Tag: monetary non-sovereignty

–How dare he? Obama moves to stop climate change

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

Mitchell’s laws:
•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
•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. .
•Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.
•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and poor.
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..

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

The following post has been edited by the Republican National Committee, Pete Peterson, the Koch Brothers and Judges Roberts, Thomas, Scalia and Alito.

As every educated person Republican knows, climate change is happening right now a fraud, just like evolution, Social Security, Medicare, anything that helps the poor, and any need for gun control.

But President Obama has decided to follow ignore the learned scientific opinions of virtually every climate scientist Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, Rick Perry, Donald Trump et al, and plow ahead with actions to prevent a climate disaster affecting all of human kind Republicans from enriching the rich while screwing the public.

To keep you ignorant informed, we present excerpts from the right-wing nut-case nonpartisan Washington Times.

Obama admin grants green groups unprecedented power in crafting climate policy: Senate report

As the Environmental Protection Agency crafted rules to limit carbon emissions from power plants, key stakeholders — including the American public — had little to no influence over the debate while powerful environmental activist groups were given unprecedented access to and influence over administration officials, a Senate committee charged Tuesday.

A report from the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee breaks down in detail off-the-books meetings and email conversations, sometimes through private, non-government accounts, between top EPA officials and leaders with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations.

Those secret, “off-the-books” meetings considered the most up-to-date scientific knowledge failed to consider the Koch brothers’ money needs.

Alleged collusion between the EPA and the environmental movement, along with the fact that a host of former environmental activists have found their way into high-level positions in the Obama administration, is nothing new.

But the Senate study, relying on emails and other records obtained during an ongoing investigation, makes clear that the EPA and top environmental groups see themselves as deeply intertwined in the push to cut carbon pollution and pursue other pieces of President Obama’s broad, controversial climate-change agenda.

It is encouraging outrageous, that those knowledgeable and concerned about the environement selfish activists wish to cut carbon pollution, when Pete Peterson and most Republican candidates understand there is no climate change at all.

Other stakeholders, such as the energy industry, manufacturers, and members of the public, only took part in the rulemaking process through the normal, legally required public comment period that comes between a proposal and finalization of a rule.

Republicans care only what is best for the rich businessmen public good.

The report comes one day after Mr. Obama and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy formally unveiled the Clean Power Plan, which will require a 32 percent reduction in carbon emissions from power plants by 2030.

The plan has touched off a firestorm across the country, with Republicans in Congress vowing to block the regulations in any way they can, Republican governors promising to ignore the rules entirely and a coalition of 15 attorneys general readying new lawsuits challenging the plan in federal court.

Though the vast majority of the public is deeply concerned about climate change The Tea/Republican Party of the Rich Republican Party is angry, because reducing carbon emissions not only will cut air pollution, but will reduce the disaster of climate change will cost the Kochs money.

The Clean Power Plan regulations follow similar rules limiting emissions from new fossil fuel-fired power plants. Those rules, and others, were heavily influenced by environmental groups

Limiting pollution and global warming is exactly what environmental groups are supposed to do to save our children and the planet completely unnecessary. Unfortunately Fortunately, the Republicans are dedicated to the health and survival of rich businessmen, campaign contributors the human race.

The report lays out numerous examples of environmental activists meeting with top EPA officials at coffee shops or other locations outside agency headquarters, presumably to skirt visitors logs and otherwise shield the frequent contact between the two camps.

The Washington Times tries to imply a clandestine and sinister meaning to fortunately for everyone, learned environmental activists meet with EPA officials in coffee shops.

Here’s a great big “Screw you”“Thank you” to the Washington Times for being such a blatant tool of the very rich watchful guardian of the public good.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

The Ten Steps will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
——————————————————————————————————————————————

10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK
Monetary Sovereignty

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

–How the “stinking liars” inadvertently disclosed why the debt is necessary

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

Mitchell’s laws:
•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
•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. .
•Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.
•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and poor.
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..

