Tag: monetary non-sovereignty

Which is worse: You lack money or the federal government lacks money?

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
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Which is worse: Your lack of money or the federal government’s lack of money?

Answer: The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, cannot lack its own sovereign currency, the dollar.

It is absolutely, positively, 100% impossible for the U.S. federal government to run short of dollars, unless Congress and the President wish it.

Even if federal taxes fell to $0, even if federal spending tripled, no matter how large the federal deficits, it is impossible for the federal government to lack dollars.

And that is why the FICA (Federal Insurance Contributions Act) tax is unnecessary and harmful, and Medicare is unnecessarily inadequate.

Because the federal government never can run short of dollars, no purpose is served by your making “insurance contributions” to FICA. You might as well make a water contribution to the Pacific ocean.

In the same vein, Medicare is unnecessarily inadequate because it doesn’t cover some of the most common health problems facing America: Dental, hearing, vision, and long-term care.

Why?

Scientific American Magazine: Why won’t Medicare cover dental, hearing or vision expenses?

Phil Moeller: The failure of Medicare to cover most dental, hearing, and vision expenses is perhaps its greatest failing.

Other critics might point to the fact that it does not cover long-term care expenses either.

And my favorite personal rant is reserved for its failure to cover nearly all medical expenses incurred outside the United States.

Huge and growing numbers of seniors face substantial dental, hearing and vision expenses. Failure to receive adequate care in any of these areas will have a big impact on overall health care and thus on health claims that Medicare does cover.

Unfortunately, nearly all of the talk in Washington these days is about how to restrain Medicare expenses, not add to them.

Why restrain Medicare expenses? After all, the federal government cannot run short of money. So why restrain medical care for Americans?

Because the rich don’t need Medicare. They can pay for all of the best medical care.

By keeping medical care from the middle and the lower-income groups, the rich widen the Gap between them and the rest — and widening the Gap is the primary goal of the rich.

The Gap makes them rich. Without the Gap, no one would be rich (We all would be the same) and the wider the Gap the richer they are. The rich widen the Gap by increasing their income or by reducing yours. Either will do.

Medicare pays for doctors and hospital care. Is dental care all that important?

Scientific American: Oral Health Goes Modern

We are amidst a global oral disease epidemic, and the statistics are startling: nearly 100 percent of adults have had cavities.

About one-fifth of middle-aged adults have gum disease so severe that they could lose their teeth—and about a third of the world’s elderly citizens no longer have any of their original teeth.

Periodontitis—the swelling, bleeding, receding gums caused by some species of bacteria in our mouths—may raise the risk of a number of serious health conditions.

That list includes stroke, respiratory illness, and cardiovascular disease, adult-onset (type 2) diabetes, and premature birth.

Mouth pain from cavities is among the leading reasons that children are absent from school. Bacterial invaders in gum tissue can slip into the bloodstream, settling into the arteries around the heart, or may be inhaled into the lungs, causing pneumonia.

In answer to the question, “Is dental care all that important?” we only can ask, “Are stroke, respiratory illness, heart disease, diabetes, pneumonia, pain, and school absences all that important?”

Scientific American Magazine: The Case for Oral Health

Former Surgeon General David Satcher: “Children who live in poverty in this country and around the world don’t get good oral health care.

“80 percent of oral health problems affect about 20 percent of the population—the poor and minorities in this country.

“We still have the only health system [among developed countries] that doesn’t provide universal access to care.

“I’m supportive of the Affordable Care Act but critical of the fact that while…it improves oral health care access for children, it does not for adults.

“Our health system has to incorporate easy access to oral health care.”

Think of it. The great United States of America has the only health system [among developed countries] that doesn’t provide universal access to care.

In effect, you have been made a second-class citizen of a second-class country.

Why? Because you have been told the government can’t afford comprehensive Medicare, an outright lie, promulgated by the rich.

And it’s not just young people who receive inadequate dental health care:

Scientific American Magazine: Attention on Prevention

In the U.S., about 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 each day—and many who have dental insurance lose it when they retire.

One-fifth of people over 75 haven’t seen a dentist in five years.

