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

Do you want to see a (usually) reliable recession predictor?

Look at the “0” line.

1. What usually happens when the employment/population ratio dips below zero growth? (Hint: look at the gray bars)

Now, remembering that Gross Domestic Product = Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending – Net Imports:

2. What does the federal government do about Spending that gets us out of recessions?
3. What should the federal government do about Spending to prevent recessions?
4. What is the federal government doing right now?

I don’t know how you see it, but to my eye: When the employment-population ratio falls (dips below 0), we have a recession. And the federal government is doing exactly the wrong thing to prevent it.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================
Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
8. 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 federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the lines rise. Federal deficit growth is absolutely, positively necessary for economic growth. Period.

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

Which state won the America’s Got Stupid contest?, and how was it judged?

How about a state government that refuses to accept free millions or even billions of dollars from the federal government — money that would go directly into the state economy? Which state believes it has no use for an extra billion or two?

Or, how about a state government that intentionally costs hundreds of thousands of its own residents free health care?

O.K., those are really stupid. But how about the residents of those states who repeatedly elect the guys who are costing them the billions of free money and health care? Now THAT is stupid.

So to answer the question, “Which state won the America’s Got Stupid contest?” here is a list from The Washington Post article titled: Study: Refusing Medicaid expansion will cost states billions of dollars

By refusing to expand Medicaid, Texas will forgo $9.2 billion in federal funding in 2022. Florida, another state that has said it won’t expand Medicaid, stands to lose more than $5 billion.

Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina and Virginia will all forgo more than $2 billion in federal funding, while Louisiana, Oklahoma and Wisconsin will miss out on more than $1 billion.

Both Tennessee and Indiana, two states that have yet to formally decide whether to expand the program, face losing more than $2 billion in federal funding if they decide against expansion.

State Net loss of federal funds
Alabama 943,000,000
Alaska 229,000,000
Florida 5,038,000,000
Georgia 2,862,000,000
Idaho 297,000,000
Kansas 950,000,000
Louisiana 1,655,000,000
Maine 294,000,000
Mississippi 431,000,000
Missouri 2,249,000,000
Nebraska 738,000,000
North Carolina 2,591,000,000
Oklahoma 1,264,000,000
South Carolina 807,000,000
South Dakota 224,000,000
Texas 9,217,000,000
Utah 719,000,000
Virginia 2,839,000,000
Wisconsin 1,848,000,000
Wyoming 166,000,000

The above states have three degrees of stupid:
1. Refusing billions they and their citizens need.
2. Denying health care to their own citizens.
3. And the citizens are stupid for electing these guys.

And the winner is . . .

Congratulations, Texas and Governor Rick Perry. Based on the total dollars you will cost your citizens, and the illness you will cause, and the voters who elected you, it looks like you’ve won the “America’s Got Stupid” contest.

But wait. Perhaps those numbers alone don’t tell the story. We may have a new contender.

The Times Picayune
Louisiana sues MoveOn.org over Bobby Jindal billboard
By Lauren McGaughy, 3/15/14

Republican Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne has been locked in a pitched battle with the group (MoveOn.org) for weeks, unsuccessfully calling for it to take down the billboard that is currently up on the I-10 coming into Baton Rouge from Port Allen.

O.K., Dardenne has positioned this as a “protected service mark” dispute.” But as Keith Werhan, constitutional law professor at Tulane University Law School said, “The government can’t legally silence those who are criticizing them.”

So Louisiana has one additional stupid:

4. Stupid for filing a lawsuit that not only is stupid, but calls attention to their other three stupidities.

So the question remains, does Texas’s losing $9.2 billion and its other 2 other stupidities, outweigh Louisiana’s losing $1.6 billion and its 3 other stupidities?

Hmmm . . .

(Full disclosure: I come from Illinois, where we routinely elect crooked politicians who then are sent to jail. Stupid us — but we are taking the federal government’s money).

So which state takes home this prize?

Ah, maybe I’ll just keep it for myself.

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

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================
Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
8. 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 federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the lines rise. Federal deficit growth is absolutely, positively necessary for economic growth. Period.

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

I’ve been on Medicare for many years, but never had heard about this. If you or a loved one is on Medicare, you should read this article: Entering a Hospital and On Medicare? The One Question You Always Must Ask

Here are a few excerpts:

If you’re in a hospital, possibly in an emergency room, then you or family or friends should ask some tough questions of hospital staff if you are kept in the hospital after being handled in the emergency room. Ask if you will be kept in as an inpatient.

If told that you will be in the observation category, then you might seriously consider whether you should stay in that hospital, or perhaps seek another one if you are not in immediate need of medical attention beyond what was received in the emergency department.

Beyond hours in the emergency department, you can spend days in a hospital bed, receive regular nursing care, be given drugs and all kinds of tests. You might even spend time in a critical care or intensive care unit.

But you can still be officially designated an outpatient in observation status. Even though you might stay in the hospital for more than just one or two nights, unless officially designated an inpatient you face major financial liability.

Under Medicare this means you are not covered by Part A which provides the best hospital coverage, but rather covered under Part B with far inferior coverage.

Your personal physician may not know that their patient has been classified by the hospital as outpatient or under observation.

Medicare makes clear that “You’re an outpatient if you’re getting emergency department services, observation services, outpatient surgery, lab tests, or X-rays, and the doctor hasn’t written an order to admit you to the hospital as an inpatient.”

New York Times: The number of seniors entering the hospital for observation increased 69 percent over five years, to 1.6 million in 2011.

In other words, this observation issue is not a trivial or minor issue affecting just a few people.

Medicare says if you’re in the hospital for more than a few hours, ask your doctor or the staff if you’re an inpatient or an outpatient. Ask each day during your stay.

As always, the federal government passes laws designed to save the federal government money, while costing the public money.

The phony philosophy: The government is short of money, while the public has too much money. (And of course, because the upper .01% income group doesn’t need or use Medicare, this is yet another way to widen the gap between the rich and the rest.)

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================
Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
8. 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 federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the lines rise. Federal deficit growth is absolutely, positively necessary for economic growth. Period.

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

Sometimes a parable can make an idea clearer.

Recently, I read a Bloomberg View article by Jonathan Bernstein, titled: Good Riddance to Taxpayer-Subsidized Conventions

According to Bloomberg:

Bernstein is a Bloomberg View columnist covering U.S. politics. A political scientist, he previously wrote “A Plain Blog About Politics.”

He is co-editor of “The Making of the Presidential Candidates 2012.” Bernstein has also written for the Washington Post, Salon, the American Prospect, Washington Monthly and the New Republic.

After receiving his doctorate at the University of California at Berkeley, he taught at the University of Texas at San Antonio and DePauw University before he began blogging.

The opening paragraph of the article stuck in my mind:

Congress actually got something done this week: It voted to end public financing of the quadrennial national party conventions. The money — $126 million over 10 years — will be shifted to pediatric research at the National Institutes of Health. That’s a wise move.

I don’t know whether it’s sad or frightening that a columnist covering politics, a “political scientist” and a teacher of our young people, could be so clueless about the realities of federal finance and Monetary Sovereignty.

I commented on his article:

The federal government became Monetarily Sovereign on August 15, 1971. Since then, It has had the unlimited ability to create its sovereign currency, the dollar. (See: I just thought you should know: Lunch really can be free)

The federal government now neither needs nor uses tax dollars. In fact, all tax dollars disappear from the money supply, upon receipt. They no longer exist. They are destroyed.

If all federal taxes fell to $0, this would not affect by even one penny, the federal government’s ability to spend. Federal taxes are a relic of the pre-1971 days.

The American public has been brainwashed into believing federal finances are like personal finances. But people (and states, counties, cities, businesses and even euro nations) are monetarily NON-sovereign. We do not have the unlimited ability to create our sovereign currency for one simple reason: We do not have a sovereign currency.

So when the author says the money “. . . will be shifted to pediatric research . . . “ he is wrong, or at least the implication is wrong. The federal government has the unlimited ability to spend dollars on pediatric research or any other initiative.

The government doesn’t “shift” dollars anywhere. It merely decides how much it wishes to spend on something.

I then finished with this short parable:

Visualize you and a friend are sitting on a boat in the middle of one of the world’s largest fresh-water lakes, Lake Michigan.

You both are thirsty.

Would it be correct to say that if you drink less, there will be more available for your friend to drink?

That is the situation with federal financing.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

====================================================================================================================================================
Nine Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
8. 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 federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the lines rise. Federal deficit growth is absolutely, positively necessary for economic growth. Period.

#MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY