Tag: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

–Senator Durbin wanders in Fantasyland

The debt hawks are to economics as the creationists are to biology. Those, who do not understand monetary sovereignty, do not understand economics. Cutting the federal deficit is the most ignorant and damaging step the federal government could take. It ranks ahead of the Hawley-Smoot Tariff.

Read about Senator Durbin’s wanderings in Fantasyland. Today, 12/3/10, the Chicago Tribune published an article by Dick Durbin, the senior Senator (D) from Illinois. The title: “Why I’m voting ‘yes.” Here are some quotes from the article, and my comments.

“On Friday, when President Brach Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform gathers to consider a plan to bring our national debt under control, I will be voting yes. . . . America needs to grow our economy and reduce our $13.trillion debt. “

Never mind that almost 30% of that debt is merely one government department owing another government department. (Think of your checking account owing your savings account.) We can forgive that “minor” arithmetic error, because the good Senator makes a much larger one.

It mathematically is impossible to cut the debt and grow the economy at the same time. Money not only is the engine, but also the measure, of economic growth. GDP is a money measure. Cutting the debt requires taking money out of the economy, either by raising taxes or with reduced spending, or both. When you take money out of the economy, there is no mechanism by which you can grow the economy. There are no caveats about efficiency or savings or reducing waste or any other supposedly mitigating concepts. It simply is 100% impossible to grow an economy while reducing the money supply.

It’s like telling someone to take a lower paying job so he can buy a bigger house. The arithmetic doesn’t work.

Apparently Senator Durbin realizes this, because later he says:

“I worked (to) make certain that the (recommended) spending cuts do not start until 2013. We cannot run the risk of hitting the brakes in the midst of this recession, driving more people into unemployment and shredding the safety net to protect our families.”

So let’s see if we understand his thinking. Spending cuts “hit the brakes and drive people into unemployment.” We don’t want to do that now, but we do want to do it in 2013. Huh?

Then he said:

“I also insisted on two things to spark the economy: a payroll tax holiday that can create up to 900,000 jobs and a longer-term investment of $100 billion in infrastructure, education and reserach and development – key investments for long-term economic growth.”

Hmmm. So he wants to cut the deficit, but realizing that deficits stimulate the economy, he wants to increase the deficit with a payroll tax holiday and $100 billion investment.

So tell us again, Senator Durbin why do you want to cut the deficit? Oh sorry, you never told us the first time. Could it be because you have no reason? None at all?

“Borrowing 40 cents out of every dollar we spend for missiles or food stamps is unsustainable.”

Ah yes, the old “unsustainable” line. Back in February 7, 1982, almost 30 years ago, when the Federal Debt Held by Private Investors was $733 billion, President Ronald Reagan referred to the, “rapid, unsustainable expansion of Federal spending and money growth.” (See: Unsustainable) Today, the FDHBPIN is $7.9 trillion, having increased an astounding 1,000% in only 29 years, and politicians continue to refer to it as “unsustainable” – while we keep sustaining it with no difficulty whatsoever. When you say that something we have done, actually since the 1930s, is impossible, at some point you must question yourself. If it’s unsustainable, how have we sustained it?

Senator Durbin is yet another politician who does not understand monetary sovereignty. He does not understand that the U.S. can “sustain” any spending of any amount. Its spending is not constrained by deficits, debt or taxes, but rather by inflation – the inflation the Fed easily controls, the inflation from which we are a long, long way.

And he does not understand the federal government does not need to borrow the dollars it previously created, and does not need to borrow what it can create in unlimited quantities.

How frightening it is that Senator Durbin expresses the false beliefs held by the majority, not only of Congress but of the American people. One only can imagine how Galileo felt.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com

No nation can tax itself into prosperity. Those who say the stimulus “didn’t work” remind me of the guy whose house is on fire. A neighbor runs with a garden hose and starts spraying, but the fire continues. The neighbor wants to call the fire department, which would bring the big hoses, but the guy says, “Don’t call. As you can see, water doesn’t put out fires.”

