The myth of the business expert

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

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It takes only two things to keep people in chains: The ignorance of the oppressed and the treachery of their leaders.

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There is an ongoing myth that America is a business and the best people to run America are business experts.

But America is not a business. Not even close. America is the opposite of business.

To begin, the American government is Monetarily Sovereign. Businesses are monetarily non-sovereign.  And that makes all the difference.

Our Monetarily Sovereign government:

Never can run short of its own sovereign currency
Creates money by the act of spending
Cannot go bankrupt
Has no need for income or for profits
Creates all the laws by which it operates
Exists to benefit the populace

By contrast, a business:

Can run short of money
Does not create money by spending
Can go bankrupt
Needs income and profits to survive long term
Operates under the laws of its governments
Exists to benefit its owners

Image result for pulling in opposite directions

In short, nothing can be more different from a government than a business. In so many ways, they are opposites.

What works for one, fails for the other.

Think about it. Being a good parent is a closer approximation to running a government than is being a good businessman. 

Yet the myth persists that government is like business, and businessmen make good politicians.

The GOP’s cult of the businessman
By James Pethokoukis

Republican skepticism of experts — especially economists, climatologists, and Ivy League professors — has its limits. Military experts get a pass. So do supposed experts in running a business.

You can see that latter point in the CEO-heavy Trump administration, which features a rather novel combination of business acumen and government amateurism.

If every Trump nominee gets congressional approval, notes Pew Research his team will have more “businesspeople with no public-sector experience than have ever served in the Cabinet at any one time.”

You see, much as GOPopulists hate elites in general, they’re very willing to tolerate (or even celebrate) multi-billionaire elites as long as they’ve cut a paycheck. Cultural elites bad. Financial elites good.

For many of today’s Trumpublicans, America’s best and brightest are found almost exclusively in the private sector, such as the Wall Street “killers” whom Trump argues are needed to negotiate better trade deals on behalf of the U.S.

The practical knowledge that big business bosses supposedly have is what’s needed to turn around America. Only they — and Trump most of all, of course — understand the deep magic that made America great in the past and surely will again soon.

In a recent op-ed, the Manhattan Institute’s Diana Furchtgott-Roth (said):

Trump has named a talented team to improve the economy. These individuals have been successful in their own fields — far more successful than the average economist. … Take Wilbur Ross, for example, who has been nominated for commerce secretary. Ross has turned around many companies, and has a net worth of about $2.5 billion to show for it.

Practically no economist is a multi-billionaire. That’s the kind of person that is needed to turn around the American economy, not someone who writes academic articles in scholarly journals.

And it is utter hogwash.

The choice is not between billionaires and economists. The choice is between people who have knowledge and experience, power, and motivation vs. people who have none.

Consider a baseball team. It may have a surface resemblance to a nation insofar as it competes with other teams (other nations) and the important foundations of its strength are the players coming up from its farm system (analogous to Gross Domestic Product) and its trade deals (player trades).

But running a baseball team is completely different from running a nation.

Knowledge and experience: Would you hire billionaire Wilbur Ross to manage the Chicago Cubs, or would you search for an experienced and successful baseball man?

Would you hire a sleepy neurosurgeon to head up your farm system? Would that be your first choice? It was Trump’s.

Would one of Trump’s many billionaire banksters be a better choice, or would the Cubs have more success with the likes of Theo Epstein,  Jed Hoyer, and Joe Maddon, all of whom have previous experience winning the World Series?

If you have done any hiring for any job in business, aren’t you looking for knowledge and experience?

Power: In most cases, an owner or CEO of a business has total control over his business. His decisions are made by fiat. CEOs are accustomed to that.

By contrast, even the President of the United States must deal with Congress and state governors. Constitutionally, a President’s power is limited, and his cabinets power is limited even more. Billionaires are not accustomed to being limited and second-guessed.

Experienced politicians continually must create alliances, and make compromises. CEOs don’t want to, or know how to, do that. It’s completely against their nature.

Motivation: A business CEO is motivated by profit: His company’s profit and particularly his own.  Billionaires have spent their entire lives trying to enrich themselves.

But an Attorney General, an Interior Secretary, a Treasury Secretary, a Secretary of State, etc. should have no personal profit motive. Their motive should be to do what is best for the populace.

The realities of government require inter- and intra-party negotiation and the ability to create, sell, and execute plans to benefit your constituency. Donald Trump has no government experience, and he has hired a group of people having even less experience.

Image result for weird direction signs

My prediction: The next four years will be chaotic, with Trump making conflicting statements, and jumping from idea to idea, day by day.

His people, having no discernable direction, will make equally conflicting decisions.

Eventually, Congress will spend all its time trying to justify confusion, while also justifying what passes for party philosophy (which seems to be more guns, more religion, and especially more benefits for the rich, and fewer benefits for the non-rich).

It won’t be right-wing. It won’t be left-wing. It will be mixed-up-wing.

