Air pollution kills 7 million people a year, worldwide. In the US, the figure is about 200,000. Most of us will die earlier from the toll it takes on our health.
Filthy air killed half a million people in Europe prematurely in 2014. So says a report on air quality from the European Environment Agency.
Reuters: Air pollution linked to asthma in children and teens
Nitrogen dioxide, mostly from vehicle exhausts, cut short an estimated 78,000 livesacross the same 41 countries.
“Heart disease and stroke are the most common reasons for premature death attributable to air pollution, and are responsible for 80 percent of cases,” the report says.
Air pollution also contributes to other respiratory diseases and cancer, and has non-lethal impacts on diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, pregnancy and brain development in children.
The UK saw many premature deaths from exposure to nitrogen dioxide: about 14,000. This was compounded by widespread use of diesel fuel in vehicles.
Summary: Air pollution sickens and kills, adults and children.
For automakers, it could create years of uncertainty over which standards their cars must meet.
From 9/1/17, new cars must pass stricter emissions tests before they can be driven on European roads.
“These were issues that were resolved 9 years ago, and it’s almost like picking at a scab that healed long ago and reopening it, only to cause the automakers a lot of bleeding,” said Simon Mui, a senior scientist and clean vehicles specialist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group.
The administration will propose stopping planned increases in fuel efficiency after 2020 and challenging California’s unique ability to set its own auto air pollution standards.
Thirteen other states and the District of Columbia also follow California’s emission standards.
Since 1970, California has had under the federal Clean Air Act the ability to set air pollution standards that are more stringent than the federal government’s. Although the state initially used that power to regulate smog-causing pollutants, it has become a key weapon in the state’s fight against climate change.
President Barack Obama took California’s standards nationwide. So California’s standards are now in sync with the federal government’s. Trump has made rolling back Obama’s environmental and climate programs a high priority.
An annual report issued this month by the California Air Resources Board found that California has already met its 2020 goal for cutting greenhouse gas emissions back to 1990 levels. State law now calls for slashing emissions another 40 percent by 2030.
“In California, transportation has been the only sector where emissions have been flat or even going up, so this is very important,” said Daniel Sperling, a member of the Air Resources Board and founding director of UC Davis’ Institute of Transportation Studies. “By simple math, if we don’t get the substantial reductions from vehicles, we’ll have to get them from industry or some other way.”
The administration’s actions could place automakers in a bind.
Shortly after President Trump’s election, an auto industry lobbying group sent him a letter asking for more flexibility in the fuel-mileage program. But the prospect of an across-the-board freeze — and another protracted fight between California and the federal government — appears to have unnerved the industry. Top executives of Ford, for example, spoke out this spring against a rollback.
And a long legal fight between the state and federal governments could make it difficult for the automakers to plan, since the process of designing, engineering and introducing a new car typically takes more than three years.
Summary: Trump wants to end anti-pollution effortsbecause they are an Obama initiative, supposedly they are a burden on automakers, and climate change isn’t happening.
But, the automakers don’t want Trump’s plan to end anti-pollution efforts.
Mr. Trump’s job approval rating rose to 45% in a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, the highest mark of his presidency and up 1 percentage point from June.
The survey was taken over a four-day period that started July 15, a day before Mr. Trump’s news conference with Mr. Putin in which he questioned the conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in the 2016 election.
Underpinning Mr. Trump’s job approval was support from 88% of Republican voters. Of the four previous White House occupants, only George W. Bush, in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, had a higher approval rating within his own party at the same point in his presidency.
Summary: Trump opposes efforts to cut the pollution that kills adults and children, and causes damaging climate change. Forty-five percent of Americans and 88% of Republicans, think he is doing a good job.
Mencken was right:
“No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”
H. L. Mencken
The single most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the have-mores and the have-less.
Wide Gaps negatively affect poverty, health and longevity, education, housing, law and crime, war, leadership, ownership, bigotry, supply and demand, taxation, GDP, international relations, scientific advancement, the environment, human motivation and well-being, and virtually every other issue in economics.
