here)
7. Eliminate corporate taxes
8. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
9. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99%

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia. Two key equations in economics:
Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

The Meaning of America

Mitchell’s laws:
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor,
which leads to civil disorder.
●Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive.

=====================================================================

What has made America great? We were founded by brave men, moral giants who dared fight for liberty, risking their lives and fortunes, not just for their own liberty, but liberty for all.

There was a time when this is was the meaning of America’s greatness:

“Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand,
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name,
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command,
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
‘Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!’ cries she
With silent lips. ‘Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!’”

Today, we are led by moral and intellectual midgets, frightened little cowards, selfishly clinging to what they have amassed for themselves, uncaring about others, who now that they are here, would build a wall of meanness around America, to prevent others from achieving the American Dream.

They are here only because they or their ancestors were given sanctuary by benevolent Americans, and now, this is their mantra of meanness:

“Screw you. I’ve got mine.”

Senate group considers large reduction in family visas as part of immigration deal
By David Nakamura, Thursday, March 14,

Key senators are developing plans that would make it harder for U.S. citizens to get visas for their family members while easing the path for more high-skilled foreign workers, according to aides and advocates familiar with negotiations over an emerging immigration deal.

Translation: We don’t give a damn about families. America is not about families. America is politics — and me.

The plans — which would run counter to policies that have been in place for generations — are part of ongoing talks between a bipartisan group of eight senators, whose bill is expected to serve as the template for a comprehensive immigration deal between Congress and the White House.

Translation: “Bipartisan” is a magic word — a way to provide political cover for bad ideas. Americans love “bipartisan,” so will agree to anything with that title.

The senators agree that a limited number of people should be allowed into the country each year; the question is who those people should be.

“Right now you get green cards to adult children, to grandparents,” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said. “What I want to do is reserve green cards based on the economic needs of the country, and we’ll do something for families.

But the goal for me is to replace a chained migration immigration system with an economic-based immigration system.”

Translation: Dollars are more important than families.

Sen. Graham was the son of Millie and Florence James Graham, neither of whom finished high school. Now, he doesn’t want those kind of people coming here.

The current waiting list includes an estimated 1.9 million people from Asian countries, including China, Vietnam, India and Bangladesh. The wait for processing visas from the Philippines — which has the most family applicants other than Mexico — extends more than two decades, the longest of any country.

“Everything has to be balanced here,” said a government policy adviser at Covington & Burling. “We’ve all been inspired by the Statue of Liberty. But if you have 10 to 20 million people, many of whom are not well educated or skilled, coming in all at once, that does potentially create some problems.”

Translation: “Balanced” is another magic word. If something is “balanced” it must be good. The question remains, what is “balanced” about excluding family members.

We know 10 to 20 million people will not come in all at once, but we like to scare you people. Hey, what’s wrong with those aliens having to wait 20 years, just to be united with their families?

We say we care about “family values,” but really, we care only about our own families.

Bottom line, the “Screw you. I’ve got mine.” crowd provides various excuses for their meanness, among which are:

1. The U.S. is too crowded. We have no room for more aliens.

Actually, the U.S. is among the least populated nations, with only 84 people per square mile. Compare that with South Korea: (1,288), Netherlands: (1,259), Japan: (836); Israel: (809), UK: (650), Germany: (609), Italy: (512), Switzerland: (490), China: (365), Poland: (328), France: (289), Hungary: (280) and Spain: (210)

2. These aliens will take our jobs.

Immigrants are more likely to take menial jobs others don’t want or create jobs by opening small businesses. The irony is, the Senators want to allow in “educated and high-skilled foreign workers,” the very people most likely to take your job.

Immigrants are consumers, who create jobs by purchasing goods and services

3. These aliens will use up our services like Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, etc.

The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, can support any amount of social services. And to the degree immigrants need social services, they create jobs for the people who supply social services.

The mean-spirited xenophobes who, having been given citizenship, now want to keep anyone else from having that same good fortune. So they create a false picture of an America overrun by “the wretched refuse of teeming shores.”

The anti-immigration effort is mean-spirited bigotry: anti-gay, anti-black, anti-Mexican, anti-women. Sen. Graham’s parents owned a little café that offered only takeout service to blacks, while whites could eat inside.

Those were his formative years, where he learned his meanness at his parents’ knees.

Today, we witness the meaning of America. Cut Social Security; cut Medicare; cut Medicaid; cut federal employment; cut payments to the millions of people who rely on federal payments; cut immigration.

It’s bad economics. It’s not the world’s moral leader, the America in which we like to believe. It’s small. It’s wicked. It’s selfish. It’s stupid. It’s just, plain mean.

“Screw you. I’ve got mine.”

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================

Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D — for everyone
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
4. Long-term nursing care for everyone
5. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
6. Salary for attending school (Click here)
7. Eliminate corporate taxes
8. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
9. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99%

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia. Two key equations in economics:
Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

The secret: Why Obama really, really wants to cut Social Security

Mitchell’s laws:
●The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.
●Austerity is the government’s method for widening the gap between rich and poor,
which leads to civil disorder.
●Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
●The penalty for ignorance is slavery.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive.

=====================================================================

Some of you may be amazed that a Democratic President has, for many years, been so insistent on cutting Social Security. He’s made you believe he is “giving in” for the sake of “compromise,” but in fact, he is as right-wing-ruthless as the Republicans, when it comes to cutting benefits to the middle-and lower-income groups.

It’s no compromise. He actively wants cuts. Further, this self-anointed “friend of the middle class” could hardly wait to raise FICA, the most regressive tax in American history.