And pitiful Kellyanne Conway will try to BS her way through the mess by increasingly offering today’s latest “alternative facts” that contradict yesterday’s “alternative facts,” until even she won’t  remember what she said previously.

And America, especially the middle-classes and the poor, will suffer.

Bottom line: Government experience is of almost no value when trying to run a business, and business experience is of almost no value when trying to run a government.

The moral of the story: If you want an important job done, hire someone who has proven he knows how to do the job.

Don’t hire a pediatrician to do your plumbing.

Simple?

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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ECONOMICS LAWS

•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.

•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money.

•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes.

•No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth.

•Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.

•A growing economy requires a growing supply of money (GDP = Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)

•Deficit spending grows the supply of money

•The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.

•Progressives 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 the rich and the rest.

•Austerity is the government’s method for widening   the Gap between the rich and the rest.

•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.

•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Trump is right (!) about the EU. But, is it murder or suicide?

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

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It takes only two things to keep people in chains: The ignorance of the oppressed and the treachery of their leaders.
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It hasn’t been often that I can make this statement about a lying, egocentric, criminal, misogynistic, bigoted, Putin puppet. But Trump is right:

Trump: Brexit ‘A Great Thing,’ EU to Continue to Break Apart
By STEVE PEOPLES, ASSOCIATED PRESS, NEW YORK — Jan 15, 2017, 7:50 PM ET

Donald Trump said Britain’s decision to leave the European Union would “end up being a great thing” and predicted the bloc would continue to break apart.

Absolutely correct.  I said it in 2010:

(“Because of the Euro, no euro nation can control its own money supply. The Euro is the worst economic idea since the recession-era, Smoot-Hawley Tariff. The economies of European nations are doomed by the euro.”)

I continued to say it in 2016:

(“The EU was invented by the rich, insatiable bankers who always want to grab more and more money and power. At least the UK was smart enough to keep their own currency.

Greece, France, Italy, et al surrendered the single most valuable asset any nation can have — their Monetary Sovereignty — and so have been at the mercy of the rapacious bankers, who have been bleeding them ever since.”)

And I continue to say it today. The UK never should have joined the EU, never should have stayed with the EU for as long as it has, and now should leave just as quickly as it can, and never look back.

As reader “Mike” wrote last year:

When the UK joined in the early 70s and voted to remain in 1975, we joined what was then called the European Economic Community (EEC) or Common Market. There were no political connotations, it was simply a free trade area.

Over the years since then, the EEC morphed into the European Union (EU) which created a European Parliament, a European Court, a European Currency (the Euro) with a European Central Bank, a European Foreign Service and many other institutions and trappings of a sovereign state.

In short, the EU became the ruling body of its member “nations.” (I put “nations” in quotes, because what kind of nation not only gives up its single most valuable asset — its Monetary Sovereignty — but also cedes the power of its parliament, its courts, its central bank, its immigration rules, and its borders, to an alien consortium of bankers?)

Illinois and Mississippi have more claim to “nationhood” than do France and Germany. At least all of America’s citizens are able to vote for their Congress and their President.  The EU nation’s citizens have no vote for their real leaders, the EU bankers.

Trump doesn’t base his opinion on what’s best for Europe, however. He is more interested in immigration, his own money and what Putin tells him to say.

European countries are reacting to an influx of immigrants that threaten each nation’s identity.

Trump: “People, countries want their own identity and the UK wanted its own identity,” Trump said in an interview with London’s The Sunday Times and Bild, a German newspaper.

“Want their own identity” is Trump’s code for “Keep Muslims out. Keep Mexicans out. Keep foreigners out.”

“I believe others will leave,” he continued. “I do think keeping it together is not gonna be as easy as a lot of people think. And I think this: if refugees keep pouring into different parts of Europe…I think it’s gonna be very hard to keep it together, because people are angry about it.”

Trump indicated he was indifferent to whether the EU stays together or not, a sharp break from the Obama administration, which encouraged Great Britain to remain in the EU last year.

Obama loved anything that was good for the rich and especially for the rich bankers. As we have said previously:

Obama is a pseudo-liberal, a right-winger in liberal disguise. He opted for cutting Social Security and Medicare, begged for a “Grand Bargain” that would have widened the gap between the rich and the rest, and brought into existence the Simpson/Bowles Committee,  designed to cut all social spending.”

Now, he backs the EU, because it is a feeding trough for bankers.

(Obama always has been a flunkie for the bankers. Presumably, they will return the favor and support him and his family in luxury, for the rest of their lives.)

In his role as bank stooge, he bailed out the banks, then failed to prosecute a single lawbreaking bankster. He will be remembered as the “bailed and failed” President.

The vote injected instability across the region and triggered calls for similar moves in France, Sweden and the Netherlands. It also weakened the 28-nation bloc’s ability to push back against Russian aggression in Ukraine, among other regional challenges.

And weakening  Europe’s ability to fight Russian aggression is exactly what Putin (aka “Trump puppet-master”) wants.

Trump also took aim at another key western alliance in the interview.