Implementation of The Ten Steps To Prosperity can narrow the Gaps:
Ten Steps To Prosperity: 1. ELIMINATE FICA (Ten Reasons to Eliminate FICA ) Although the article lists 10 reasons to eliminate FICA, there are two fundamental reasons: *FICA is the most regressive tax in American history, widening the Gap by punishing the low and middle-income groups, while leaving the rich untouched, and *The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, neither needs nor uses FICA to support Social Security and Medicare.
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 EVERYONE Five reasons why we should eliminate school loans
Monetarily non-sovereign State and local governments, despite their limited finances, support grades K-12. That level of education may have been sufficient for a largely agrarian economy, but not for our currently more technical economy that demands greater numbers of highly educated workers.
Because state and local funding is so limited, grades K-12 receive short shrift, especially those schools whose populations come from the lowest economic groups. And college is too costly for most families.
An educated populace benefits a nation, and benefitting the nation is the purpose of the federal government, which has the unlimited ability to pay for K-16 and beyond.
5. SALARY FOR ATTENDING SCHOOL 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 FEDERAL TAXES ON BUSINESS
Businesses are dollar-transferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the federal government (the later having no use for those dollars). Any tax on businesses reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all business taxes reduce 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 business 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.
What is the greatest threat to America? The question revolves around the word, “greatest.”
A giant meteor or a supervolcano both are possible, and because either could completely obliterate America, the threat can be considered “great,” though unlikely.
A nuclear war with Russia, China, or even North Korea or Iran, could damage America severely, though it is unlikely that any national leader, even Donald Trump, is insane enough to begin one. particularly because the leader would die.
A new disease, or even an old one that has morphed into new virulence, could cause great damage, but America would survive.
I believe the greatest threat to America is staring us in the face. It will not come from without, but within. We will do it to ourselves.
Here are some excerpts from recent articles:
Trump looks to punish critics
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is considering revoking the security clearances of at least half a dozen well-known former national security officials, his spokeswoman said on Monday, in an apparent expression of his desire to punish increasingly vocal critics from past administrations.
Trump tweeted that Iran would suffer untold consequences if it continued to threaten the U.S., said in all caps: “WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!”
Trump, top aides raise heat on Iran
Verbal attacks attempt to distract from Russia
Critics immediately branded the threats as Trump’s attempt to divert attention from his troubled dealings with Russia, which has only grown since last week’s Helsinki summit with President Vladimir Putin and amid attention to the upcoming trial of his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.
The Trump administration will seek to revoke California’s authority to regulate automobile greenhouse gas emissions in a proposed revision of Obama-era standards.
The proposal amounts to a frontal assault on regulatory programs to curb greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.
Facts don’t wrest FBI grievances from Trump He routinely assails “Crooked Hillary” Clinton, blasts NFL players for kneeling, and complains about other countries taking advantage of the United States even when facts argue otherwise.
The FBI’s surveillance of former campaign adviser Carter Page gives the president a tool to contend he’s been persecuted by the ongoing Russia investigation. Yet, new documents released by his administration over the weekend still don’t bear out Trump’s assertions about illegal spying.
Republican electoral victories are increasingly dependent on gaming the system, and especially its multitude of counter-majoritarian veto points, to bring about outcomes that would be unachievable using democratic means. In the House, Republicans won a majority of the seats despite winning 1.5 million fewer votes than the Democrats
The result is the transformation of the Republican Party into a blatantly anti-democratic force.
Congress Must Tell Trump The White House Cannot Be Bought
Where other presidents put their business interests into blind trusts, Trump has turned a blind eye. California Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell introduced a bill Monday that seeks to make it a criminal offense for President Donald Trump toaccept “anything of value from a foreign power.”
Prosecutors have 12 audio recordings seized from Trump lawyer Michael Cohen
Federal prosecutors have 12 audio recordings seized from the home, office, and hotel room of President Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen
463 migrant parents may have been deported without their kids
The Trump administration said that 463 parents of migrant children are no longer in the U.S., even though their children are. More undocumented migrant parents might have been deported without their children than the government previously acknowledged.
A federal judge granted former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort a delay. Manafort’s trial is the first in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference as Trump faces scrutiny of his cozy relationship with Vladimir Putin.
President Donald Trump wants to fight a suit by adult film star Stormy Daniels in Los Angeles rather than in New York. Daniels sued Trump in April claiming the president defamed her when he said on Twitter that her claim of having been threatened in 2011 by a man in Las Vegas was a “total con job.”