–Reducing the federal deficit and other forms of national suicide

The debt hawks are to economics as the creationists are to biology. Those, who do not understand monetary sovereignty, do not understand economics. Cutting the federal deficit is the most ignorant and damaging step the federal government could take. It ranks ahead of the Hawley-Smoot Tariff.
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Here is what my local newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, says about the federal debt and deficit:

“First pay attention to Ireland, the latest nation to discover that when no one will take your IOUs, terrible things happen. In exchange for a bailout, Ireland has committed to huge spending cuts and brutal tax hikes that will inflict sever economic pain across the Emerald Isle for years.”

Right you are, Tribune. Tax hikes and spending cuts always cause severe damage to a nation and its people..

“Second, pay attention to Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson. The dogged co-chairmen of the president’s deficit commission are telling you how difficult it already will be to save the U.S. from reaching the day when no onee will take our IOUs.”

If that’s what Messrs. Bowles and Simpson are saying they are more dog-brained than dogged. The U.S., as a monetarily sovereign nation, does not need anyone to accept our IOUs, for this simple reason: A monetarily sovereign nation never needs to borrow the sovereign money it already has the unlimited ability to create. In fact, when the U.S. “borrows,” it simply exchanges T-securities it creates out of thin air for dollars it already has created, also out of thin air. Monetarily non-sovereign nations do need to borrow, because they do not have the unlimited ability to create money.

“The lesson from Ireland, the lesson from Bowles and Simpson, the lesson that official Washington still doesn’t want to hear: If we don’t make painful choices on spending and taxes right now, we’re going to invite chaos.”

Ireland is monetarily non-sovereign; the U.S. is monetarily sovereign. The Tribune doesn’t understand the difference. And because the Tribune and Messrs. Bowles and Simpson, and indeed the entire political establishment thinks U.S. finances are similar to monetary non-sovereign finances, we most certainly will have chaos. What these people imagine as a problem (deficits) actually is a benefit (money), and they try to cure this supposed problem with solutions that will damage us for decades. It’s like trying to “cure” good height by cutting off a person’s legs.

“(Bowles’ and Simpson’s) plan would raise the retirement age for Social Security [Keep paying FICA, but work ’til you drop], put federal health care programs on a strict budget [i.e. cut Medicare and Medicaid to improve health care], slash defense spending [for a stronger America] . . . It targets everything from federal payments to states reclaiming abandoned coal mines [Goodby environment] to restrictions that stop the Postal Service from shifting to five-day-a-week delivery [What next? Once-a-week delivery?]. Everybody gets gored one way or another.”

Yes, we all will get gored. But aside from worse health care, poorer retirement, more poverty, less national defense, worse education, worse environment and a thousand other reductions in the American life style, not only for us but for our children and our grandchildren, why worry? There is only one small detail. I almost hate to mention it, but: Where is the economic evidence that our federal deficit is too large? Nowhere.

Where do we see that the federal government can’t pay its bills? Nowhere. Where do we find that inflation threatens us? Nowhere. Where do we find that deficits cause recessions, depressions, stagflations, unemployment, poverty or any other form of economic miserey? Nowhere. According to the Tribune et al, the debt is big, ergo bad. Don’t ask for evidence. There is none. Just take your bitter pill on our say so.

Bowles and Simpson will make Osama bin Laden happy. Between them, they propose more damage to America than the Taliban and al-Qaeda together would be able to effect in a century. And all because of brutal ignorance.

“All together, the 16-nation eurozone has less debt and a much lower deficit in relation to its size than the United States has.”

The ignorance just grows and grows. The 16-nation eurozone is composed of both monetarily sovereign nations (which can service any size debt), and monetarily non-sovereign nations, which have limited debt-serving ability. The Tribune treats them as one. This respected paper sees no differences among the U.S., our states, counties, cities, businesses you and me. To the Tribune, whatever applies to one, applies to all.