He called the North American Treaty Organization, commonly known as NATO, “obsolete because it wasn’t taking care of terror” and said member organizations aren’t paying their “fair share.”

Could it get more “Putin” than that? Sow discord in NATO, because they aren’t paying their “fair share,” despite the fact that the U.S. never can run short of the dollars to pay everyone’s “fair share.”

NATO benefits America, and even if the other NATO nations paid nothing, and America paid everything, it still would be a defense bargain for America, with other nations contributing military personnel.

Mark 1/27/17 on your calendar, as the date you read the following:

Britain finally was smart to leave the EU. When will the other nations, whose leaders have been bought and paid for by the wealthy bankers, follow Britain? The timing is uncertain, but the result is beyond doubt. They will leave. 

Greece is lying on the gurney,  being bled by the EU, and is alive only because the leeches want to drain out that last drop of blood.  France will follow. Then perhaps Portugal.

All euro nations eventually will reinstate their own sovereign currencies, and by reclaiming the ability to create money, will be able to cease imposing austerity.

There is only one question about EU austerity:

Image result for sherlock holmes

Is it murder by the EU or is it suicide by each nation? Either way, the victim — the nation — dies.

Meanwhile, Russia will begin to make moves against its former Iron Curtain provinces, as it did with Crimea.

What will President Trump do about that? It all depends on how much money Putin tells him he personally can make in Russia.

Then, there’s China. With Trump’s xenophobic protectionism hiding the U.S. behind walls, China will steal our position as world economic leader. We could have been the moral leader, but now being equated with weakness, morality has become passé.

As for Trump, he will gain vast wealth and power, which he will attempt to pass on to his children. 

America faces a leadership drought — a drought of truth and a drought of morality.

Look around you. Like a great tree, America is dying from the top down and taking us all down with it.

Are we being murdered, or is it suicide?

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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The single most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the have-mores and the have-less.

Wide Gaps negatively affect poverty, health and longevity, education, housing, law and crime, war, leadership, ownership, bigotry, supply and demand, taxation, GDP, international relations, scientific advancement, the environment, human motivation and well-being, and virtually every other issue in economics.

Implementation of The Ten Steps To Prosperity can narrow the Gaps:

Ten Steps To Prosperity:
1. ELIMINATE FICA (Ten Reasons to Eliminate FICA )
Although the article lists 10 reasons to eliminate FICA, there are two fundamental reasons:
*FICA is the most regressive tax in American history, widening the Gap by punishing the low and middle-income groups, while leaving the rich untouched, and
*The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, neither needs nor uses FICA to support Social Security and Medicare.
2. FEDERALLY FUNDED MEDICARE — PARTS A, B & D, PLUS LONG TERM CARE — FOR EVERYONE (H.R. 676, Medicare for All )
This article addresses the questions:
*Does the economy benefit when the rich can afford better health care than can the rest of Americans?
*Aside from improved health care, what are the other economic effects of “Medicare for everyone?”
*How much would it cost taxpayers?
*Who opposes it?”
3. PROVIDE AN ANNUAL ECONOMIC BONUS TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN AMERICA, AND/OR EVERY STATE, A PER CAPITA ECONOMIC BONUS (Social Security for All) (The JG (Jobs Guarantee) vs the GI (Guaranteed Income) vs the EB) Or institute a reverse income tax.
This article is the fifth in a series about direct financial assistance to Americans:

Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Employer of Last Resort is a bad idea. Sunday, Jan 1 2012
MMT’s Job Guarantee (JG) — “Another crazy, rightwing, Austrian nutjob?” Thursday, Jan 12 2012
Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Jobs Guarantee is like the EU’s euro: A beloved solution to the wrong problem. Tuesday, May 29 2012
“You can’t fire me. I’m on JG” Saturday, Jun 2 2012