John Brennan, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, tweeted as follows:
“Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of ‘high crimes & misdemeanors.’ It was nothing short of treasonous.”
Trump believes he has the right to pardon himself
Trump declared that he has “the absolute right” to pardon himself. Trump continued: “But why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong?” So is the president threatening to put himself beyond the reach of the law?
Trump appeared to acknowledge Russia’s efforts to interfere in U.S. elections — but claimed against evidence that Moscow would be “pushing very hard for the Democrats” in the midterms this fall. Therefore establishing a foundation for declaring that any future election favoring Democrats is illegal.
These excerpts, which easily could be supplemented by hundreds in a similar vein, describe a combative President under great pressure, who will break any law, ignore any custom, and reject any convention to battle those who dare to demean him or to threaten his power and his money.
With that in mind, consider this probable scenario:
Trump refuses to testify before Special Counsel Robert Mueller
Mueller obtains a grand jury subpoena to force Trump to talk.
Trump refuses to obey the subpoena.
The case goes to the Supreme Court.
Here we confront two outcomes:
The Supreme Court agrees with Trump’s position that he is above the law. In this case, Trump essentially becomes the King of America, who cannot be punished or even prosecuted for any crime. Thus America instantly changes from a democracy to a monarchy and/or a dictatorship.
Or the Supreme Court does as previous Supreme Courts have done to Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, and rules that Trump must submit to an interview with Mueller.
But if, despite the Supreme Court ruling, Trump still refuses. Now what?
Trump, as the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. military, has absolute power. He cannot be forced to do anything. In either scenario, America as we know it, ceases to exist.
Sadly, not only has Trump proved himself to be uncaring about law or precedent, but his followers like this about him. They see his lawbreaking and bullying as a sign of strength. His hatred for minorities matches theirs.
A substantial portion of our population approves of Trump’s disregard for people, for morals, and for the law. So they would support whatever he does.
Given that civilian support, plus his power over the military, Trump predictably would refuse to cooperate with anything that restricts him.
So the potential bottom line is: We would have an aggressive President, who thinks laws don’t apply to him, and who commands our military and has significant public backing and backing from a compliant GOP.
Further, Trump might not even accept the results of an election.
Given all that, who could guarantee that Trump would obey even a Supreme Court decision?
The likelihood is we would have a dictator, and America will have become his dictatorship.
And that is how easy it would be for the U.S. to slip back into third-world status. We already are teetering on the edge.
The single most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the have-mores and the have-less.
Wide Gaps negatively affect poverty, health and longevity, education, housing, law and crime, war, leadership, ownership, bigotry, supply and demand, taxation, GDP, international relations, scientific advancement, the environment, human motivation and well-being, and virtually every other issue in economics.
Implementation of The Ten Steps To Prosperity can narrow the Gaps:
Ten Steps To Prosperity: 1. ELIMINATE FICA (Ten Reasons to Eliminate FICA ) Although the article lists 10 reasons to eliminate FICA, there are two fundamental reasons: *FICA is the most regressive tax in American history, widening the Gap by punishing the low and middle-income groups, while leaving the rich untouched, and *The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, neither needs nor uses FICA to support Social Security and Medicare.
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 EVERYONE Five reasons why we should eliminate school loans
Monetarily non-sovereign State and local governments, despite their limited finances, support grades K-12. That level of education may have been sufficient for a largely agrarian economy, but not for our currently more technical economy that demands greater numbers of highly educated workers.
Because state and local funding is so limited, grades K-12 receive short shrift, especially those schools whose populations come from the lowest economic groups. And college is too costly for most families.
An educated populace benefits a nation, and benefitting the nation is the purpose of the federal government, which has the unlimited ability to pay for K-16 and beyond.
5. SALARY FOR ATTENDING SCHOOL 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 FEDERAL TAXES ON BUSINESS
Businesses are dollar-transferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the federal government (the later having no use for those dollars). Any tax on businesses reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all business taxes reduce 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 business 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.
CYCLE: an interval of time during which a sequence of a recurring succession of events or phenomena is completed. (Merriam-Webster)
BUSINESS CYCLE: a cycle of economic activity usually consisting of recession, recovery, growth, and decline (Merriam-Webster)
The words “cycle” and “business cycle” have the appearance of inevitability about them.