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

The previous post told you of “stinking liars,” those politicians, media and economists who tell you the federal government’s finances are like your finances, and so the government can run short of dollars and needs to eliminate debt, cut spending and increase taxes, i.e invoke austerity upon us.

The purpose of what we term, the Big Lie is to widen the Gap between the very rich and you, mostly by pushing you down.

Wouldn’t you know it, but shortly after we published that post, the right-wing, Chicago Tribune published an editorial filled with the very Big Lies we had just deplored.

It should have been titled, “The Chicago Tribune’s Big Lies,” but instead it was titled:

The next president’s debts

ct-us-national-debt-20150715-jpg-20150731
Federal Reserve Board Chairwoman Janet Yellen testifies in front of a monitor counting the current U.S. national debt while appearing at the House Financial Services Committee hearing on the state of the economy July 15, 2015, in Washington.<

Instantly, we are treated to the specter of Janet Yellen sitting in front of a misleading scare-sign, designed to make you worry about the so-called “debt,” when in fact, it shows nothing more than the total of T-security accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank.

Every single one of those dollars is safely ensconced in T-security accounts (similar to your bank savings account). You own some of those dollars, if you own any T-bills, T-bonds, etc.

And the bank owes you those dollars, but you don’t fret about bank “debt,” do you? (And you certainly wouldn’t fret if your bank had the unlimited ability to create dollars.)

You may have your dollars back in an instant, merely by having them transferred from your T-security account to your checking account. No problem at all, and no burden on the federal government or future taxpayers or your grandchildren or anyone else the liars claim will destoy America.

So there was the Chicago Tribune’s first Big Lie, shamefully aided and abetted by the Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

On the mid-July day Jeb Bush candidly told Sioux City Republicans he wants to curb federal favors to Iowa’s ethanol industry, he got a lucky pick-me-up from the non-partisan group, First Budget: How, asked a member of this ascendant advocacy group, would he balance federal revenue and spending?

Who is “First Budget” and why would anyone want to “balance federal revenue and spending”?

Well, “First Budget” has a website that proudly states, “First Budget is a joint nonpartisan initiative of The Concord Coalition and the Campaign to Fix the Debt. Those are two nefarious right-wing, austerity front groups, whose purpose in life is to tell you that federal support of economic growth is bad for you and for your descendants.

“Nonpartisan”? “NON PARTISAN”???

To give you an idea of how shameless the lies are, the Campaign to Fix the Debt was founded by the notorious duo of Erskine Bowles and Sen. Alan Simpson. Remember them? Yes, these are the guys who brought you the sequester, the disastrous debt-cutting program that set back our recovery from the Great Recession by many years. We still haven’t recovered.

And Fix the Debt is bankrolled by the even more notorious Pete Peterson: [ The Campaign to Fix the Debt is the latest incarnation of a decades-long effort by former Nixon man turned Wall Street billionaire Pete Peterson to slash earned benefit programs such as Social Security and Medicare under the guise of fixing the nation’s “debt problem.”]

Bush, who favors raising the age at which Americans can draw Social Security, said he also backs a federal hiring freeze and not replacing all retirees.

“You are not going to get it to balance immediately, but with high (economic) growth and a focused approach to limiting spending, including entitlements over the long haul, you can get it in balance,” Bush said.

“Without (the economy) growing, it won’t happen. And if we don’t fix the entitlement system, it won’t happen.”

What gibberish! Can anyone explain how fewer people receiving Social Security payments, fewer people receiving employment from the federal government, and more people paying more taxes (to achieve “balanced revenue”) will achieve “high economic growth”?

It’s utter nonsense, sort of like scoring fewer runs and giving up more runs, will help the Cubs win more games. What Bush, Bowles, Simpson, Peterson et al propose, is designed to reduce economic growth, and more specifically, to widen the Gap between the rich and the rest.