Economic growth should include the “bottom” 99.9%, not just the .1%, the only question being, how best to accomplish that. Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) favors giving everyone a job. Monetary Sovereignty (MS) favors giving everyone money. The five articles describe the pros and cons of each approach.
4. FREE EDUCATION (INCLUDING POST-GRAD) FOR EVERYONEFive reasons why we should eliminate school loans
Monetarily non-sovereign State and local governments, despite their limited finances, support grades K-12. That level of education may have been sufficient for a largely agrarian economy, but not for our currently more technical economy that demands greater numbers of highly educated workers.
Because state and local funding is so limited, grades K-12 receive short shrift, especially those schools whose populations come from the lowest economic groups. And college is too costly for most families.
An educated populace benefits a nation, and benefitting the nation is the purpose of the federal government, which has the unlimited ability to pay for K-16 and beyond.
5. SALARY FOR ATTENDING SCHOOL
Even were schooling to be completely free, many young people cannot attend, because they and their families cannot afford to support non-workers. In a foundering boat, everyone needs to bail, and no one can take time off for study.
If a young person’s “job” is to learn and be productive, he/she should be paid to do that job, especially since that job is one of America’s most important.
6. ELIMINATE CORPORATE TAXES
Corporations themselves exist only as legalities. They don’t pay taxes or pay for anything else. They are dollar-transferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the government (the later having no use for those dollars).
Any tax on corporations reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all corporate taxes come around and reappear as deductions from your personal income.
7. INCREASE THE STANDARD INCOME TAX DEDUCTION, ANNUALLY. (Refer to this.) Federal taxes punish taxpayers and harm the economy. The federal government has no need for those punishing and harmful tax dollars. There are several ways to reduce taxes, and we should evaluate and choose the most progressive approaches.
Cutting FICA and corporate taxes would be a good early step, as both dramatically affect the 99%. Annual increases in the standard income tax deduction, and a reverse income tax also would provide benefits from the bottom up. Both would narrow the Gap.
8. TAX THE VERY RICH (THE “.1%) MORE, WITH HIGHER PROGRESSIVE TAX RATES ON ALL FORMS OF INCOME. (TROPHIC CASCADE)
There was a time when I argued against increasing anyone’s federal taxes. After all, the federal government has no need for tax dollars, and all taxes reduce Gross Domestic Product, thereby negatively affecting the entire economy, including the 99.9%.
But I have come to realize that narrowing the Gap requires trimming the top. It simply would not be possible to provide the 99.9% with enough benefits to narrow the Gap in any meaningful way. Bill Gates reportedly owns $70 billion. To get to that level, he must have been earning $10 billion a year. Pick any acceptable Gap (1000 to 1?), and the lowest paid American would have to receive $10 million a year. Unreasonable.
9. FEDERAL OWNERSHIP OF ALL BANKS (Click The end of private banking and How should America decide “who-gets-money”?)
Banks have created all the dollars that exist. Even dollars created at the direction of the federal government, actually come into being when banks increase the numbers in checking accounts. This gives the banks enormous financial power, and as we all know, power corrupts — especially when multiplied by a profit motive.
Although the federal government also is powerful and corrupted, it does not suffer from a profit motive, the world’s most corrupting influence.
10. INCREASE FEDERAL SPENDING ON THE MYRIAD INITIATIVES THAT BENEFIT AMERICA’S 99.9% (Federal agencies)Browse the agencies. See how many agencies benefit the lower- and middle-income/wealth/ power groups, by adding dollars to the economy and/or by actions more beneficial to the 99.9% than to the .1%.
Save this reference as your primer to current economics. Sadly, much of the material is not being taught in American schools, which is all the more reason for you to use it.

The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

We are beginning to see the implications of “alternative facts”

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

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It takes only two things to keep people in chains: The ignorance of the oppressed and the treachery of their leaders.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Although all Presidential candidates lie, they try to hide their lies behind a smokescreen of plausible denial.

But, the lies of candidate Donald Trump were unusual, not only in their extraordinary frequency, but in their brazen disavowal of obvious fact. In essence, he asked them, “Are you going to believe your eyes or what I tell you.”

Apparently, Trump had determined that his followers didn’t care whether or not his statements were lies. Even knowing Trump’s comments departed from truth, his followers eagerly accepted what he said.

It was a case of: “I know you’re lying, but I don’t care.  I love what you’re saying.”

They will come to rue that ignorance, while Kellyanne Conway will forever be remembered as the woman who uttered the Trump administration’s slogan, “alternative facts.”

Wikipedia: On January 21, 2017, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer accused the media of deliberately underestimating the size of the crowds for President Trump’s inaugural ceremony and stated that the ceremony had drawn the “largest audience to ever witness an inauguration — period — both in person and around the globe.”

Spicer’s allegations were false. Aerial images showed that the turnout for Trump’s inauguration was lower than the turnout for the 2009 inauguration of Barack Obama.

Washington Metro reported 193,000 riders by 11:00 am on the day of Trump’s inauguration, considerably fewer than the 513,000 who rode the subway in the 2009 inauguration.

Spicer also gave incorrect information about the use of white ground coverings during the inauguration. He stated that they were used for the first time during the Trump inauguration and were to blame for a visual effect that made the audience look smaller.

The white ground coverings, however, had been used in 2013 when Obama was sworn in for the second term.

Trump’s campaign strategist and counselor, Kellyanne Conway, defended Spicer’s statements, telling NBC’s Chuck Todd that the press secretary was simply giving “alternative facts.”

In the first few days of the Trump presidency false statistics were added to whitehouse.gov, the official White House website. The website cited statistics to show that crime had increased when actually it had declined since 2008.

The phrase “alternative facts” was noted for its similarity to a phrase used in Trump’s 1987 book, Trump: The Art of the Deal. In that book, “truthful hyperbole” was described as “an innocent form of exaggeration—and… a very effective form of promotion.”

The book claimed that “people want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular.” The book’s ghostwriter, Tony Schwartz said he originated the phrase and claimed that Trump “loved it.”

Journalist Dan Rather posted a scathing criticism of the incoming U.S. Presidential administration. “When you have a spokesperson for the president of the United States wrap up a lie in the Orwellian phrase ‘alternative facts’. . . 

“When you have a press secretary in his first appearance before the White House reporters threaten, bully, lie, and then walk out of the briefing room without the cojones to answer a single question . . .

“Facts and the truth are not partisan. They are the bedrock of our democracy. And you are either with them, with us, with our Constitution, our history, and the future of our nation, or you are against it.

Everyone must answer that question.”

Donald Trump answered that question during his candidacy: Facts are what he says they are, neither more nor less, and his followers simply do not care.

Or at least, they won’t care until those lies come back to bite them. , as surely they will.

We now see the beginnings of what President Trump’s shameless lying will mean during the next four years.

NPR: EPA Scientists’ Work May Face ‘Case By Case’ Review By Trump Team, Official Says

Scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency likely will need to have their work reviewed on a “case by case basis” before it can be disseminated, according to a spokesman for the agency’s transition team.

Doug Ericksen, the head of communications for the Trump administration’s EPA transition team, said that he expects scientists will undergo an unspecified internal vetting process before sharing their work outside the agency.

Science is not supposed to “reflect” an administration. Science is a search for the truth. Trump already has claimed, with no evidence whatsoever, that global warming is a “Chinese hoax.”
Will all scientific findings now be required to “reflect” Trump’s personal opinions?  Have we returned to the time of Galileo?
Will even scientists be required to pitch “alternative facts,” at the behest of our ruler?

Any review would directly contradict the agency’s current scientific integrity policy, which prohibits “all EPA employees, including scientists, managers and other Agency leadership from suppressing, altering, or otherwise impeding the timely release of scientific findings or conclusions.”

Ericksen’s comments come just days after Trump’s team ordered agencies to limit their external communications to the public.  At the EPA, the staff was told not to speak to the news media.

“It’s certainly the case that every administration tries to control information, but I think that what we’re seeing here is much more sweeping than has ever been done before,” said Andrew Light, the distinguished senior fellow in the Global Climate Program at the nonpartisan World Resources Institute.

While previous administrations have restricted government scientists’ communications to the public, controlling their scientific conclusions is far more rare.

There’s a growing concern in the scientific community and among environmental organizations that the new administration might take aim at climate change research in particular.

Climate change may be the greatest threat to human survival on this planet, but it is not the only one.  Water pollution is another.

Trump seeks approval to limit liability at S.C. sitePublished: Wednesday, January 18, 2017

One of President-elect Donald Trump’s companies is asking South Carolina to approve a contract that would limit its liability for pollution at an industrial site.

The “Party of the Rich” has a special reason for climate change and water pollution denial. The rich do not want to be prevented from polluting the air (or the water or the ground), in their drive for profits.

Future generations are of no consequence, especially when compared with gathering today’s money.

Soon, we may hear from the Trump administration and its captive scientists that global warming indeed is a Chinese hoax and the pollution of our water by fracking is of no consequence.

Then those who voted for Trump, even knowing that little he said had any substance or truth, will learn that their motivations differ substantially from the motivations of the rich.

And they will learn to their dismay that the motivations of the man to whom they gave their trust and their vote are far more devoted to increasing his personal wealth than to the well-being of the people who elected him.

Trump and his advisors did not become rich by empathizing with the plight of the common folk.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

The single most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the have-mores and the have-less.

Wide Gaps negatively affect poverty, health and longevity, education, housing, law and crime, war, leadership, ownership, bigotry, supply and demand, taxation, GDP, international relations, scientific advancement, the environment, human motivation and well-being, and virtually every other issue in economics.

Implementation of The Ten Steps To Prosperity can narrow the Gaps:

Ten Steps To Prosperity:
1. ELIMINATE FICA (Ten Reasons to Eliminate FICA )
Although the article lists 10 reasons to eliminate FICA, there are two fundamental reasons:
*FICA is the most regressive tax in American history, widening the Gap by punishing the low and middle-income groups, while leaving the rich untouched, and
*The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, neither needs nor uses FICA to support Social Security and Medicare.
2. FEDERALLY FUNDED MEDICARE — PARTS A, B & D, PLUS LONG TERM CARE — FOR EVERYONE (H.R. 676, Medicare for All )
This article addresses the questions:
*Does the economy benefit when the rich can afford better health care than can the rest of Americans?
*Aside from improved health care, what are the other economic effects of “Medicare for everyone?”
*How much would it cost taxpayers?
*Who opposes it?”
3. PROVIDE AN ANNUAL ECONOMIC BONUS TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN, AND CHILD IN AMERICA, AND/OR EVERY STATE, A PER CAPITA ECONOMIC BONUS (Social Security for All) (The JG (Jobs Guarantee) vs the GI (Guaranteed Income) vs the EB) Or institute a reverse income tax.
This article is the fifth in a series about direct financial assistance to Americans:

Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Employer of Last Resort is a bad idea. Sunday, Jan 1 2012
MMT’s Job Guarantee (JG) — “Another crazy, rightwing, Austrian nutjob?” Thursday, Jan 12 2012
Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Jobs Guarantee is like the EU’s euro: A beloved solution to the wrong problem. Tuesday, May 29 2012
“You can’t fire me. I’m on JG” Saturday, Jun 2 2012

Economic growth should include the “bottom” 99.9%, not just the .1%, the only question being, how best to accomplish that. Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) favors giving everyone a job. Monetary Sovereignty (MS) favors giving everyone money. The five articles describe the pros and cons of each approach.
4. FREE EDUCATION (INCLUDING POST-GRAD) FOR EVERYONEFive reasons why we should eliminate school loans
Monetarily non-sovereign State and local governments, despite their limited finances, support grades K-12. That level of education may have been sufficient for a largely agrarian economy, but not for our currently more technical economy that demands greater numbers of highly educated workers.
Because state and local funding is so limited, grades K-12 receive short shrift, especially those schools whose populations come from the lowest economic groups. And college is too costly for most families.
An educated populace benefits a nation, and benefitting the nation is the purpose of the federal government, which has the unlimited ability to pay for K-16 and beyond.
5. SALARY FOR ATTENDING SCHOOL
Even were schooling to be completely free, many young people cannot attend, because they and their families cannot afford to support non-workers. In a foundering boat, everyone needs to bail, and no one can take time off for study.
If a young person’s “job” is to learn and be productive, he/she should be paid to do that job, especially since that job is one of America’s most important.
6. ELIMINATE CORPORATE TAXES
Corporations themselves exist only as legalities. They don’t pay taxes or pay for anything else. They are dollar-transferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the government (the later having no use for those dollars).
Any tax on corporations reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers, and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all corporate taxes come around and reappear as deductions from your personal income.
7. INCREASE THE STANDARD INCOME TAX DEDUCTION, ANNUALLY. (Refer to this.) Federal taxes punish taxpayers and harm the economy. The federal government has no need for those punishing and harmful tax dollars. There are several ways to reduce taxes, and we should evaluate and choose the most progressive approaches.
Cutting FICA and corporate taxes would be a good early step, as both dramatically affect the 99%. Annual increases in the standard income tax deduction, and a reverse income tax also would provide benefits from the bottom up. Both would narrow the Gap.
8. TAX THE VERY RICH (THE “.1%) MORE, WITH HIGHER PROGRESSIVE TAX RATES ON ALL FORMS OF INCOME. (TROPHIC CASCADE)
There was a time when I argued against increasing anyone’s federal taxes. After all, the federal government has no need for tax dollars, and all taxes reduce Gross Domestic Product, thereby negatively affecting the entire economy, including the 99.9%.
But I have come to realize that narrowing the Gap requires trimming the top. It simply would not be possible to provide the 99.9% with enough benefits to narrow the Gap in any meaningful way. Bill Gates reportedly owns $70 billion. To get to that level, he must have been earning $10 billion a year. Pick any acceptable Gap (1000 to 1?), and the lowest paid American would have to receive $10 million a year. Unreasonable.
9. FEDERAL OWNERSHIP OF ALL BANKS (Click The end of private banking and How should America decide “who-gets-money”?)
Banks have created all the dollars that exist. Even dollars created at the direction of the federal government, actually come into being when banks increase the numbers in checking accounts. This gives the banks enormous financial power, and as we all know, power corrupts — especially when multiplied by a profit motive.
Although the federal government also is powerful and corrupted, it does not suffer from a profit motive, the world’s most corrupting influence.
10. INCREASE FEDERAL SPENDING ON THE MYRIAD INITIATIVES THAT BENEFIT AMERICA’S 99.9% (Federal agencies)Browse the agencies. See how many agencies benefit the lower- and middle-income/wealth/ power groups, by adding dollars to the economy and/or by actions more beneficial to the 99.9% than to the .1%.
Save this reference as your primer to current economics. Sadly, much of the material is not being taught in American schools, which is all the more reason for you to use it.

The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Plenty of money for a wall; not enough for Social Security and Medicare

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

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It takes only two things to keep people in chains: The ignorance of the oppressed and the treachery of their leaders.

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Republicans embrace building of Mexico border wall, despite cost

Republicans on Capitol Hill say they don’t need to wait for Mexico to make good on President-elect Donald Trump’s central campaign promise: building a southern border wall.

In fact, they are happy to underwrite the wall themselves, at a potential cost of many billions of dollars.

The GOP’s willingness to fund Trump’s border wall with taxpayer money could put the party’s deeply held desire to rein in government spending in conflict with its long-standing goal of cracking down on illegal immigration and toughening border security. Nonetheless, many Republicans do not see an inherent conflict.

“It would be a proposal that would cost billions of dollars* to get done, but if it’s an appropriate priority for our country, it’s worth spending that kind of money,” said Rep. Luke Messer, R-Ind., chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee.

*A study in July from Bernstein Research put the total cost at $15 billion to $25 billion.