We are led to believe a recession must automatically be followed by a recovery, which must lead to growth, and then the whole thing must crash down into decline and recession.
That is the cycle, and there’s nothing we can do to prevent it. All we can do is prepare for it.
Or so the theory goes:
By: John Detrixhe (John covers the future of finance for Quartz. He previously wrote about markets and trading for Bloomberg News in New York and London.)
Despite bumper earnings, bank shares have lagged the overall market this year. The likely reason is that investors think the US, and perhaps the global economy, is getting closer to its next downturn.
That’s the common belief. Because there is a business “cycle,” growth must lead us closer to a downturn. It’s as though, in baseball, winning brings the team closer to losing. Or happiness leads you closer to sadness.
There never is a specific reason given. The notion is, the business “cycle” itself demands that success brings us closer to failure.
It has been nine years since the last recession, almost double the average for the US economic cycle.
The bull market in US stocks is also nine years old, the second-longest run on record.
Unemployment is near historic lows following an unprecedented stretch of job gains.
One would think the good news would lead to more good news. After all, doesn’t low unemployment, together with more job growth, indicate a healthy economy?
Why should healthiness cause future sickness?
There’s an escalating trade war between the US and the rest of the world, or the fact the Federal Reserve is raising rates while other central banks keep them at historic lows.
The trade war has nothing to do with any sort of business “cycle.” It’s the arbitrary work of a fool, who believes cutting off your nose to spites China’s face.
And raising interest rates is merely an inflation preventative. Contrary to popular myth, raising interest rates does not bring on recessions.
Interest rate changes. Vertical bars are recessions
As you can see, lowering interest rates is associated with recessions, partly because reduced rates require the federal government to pump less T-security, interest money into the economy.
In a recent conference call with JPMorgan, a banking analyst said she’s getting a lot of pushback from investors because “we’re long in the tooth in the economic cycle.”
The bank’s CFO, Marianne Lake, countered that there are no signs of fragility so far, but noted that the biggest US bank by assets is preparing for the inevitable slowdown.
Indeed, finance execs have recently been citing the “credit cycle” more than at any time since the last downturn, according to a Sentieo analysis of earnings calls.
Remarkable, isn’t it. There are “no signs of fragility,” but the biggest bank is preparing, not for growth, but rather for a slowdown.
What do businesses do to “prepare for a slowdown.” They cut spending. They reduce “unnecessary” expenses like Research & Development, Advertising and Marketing. They defer expansion plans. They stop investing in plant and equipment. They cut employees. They become less aggressive and instead, retreat into a protective shell.
And those are the very actions that help bring on recessions. A recession becomes “inevitable,” because it is a self-fulfilling prophesy.
In addition to the abovementioned self-fulfilling prophesy, a prime inflation cause — perhaps the prime inflation cause — is a reduction in federal deficit spending.
Changes in federal deficit spending. Vertical bars are recessions.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) = Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports.
Spending cuts reduce GDP.
If the private sector and the government believe that business growth, federal deficit spending, and raising interest rates all make a recession inevitable, they will cut spending and reduce rates.
And that indeed, will make a recession inevitable.
We often have claimed that economics comes closer to being a religion than a science. And the belief in business “cycles” — that success inevitably causes failure — is a perfect example.
According to the USC Digital Folklore Archives: “Kenahora” is a curse in Yinglish (bastardized english/yiddish) that comes from three words slurred together: the Yiddish word kein, meaning “no,” ayin, which is Hebrew for “eye,” and hara, Hebrew for “evil.”
“My mother would always say ‘don’t give a ‘kenahora’ to mean ‘don’t give us bad luck.’
“If you are driving cross country let’s say, and making great time – but stupidly decide to comment ‘Oh boy we are making great time’ – BANG – you will instantly hit traffic – bumper to bumper. It always happens!
“My mother also used to spit after saying ‘Kenahora, pu-pu-pu!’ It implied spitting on the demon to stop it.”
If phony business “cycles” concern you, especially those so-called, “inevitable” recessions, perhaps saying “Kenahora,” then spitting three times will help.
The single most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the have-mores and the have-less.
Wide Gaps negatively affect poverty, health and longevity, education, housing, law and crime, war, leadership, ownership, bigotry, supply and demand, taxation, GDP, international relations, scientific advancement, the environment, human motivation and well-being, and virtually every other issue in economics.
Implementation of The Ten Steps To Prosperity can narrow the Gaps:
Ten Steps To Prosperity: 1. ELIMINATE FICA (Ten Reasons to Eliminate FICA ) Although the article lists 10 reasons to eliminate FICA, there are two fundamental reasons: *FICA is the most regressive tax in American history, widening the Gap by punishing the low and middle-income groups, while leaving the rich untouched, and *The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, neither needs nor uses FICA to support Social Security and Medicare.
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 EVERYONE Five reasons why we should eliminate school loans
Monetarily non-sovereign State and local governments, despite their limited finances, support grades K-12. That level of education may have been sufficient for a largely agrarian economy, but not for our currently more technical economy that demands greater numbers of highly educated workers.
Because state and local funding is so limited, grades K-12 receive short shrift, especially those schools whose populations come from the lowest economic groups. And college is too costly for most families.
An educated populace benefits a nation, and benefitting the nation is the purpose of the federal government, which has the unlimited ability to pay for K-16 and beyond.
5. SALARY FOR ATTENDING SCHOOL 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 FEDERAL TAXES ON BUSINESS
Businesses are dollar-transferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the federal government (the later having no use for those dollars). Any tax on businesses reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all business taxes reduce 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 business 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.
We often have discussed the difference between ignorance and stupidity. We all are ignorant about the vast majority of facts in the universe. Being intentionally ignorant, however, is stupidity.
It is a “war” in which your government shoots at the enemy and also shoots at you, and the enemy’s government does likewise.
With both government’s shooting at both sides, how does one win such a war? One doesn’t. A trade war not only is ignorant, but it is intentionally ignorant, i.e. stupid, which partly explains why Donald Trump has caused it.
But the stupidity is not his alone. Many in the media share it. Consider this article in today’s Chicago Tribune:
Reciprocity is the method to Trump’s madness
Victor Davis Hanson
By Victor Davis Hanson, a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, authorvdh@gmail.com
Critics of Donald Trump claim there is no rhyme or reason to his foreign policy. But if there is a consistency, it might be called reciprocity.
Trump tries to force other countries to treat the U.S. as it treats them. In “don’t tread on me” style, he also warns enemies that any aggressive act will be replied to in kind.
The underlying principle of Trump commercial reciprocity is that the United States is no longer powerful or wealthy enough to alone underwrite the security of the West.
It can no longer assume sole enforcement of the rules and protocols of the postwar global order.
Several bits of ignorance all packed into four short sentences:
First, the “aggressive acts” are those perpetrated by Trump. It was Trump who started the trade wars and it is Trump who has directed criticisms and threats toward NATO and specifically, toward Germany and England.
Second, the United States, unlike the euro nations, is Monetarily Sovereign. It has the infinite ability to create its sovereign currency, the U.S. dollar, to underwrite our military.
As such, it is infinitely wealthy. The euro nations are not.
In fact, the more dollars the U.S. government pumps into our military, the wealthier our nation becomes. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is based on federal spending. The more the federal government spends, the higher goes GDP.
Third, the U.S. does not, and never has, assumed “the sole enforcement of whatever the term, “rules and protocols of the of the postwar global order” is supposed to signify.
And if we did, wouldn’t that be exactly what we want? Think about it. Would we really want someone else to “enforce the rules . . . etc.”?
This year there have been none of the usual Iranian provocations — frequent during the Obama administration — of harassing American ships in the Persian Gulf.
Apparently, the Iranians now realize that anything they do to an American ship will be replied to with overwhelming force.
Is this something that Trump supposedly has accomplished?
Aside from loudmouth bluster about “fire and fury against the North Koreans (whom Trump now loves and admires), we see no evidence of his “overwhelming force.”
Trump’s main effort against Iran has been to free them to continue making nuclear weapons. Are we supposed to believe that Trump’s ending of the Iranian deal has now frightened Iran so much, they will become placid?
Utter Trumpian idiocy.
Ditto North Korea. After lots of threats from Kim Jong Un about using his ballistic missiles against the United States, Trump warned that he would use America’s far greater arsenal to eliminate North Korea’s arsenal for good.