And as for balancing revenue (taxes) with spending, that would mean no new dollars entering the economy. If anyone can explain how an economy can grow if its money supply doesn’t’ grow, I’d love to hear it. That would be a miracle of economics, indeed.

With that frankness, a candidate for president paid his respects to First Budget’s pressure over the existential threat that federal debts and entitlements pose to America as we know it.

There, in one sentence, the owned-by-the-rich Tribune expresses the Big Lie: The statement that America cannot exist with those big T-security bank accounts, and that rather than stimulating the economy, Social Security and Medicare payments slow the economy.

Never mind that the bought-and-paid-for media have been saying the federal debt is a “ticking time bomb” for at least 75 years. And here we still are. Still ticking.

In the Tribune’s “black is white, and up is down” Big Lie, adding money to the economy shrinks the economy, while austerity grows the economy.

Yeah sure, austerity works. Just ask Greece.

Looming over these dangers is a current federal debt — that is, a federal taxpayers’ debt — of $18.3 trillion.

There’s another Big Lie.

In reality, Not one taxpayer owes one cent of the federal debt, though millions of taxpayers OWN billions of dollars of the federal debt. They own T-security accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank.

And the bigger the misnamed “federal debt,” the more money taxpayers own in T-security accounts. The more proper name would be “T-security deposits” rather than “debt.” Isn’t “deposits” what you call the money you have in bank accounts?

The Tribune article ends with this revealing question, in which the “stinking liars” accidentally admit why the so-called federal “debt” is necessary:

As for candidates always prattling that they want to “invest” more in schools, or defense, or a hundred other needs: At their events or in your talks with their surrogates, ask the questions First Budget volunteers are forcing politicians to confront.

As two of the group’s officers wrote in a July 19 op-ed for The Cedar Rapids Gazette, “If they promise tax cuts or more spending, how will they pay for them without increasing the debt?

Exactly right. You cannot pay for all the benefits the world’s wealthiest Monetarily Sovereign government should provide, without increasing the so-called “debt.”

The rich don’t want you to have those benefits, so they create a straw man: The “unsustainable” debt. It’s a stinking lie but, that’s the whole point, isn’t it?

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

The Ten Steps will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
——————————————————————————————————————————————

10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK
Monetary Sovereignty

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY

The fundamental flaw in U.S. democracy: No term limits

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

Mitchell’s laws:
•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
•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. .
•Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.
•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and poor.
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..

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

Recently, President Obama spoke in Ethiopia, saying, “Nobody should be president for life. Your country is better off if you have new blood and new ideas. I’m still a pretty young man, but I know that somebody with new energy and new insights will be good for my country. It will be good for yours, too, in some cases.”

What he didn’t say is that the lack of term limits practically guarantees criminality, sloth and nepotism, all of which increase with each passing year.

Consider my state, Illinois, the most corrupt state in the union. Of our last seven governors, four have gone to prison.

Illinois has the worst debt of any state, together with high taxes; our school systems are a mess; and Chicago’s racial segregation is extreme. Illinois is as poorly run as — perhaps more poorly run than — any state.

The state of Illinois does not have any term limits, though some individual cities across the state do.

Thirty seven states have placed term limits on their constitutional officers such as governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, comptroller and treasurer.

Eight out of 10 of the largest cities nationwide place term limits on their mayors and/or city councils, while fifteen legislatures have term limits.

Chicago is one of those two largest cities nationwide without any term limits. Thus, we had Mayor Richard J Daley who held office for 21 years, and ruled king-like over a notoriously corrupt administration.

Later, came his even more corrupt son, Richard M. Daley, who held office for 22 years, before retiring in disgrace. (He sold valuable city property to pay for bribes to unions and others for re-election assistance.)

ILLINOIS GENERAL ASSEMBLY IGNORES CITIZENS ON TERM LIMITS

“It is a safe bet that the General Assembly will never pass a bill limiting its own members’ ability to seek re-election.” – Christopher Mooney, University of Illinois Springfield professor, term-limits expert

Overwhelmingly, Illinoisans support term limits. A recent poll showed 78.7 percent of Illinois voters support term limits.

Despite the overwhelming public support for term limits, only a few legislators have tried to use the legislative process to enact term limits. The legislature has failed to enact any meaningful term limit reforms.

Consider Illinois’s Michael Madigan:

He is the longest-serving Speaker in state history, having held the position for all but two years since 1983. He has been a member of the Illinois House since 1971.

Chicago Magazine named Madigan the fourth-most-powerful Chicagoan in 2012 and second in 2013 and 2014, calling him “the Real Governor of Illinois.”

Madigan refused to testify in the inquiry over his advocacy for more 40 applicants to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Michael Madigan had sought to use his influence to secure patronage hiring and promotion at the Metra commuter rail agency for two of his supporters.

More than 400 current or retired state and local government employees have strong political ties to Madigan. The former Bureau of Electricity in the Streets and Sanitation Department of the City of Chicago was called “Madigan Electric” by political insiders.

Madigan admitted that he is more likely to return phone calls from campaign contributors than from non-contributors. Of all the current sitting Democratic Illinois House members, Speaker Madigan has received the highest amount of campaign contributions from labor unions.

Madigan was founder and continues as senior partner of the law firm Madigan and Getzendanner specializing in corporate real estate property tax appeals, which has been accused of profiting off of Madigan’s position and power. Getzendanner and four other staff attorneys handle the tax appeals, while Madigan brings in clients.

In 2008 Madigan and Getzendanner represented 45 of the 150 most valuable buildings in downtown Chicago, more than any other property tax appeal firm, and more than twice as many as the second highest.

Then we have the Madigan family nepotism tree:

(His wife) Shirley is the head of the Illinois Arts Council. His oldest daughter, Lisa Madigan, is the Attorney General of Illinois. Madigan’s son-in-law Jordan Matyas is the chief lobbyist for Regional Transportation Authority, a deputy chief overseeing their Government Affairs Department.

In 2002, Madigan helped his daughter Lisa garner more campaign contributions in her run for Illinois Attorney General than even the candidates for governor that year. At one point, Lisa Madigan’s $1.2 million raised was more than all the attorney general candidates in 1998 had raised, combined.

The man has been clever enough to cover his back by installing his daughter as Attorney General, who not surprisingly, never has investigated her father.

How has Madigan achieved and maintained such control?

First, he brings home the bacon to his district. He is not elected by the state voters. He is elected by just one district, and that district receives the benefits of Madigan’s power. If you lived in that district, you would elect him. So would I.

Money flows to Madigan district while state dollars tight

At a time when Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner has frozen state spending and cut the budget, a $35 million state grant got paid in full last month that helps build a 1,500-student school in the district of House Speaker Michael Madigan.

Second, the lack of term limits has given Madigan plenty of time to build alliances and to create a system that increasingly provides him with corrupting power.

For a politician, length of term is in direct proportion to breadth of corruption.

The lack of term limits, which allows criminal fiefdoms time to develop, is the fundamental flaw in American politics. It has all but destroyed Illinois and Chicago and presumably many other states, counties and cities.

The primary argument against term limits has to do with experience. A politician gains experience through time, and limiting his time, limits his experience.

However, that does not seem to have been an impediment to the most demanding and important job in America: The Presidency of the United States. The reason: Each new President surrounds himself with experienced people. All politicians can do that.

Once installed, politicians are very difficult to dislodge. They do more favors and collect more money than any opposing candidate.

The whole notion of “Ruler For Life”, whether a governor, mayor, alderman, senator, representative, etc., is an open invitation to the corruption that comes with power.

In summary, the fundamental flaw of American democracy is the lack of term limits.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

The Ten Steps will add dollars to the economy, stimulate the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
——————————————————————————————————————————————

10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK
Monetary Sovereignty

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

#MONETARYSOVEREIGNTY