The Republicans are telling you the truth — sort of. For a Monetarily Sovereign nation (See: The key to economics), money is not a problem.

Paying for the wall won’t be with taxpayer money. Unlike state and local governments, a Monetarily Sovereign government (See: “Free lunch”) does not spend taxpayer money.  It creates money, ad hoc, by paying invoices.

The U.S. federal government absolutely, positively never can run short of its own sovereign currency, the dollar. Never.

What the Republicans aren’t telling you is where that government money will go. Read on.

Trump to Order Mexican Border Wall and Curtail Immigration
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, DAVID E. SANGER and MAGGIE HABERMANJAN. 24, 2017
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Wednesday will order the construction of a Mexican border wall.

So, whether or not Trump will stick with his “alternative fact” that Mexico will pay for the wall, he will go ahead and build it, despite the cost.  Why not? The federal government, uniquely being Monetarily Sovereign, can afford anything.

But who will get the money needed to build the wall?

Trump’s Budget Nominee Still Thinks Social Security Is A Ponzi Scheme
And he wants to raise the retirement age. 

WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump’s choice to manage the federal government’s budget admitted Tuesday that Social Security is in fact constitutional, but he was still not willing to renounce his description of the program as a “Ponzi scheme.”

Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), the nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget, also refused to say at his confirmation hearing whether he’d push Trump to keep his campaign pledges to not cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

“I wouldn’t read too much into the description of it as a Ponzi scheme. It’s simply describing to people how the cash flows,” Mulvaney said.

He said his earlier remarks merely refer to the fact that fewer workers are now supporting each Social Security recipient than in the past, which he argues means that eventually some people will be left holding the bag.

And the alternative facts, aka the Big Lie (See: Big Lie) just keep on coming.

A Ponzi scheme is a scam in which money put in by later joiners is used to pay earlier joiners. Eventually, there are not enough later joiners to support the earlier joiners, and the scheme collapses.

Social Security, by contrast, does not use taxpayers’ money to pay benefit recipients.  Even if there were not a single individual in America paying FICA, Social Security could continue paying benefits forever.

And not just paying forever — SS and Medicare could pay larger benefits, and pay them to every man, woman, and child, forever. (See: “Medicare for all”)

So here is a summary of the Republicans (and to a lesser extent, the Democrats) position:

  1. Federal finances are the same as state and local finances. They all need to live within their means.
  2. We will build the wall, no matter what it costs. The government has plenty of money for that.
  3. We will cut Social Security (and Medicare and Medicaid) because there isn’t enough money for them, and they are headed for insolvency.

Point #1 is absolutely false. The federal government is Monetarily Sovereign. State and local governments are monetarily non-sovereign. The federal government has no “means” to live within.

The former cannot run short of dollars and does not use taxpayers’ dollars to pay its bills. The latter can run short of dollars and does use taxpayers’ dollars to pay bills.

Point #2 is true with regard to the federal government having plenty of money (unlimited money, in fact) to build a dozen walls, although the need for such a wall is doubtful.

However, the real purpose of the wall is to shovel billions of dollars into the pockets of construction company owners — the friends and peers of Donald Trump.Image result for money and poor people

Point #3 is absolutely false. FICA does not fund Social Security and Medicare. The federal government cannot become insolvent, nor can any of its agencies.FICA dollars are destroyed upon receipt by the government; they disappear from every measure of the money supply. Being no longer part of the money supply, they cannot pay for anything.

FICA dollars are destroyed upon receipt by the government; they disappear from every measure of the money supply. Being no longer part of the money supply, they no longer exist and cannot pay for anything.

So what’s the real story, politicians?

–Is there plenty of money or are we running short?

–Is buying a wall more important, or less important, than paying Social Security and Medicare benefits?

–Is the real purpose of the wall to keep out families who hope for a better life, or is it to enrich President Trump’s fellow construction company owners?

One final note: The Republicans can hardly wait to privatize some or all of Social Security and Medicare. “Privatize” is government-speak for providing a windfall to the wealthy owners of businesses at the expense of the public.  (See: The Great Privatization Scam“)

In short, rather than having the government pay for something, at no cost to you, privatization requires you to pay for it, usually more than even the government would have paid.

How will you know the privatization scam is underway? Look for the word “vouchers.”

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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The single most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the have-mores and the have-less.

Wide Gaps negatively affect poverty, health and longevity, education, housing, law and crime, war, leadership, ownership, bigotry, supply and demand, taxation, GDP, international relations, scientific advancement, the environment, human motivation and well-being, and virtually every other issue in economics.

Implementation of The Ten Steps To Prosperity can narrow the Gaps:

Ten Steps To Prosperity:
1. ELIMINATE FICA (Ten Reasons to Eliminate FICA )
Although the article lists 10 reasons to eliminate FICA, there are two fundamental reasons:
*FICA is the most regressive tax in American history, widening the Gap by punishing the low and middle-income groups, while leaving the rich untouched, and
*The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, neither needs nor uses FICA to support Social Security and Medicare.
2. FEDERALLY FUNDED MEDICARE — PARTS A, B & D, PLUS LONG TERM CARE — FOR EVERYONE (H.R. 676, Medicare for All )
This article addresses the questions:
*Does the economy benefit when the rich can afford better health care than can the rest of Americans?
*Aside from improved health care, what are the other economic effects of “Medicare for everyone?”
*How much would it cost taxpayers?
*Who opposes it?”
3. PROVIDE AN ANNUAL ECONOMIC BONUS TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN AMERICA, AND/OR EVERY STATE, A PER CAPITA ECONOMIC BONUS (Social Security for All) (The JG (Jobs Guarantee) vs the GI (Guaranteed Income) vs the EB) Or institute a reverse income tax.
This article is the fifth in a series about direct financial assistance to Americans:

Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Employer of Last Resort is a bad idea. Sunday, Jan 1 2012
MMT’s Job Guarantee (JG) — “Another crazy, rightwing, Austrian nutjob?” Thursday, Jan 12 2012
Why Modern Monetary Theory’s Jobs Guarantee is like the EU’s euro: A beloved solution to the wrong problem. Tuesday, May 29 2012
“You can’t fire me. I’m on JG” Saturday, Jun 2 2012

Economic growth should include the “bottom” 99.9%, not just the .1%, the only question being, how best to accomplish that. Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) favors giving everyone a job. Monetary Sovereignty (MS) favors giving everyone money. The five articles describe the pros and cons of each approach.
4. FREE EDUCATION (INCLUDING POST-GRAD) FOR EVERYONEFive reasons why we should eliminate school loans
Monetarily non-sovereign State and local governments, despite their limited finances, support grades K-12. That level of education may have been sufficient for a largely agrarian economy, but not for our currently more technical economy that demands greater numbers of highly educated workers.
Because state and local funding is so limited, grades K-12 receive short shrift, especially those schools whose populations come from the lowest economic groups. And college is too costly for most families.
An educated populace benefits a nation, and benefitting the nation is the purpose of the federal government, which has the unlimited ability to pay for K-16 and beyond.
5. SALARY FOR ATTENDING SCHOOL
Even were schooling to be completely free, many young people cannot attend, because they and their families cannot afford to support non-workers. In a foundering boat, everyone needs to bail, and no one can take time off for study.
If a young person’s “job” is to learn and be productive, he/she should be paid to do that job, especially since that job is one of America’s most important.
6. ELIMINATE CORPORATE TAXES
Corporations themselves exist only as legalities. They don’t pay taxes or pay for anything else. They are dollar-transferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the government (the later having no use for those dollars).
Any tax on corporations reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all corporate taxes come around and reappear as deductions from your personal income.
7. INCREASE THE STANDARD INCOME TAX DEDUCTION, ANNUALLY. (Refer to this.) Federal taxes punish taxpayers and harm the economy. The federal government has no need for those punishing and harmful tax dollars. There are several ways to reduce taxes, and we should evaluate and choose the most progressive approaches.
Cutting FICA and corporate taxes would be a good early step, as both dramatically affect the 99%. Annual increases in the standard income tax deduction, and a reverse income tax also would provide benefits from the bottom up. Both would narrow the Gap.
8. TAX THE VERY RICH (THE “.1%) MORE, WITH HIGHER PROGRESSIVE TAX RATES ON ALL FORMS OF INCOME. (TROPHIC CASCADE)
There was a time when I argued against increasing anyone’s federal taxes. After all, the federal government has no need for tax dollars, and all taxes reduce Gross Domestic Product, thereby negatively affecting the entire economy, including the 99.9%.
But I have come to realize that narrowing the Gap requires trimming the top. It simply would not be possible to provide the 99.9% with enough benefits to narrow the Gap in any meaningful way. Bill Gates reportedly owns $70 billion. To get to that level, he must have been earning $10 billion a year. Pick any acceptable Gap (1000 to 1?), and the lowest paid American would have to receive $10 million a year. Unreasonable.
9. FEDERAL OWNERSHIP OF ALL BANKS (Click The end of private banking and How should America decide “who-gets-money”?)
Banks have created all the dollars that exist. Even dollars created at the direction of the federal government, actually come into being when banks increase the numbers in checking accounts. This gives the banks enormous financial power, and as we all know, power corrupts — especially when multiplied by a profit motive.
Although the federal government also is powerful and corrupted, it does not suffer from a profit motive, the world’s most corrupting influence.
10. INCREASE FEDERAL SPENDING ON THE MYRIAD INITIATIVES THAT BENEFIT AMERICA’S 99.9% (Federal agencies)Browse the agencies. See how many agencies benefit the lower- and middle-income/wealth/ power groups, by adding dollars to the economy and/or by actions more beneficial to the 99.9% than to the .1%.
Save this reference as your primer to current economics. Sadly, much of the material is not being taught in American schools, which is all the more reason for you to use it.

The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY