Tag: monetarily non-sovereign

Oh, no! ICE has not destroyed enough families. Send in the “leviathan.”

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

The Washington Times, that ever-reliable mouthpiece for the rich, the radical, the ruthless and the right, laments:

Deportations of illegal immigrants plummet on Obama’s watch
By Stephen Dinan – The Washington Times – Monday, April 13, 2015

The federal government’s chief deportation agency has seen its success plummet under President Obama, and its chief, Sarah R. Saldana, will tell Congress on Tuesday that they’ve had trouble adapting to the changing face of illegal immigration and a lack of cooperation from both American cities and from foreign countries.

To the Washington Times, “Obama” is a curse word, that must be included in every politically negative headline. And to right-wing minds, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a “deportation” agency.

Not exactly, but it says much about right-wing minds. Here’s what ICE says its mission is:

Immigration Enforcement: . . . priorities to find and remove illegal aliens who are criminals, fugitives or recent arrivals . . . cracking down on those who produce fraudulent documents to enable unlawful activity.

Investigating Illegal Movement of People and Goods: Illegal trade predominately involve guns, money and drugs, but ICE’s responsibilities extend much further into all kinds of illegal and counterfeit merchandise . . .include the repatriation of cultural treasures out of the country to original owners abroad, and combating the trade of child pornography.

Preventing Terrorism: . . . identifying dangerous persons before they enter the U.S. or finding them as they violate immigration or customs laws. ICE also works to prevent the illegal export of U.S. technology.

Rating ICE by the number of people it deports would be like rating a police department by the number of parking tickets it writes. ICE’s purpose is to help prevent criminality, not cruelly to destroy families by deporting otherwise innocent men, women and children.

Back to the Washington Times article:

Ms. Saldana, said she had to pull agents off their regular duties during last summer’s illegal immigrant surge at the border, which meant fewer people focusing on deporting the longtime illegal immigrants living in the interior of the U.S..

The Washington Times never refers to “undocumented” immigrants; it prefers the harsher term “illegal” immigrants, so to create in your mind, an equation with murderers and terrorists — the usual brainwashing stunt.

If they are longtime residents, these are exactly the people we want here. Odds are, they, their children and their grandchildren are law-abiding, productive residents of America, as important to America’s growth as you and me.

Why would we want to rip these people out of the lives they have built here, just to satisfy right-wing meanness?

And she said the lack of cooperation from states, counties and cities when agents ask them to hold an illegal immigrant for pickup has also hindered efforts.

Here an irony for you. The Tea/Republicans always talk about states rights, and reducing that bad old, big old federal government “leviathan.” But now, when the states, counties and cities decide not to throw people out of the country, the right wing wants the “leviathan” to take over.

As long as it’s mean spirited and anti-poor, the right wing favors it, even when the “leviathan” does it.

“Over the past six years, President Obama has steadily dismantled the interior enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws,” said Judiciary Committee Chairman Robert W. Goodlatte.

“Under the Obama administration’s watch, the apprehension, detention, and removal of unlawful and criminal aliens has dramatically declined. Altogether, the actions taken by this administration undermine the rule of law, make our communities less safe, and place ICE officers in harm’s way.”

Ah, yet another irony. The Tea/Republicans have been the “cut-federal-spending party,” but now they complain when there aren’t enough agents to do the dirty work of deporting human beings.

And note how they combine “unlawful” (meaning “undocumented”) with “criminal,” and somehow this all makes our communities “less safe.”

How are our communities “less safe”? No one knows. The Tea/Republicans want you to visualize crazed Mexicans rampaging through your neighborhood, pillaging and raping.

Actually, undocumented immigrants are the least likely to be criminals, simply because they are hyper-sensitive about being caught. (The sad comment in our neighborhood is that no landscaper’s truck ever exceeds the speed limit.)

Some localities say that holding illegal immigrants for pickup by federal authorities after they’ve completed their sentences or processing for their local crimes is unconstitutional.

Though the Constitution was written to protect the weak from the strong, the Tea/Republicans use it to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and weak — and to legalize guns, which are much more dangerous, and make our communities much less safe, than do immigrants.

Away from immigration, ICE did notch successes in customs investigations, going after several cartels involved in black market peso exchanges and targeting human smuggling operations.

Operation Coyote, designed to combat the smugglers who helped spark last summer’s immigration surge, has resulted in nearly 1,300 criminal arrests.

Now that’s what this agency should be doing, not running after longtime, innocent residents, people with children and grandchildren — the very foundation of America.

Do we really want the “leviathan” to stomp on these people?

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

–Yet another problem with universal gun ownership and carry

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

Does this scenario sound familiar?:

(Innocent) Texas mother Kametra Barbour was pulled over and arrested at gunpoint in front of her children after police mistook her for a suspect on the loose.

“What is going on? Oh my God, you will terrify my children,” Barbour says.

Police Detective Michael Clay later told WFAA that the officer’s actions were justified given “the nature of the call — that a weapon was involved.”

It occurs to me that the police in America must be especially jumpy about contacts with any citizen, because that citizen might very well be carrying a gun. More and more are.

With so many people carrying loaded guns, even an innocent traffic stop or neighborhood call can devolve into a life or death confrontation.

Many years ago, when I was young, if you were pulled over by a police officer, he didn’t feel he had to approach your car cautiously, with his hand on his weapon, and demand that you exit the car with your hands clearly in view and raised.

He didn’t feel he had to tell you to walk backward toward him. He didn’t feel he had to cuff you for his own safety. He wasn’t so tense, that your slightest move, he might interpret to being threatening, could set him off shooting.

Police in America today, are faced with more and more armed citizens, who might or might not be angry, drunk or otherwise aggressive — or merely carrying a cell phone or a wallet that looks like a gun.

If you’re a police officer, you have no idea whether or not that guy you pulled over might just decide he doesn’t like police. Or thinks you are threatening him. Or is high on something.

And start shooting.

Police are human. They have human fears. They have families they love. Some are calm; some are excitable. Some are kind, and some are mean. They have the same foibles we all have.

So, rather than take a chance, the safest thing an officer can do, when in doubt, is to shoot first. That way he knows he will go home to his family rather than be covered with a sheet.

Yes, NRA and all you gun lovers, you think guns make you safer, but one thing you haven’t thought out. What happens when everyone is carrying a loaded gun — and the police know it.

Be ready to read about more and more killings by police.

I don’t have data on this, but I suspect that shootings of innocents by police in Japan and England, where gun ownership is low, are much less frequent than in the U.S., which has the highest gun ownership in the world.

In America, if you see that blue flashing light in your rear view mirror, be afraid. Be very afraid.

The police are.

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 Motley Fool and its writers, add their names to the fools’ club. Buyer beware!

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 seldom have read The Motley Fool, though I understand that many people do. I don’t know about its success record in predicting stock prices or predicting anything else about our nation’s economy.

Perhaps I shouldn’t be too surprised to read the following article authored by Brian Stoffel, who “has been a Fool since 2008, and a financial journalist for the Motley Fool since 2010.”

Based on the article, I suspect he has been a Fool for much longer than “since 2008,” but you can decide for yourself.

Will the Social Security System Go Broke in the Next 20 Years?
By Brian Stoffel, Dan Dzombak, and Dan Caplinger | April 11, 2015

It’s no secret that Social Security, in its current form, is in trouble. Many young workers today are told to plan for retirement as if Social Security will no longer be around.

And many soon-to-be retirees lose sleep over whether or not their safety net will be in place when their Golden Years begin.

Social Security “in its current form,” is an agency of the Monetarily Sovereign U. S. federal government.

Here is a little secret the politicians and journalists don’t tell you: Unlike the states counties and cities, and business and individuals — all of which are monetarily NON-sovereign — the U.S. government has the unlimited ability to create its own sovereign currency.

The federal government never can run short of dollars.

Even if all taxes fell to $0 and all so-called federal “borrowing” also fell to $0, the U.S. government could continue paying all its bills, forever. It never needs to ask anyone for dollars — not you, not me, not China.

Social Security, being an agency of the U.S. federal government, also cannot run short of dollars, unless Congress wishes it.

The article continues:

The program has current workers pay for the benefits of retirees. If there’s a relative balance between the number of workers and the number of retirees, then the program runs fine.

But with a wave of baby boomers entering retirement — and living longer than any generation before them — the program is out of whack and spending much more than it’s taking in.

This would be true if Social Security were operated and owned by privately-held insurance companies. All such companies are monetarily non-sovereign, so indeed they require incoming dollars to pay for outgoing dollars.

(Republicans want to privatize Social Security, which would guarantee that it would, in fact, run short of dollars.)

Federal agencies require no incoming dollars. The federal government creates dollars from thin air.

You can’t. I can’t. Illinois, Cook County and Chicago can’t. But the federal government can and does.

That is the difference between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty.

We asked three Motley Fool analysts whether they thought the program would go broke within 20 years. Here’s what they had to say.

Dan Caplinger: [Dan Caplinger is a contract writer for The Motley Fool. In addition to his writing, Dan works as an independent financial consultant and estate-planning attorney.]

No — technically, it can’t (go broke).
Strictly speaking, the Social Security system won’t go broke so long as there’s payroll-tax revenue coming in to fund it.