The nonprofit Center for Oral Health is currently assessing dental problems among California’s elderly. Preliminary results show that 38 percent of people in the state’s long-term care facilities have lost all of their original teeth; nearly half have at least one untreated cavity; and about one in seven need urgent care.

In the U.S. alone, nearly 30 percent of 15,000 adults surveyed said life is “very often” or “occasionally” less satisfying because of the condition of their mouth or teeth.

The authors urged policymakers to re-evaluate the separation of the mouth from the rest of the body in healthcare policy—and to consider the growing data linking oral health to physical, social and economic well-being.

Bottom line: We lead worse lives because of a lie: The Big Lie that very simply says federal taxes are needed to fund federal spending, so the federal government is running short of dollars.

The big truth: The federal government never can run short of dollars, with or without taxes. The government can pay for anything, including comprehensive Medicare for every man, woman, and child in America.

The rich want you to believe otherwise, because they want to widen the Gap between them and the rest.

Don’t fall for the con-job. Contact your Senator or Representative. Tell them you know the secret, and will not be fooled. Demand a fully paid, comprehensive Medicare for all.

Who needs money more: The federal government or you?

Contact your Senator or Representative. Tell them you know the secret, and no longer will be fooled. Demand a fully paid, comprehensive Medicare for all.

Demand fully paid, comprehensive Medicare for all. America deserves nothing less. You deserve nothing less.

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 rich and the rest.

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 afford better health care than 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 (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 benefiting 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

What does it take to convince people of a truth that will benefit them?

As I sit here before my laptop, I wonder yet again, what does it take to convince people of such beneficial truths as:

*The federal “debt” is not “unsustainable,” nor is it owed by taxpayers

*Social Security and Medicare cannot run short of dollars unless Congress and the President will it.

*FICA and all other federal taxes do not fund federal spending. The federal government can spend forever, even without collecting taxes.

I just finished torturing myself with the latest absurdity from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), the self-proclaimed “nonpartisan” group composed primarily of rich, old, white, male, right-wingers.

Nonpartisan? Don’t you believe it. 

They claim to be “an authoritative voice for fiscal responsibility and an educational resource for policymakers and the general public.” Yet, among their comments are:

“Unfortunately, neither (Presidential) candidate has a plan to make Social Security solvent.”

Fact: Social Security, being a federal agency, cannot be insolvent, any more than other federal agencies — the White House, Congress, the Supreme Court and the U.S. itself  — can be insolvent.

CRFB “regularly meets with members of Congress and their staff, and offers practical solutions that can achieve bipartisan support and put the country on a sustainable fiscal course.

The U.S. is 240 years old. In all but a handful of those years, the country has run a deficit. Yet, we have sustained. What then is the meaning of “sustainable”? The CRFB never defines this term, because doing so would reveal the nonsense of it.

“The budget is increasingly being taken up by mandatory programs, crowding out investments in other areas of the budget. Lawmakers should enact both entitlement and tax reforms to return our nation to a fiscally sustainable path.”

“Entitlement and tax reforms” is a euphemism for: Cut Social Security, cut Medicare, cut Medicaid and cut poverty aids, while increasing FICA and other taxes.

The U.S., being Monetarily Sovereign, never can run short of its own sovereign currency, the dollar. Its ability to spend is unlimited, no matter what taxes are collected.

Therefore, federal spending cannot be “crowded out.”

Maya MacGuineas, president of CRFB: “We Can’t Borrow Our Way to Prosperity.  Assuming our creditors continue to allow these (high) levels of debt, the CBO estimates that within three decades this will reduce average income by $4,000 per person compared to what it would be if debt were on a declining path. “

Think about it.  Do you really believe the CBO (another similarly “nonpartisan” organization)  can see 30 years in advance?  Let’s get real, here.

See how MacGuinneas spreads the ignorance CBO provided:

  1. So-called federal “debt” actually is the total of deposits in T-security accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank, similar to savings account deposits. In short, bank deposits.
  2. Because the U.S. government, never runs short of its own sovereign currency, it neither needs nor uses these T-security deposits for anything.
  3. T-securities do not benefit the government. They are investments provided to the public. The government could stop selling T-securities (i.e. “borrowing”) tomorrow.
  4. All T-securities could be redeemed instantly, simply by transferring existing dollars from T-security accounts back to the checking accounts of owners. No new dollars needed.
  5. In any event, the Federal Reserve Bank has demonstrated its ability to buy all T-securities (via Quantitative Easing). Thus, there is no legitimate concern about “creditors continuing to allow these (high) levels of debt. The government does not need creditors.