So what motivates this right-winger in left-wing clothing? Here’s a clue:

Bill Clinton’s $80 Million Payday, or Why Politicians Don’t Care That Much About Reelection

On December 21, 2000, President Bill Clinton signed a bill called the Commodities Futures Modernization Act. This law ensured that derivatives could not be regulated, setting the stage for the financial crisis.

Just two months later, on February 5, 2001, Clinton received $125,000 from Morgan Stanley, in the form of a payment for a speech Clinton gave for the company in New York City. A few weeks later, Credit Suisse also hired Clinton for a speech, at a $125,000 speaking fee, also in New York.

The dirty secret of American politics is that, for most politicians, getting elected is just not that important. What matters is post-election employment.

It’s all about staying in the elite political class, which means being respected in a dense network of corporate-funded think tanks, high-powered law firms, banks, defense contractors, prestigious universities, and corporations. If you run a campaign based on populist themes, that’s a threat to your post-election employment prospects.

In 2004, Clinton got $250,000 from Citigroup and $150,000 from Deutsche Bank. Goldman paid him $300,000 for two speeches, one in Paris.

As the bubble peaked, in 2006, Clinton got $150,000 paydays each from Citigroup (twice), Lehman Brothers, the Mortgage Bankers Association, and the National Association of Realtors.

In 2007, it was Goldman again, twice, Lehman, Citigroup, and Merrill Lynch.

Those are “message” payments. They tell all politicians, “See how if you play ball now, you’ll be rewarded later.”

Today, the Democrats lie, “The deficit should be reduced,” the Republicans lie, “the deficit should be reduced,” and Obama and the media say the same thing.

But, economics says there is no reason to reduce the deficit. In fact, it should be increased. The government can pay any bill of any size, and inflation is widely predicted not to be a threat for many years.

So why do Congress, the President and the media lie, knowing their lies not only hurt America, but specifically hurt the middle- and lower-income classes?

Answer: They are paid to lie.

The upper .1% income group derives its power from the income/wealth gap between them and the 99.9%. If there were no gap, no one would be rich, and the greater the gap, the richer and more powerful the .1% is.

Even if you made $1 million a year, you wouldn’t be rich, if everyone else also made $1 million a year. But, if you made $10K a year, and everyone else made $1K, you would be fabulously wealthy.

In short, “rich” and “wealthy” are not absolute terms; they are comparative terms.

So the top .1%, wanting more power, bribe the politicians (via campaign contributions and promises of lucrative employment later) to widen the gap by cutting the deficit. And, of course, the media are owned by the rich,so they lie, too.

Because the vast majority of deficit spending benefits the 99.9%, cutting the deficit widens the gap — exactly what the rich want.

Before the past election, I urged readers to vote for Obama as the better choice between two really bad choices. My opinion was Romney would have been a greater disaster for America than Obama.

That said, Romney at least, could point to some pre-politics accomplishments. Although he hated the underclasses, he did build Bain Capital, and he successfully led the Salt Lake Olympics.

And what were Obama’s pre-politics accomplishments? He was a “community organizer” (whatever that is), and he . . . er, ah, was sort of a lawyer, briefly.

So, how did Obama rise though the ranks to attain his position, despite having few accomplishments. As a Chicago-style politician, he understood the way to success is to do the bidding of the moneyed class. He was trained to do as he was told.

I’m a life-long Chicagoan. I know how Obama came to be a state senator, a national senator and the President. Big money backed him, because he was dependable (for them) and now, he wants big money to reward him when he retires from the Presidency, by building a large Obama library in Chicago and by making him “Clinton-rich.”

That is how it’s done, and those who don’t understand these facts, continue to argue economics, when the real argument revolves around the income/wealth gap.

The words “rich” and “wealthy” are not absolute terms; they are comparative terms. Many years ago, someone making $50K per year was fabulously wealthy, because most people made less than $5K. Today, $50K is middling.

If I asked you, “Is someone making 20,000 naira per year, wealthy?” your first question would be, “How many naira does the average person earn?” Wealth is defined by the gap.

Not only does the income/wealth gap define wealth, but the wider the gap, the wealthier and more powerful the rich are. So the rich are not interested in absolute dollars; they are interested in comparative dollars. They are interested in the gap.

You can widen the gap by giving the rich more money or by taking money from the poor. Cutting Social Security widens the gap, as does cutting food stamps, cutting Medicaid and increasing FICA payments — all Obama proposals and initiatives.

For the sake of his wealthy supporters, Obama’s goal is to widen the gap, so he will be “Clinton-rich” after he leaves office.

To understand today’s sequester arguments, forget about the lie that the debt is “unsustainable” or that the government is “broke” or that the government, like you, “should live within its means.” Those claims all are misdirection from the real issue.

The real issue for politicians, left and right, is how best to curry favor with the rich. The rest is just to brainwash you, the public.

Don’t pay attention to what Obama says. He doesn’t want to “compromise.” He doesn’t want to “save” Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. He doesn’t want to lift the middle class.

He wants to please the wealthy by widening the gap. And if you’re real generous, he’ll invite you to dinner in the White House, with him and Michelle.

How do I know? A dear friend of mine was quite generous, and recently had that very dinner. I guess his contribution was pretty good, but for a few bucks more, he might have had Obama cut food stamps.

Hmmm . . . I wonder how much it would cost to get the National School Lunch Program eliminated. Those kids are too fat, anyway.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================

Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Medicare — parts A, B & D — for everyone
3. Send every American citizen an annual check for $5,000 or give every state $5,000 per capita (Click here)
4. Long-term nursing care for everyone
5. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone
6. Salary for attending school (Click here)
7. Eliminate corporate taxes
8. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
9. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99%

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia. Two key equations in economics:
Federal Deficits – Net Imports = Net Private Savings
Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Private Investment and Consumption – Net Imports

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY