Tag: monetarily sovereign

–The two most misused, misleading, mistaken words in all of economics: “Taxpayer dollars”

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.
●The single most important problem in economics is the gap between rich and poor.
●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.

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

Regular readers of this blog have seen these two words — “taxpayer dollars” — discussed often, but in today’s blog, we would like to give you three specific examples of how the words are misused, misleading and mistaken.

Example I:

CNS News
Top 20 Worst Ways the Government Wasted Your Tax Dollars
By Curtis Kalin

Every year, Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn and his staff compile an exhaustive volume of wasteful government spending from that year. The 2014 tome is chock full of government waste ranging from the redundant to the downright absurd.

Oh, and by the way, the U.S. national debt is approaching $18 trillion.

Here is a list of my personal worst of the worst in federal waste:

Swedish massages for rabbits: $387,000
Teaching Mountain Lions to Ride a Treadmill: $856,000
Studying the gambling habits of monkeys: $171,000
Producing the children’s musical: Zombie in Love: $10,000
Funding a “Stoner Symphony”: $15,000
Subsidizing Alpaca Poop: $50,000
Synchronized Swimming for Sea Monkeys: $307,524
Produce a “Hallucinatory” Roosevelt/Elvis show: $10,000
Funding Climate Change Alarmist Video Game: $5.2 million
Teaching Kids to Laugh: $47,000
Developing a real-life Iron Man Suit: $80 million
Tweeting at Terrorists: $3 million
Predicting the End of Humanity: $30,000
Lost electronic devices from NASA: $1.1 million
Studying if Wikipedia is Sexist: $202,000
Asking heavy drinkers not to drink through text message: $194,090
Government Funded Ice Cream: $1.2 million
Funding Kids Dressing Like Fruits and Vegetables: $5 million
Help Parents Counter Kids’ Refusals to Eat Fruits and Veggies: $804,254

Here, Mr. Kalin demonstrates his abysmal ignorance of the military, economics, sociology, climatology and all science.

He has no understanding of the fact that pure research invariably sounds useless at first. That is what makes it “pure research” rather than “development.” If you go to the above link, you may see small hints about why each of those studies was done.

(If you don’t, ask me and I’ll explain it.)

Kalin has no understanding of the fact that federal deficit spending adds dollars to the economy. The approximately $100 million of federal deficit spending he lists and mocks, added $100 million to the economy. Those dollars are peanuts in the world of federal financing, but they did, to that tiny degree, stimulate the economy.

Most importantly, he has no understanding that the federal government does not spend tax dollars. Being Monetarily Sovereign, the federal government creates dollars ad hoc, simply by paying bills.

Federal spending creates dollars and federal taxing destroys dollars, and that is a primary way the federal government manages the dollar supply.

Even if all federal tax collections fell to $0, the federal government could continue spending, forever.

The author is correct, when he says that his examples are the “worst of the worst.” They represent the worst of the worst — in economics reporting.

Example II:

drugpolicy.org
Wasted Tax Dollars

Over the past four decades, federal and state governments have poured over $1 trillion into drug war spending and relied on taxpayers to foot the bill. Unfortunately, these tax dollars have gone to waste.

While the author is correct that the so called “war on drugs” is a waste, from the federal standpoint, it is a waste of time, effort and lives, but not a waste of federal taxpayer dollars (for the reasons explained in example I, above).

Here, the authors display an abysmal ignorance of the differences between Monetary Sovereignty (federal government) and monetary non-sovereignty (state and local governments), for indeed, the drug war is a waste of state and local taxpayer dollars.

State and local governments, being monetarily non-sovereign, do not have the unlimited ability to create dollars. You and I and businesses and state and local governments, — we all are monetarily non-sovereign entities. We must have income, in order to pay our bills.

For state and local governments, that income is taxes, without which they would be broke.

So yes, the drug war is a waste of state and local taxpayers’ dollars, but not a waste of federal taxpayers’ dollars.

Example III:

ILLINOIS STATE GOVERNMENT WASTES HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS
Benjamin VanMetre

Nearly 200 examples of wasteful government spending in Illinois, totaling more than $354 million, is detailed in the “The 2012 Illinois Piglet Book,” a report compiled by the Illinois Policy Institute in a partnership with Washington, D.C.-based Citizens Against Government Waste.

Each item highlights the decisions of politicians who have lost sight of the core services they were put in place to provide.

Piglet 2012 reveals that state and local governments paid for everything from $9,941 for “Speedy-the-Turtle” bobbleheads to $200,000 customized eco-friendly zip lines to a $2,261,009 cable TV bill for prison inmates to get their weekly fill of Seacrest and Snooki.

Here, the author is correct. Illinois’ wasteful spending does indeed waste taxpayer dollars.

The sole problem is that he quotes from a compilation done in partnership with Citizens Against Government Waste, which focuses on federal spending. And from the standpoint of the economy, no federal spending is waste.

Yes, some federal spending is more economically valuable than other federal spending, but it all grows the economy, and no taxpayer dollars are used.

The Treasurer of the United States could go up in the proverbial helicopter and drop billions of dollar bills on the populace, and that would not be waste and it would not be taxpayer dollars.

It would stimulate the economy by putting dollars for spending into the pockets of Americans, and wouldn’t cost taxpayers one cent.

So the next time you see or hear the words “taxpayer dollars,” ask yourself, “Does this article refer to federal spending, in which case it’s not taxpayer dollars, or does it refer to state and local government spending, in which case it is taxpayer dollars.

Simple, isn’t it?

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
The Ten Steps to Prosperity:

1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded free 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 (the “.1%”) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all their 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

Long term view:
Monetary Sovereignty

Recent view:
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

Talking to a wall: Trying to tell Americans how the rich ruin your lives.

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.
●The single most important problem in economics is the gap between rich and poor.
●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.

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

Reader Ian Winograd, quoting from and article at cnbc.com, wrote:

Here is an interesting one:

“The decision by Texas to reject expansion of Medicaid, the government health-coverage program for the poor, will prevent the state from receiving an estimated $100 billion in federal cash over a decade, at the same time its hospitals are eating $5.5 billion in annual costs for treating uninsured people.”

The article is from May 29, but you have been highlighting this for a while now. What is the catch? Texas has to pay no more than 10% of the costs after three years. How does Texas keep reelecting Perry?

We are in a rich man’s world, where political considerations so dramatically trump the wellbeing of our people, that any consideration of human benefit not only is ignored, but derided (i.e. a “bleeding heart liberal”).

In the previous post, we read in the Constitution that “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,” to secure the “unalienable Rights (including) Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Clearly, the politicians of Texas (and the other states refusing to expand Medicaid) have refused to secure these rights for their citizens, and are far more interested in proving how much they hate Barack Obama.

Today, hating the President, not benefiting the constituency, might seem to be the litmus test for being considered a “serious Republican.”

In actuality, the real litmus test is the degree to which one sucks up to the rich, for the real constituency is the money the rich provide, courtesy of the Supreme Court.

There is no right or wrong. There only is “How much?” And this belief extends from the President, through Congress, into the entire judiciary.

As we repeatedly have stated, the rich own the executive, legislative and judiciary branches (via campaign contributions, free gifts and promises of lucrative employment), the media (via ownership) and the university economists (via gifts to universities).

And lest you believe the Supreme Court justices are immune to the lure of bribery, consider this:

Supremely Unseemly Conduct by Supreme Court Justices Spurs Call for Mandatory Ethics Rules
Submitted by Lisa Graves on January 9, 2012

Madison, WI, January 9, 2012—The Center for Media and Democracy today joined a coalition of public interest organizations in calling for the United States Supreme Court to agree to follow the Code of Conduct for U.S. judges.

Specifically, Canon 2 of the Code of Conduct mandates that “A judge should not allow family, social, political, financial, or other relationships to influence judicial conduct or judgment. A judge should neither lend the prestige of the judicial office to advance the private interests of the judge or others nor convey or permit others to convey the impression that they are in a special position to influence the judge.”</strong>

Justice Antonin Scalia and Justice Clarence Thomas have attended exclusive events at private resorts orchestrated by the billionaire oil barons Charles and David Koch, which the brothers use to advance their partisan political agenda.

Justice Thomas has also accepted gifts of travel on the private jets of billionaire Harlan Crow, and he has not been fully forthcoming about the income and political activities of his wife, Ginny Thomas, who launched a group, Liberty Central, to take advantage of the Supreme Court’s controversial ruling in the case that struck down election rules, “Citizens United,” before the decision in the case was even issued publicly in 2010.

And Justice Samuel Alito has headlined fundraising events for right-wing organizations, such as the American Spectator magazine.

One would think this would be a no-brainer. Why would the Supreme Court justices not want to have the same Code of Contact as the other judges??

Apparently, greed knows now boundaries, even the walls of the Supreme Court. Now, years after the above article:

Bill would create ethics code for Supreme Court justices

“The questionable activities of some of our Supreme Court justices have been well documented — participating in political functions, failing to report family income from political groups, and attending fundraisers,” Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) said in a press release. “It doesn’t make sense that members of the highest court in the land are the only federal judges exempt from the code of conduct.”

Absolutely.

And the list of Supreme Court justice malfeasances goes on and on.

Supreme Court Justices Accept Substantial Gifts

Justice Thomas has received by far the most gifts, including a $1200 set of tires, a $15,000 bust of President Lincoln, and $19,000 Bible given to him by a major funder of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices Stevens and Kennedy received honorary memberships in the Washington Golf and Country Club, which they valued last year at $4,000.

Justice Ginsberg received $100,000 from a charitable foundation which she distributed to various law schools, women’s organizations and theatrical companies.

Justice Scalia enjoyed a free ride on Air Force II while a case involving Vice-President Cheney was pending before the Court.

But here is the “defense” for our Supreme Court justices being able to gobble at the bribery trough.

Professor John Yoo, a former Thomas clerk, defends the gift taking. “I don’t see why it is inappropriate to get gifts from friends,” said Yoo. “This reflects a bizarre effort to over-ethicize everyday life. If one of these people were to appear before the Supreme Court, Justice Thomas would recuse himself. So I don’t see the problem.”

Professor Yoo doesn’t see a problem — and that is the problem.

To him, there is no problem with accepting many thousands of dollars worth of gifts from “friends,” who just happen to want something. (When was the last time you gave a friend a gift worth $19,000?)

And to him, there is no problem with a Supreme Court judge “lending the prestige of the judicial office to advance the private interests of the judge or others nor convey or permit others to convey the impression that they are in a special position to influence the judge.”

(And, of course, he’s dead wrong about the Thomas’s willingness to recuse, but that’s just a detail.)

So if you still wonder why the Supreme Court decided that money is the same as free speech and that corporations are people whose religious beliefs are more important that their employee’s religious beliefs, wonder no more.

Similarly, if you wonder why the politicians of the State of Texas voted intentionally to deprive their state of $100 billion, wonder that no more, either. They were told how to vote by the rich.

I don’t know how long it will take for the American people, especially you who vote for the party of the rich, to understand one simple fact:

The rich want to widen the Gap. Whether this means gathering more for themselves or allowing less for you is immaterial, so long as the Gap is widened.

They could not care less, whether you people of Texas, or any state suffer. In fact, they welcome your suffering as part of their Gap-widening goal. The more you suffer, the wider the Gap.

Yes, yes, I know. This is like talking to a wall.

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

Long term view:
Monetary Sovereignty

Recent view:
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

–Read this declaration and see how it applies to today’s government by the rich.

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.
●The single most important problem in economics is the gap between rich and poor.
●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.

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

Today, our United States has a government ruled by the rich.

The U.S. Supreme Court has made legal, the unlimited bribery of the President and Congress, by pretending that bribery is nothing more than “free speech,” a unique description, never contemplated in our history.

Thus, our puppet politicians, dependent on bribery to attain power and greedy for bribery to become rich, do exactly as the rich tell them.

In that sense, they are no different from the puppet masters sent to our colonies by King George, and just as cruel and greedy.

I suggest, therefore, that you do something you have not done for many years: Read again the Declaration of Independence. (below)

Don’t skim it. Read it closely, and while you read it, visualize how each line applies to today’s political climate — the politicians, judges and bankers who rule us. You will be astounded at the similarities.

The Declaration of Independence:
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

Here, the fundamental purpose of government is detailed: To help us achieve life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Think now about what our government is doing, can do and should do, to achieve these three ends.

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

People tend to suffer bad governments until the situation becomes unbearable. I submit to you that a government by the rich, for the rich and of the rich is unbearable for the 99% who are not rich.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.

To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

For instance, refusing to eliminate the noxious “debt ceiling” laws that have no purpose other than to extort and delay.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

Consider the refusals by Congress, to approve the dozens of each President’s nominees. (Obama’s nominees have been confirmed at a rate similar to those under Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton — 76.6 percent for Obama compared with 77.9 percent under those two presidents.

But longer wait times have become a serious deterrent. As of Wednesday, 114 executive-branch nominees have been waiting an average of 210 days.)

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

Does the obstruction of the naturalization of foreigners sound familiar?

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

–For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
—For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
–For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
–For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

Aside from some local tax issues, have you ever “consented” to a new tax? Surely not a federal tax. And this is especially galling, because though local taxes fund local sending, federal taxes do not fund federal spending.

–For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
–For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
–For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
–For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
–For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

FEMA essentially has abdicated its duty to protect our people against the ravages of natural disaster. Ask the survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy how well FEMA has protected them.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.

A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us.

We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.

They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

No, we do not suggest a war against the federal government or any other kind of physical war. That would be self-destructive.

We already are in a civil war: A war between the rich and the rest. And our problem is that most of us don’t even understand such a war is being waged.

Instead, the rich have used the power of their wealth to set person against person — liberal against conservative, religious against atheistic, gay against straight, middle-class against the poor, citizens against immigrants — in a “divide and rule” effort.

And it has worked. They have divided us, and they rule. And we have only ourselves to blame.

Believe it or not, there was a time when politicians respected ideas and those who expressed them, even ideas that differed from their own.

Today, a politician can’t be nominated, much less elected, unless he can prove he hates some group more than his competitor does.

If you don’t hate undocumented immigrants, you can’t be elected to a Republican office. Similarly, if you don’t hate the people who want to criminalize all abortions, you can’t be elected a Democrat.

It is doubtful that the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence agreed on all things. But they came together to fight a greater evil.

The greatest evil facing America is the widening Gap between the rich and the rest, which begets ever greater control of our lives by the rich.

That is our real enemy and that is what we should fight.

Not each other.

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

Long term view:
Monetary Sovereignty

Recent view:
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

–On being thrown off the cliff: Where is the George Washington of Greece?

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.
●The single most important problem in economics is the gap between rich and poor.
●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.

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

In the previous post, we showed how federal deficit cutting (austerity) and the misguided attempt to create a government surplus, harms the middle and lower income groups (the “99%”) by draining dollars from the economy.

We described how deficit cutting has been sold to the 99% as “prudent” economics, while in reality, it is a plan to widen the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.

Not well understood is that the widening of the Gap is a self-perpetuating process that once begun, can continue and accelerate of its own momentum.

It’s much like being thrown from a cliff.

G-7 Throws Greece Under the Bus
Posted on June 8, 2015 by Yves Smith

Statements coming out of (the G-7) signal that the U.S., Canada, Germany, France, Japan, Italy and the U.K are backing the creditor position.

The Obama administration had changed its position in February from pushing the lenders to come up with more pro-growth policies (meaning give relief to Greece) to stressing that Greece needed to “find a constructive path forward in partnership with Europe and the IMF to build on the foundation that exists.”

“There was unanimity of opinion in the room that it was important for Greece and their partners to chart a way forward that builds on crucial structural reforms” and returns to growth, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.

This means, continuing the analogy, that Greece, having been thrown from the euro cliff, now must find a way magically to fly back up, with no help.

Greece does not own sufficient euros to pay its bills. Austerity already has ravaged Greece’s economy, so it has no way to generate euros. The G-7 “solution” is more austerity, which will ravage Greece’s economy further in an unending, unstoppable fall.

The G-7, having applied leeches to Greece’s economic bloodstream, and seeing that the leeches caused the inevitable economic anemia, now demand that more leeches be applied.

Poverty begets poverty by making the climb out of poverty increasingly difficult.

Impoverished people suffer from poor primary education. The schools themselves are inferior.

Additionally, college may be unaffordable, and even those few colleges that are affordable don’t have the cache to provide entry to the best jobs.

Even less understood are the austerity effects on the people themselves. Poverty begets more poverty by changing the impoverished, in body and mind.

Less nutritious food, leading to physical exhaustion, inhibit work, study and thought. Job seeking and job keeping become less successful.

But there is even more:

Look What Austerity Does to a Child’s Brain
Posted on Jun 7, 2015

The stressful conditions of poverty—“overcrowding, noise, substandard housing, separation from parent(s), exposure to violence, family turmoil”—can have toxic effects on the developing brain, permanently diminishing the ability to think clearly and calmly.

Profiling the work of Pat Levitt, a developmental neuroscientist who serves as science director of the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, Madeline Ostrander writes at The New Yorker:

These conditions provoke the body to release hormones such as cortisol, which is produced in the adrenal cortex.

In a pregnant woman, the hormone can “get through the placenta into the fetus,” Levitt told me, potentially influencing her baby’s brain and tampering with its circuitry.

Later, as the same child grows up, cortisol from his own body may continue to sabotage the development of his brain.

The negative effect of poverty on the human brain has been documented.

In March, in the journal Nature Neuroscience, a group of researchers from nine hospitals and universities published a major study of more than a thousand children.

They took DNA samples, made MRI scans of the children’s brains, collected data on their families’ income level and educational background, and gave them a series of tests for skills like reading and memory.

The DNA samples allowed the scientists to factor out the influence of genetic heritage and look more closely at how socioeconomic status affects a growing brain.

As might be expected, more educated families produced children with greater brain surface area and a more voluminous hippocampus.

But income had its own distinct effect: living in the lowest bracket left children with up to six per cent less brain surface area than children from high-income families.

Wealth can’t necessarily buy a better brain, but deprivation can result in a weakened one.

In a longer-term study published two years ago, neuroscientists at four universities scanned the brains of a group of twenty-four-year-olds and found that, in those who had lived in poverty at age nine, the brain’s centers of negative emotion were more frequently buzzing with activity, whereas the areas that could rein in such emotions were quieter.

Elsewhere, stress in childhood has been shown to make people prone to depression, heart disease, and addiction in adulthood.

The above findings are expanded upon in the June 4, 2105 article, What Poverty Does to the Young Brain by Madeline Ostrander.

Bottom line: Greece’s austerity-riven economy is in a depression. The nation, deeply in debt, has insufficient sources of euros ever to pay that debt.

But the “troika” — European Central Bank (ECB), the European Commission (EC), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – knowing Greece never will repay, still insists Greece apply more of the same austerity that pushed Greece into depression.

The troika’s fear is that Greece will awaken, leave the euro, become Monetarily Sovereign by re-installing the drachma, and reclaim its sovereignty. That would put an end to the troika’s free lunch at Greece’s expense.

The myth, that Monetary Sovereignty would drive Greeks into a greater hardship than they already suffer, is ridiculous on its face (greater hardship than the current depression??)

The myth is promulgated by the banks, to dissuade Greece from freeing itself from their greedy clutches.

The troika’s even larger fear is that other euro nations, seeing Greece’s escape and resultant success, would themselves leave the euro, and then, for the rich banks, the feeding frenzy would be over.

Already impoverished, the Greek people face an increasingly difficult road, making emergence from debt ever more unlikely. The difficulties not only are financial, but physical and mental.

Ultimately, if the troika has its way, the Greek people would be turned into idiot slaves of the rich, desperate and with no hope or facilities for recovery, thankful for the crumbs the rich allow them.

Greece can put a stop to the torture of its people, simply by refusing to pay any more tribute to the troika.

This would require political courage, but just as George Washington led the United States to freedom from tyranny, the leader who leads Greece from troika tyranny, forever will be remembered as the “George Washington of Greece.”

Let us pray that, like George Washington, such a leader somehow emerges.

And let us pray that another George Washington arrives to save us from our own greedy and pusillanimous leaders, before we too are swallowed by the current austerity and the rich.

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

Long term view:
Monetary Sovereignty

Recent view:
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