Those are the facts. Now visualize this scenario: 

You are a member of a sect. Your rich leader tells you to give her all your belongings and to climb the sacred mountain, to watch the world end at midnight.

So you give her your house, your clothing, and all your personal items, and you climb and wait. Midnight passes, and nothing happens, so you climb back down, naked and impoverished.

A year later, your leader tells you the same thing. You give her what you have left, and you climb again, and again nothing happens. So you climb down again, naked.

This repeats itself, year after year, for more than 75 years.

Think now. At what point in those 75 years will you finally figure out that your rich leader doesn’t know what she is talking about? Or more likely, that your rich leader is taking you for a sucker to steal all you own.

How many times will you allow yourself to be fooled?

We’ve published posts showing that since 1940, and surely earlier, the bribed politicians, media, and economists have been calling the debt and deficits “unsustainable,” a “ticking time bomb,” and a “death spiral.”

Yet, in those 76 years, despite all the false warnings, the debt and deficit have grown, and the economy has grown, and everything is “sustainable” and there is no death spiral, and that “time-bomb” still ticks.

But you have given away your belongings via unnecessary, regressive taxes and benefit cuts, that widen the Gap between the rich and you.

The graph shows that as recently as 1970, the federal “debt” (blue line) was $275 Billion. In just 46 years the debt has risen to $14 Trillion — a gigantic 50-fold increase.

And still, we’ve “sustained” that 50-fold increase. No “time-bomb” has exploded. And we aren’t in a death spiral. In fact, GDP has risen substantially.

So what does it take for the public to awaken?

Will the public continue to believe the rich sect leader, and continue to trudge up and down that mountain, year after year, waiting for the end of the world — meanwhile giving her what they own?

Will the people continue to grow angry at anyone who dares to tell them they are being taken for suckers by the rich?

People, listen: You can have fully funded Social Security and Medicare, while FICA can  be eliminated. Student debt and hunger can be eliminated. Housing, medical research, the infrastructure and the ecology all can be improved, and taxes can be cut. The gap between you and the rich can be narrowed. (See the Ten Steps to Prosperity, below.)

Why would you prefer to believe otherwise? The rich rely on you being so beat down you will believe good news always is too good to be true for you.

Don’t let it happen. You deserve what our Monetarily Sovereign government can provide. The rich already take more than their share.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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The single most important problem in economics involves the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the rich and the rest.

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 afford better health care than 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 (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 benefiting 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

More on why you believe what you believe: Sugar

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

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In a recent post, “Why do you believe what you believe” we said:

“Why do you know the sun causes skin cancer? You know it because years ago you read it in, or heard it from, a trusted source. Then you read and heard it often again, and the repetition caused you to believe it more and more until you know it.

The combination of “trusted source” and “repetition” inserts belief into our minds, and once there, it may be difficult to dislodge — unless we are exposed to a more trusted source plus repetition.

As you know, consuming saturated fat and cholesterol increases your risk of heart disease, while sugar does not. You have heard this from many trusted sources and it has been repeated endlessly in all forms of communication.

ScienceNews Magazine, October 15, 2016, Sugar industry sought to sugarcoat causes of heart disease
Payments revealed to authors of influential 1967 report touting fat and cholesterol as problems, by LAURA BEIL

Using records unearthed from library storage vaults, researchers recently revealed that the sugar industry paid nutrition experts from Harvard University to downplay studies linking sugar and heart disease.

Although the incident happened in the 1960s, it appears to have helped redirect the scientific narrative for decades.

Harvard University — what could be a more trusted source than Harvard University?

Note however, that Harvard University does not conduct research, nor does Harvard University verify the findings of research.

Research is done by people,  employees of Harvard, and being employees of Harvard gives those researchers no special insight or virtue.

Yet the mere association with the name “Harvard,” implies intelligence and academic trustworthiness.

The documents  show that the Sugar Research Foundation paid professors who wrote a two-part review in 1967 in the New England Journal of Medicine. That report was highly skeptical of the evidence linking sugar to cardiovascular problems but accepting of the role of fat.

The now-deceased professors’ overall conclusion left “no doubt” that reducing the risk of heart disease was a matter of reducing saturated fat and cholesterol, according to researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, who published their report online September 12 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Now, we have the University of California, San Francisco, another trusted source, impugning the trusted Harvard results.

The sugar industry helped deflect the way the research was developing,” says study coauthor Cristin Kearns, a dentist at UCSF’s Institute for Health Policy Studies.

The belief in sugar’s innocence, and the sugar industry’s profit motive, were so powerful, it took a dentist, not a cardiologist to uncover apparently biased results from what ostensibly was a heart study.

Following the publication of the Harvard report, fat and cholesterol went on to hijack the scientific agenda for decades, and even led to a craze of low-fat foods that often added sugar.

It was only in 2015 that dietary guidelines finally made a strong statement to limit sugar. Researchers writing this year in Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases note that current studies estimate that diets high in added sugars carry a three times higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease.

(The Sugar Association says in a statement on its website that “the last several decades of research have concluded that sugar does not have a unique role in heart disease.”)

Is this an example of deception with a true statement?

Yes, unfortunately, the last several decades of research did absolve sugar from blame, and what does “unique role in heart disease” really mean?  If sugar causes heart disease, is that a “unique role”?

The Sugar Association’s statement acknowledged the secret deal occurred, but pointed out that “when the studies in question were published, funding disclosures and transparency standards were not the norm they are today.”

Translation: The research lied, but back then, we didn’t have to reveal the lie. So, it’s O.K.

Journals now require all authors to list conflicts of interest, especially funding from a source has a vested interest in the outcome.

While a modern researcher could not take corporate money, even for speaking fees, without disclosure, the influences may be more subtle, he says. “We’re not talking about making up data, but perhaps influencing how a research question is framed.”

Revealing the source of funding doesn’t eliminate bias. And, though one reasonably may conclude that a high percentage of private funding comes from sources with an ax to grind, that doesn’t necessarily mean the research results are misleading.

But, such funding leads to the question: “What happens to results that disagree with the benefactor’s purpose? 

If several, slightly different pieces of research show that sugar has an adverse effect on heart health, and one shows it doesn’t, what happens to all the negative research?

Andy Bellatti, cofounder and strategic director of Dietitians for Professional Integrity says that researchers don’t necessarily want to be cozy with industry, but sometimes turn to commercial sources because non-biased research money is lacking.

“The reason the food industry is able to do this is because there is such little public funding for nutrition and disease.”

Here is yet another example, among hundreds, of how cuts in federal deficit spending hurt America, though often benefitting big business.

And what does the need for an organization titled, “Dietitians for Professional Integrity” tell you about today’s food research?

The scientific community should not reject industry money wholesale, says John Sievenpiper, a physician and nutrition researcher at the University of Toronto.

He believes that any scientist who takes industry money should adhere to an even higher standard of openness, including releasing study protocols ahead of time so reviewers can make sure the research question was not changed midstream to favor a certain conclusion.

Bottom line:

  1. For many years, your belief in “benign sugar” was created by “trusted sources” and repetition.
  2. As with privately owned banks, the profit motive encourages unethical behavior.  Corporations do not fund research out of generosity. They consider research to be part of their marketing efforts. Negative results often are twisted or hidden.
  3. Researchers, whether employed by Harvard University, the University of California, a private organization, or working alone, all can be swayed, consciously or not, to tilt their interpretations in favor of the money supply.
  4. Cuts in federally funded Research & Development grants are misguided if the primary purpose is to “save the federal government money” or to “make government smaller” (a huge, often unacknowledged disadvantage of libertarianism).
  5. While the federal government has political motives, it does not have a profit motive, and that alone helps make it a more trusted source for food & drug research than is private industry.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

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

 

The single most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the rich and the rest.

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 afford better health care than 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 (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 benefiting 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.

Mitchell’s laws:

•Those, who do not understand the differences between

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Why do Pete Peterson and Paul Volcker collude? There is a reason.

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

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Why do Pete Peterson and Paul Volcker collude? There is a reason.

These two loyal guardians of the very rich recently posted an article. Here are some excerpts.

Volcker: Fed Can’t Raise Rates Because of Rapidly Growing Debt
An op-ed posted by Paul Volcker and Peter Peterson, From Tyler Durden, Wall Street Journal: 

Immediately, from the title, you know the article is going to spread the manure thick and wide. The “Fed can’t raise rates”? Utter nonsense.

“. . . because of rapidly growing debt”? Even more nonsensical.

The main issue that troubles the two financial titans, is the lack of any practical discussion of the soaring US debt during the entire bizarre campaign – the one issue both agree is the biggest challenge facing the US economy today:

The biggest challenge facing the U.S. economy is the size of deposits in T-security accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank??

Really?? That is our biggest economic challenge??

Not the wide and widening Gap between the rich and the rest? Not millions of people doing without health care? Not the obscene student debt? Not our crumbling infrastructure? Not the ecology and global warming? Not the mid-east wars?

Yes, this country can handle the nearly $600 billion federal deficit estimated for 2016. But the deficit has grown sharply this year, and will keep the national debt at about 75 percent of the gross domestic product, a ratio not seen since 1950, after the budget ballooned during World War II.

Long-term, that continued growth, driven by our tax and spending policies, will create the most significant fiscal challenge facing our country.

Can anyone explain the significance of the debt/GDP ratio? I really would love to hear from Peterson and Volcker followers why a ratio of 75% or even 750% presents a “fiscal challenge.”

The federal debt (i.e. deposits in T-security accounts) is not serviced by GDP. The misnamed “debt” is paid off by funds already existing in those bank accounts, and the interest is paid by the unlimited dollars the federal government creates every day. The U.S. never can run short of dollars.

Volcker and Peterson know this. So why do they pretend otherwise?  There is a reason.

Back to the Volcker-Peterson lament, in which the two point out that “unfortunately, despite a brief discussion during the final presidential debate, neither candidate has put forward a convincing plan to restrain the growth of the national debt in the decades to come.”

Translation: Neither candidate has put forward a plan to increase FICA collections from the 99% non-rich, or to reduce Social Security and Medicare benefits for the 99% non-rich — either of which would widen the Gap between the rich and the rest.

Whoever wins,the new president will eventually face fiscal realities that force him or her to develop strategies for decreasing the national debt as a share of the economy over the long term.

The only reality is the money the rich are spending to bribe politicians to enact laws that would widen the Gap.

Our current debt may be manageable at a time of unprecedentedly low interest rates. But if we let our debt grow, and interest rates normalize, the interest burden alone would choke our budget and squeeze out other essential spending.

There would be no room for the infrastructure programs and the defense rebuilding that today have wide support.

Even with the interest “burden” ten times its current size, the federal government could continue spending on infrastructure and defense, forever. Why does the Peterson/Volcker cabal pretend the federal government can run short of its own sovereign currency, something that never has happened and cannot happen?

There is a reason.

And there you have it: with debt continuing to soar, growing by the third highest amount on record in fiscal 2016, all that would take for US interest expense to spiral out of control is a spike in debt servicing costs, i.e., interest.

But that’s not all: US government debt is just a tiny fraction of total US liabilities and future obligations. How tiny? It is less than 10% of the massive stack of US obligations that amount to well over 1,100% of GDP!

Think about it.  Why does the Peterson/Volcker cabal tell you the debt, at 75% of GDP, is too high, but total U.S. obligations are “well over 1,100% of GDP” —  which the U.S. has had no difficulty servicing?

There is a reason.

It’s not just federal spending that would be squeezed. The projected rise in federal deficits would compete for funds in our capital markets and far outrun the private sector’s capacity to save, to finance industry and home purchases, and to invest abroad.

Federal deficits occur when the government pumps more dollars into the economy via spending than it removes from the economy via taxing.

How does an increase in the money supply “compete for funds” and “outrun the private sector’s capacity to save”?  It doesn’t.

An increase in the money supply adds funds to capital markets and increases the private sector’s capacity to save.

The Peterson/Volcker cabal knows this, of course.