Wrong, Dan. Contrary to popular myth, payroll tax revenue (aka FICA) does not pay for Social Security. In fact, FICA pays for nothing.

When FICA dollars are received by the Treasury, they no longer are part of the money supply. They cease to exist as money. When Social Security benefits are paid, new dollars are created, like this:

The Treasury sends instructions to each benefit recipients’ bank, telling the bank to increase the balance in the recipient’s checking account. At the moment the bank obeys those instructions, new dollars are added to the money supply.

You may ask, “Why then is FICA collected?” The answer: To give the illusion that people pay for Social Security as though it were an insurance annuity.

It has been said that President Roosevelt knew this, which is why he created FICA. Supposedly, his idea was that so long as people believed they paid for Social Security, the politicians would not have the nerve to cut benefits.

He didn’t reckon with the gall of today’s politicians.

Dan Caplinger is ignorant of Monetary Sovereignty. I personally would be reluctant to take his advice on anything related to the U.S. economy.

Dan Dzombak: [Dan Dzombak joined the Motley Fool through its Analyst Development Program in 2008. After completing the 1-year program, he became the Motley Fool’s Energy Editor, focusing on the oil and natural gas markets.]

Yes, the Social Security system will go broke in the next 20 years.

The current status of the Social Security system is like someone who has a huge savings account but spends more than their paycheck each month and has to draw down their savings.

Dan Dzombak thinks the Monetarily Sovereign federal government’s finances are like monetarily non-sovereign personal finances. Another example of economic ignorance.

Perhaps he should focus his gas on the oil market.

Brian Stoffel: [For six years after graduating from Grinnell College, Brian Stoffel was a middle school teacher. Five of them were spent in inner-city Washington DC at a KIPP charter school that focused getting 100% of students accepted to college.]

No — Congress will eventually figure something out

It’s difficult to understate just how important Social Security is to today’s (and tomorrow’s) retirees. The program’s Office of Policy estimates that “Social Security will account for about two-fifths of projected income for baby-boomer retirees.” That’s an enormous amount.

While I agree with Dan Dzombak that raising taxes to help close the funding gap will be a politically difficult task, I don’t think we should underestimate the political force tomorrow’s retirees will have.

I believe these combined forces will help usher in political leaders who are able to work out some solution to the depletion of Social Security’s Trust Fund.

Another Motley Fool writer — this time a middle school teacher — who seems to know nothing about Monetary Sovereignty and federal financing.

Here is MY advice. If you plan to accept THEIR advice, consider its value in light of their knowledge about the U.S. economy.

Buyer beware!

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

–Megan, Ramesh and Bloomberg, oh my! Keep your hand on your wallet at all times.

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

“Megan McArdle is a Bloomberg View columnist who writes on economics, business and public policy.”

This says very little about Megan McArdle and even less about Bloomberg.

It’s sad, frustrating and angering that an organization like Bloomberg can have Megan McArdle as their economics writer. Here is her latest Bloomberg exercise in ignorance.

RETIREMENT
The Left Gets It Wrong About Social Security
APR 7, 2015, By Megan McArdle

Americans are underprepared for retirement. And given this sad fact, there’s a growing movement on the left saying we need a government solution, stat: specifically, an expansion of Social Security benefits.

Instead of reluctantly agreeing to a compromise where Republicans let some taxes rise and Democrats agree to entitlement cuts, (progressives are) demanding bigger tax hikes to fund bigger entitlements.

Get it? Americans don’t have enough money to retire in dignity, so Megan’s compromise “solution” is to increase FICA and reduce Social Security benefits. Huh?

Does it get any sillier than that? How in the name of common sense, will a FICA increase and a Social Security benefit decrease help Americans save more and have more for retirement?

(I should mention that since FICA does not fund Social Security benefits, the Democrats “solution” would be silly too, but at least it involves raising benefits.)

At the core of their argument is a good point: Americans really do need more money for retirement. Missing, however, is a realistic discussion of where that money might come from.

The (Social Security trust fund) trustees’ report predicts that by 2023, the gap between taxes collected and benefits paid will be almost $170 billion. The only reason that the system isn’t in the red already is the net interest the government is paying itself on the bonds in the trust fund.

Now, this should make any rational person stop and think: “Hmmm . . The government pays itself interest, and that interest has kept Social Security out of the red.

“Hmmm . . . again. If the government can do that, why can’t the government simply pay for Social Security and keep the whole program solvent?”

But, of course, that requires a rational person’s thinking.

If we want to pay Social Security beneficiaries more money than we are collecting in payroll taxes, the money has to come from somewhere, and ultimately, that “somewhere” is the United States taxpayer.

And there is where Megan McArdle, demonstrates her abject ignorance about federal financing. She simply refuses to understand or admit the fundamental differences between a Monetarily Sovereign government and a monetarily non-sovereign entity.