“We’re not heading into trouble. We’re there.”

With thinkers like Bowles, Simpson, our political leaders and the Tribune editors, we are in desperate trouble, indeed.

But dammit, if they expect us to endure all this misery, and if they expect us to agree to harm our children and our grandchildren, and if they, in their own words, want to “inflict sever economic pain for years,” shouldn’t they at least be required to provide evidence all this is necessary?

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com

No nation can tax itself into prosperity. Those who say the stimulus “didn’t work” remind me of the guy whose house is on fire. A neighbor runs with a garden hose and starts spraying, but the fire continues. The neighbor wants to call the fire department, which would bring the big hoses, but the guy says, “Don’t call. As you can see, water doesn’t put out fires.”

–How the Ignorant Murder the Innocent: Debt-Hysteria Continues to Destroy America

The debt hawks are to economics as the creationists are to biology. Those, who do not understand monetary sovereignty, do not understand economics. Cutting the federal deficit is the most ignorant and damaging step the federal government could take. It ranks ahead of the Hawley-Smoot Tariff.
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How the Ignorant Murder the Innocent: Debt-Hysteria Continues to Destroy America

“NBC, msnbc.com and news services 12/1/10

“Extended unemployment benefits for nearly 2 million Americans begin to run out Wednesday, cutting off a steady stream of income and guaranteeing a dismal holiday season for people already struggling with bills they cannot pay.

“Unless Congress changes its mind, benefits that had been extended up to 99 weeks will end this month.

“Congress has let jobless benefits lapse twice already this year as Republicans insist the cost — $160 billion in the last fiscal year — be offset by cuts elsewhere to prevent the nation’s $13.8 trillion debt from growing further.

“Congressional opponents of extending the benefits beyond this month say fiscal responsibility should come first. Republicans in the House and Senate, along with a handful of conservative Democrats, say they’re open to extending benefits, but not if it means adding to the $13.8 trillion national debt.”

Ah, yes. “Fiscal responsibility.” Please someone remind me again; why did we go off the gold standard and become monetarily sovereign? What was the purpose of having the unlimited ability to create money? What exactly does “fiscal responsibility” mean? And what about human responsibility?

“‘I am not searching for a job, I am begging for one,’ said Felicia Robbins, 30, as she prepared to move out of a homeless shelter in Pensacola, Fla., where she and her five children have been living. She is using the last of her cash reserves, about $500, to move into a small, unfurnished rental home.”

The debt-hawks will tell you that unemployment benefits merely extend the time for lazy people to sit home, collecting checks. Of course, the Senators and Representatives collect their generous paychecks on time, so why worry about the “little” people?

If you are concerned about the gap between the rich and the poor, I remind you that this unnecessary, cruel action takes money from the poorest of us, increasing the gap.

As always, I urge you to contact your Congressperson, and try to educate him/her, before America reenters recession.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com

No nation can tax itself into prosperity. Those who say the stimulus “didn’t work” remind me of the guy whose house is on fire. A neighbor runs with a garden hose and starts spraying, but the fire continues. The neighbor wants to call the fire department, which would bring the big hoses, but the guy says, “Don’t call. As you can see, water doesn’t put out fires.”

–What is the case against Wikileaks?

The debt hawks are to economics as the creationists are to biology. Those, who do not understand monetary sovereignty, do not understand economics. Cutting the federal deficit is the most ignorant and damaging step the federal government could take. It ranks ahead of the Hawley-Smoot Tariff.
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This is just one man’s opinion, but I would guess that 99.99% of all the federal documents marked “Secret” have nothing whatsoever to do with our national security. They are hidden because, well . . . Why not? Why tell the citizens anything?

Yes, the main purpose of most government secrets is to hide facts from the government’s own citizens. Wikileaks will leak very few, if any, facts our enemies don’t already know. The story Hillary Clinton now is mouthing, that Wikileaks is endangering our soldiers, is as usual, a lie. The only people endangering our soldiers is Clinton and her political pals, who send our sons and daughters to die on useless and hopeless missions, with no goal and no possibility of success.

Think of politicians as cockroaches. They hate the light. It’s disgusting to watch the sanctimonious generals and political leaders bleating about protecting the lives of our soldiers, when they really are talking about protecting the political lives of the cockroaches. How do you think so many of our soldiers died unnecessarily in Vietnam, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan? Because of lies by our government, held secret from us, though not from our enemies.

The politicains now have made the ridiculous demand that Wikileaks “return the documents.” Talk about crazy. The toothpaste is out of the tube. Return documents that already are in many hands? Typical political lies and nonsense. You couldn’t trust these guys not to steal pencils from a blind man’s cup.

Does anyone truly believe the mullahs of Iran did not know Saudi Arabia fears them and wants them stopped from making The Bomb? Does anyone truly believe our enemies did not know that North Korea sold long distance missiles to Iran. Oh, you didn’t know? Of course not. Our government hid that from you. Our enemies knew, but you weren’t trusted with the information.

Does anyone truly believe the “shocking” release of opinions about Silvio Berlusconi (“feckless, vain and ineffective”), Dmitry Medvedev (“plays Robin to Putin’s Batman”) or Nicolas Sarkozy (“thin-skinned and authoritarian”) will hurt national security?

Possibly, just possibly, our enemies will learn something from Wikileaks they didn’t know, and just possibly they will put that information to nefarious use, and possibly, just possibly it will cost an American life. Sure it’s possible. But compare that with the thousands and thousands and thousands of American lives that have been lost unnecessarily – lives that could have been saved had the American public known about the perfidy of our leaders, from Obama back to Roosevelt and beyond.

Who’s to blame? Partly the media, who compliantly passed along Bush’s lies about Iraq. (Even now, in his self-serving diary, he continues to lie about that awful war.) The media who passed along Johnson’s and Nixon’s lies about Vietnam are to blame. They who passed along Roosevelt’s lie that Austria was an innocent victim of Hitler, rather than being an enthusiastic ally – they are to blame. Again and again, the media pass along the lies, and today, like little puppets, they pass along the lie that Wikileaks has endangered American security.

Yes, the politicians not only want Wikileaks prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, but the media give the politicians the excuse to change the laws and make their secrets even more secure. This gives the cockroaches the opportunity to hide more from us, while making whistle blowing more dangerous. Given what is happening to Wikileaks, who would be brave enough to expose a presidential lie?

What’s even more frightening: So many in the media go along with this charade, thereby surrendering even more of their freedom of the press. How suicidal can the media get? I just read one columnist (Anne Applebaum), who parrots the official line that these leaks mean “frank discussion will soon be impossible” (for politicians). Puleeeze! Frank discussion? Does any politician ever engage in “frank discussion”? How about some “frank discussion” with the American public. That would be refreshing.

Oh, wait. Gen. Stanley McChrystal did have a frank discussion with the public. He was fired. I guess that firing was O.K. with Ms. Applebaum and her ilk, because the government did it, and after all, the government always is honest.

It’s time the American public begins to know the truth about our politicians and their decisions. Perhaps a few hundred thousand American lives can be saved. Rather than prosecuting Julian Assange, give him a medal. Yes, I know. His motives are not the highest. He’s not exactly pro-America. But he has done us all a favor. Now if only we are smart enough to take advantage of it by reducing, not increasing, the government’s power to hide the truth.

Bravo Wikileaks. I hope the cockroaches don’t get you.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com

No nation can tax itself into prosperity. Those who say the stimulus “didn’t work” remind me of the guy whose house is on fire. A neighbor runs with a garden hose and starts spraying, but the fire continues. The neighbor wants to call the fire department, which would bring the big hoses, but the guy says, “Don’t call. As you can see, water doesn’t put out fires.”