Instead, we’d be dependent on foreign investors’ acquiring most of our debt — making the government dependent on the “kindness of strangers” who may not be so kind as the I.O.U.s mount up.

The U.S. government, being Monetarily Sovereign and so having the unlimited ability to create U.S. dollars, is not dependent on anyone else to supply it with its own sovereign currency.

Contrary to popular myth, the federal government does not borrow.  It accepts deposits in T-security accounts.

Even if all T-securities were eliminated, the federal government could continue deficit spending, forever.

And now come the widen-the-Gap “solutions,” good for the rich, bad for the rest of us:

Are the any solutions? Well, according to the authors, “the solutions are clear enough” – they are just unpleasant.

We should make gradual adjustments to the Social Security system that still maintain present benefit levels for those at or near retirement, with particular attention to those most in need.

Our health care systems can be made more efficient, with better approaches toward cost control. Since health care represents 70 percent of the growth of our major entitlement programs over the next 30 years, bending the cost curve is essential to the long-term well-being of our economy.

Yes, indeed, these so-called “solutions” are “unpleasant.” The rich would be richer and the rest of us would be poorer.

Translation:  “Gradual adjustments” and “maintain present benefit levels for those at or near retirement” means:

1. No inflation adjustment,
2. Increases in FICA
3. Cuts to our children’s and grandchildren’s benefits.

“Bending the cost curve” means: Cut payments to doctors and hospitals, which will reduce the availability of doctors and hospital service.

Why these unnecessary cuts to our lifestyles?  There is a reason.

Tax reform could provide better incentives for economic growth, while raising more revenue, even as the code is simplified.

Translation: Cut taxes on the “makers” (i.e. the rich) while reducing benefits to the “takers”) i.e. the rest of us.

And any scheme that “raises more revenue” will take money from the private sector,  a disincentive for economic growth.

As for Volcker and Peterson, they personally have nothing to worry about: “At our age, neither of us will personally suffer from a failure to act. It is those with long lives ahead — grandchildren and great-grandchildren — who deserve the benefit of prospering in a nation with sound finances.

“Take some advice from two observers who have been around for a while: The long term gets here before you know it.”

Yes, yes, how benevolent Peterson and Volcker are. Except, they are rich; their families are rich; their friends are rich, and the people whose opinions they care about are rich.

And all of them want the Gap widened between the rich and the rest.

The Gap is what makes them rich. Without the Gap, no one would be rich. (We all would be the same.) The wider the Gap, the richer they are.

The ultimate goal of the rich is to widen the Gap, and there are only two ways to do that:

1. Increase their own income, wealth, and power
and/or
2. Decrease your income, wealth, and power.

The rich tell you the Big Lie — the (misnamed) “debt” and “deficits” are too high and “unsustainable.” The rich tell you the only way to get the “debt” and “deficits” “under control” is to attack the social programs that benefit the rest of us.

The rich want to, and already have, cut Social Security, cut Medicare, cut Medicaid, cut other aids to the middle and the poor. They want to, and already have, increased regressive taxes like FICA and sales taxes, while cutting taxes on the rich.

And here are some of their methods:

1. Misname bank deposits “debt.”
2. Misname economic income “deficits,” so you’ll be fooled into thinking federal spending should be reduced and your taxes increased.
3. Bribe the media (via ownership and advertising) to tell The Big Lie.
4. Bribe the politicians (via campaign contributions and promises of lucrative jobs) to vote for Gap-widening initiatives
5. Bribe the economists (via university endowments and employment in “think tanks”) to brainwash students with, and to provide credibility for, the Big Lie.
6. Pretend Federal (Monetarily Sovereign) financing is like personal (monetarily non-sovereign) financing, so you will find their “debt-reduction” ideas reasonable. (After all, who doesn’t want to reduce debt?)

Back in 1940, the rich referred to the deficit as a “ticking time bomb,” that was about to explode. That was 76 years ago, and that “bomb” still is ticking, the federal government still is paying its bills, and the economy still is growing.

We only can pray that after hearing 76 years of “wolf-cries,” the public finally begins to catch on, and demand the Ten Steps to Prosperity (below).

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

The single most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the rich and the rest.

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 afford better health care than 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 (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 benefiting 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