Ooooh, that “overwhelming force” of Cadet Bonespurs. Another Trump failure which he will claim was a smashing success. And which his followers will believe.
More important, most NATO countries have failed to keep their promises to spend 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense.
What the American public doesn’t understand it that it does us absolutely no good for NATO nations to spend 2% or even 10% on defense. Two reasons:
First, the U.S. likely would not spend a penny less on defense, no matter how much NATO nations spend.
Second, spending by the Monetarily Sovereign U.S. government costs American taxpayers nothing, and it stimulates economic growth.
There is not a single economic reason why America needs Europe to spend more on defense.
Why does Germany by design run up a $65 billion annual trade surplus with the United States?
Why does such a wealthy country spend only 1.2 percent of its GDP on defense?
And if Germany has entered into energy agreements with a supposedly dangerous Vladimir Putin, why does it still need to have its security subsidized by the American military?
Well, he asked three questions, so I’ll give three answers:
One — Trade Deficit: Germany runs a trade surplus (i.e. a goods and services deficit), with the U.S. because more of our consumers wish to purchase German goods than German consumers wishing to purchase U.S. goods.
Further, as we frequently have noted, America, being Monetarily Sovereign, benefits from our trade deficit. We receive valuable and scarce assets, goods and services, in exchange for U.S. dollars, which the U.S. can create endlessly and at no cost.
Alan Greenspan: “A government cannot become insolvent with respect to obligations in its own currency.”
Ben Bernanke: “The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost.”
St. Louis Federal Reserve: “As the sole manufacturer of dollars, whose debt is denominated in dollars, the U.S. government can never become insolvent, i.e., unable to pay its bills.”
Thomas Edison: If the Nation can issue a dollar bond it can issue a dollar bill. The element that makes the bond good makes the bill good also. . . . It is absurd to say our Country can issue bonds and cannot issue currency.
Those wishing for the U.S. to run a trade surplus do not understand economic reality.
Further, Germany is monetarily non-sovereign. Unlike the U.S. it does not have the unlimited ability to create its sovereign currency, simply because it has no sovereign currency.
Germany is similar to the U.S. cities, counties, and states in that it uses a currency over which it has no control.
So, to survive long-term, Germany requires the income that a trade deficit provides. By contrast, the U.S. needs no income. It creates U.S. dollars ad hoc, by spending dollars. The U.S. government never can run short of U.S. dollars. Never.
Two — Defense: Our spending for Germany’s defense benefits us. It allows us to surround Russia with troops and weapons, and gives us better military access to Africa.
Three — Subsidized security This question is completely nonsensical. Having an energy agreement with “supposedly dangerous” (supposedly??) Russia, has nothing to do with the need for security.
Trump approaches the North American Free Trade Agreement in the same reductionist way. The 24-year-old treaty was supposed to stabilize, if not equalize, all trade, immigration and commerce between the three supposed North American allies.
There is no need to equalize trade, immigration and commerce among the three Monetarily Sovereign nations.
It never quite happened that way.
Unequal tariffs remained. Both Canada and Mexico have substantial trade surpluses with the U.S. In Mexico’s case, it enjoys a $71 billion surplus, the largest of U.S. trading partners with the exception of China.
Canada never honored its NATO security commitment. It spends only 1 percent of its GDP on defense, rightly assuming that the U.S. will continue to underwrite its security.
Not one of the above is bad for America. It is all Trump’s excuse for creating conflict. All dictators want conflict, because that cements their power.
During the lifetime of NAFTA, Mexico has encouraged millions of its citizens to enter the U.S. illegally. Mexico’s selfish immigration policy is designed to avoid internal reform, to earn some $30 billion in annual expatriate remittances, and to influence U.S. politics.
The above must have beoen written by Trump, for it has no basis in fact. There is zero evidence that Mexico is encouraging its people to leave.
This reminds us of Trump’s infamous “They’re not sending their best. They’re rapists . . .”
The immigrants are coming to make a better life for themselves and their children, just as all American’s ancestors did — just as your parents and grandparents did.
Mexico is not sending anyone. This is all a Trump fever-dream being disseminated by Hanson.
Yet after more than two decades of NAFTA, Mexico is more unstable than ever. Drug cartels run entire states. Murders are at a record high. Entire towns in southern Mexico have been denuded of their young males, who crossed the U.S. border illegally.
How does that prove Hanson’s assertion that Mexico is exporting too much to the U.S. and “sending” us criminals? Again, it sounds like a rambling Trump “attack-everyone-and-every-thing” speech.
But in 2016, red-state America rebelled at the asymmetry. The other half of the country demonized the red-staters as protectionists, nativists, isolationists, populists and nationalists.
But Trump followers are exactly that: Protectionists, nativists, isolationists, populists and nationalists — and way too many are bigots.
However, if China, Europe and other U.S. trading partners had simply followed global trading rules, there would have been no Trump pushback — and probably no Trump presidency at all.
Trump’s election had nothing to do with trading rules. It had more to do with the electoral college and gerrymandering, plus a very weak Democratic nominee, that allowed a minority to win over a majority.
Had NATO members and NAFTA partners just kept their commitments, and had Mexico not encouraged millions of its citizens to crash the U.S. border, there would now be little tension between allies.
“Crash” the border? Did you grandparents “crash” the border. More phony language from a Trump devotee.
Again, a rich and powerful U.S. was supposed to subsidize world trade, take in more immigrants than all the nations of the world combined, protect the West, and ensure safe global communications, travel and commerce.
After 70 years, the effort had hollowed out the interior of America, creating two separate nations of coastal winners and heartland losers.
Ah yes, the divide and conquer idea. The people on the coasts (i.e. the blue New Yorkers and Californians) supposedly are rich, while the people in the middle (except for the blue Illinoisans) are impoverished — a favorite Trump theme.
And all of this is the fault of the trade deficit.
Trump’s entire foreign policy can be summed up as a demand for symmetry from all partners and allies, and tit-for-tat replies to would-be enemies.
No, Trump’s entire foreign policy can be summed up as: Buddy-up to dictators, and make war with allies.
Did Trump have to be so loud and often crude in his effort to bully America back to reciprocity?
Who knows?
But it seems impossible to imagine that globalist John McCain, internationalist Barack Obama or gentlemanly Mitt Romney would ever have called Europe, NATO, Mexico, and Canada to account, or warned Iran or North Korea that tit would be met by tat.
“Globalist”? “Internationalist”? “Gentlemanly”? Even Trump’s silly name-calling has seeped into Hanson’s language.
What do these terms signify with regard to trade deficits? Hanson has nao idea. But calling names is mandatory for a Trump follower.
Email him, and ask him why he writes such nonsense. His Email is at the top of his comments.
(By the way, I looked for a photo of Hanson here, and this is what I found):
The single most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the have-mores and the have-less.
Wide Gaps negatively affect poverty, health and longevity, education, housing, law and crime, war, leadership, ownership, bigotry, supply and demand, taxation, GDP, international relations, scientific advancement, the environment, human motivation and well-being, and virtually every other issue in economics.
Implementation of The Ten Steps To Prosperity can narrow the Gaps:
Ten Steps To Prosperity: 1. ELIMINATE FICA (Ten Reasons to Eliminate FICA ) Although the article lists 10 reasons to eliminate FICA, there are two fundamental reasons: *FICA is the most regressive tax in American history, widening the Gap by punishing the low and middle-income groups, while leaving the rich untouched, and *The federal government, being Monetarily Sovereign, neither needs nor uses FICA to support Social Security and Medicare.
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 EVERYONE Five reasons why we should eliminate school loans
Monetarily non-sovereign State and local governments, despite their limited finances, support grades K-12. That level of education may have been sufficient for a largely agrarian economy, but not for our currently more technical economy that demands greater numbers of highly educated workers.
Because state and local funding is so limited, grades K-12 receive short shrift, especially those schools whose populations come from the lowest economic groups. And college is too costly for most families.
An educated populace benefits a nation, and benefitting the nation is the purpose of the federal government, which has the unlimited ability to pay for K-16 and beyond.
5. SALARY FOR ATTENDING SCHOOL 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 FEDERAL TAXES ON BUSINESS
Businesses are dollar-transferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the federal government (the later having no use for those dollars). Any tax on businesses reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all business taxes reduce 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 business 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.
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#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 