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.
●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.
●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.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap.
==================================================================================================================================================================

The previous post is titled, “How austerity makes you die too young.”

But austerity does much more then bring on an early death. It also makes you miserable while you’re alive:

California eyes drought rules to curb “galling” waste of water at restaurants

Officials are considering new water restrictions as California’s drought drags on, possibly forcing residents to ask for water at restaurants and for fresh towels and sheets at hotels.

The board last summer imposed emergency regulations prohibiting Californians from washing their cars with hoses that don’t shut off and limiting how often they can water their lawns.

“I find it galling when whole sets of water glasses end up on a (restaurant) table, even in Sacramento,” said Felicia Marcus, chairwoman of the board.

The board has the sweeping power to define when water use is unreasonable, and it could eventually expand the definition to include using drinking water to maintain golf courses and cemeteries. Marcus said the board would likely take smaller steps first, such as prohibiting decorative outdoor water fountains.

Some proposals presented Tuesday targeted businesses, such as telling hotels not to automatically provide guests with fresh towels and sheets every day. A recent analysis from NASA satellite data concluded that the state would need 11 trillion gallons of water to recover from its three-year dry spell.

That’s how bad it has become. Water you leave in restaurant glasses is “galling.” Brown the golf courses and cemeteries, and no more decorative water fountains (most of which probably recycle water, but when things get nutty, the nuts rule).

But let’s get this straight: THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF WATER. The oceans are filled with water. There is a shortage of potable water.

Israel’s desalination program averts future water crises
Through desalination, Israel has created the possibility of transforming the region in ways that were unthinkable just a few years ago.

Situated in the heart of the Middle East, Israel is in one of the driest regions on earth, traditionally relying on a short, rainy season each winter to replenish its limited supplies. But rainfall only covers about half of Israel’s water needs, and this past winter, that amount was far less.

(But,) after experiencing its driest winter on record, Israel is responding as never before — by doing nothing.

Thanks in large part to an aggressive desalination program this perennially parched land (has been transformed) into perhaps the most well-hydrated country in the region.

“We have all the water we need, even in the year which was the worst year ever regarding precipitation,” said Avraham Tenne, head of the desalination division of Israel’s Water Authority.

Since 2005, Israel has opened four desalination plants, with a fifth set to go online later this year. Roughly 35 percent of Israel’s drinking-quality water now comes from desalination. That number is expected to exceed 40 percent by next year and hit 70 percent in 2050.

The Sorek desalination plant, located roughly 15 kilometers (10 miles) south of Tel Aviv, provides a glimpse of that future.

Avshalom Felber, chief executive of IDE Technologies, the Sorek desalination plant’s operator, said Sorek is the “largest and most advanced” of its kind in the world, producing 624,000 cubic meters of potable water each day.

He said the production cost is among the world’s lowest, meaning it could provide a typical family’s water needs for about $300 to $500 a year.

Israel has already taken some small steps in that direction. Last year, it signed an agreement to construct a shared desalination plant in Jordan and sell additional water to the Palestinians.

Little Israel, surrounded by desert and enemies, can afford to desalinate enough water for its citizens, and even sell water to the people who have sworn to destroy it.

Big America, built with oceans on both sides, many huge rivers and with lots of local rainfall, cannot afford to quench our thirst.

Why? Simple. According to Republican leader John Boenher, “We’re broke.” And according to Democrat President Barach Obama, “We have to live within our means.”

Both statements are examples of the Big Lie. We are not broke, never can be broke and never will be broke.

Also, being Monetarily Sovereign, we have no “means” to live within. The federal government creates unlimited dollars ad hoc, by the act of paying bills.

Contrary to what the media and the politicians tell you, federal financing is nothing like private financing.

But wait! Help is on the way:

Israeli company building America’s largest desalination plant in California
Israel is a technological leader in the field and a model that points the way for drought-stricken California.

An Israeli company is involved in building what is expected to be the largest seawater desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere, the Orange County Register reports.

“This is the one supply that San Diego County is investing in that is truly drought-proof,” said Poseidon senior VP Peter MacLaggan.

Not everyone is happy with the project, due primarily to the high energy consumption and environmental impact of desalination. Katalyn Voss, a water policy fellow at the University of California Center for Hydrologic Modeling in Irvine, says that desalination should be considered in California only after other measures are exhausted.

Let’s put these three articles together:
1. California is so low on water, that emergency water-saving regulations are in place and more will be implemented.
2. Little desert-nation Israel produces all the water it needs, and even sells water to its enemies.
3. A professor at the U of California says desalination should be considered only after other measures are exhausted.
4. The U.S. is “broke,” so monetarily NON-sovereign San Diego County will have to buy a plant from Israel.

Apparently, potable water is not important enough for the U.S. to produce it. Remember: The U.S. could pay for all the desalination plants it needs, at the press of a computer key.

But the rich want the rest of us to suffer a million little and not-so-little hardships, so as to widen the Gap between them and us. They pay the politicians, the media and the mainstream economists to tell the public that federal dollars are limited.

As farmers’ crops desiccate and grandma’s cemetery plot browns, think of the lies you have been told and the lies you believe.

Thirsty?

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

[Latest news: April 12, 2015: For Drinking Water in Drought, California Looks Warily to Sea]

===================================================================================
The 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. Federally funded, 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. (Refer to this.)
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)

Initiating The Ten Steps sequentially 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

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

.

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.
●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.
●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.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap.
==================================================================================================================================================================

Readers of this blog know:

1. A Monetarily Sovereign government (U.S., UK, Australia, Canada, et al) has the unlimited ability to create its own sovereign currency. The U.S., for instance, never can run short of dollars, and can pay any debt denominated in dollars.

2. A Monetarily Sovereign government never needs to ask anyone for its own sovereign currency — not foreign nations, not its own citizens. Thus, neither taxing nor borrowing funds national spending.

3. For a Monetarily Sovereign government, deficit and debt reduction not only are financially unnecessary, but are harmful, especially to the lower income/wealth/power groups. Austerity widens the Gap between the rich 1% and the 99%, by relatively impoverishing the 99%.

4. It is the Gap that makes the rich rich. Without the Gap, no one would be rich, and the wider the Gap the richer they are. So the rich pay the politicians, the media and the economists to promote Gap-widening activities, the primary of which is austerity.

The monetary effects of Gap-widening are just part of the problem, as explained in this NewScientist Magazine article.

Social failure, not lifestyle, has made Scots sick
26 January 2015 by Harry Burns

Last year, just before the Commonwealth Games, figures came out showing that the host city, Glasgow, has the lowest average life expectancy of any UK city. A boy born there between 2010 and 2012 can expect to live just 72.6 years, against a national average of nearly 79.

The popular belief is that this is because of diet, smoking and drinking.

In fact, most preconceived notions about the bad health of Scots are wrong. Research into its real causes has implications for health policy internationally.

The slowing of the rise in Scotland’s life expectancy has been most marked in the poorest 20 per cent of the population, mainly because of increases in deaths due to drugs, violence, alcohol and suicide.

From 1950 to 1970, Scotland had one of the lowest rates of death from alcoholic liver disease, for example. By 2005, it had the highest.

Put simply, widening health inequality in Glasgow is due to the recent emergence of socially determined causes of early death.

Many studies have shown that the lower down a social hierarchy an individual is, the higher the levels of stress hormones in their blood.

Early childhood experiences can produce lifelong abnormalities in the stress response. Stress is associated with abnormal patterns of brain development in key areas, including the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and amygdala. These are important for learning, decision-making, memory, stress regulation and emotional arousal.

So young humans, who grow up in dangerous, chaotic environments are likely to be less able to suppress inappropriate behaviour, less able to learn and more likely to be anxious and aggressive.

It may be that what we are seeing in Scotland is the consequence of austerity in the 1970s and 80s, when social change and joblessness led to a breakdown in family life and a cycle of alienation.

Young people with no meaning and purpose tend to sit at home, watch TV, drink and have a couple of kids – and the cycle continues.

Thus, by encouraging austerity, and brainwashing the populace into believing austerity is necessary, the 1% actively promote the very attributes they despise most: Lawlessness, immorality and low intelligence.

The 1%, wishing to distance themselves from the 99%, create conditions that justify widening the gap.

And part of this justification process is the teaching of the 99% that federal financing is like personal financing, and austerity is necessary and good.

The education has worked well, for in the 99%, very few understand what is being done to them. They, in fact, will fight angrily and insultingly to defend the myth that federal taxes fund federal spending — the very myth that dooms them to shorter, less fulfilling lives.

If you are among the 99%, your life will, on average be shorter, less enjoyable and less productive than it could be, were the Gap narrower.

Not only are your income, wealth and social power diminished, but your very brain is adversely affected.

Sadly, this is the relatively short, relatively brutish life the 99% have demanded to give to their children.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
The 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. Federally funded, 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. (Refer to this.)
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)

Initiating The Ten Steps sequentially 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

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

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.
●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.
●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.
●To survive long term, a monetarily non-sovereign government must have a positive balance of payments.
●Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap.
==================================================================================================================================================================

We just read this article:

European Ministers Go to the Brink to Avoid Greek Bankruptcy and Euro Exit
Geoffrey Smith/Fortune Feb. 16, 2015

Finance ministers from around the Eurozone are meeting in Brussels Monday for what will be the third session of fraught talks in less than a week on how to talk Greece’s new government off the window ledge and persuade it to carry on servicing its crushing debt burden with a deal that would keep it from defaulting and leaving the currency union.

Let’s parse this overly long sentence:

” . . . talk Greece’s new government off the window ledge . . . “

That sounds like Greece is about to commit suicide. But is it?

The so-called window ledge is: Leave the euro and re-adopt your own sovereign currency, the drachma. That would make Greece Monetarily Sovereign — able to pay any debt denominated in drachmas.

No more would Greece need to impose destructive austerity on its helpless citizens. Greece would have the unlimited power to control its money supply, and spend to grow its economy.

Does that sound like Greece is standing on a “window ledge”?

” . . . carry on servicing its crushing debt burden . . . “

Yes, Greece, they want you to carry on servicing the debt that is crushing your citizens, so you can preserve the euro. Why? Because the German bankers don’t want to lose money. To hell with Greece’s citizens.

” . . . keep it from defaulting and leaving the currency union.”

Keep Greece from defaulting, because if a sovereign nation defaults and re-adopts its own currency, no one will sell them goods and services. NOT!

The exact opposite is true. Once Greece defaults, and begins to use its own sovereign currency, suppliers will flock to it. Why? Because they know Greece will have no problem paying its bills in the future.

The article continues:

Negotiators have been at work over the weekend trying to find some kind of face-saving formula that will allow all sides to claim a victory.

That’s what’s important? A face saving formula? Does that exceed in importance the lives of the Greek citizens? To the EU, apparently so.

Greece’s bailout program is due to expire at the end of the month. From that moment, it will lose access to the final €7.2 billion earmarked for it that haven’t been paid out yet because the previous government failed to meet all of the conditions for disbursement.

It goes like this: “We will lend you the final €7.2 billion so long as you use all of it to repay us what you already owe us. Don’t you dare give any money to the Greek people. In fact, you’ll have to take more from them.

“And after all is said and done, you still will owe us big money. See it never will end. It never is supposed to end. That’s how we keep you on a permanent leash.“

Greece’s Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis repeated Monday, that Greece is essentially bankrupt and that there is no point in asking for more loans to cover that up.

“The ‘extend and pretend’ game . . . will end,” he wrote. “No more loans — not until we have a credible plan for growing the economy in order to repay those loans, help the middle class get back on its feet and address the hideous humanitarian crisis.”

Varoufakis uses the sole voice of common sense in the entire EU, with one exception: When he says, ” . . . in order to repay those loans . . . “ he still assumes Greece needs the euro.

But, Greece does not need the euro. Never did.

If anything, the euro needs Greece, because once other euro nations see how well Greece does when it is freed from the heavy yoke of the Troika, there will be a mad dash for the door.

And that is what frightens the EU.

The weakness of Greece’s negotiating position is becoming increasingly clear.

That is what the EU wants Greece to think. A number of articles have run with this headline:

The ball is in Greece’s court
GREG MCKENNA

That is the clear message after talks broke up overnight earlier than expected and with no agreement.

Jereon Dijsselboem, chair of the Eurozone Finance Ministers Committee, told a news conference after the meeting: “There was a very strong opinion across the eurogroup that the next step has to come from the Greek authorities.”

That is true. The ball is in Greece’s court. In fact, Greece owns the ball, and if Greece is smart, it will take its ball and go home.

GAME OVER!

And that is what scares the hell out of the useless European bankers, who have been living on the backs of the impoverished populace.

Go Greece. Take your ball and go home to the drachma. And Godspeed.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

===================================================================================
The 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. Federally funded, 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. (Refer to this.)
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)

Initiating The Ten Steps sequentially 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

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