The former creates its sovereign currency, in this case dollars, ad hoc, simply by the very act of paying bills. The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, neither uses nor needs FICA. It does not need income because it creates dollars.

The latter is like you and me (and the states, counties and cities), which have no sovereign currency and do indeed rely on income or tax dollars to pay their bills.

State and local taxpayers do pay for state and local spending. Federal taxpayers do not pay for federal spending. It’s that simple.

How can an economics writer for a significant publication not understand the difference? How can the publishers of that significant publication not know the difference?

Beyond belief. And in fact, I don’t believe it. I do believe they know exactly what they are doing: Widening the Gap between the rich and the rest..

Then Megan goes on and on about where to get the tax dollars to pay increased Social Security benefits, and that it certainly should not come from rich people (like her employers)

She continually and conveniently ignores the fact that TAX DOLLARS DO NOT PAY FOR FEDERAL SPENDING. TAX DOLLARS DO NOT PAY FOR SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS.

Period.

And just when you thought Bloomberg couldn’t be more misleading, we come to the the following article:

SOCIAL SECURITY
Elizabeth Warren Is Delusional About Social Security
11 APR 8, 2015 By Ramesh Ponnuru, a Bloomberg View columnist, (and) a senior editor for National Review, where he covers national politics.

Social Security has a long-term funding gap that just keeps growing. Neither political party has a plan to pay for the promises we’ve already made to people contributing to the system. But Democrats are bringing a new idea to the table: make even more promises.

Liberals are exulting that (Massachusetts’s Elizabeth) Warren has shifted the politics of Social Security to the left: Where once we were debating cutbacks to the program, now we’re debating benefit increases.

Too bad that also means the debate is shifting further away from fiscal reality.

Yes, too bad indeed, for the fiscal reality is that the U.S. federal government has the unlimited ability to pay any debt denominated in its own sovereign currency, the dollar.

Sadly, Ponnuru either is intentionally or unintentionally ignorant about that basic fact in economics.

To them it is horrible that we’re not talking about cutting Social Security benefits, but rather we’re talking about (gasp) increasing benefits to our elderly. How awful!

Social Security is becoming a worse deal for each generation. Those now joining the workforce are expected to pay more into the system than they get out of it.

Of course, the U.S. federal government never needs to ask anyone for its own sovereign currency, so those above-mentioned expectations are on the part of those who don’t understand federal financing.

Warren’s plan is to shower more money on the current generation of retirees, but without increasing the deficit over the next 10 years.

If her real plan is not to increase the deficit, one must ask, “Why?” The midleadingly termed deficit” is, in actuality, a surplus to the economy. Because the economy, as a whole, is monetarily non-sovereign, and the federal government is Monetarily Sovereign, the economy needs continual inputs of money (aka “deficit spending”) from the federal government.

It may be that Sen. Warren, realizing that the public neither understands, nor would believe, the facts of Monetary Sovereignty, has decided not to tilt windmills, but just go along with popular myth — so long as she can accomplish the Social Security benefits.

Sad, but possibly true.

Social Security has always been a combination of forced savings and redistribution.

Wrong. FICA is not savings, and Social Security benefits are not redistribution. FICA is taking and SS benefits are giving. There is no connection between the two.

FICA could be collected without providing benefits (as with a person who dies too young), and benefits could be paid without FICA.

And now comes the pitch for the rich:

People joining the workforce now should be promised a flat universal retirement benefit set at a level that keeps all seniors out of poverty.

At the same time, they should be auto-enrolled in retirement savings accounts that would include an option to invest in index funds, with the mix of investments shifting from stocks to bonds as workers approached retirement.

And there you have it: The stock and commodity brokers’ and bankers’ college tuition and retirement fund.

All those delicious dollars just waiting to be handed over to your greedy banker or broker, so he can invest for you (with commissions, of course).

This has been the mantra of the rich for years, now. Bush II tried it, but things got a bit dicey when the stock market went south. And now, here we are again, with the same old story:

Just give us rich your retirement money, and after we deduct our fees and commissions, we’ll give some of your money back to you. Maybe.

(My relative of mine tried that with the Illinois college savings plan. When the recession came, she lost half her money.)

Megan, Ramesh and Bloomberg, oh my! Keep your hand on your wallet at all times.

By the way, if you sense that all this makes me angry, you’re right. I’m angry that the multi-billionaire owner of Bloomberg hires sycophants like McArdle, Ponnuru et al to brainwash the populace into supporting programs that will do nothing but widen the Gap between the rich and the rest.

My god, man, don’t you have enough money? Can’t you, at long last, help narrow that Gap?

Is greed all you have?

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.
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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