Our Congresspeople, corporate CEOs, tea partiers, most economists, Pete Peterson’s minions, and even our President, tell us that we’re running out of money; and that we can’t keep running huge deficits, and increasing our national debt forever, because eventually, our creditors will just cease lending us our dollars back.
They also tell us that the Government can only raise money by either taxing or borrowing, and that when it comes to taxing, we can’t tax “the job creators” very much or they’ll go on strike and won’t create any jobs because we’ll have killed their incentive. So, here we are, we have to reduce our borrowing, and we can have hardly any tax increases on “the job creators,” so what’s a fiscally responsible nation to do?
Well, they say, clearly “we” have to lower taxes on “the job creators” even more, raise them on the “unproductive” 47% or is it the 99%? And also, cut spending substantially on programs that provide benefits for the poor, the middle class, and even the 99%, so we can “. . . live within our means,” and remove the burden of excessive public debt on our grandchildren.
But, what if we say to these people, well, “the job creators” aren’t making any jobs? That’s a fact! They give all kinds of excuses, but the truth is that they have no sales, so they have no incentive to create any more jobs.
On the other hand, the more we lower their taxes, the more money they have sitting idle, and the more they have an incentive to use that money to invest in financial manipulation schemes rather than jobs. So, why not tax them at extremely high rates on net profits and provide them an incentive to lower their net profits by spending more of their gross profits on tax-deductible business expenses like employees and business expansion? Why won’t high taxes on them do more to create jobs than lower taxes? Didn’t we have far lower unemployment rates when marginal tax rates were sky-high, than we have now when they are a pittance on the wealthy?
And what if we say to them, well, Congress can always reorganize the Federal Reserve so that the regional Fed Banks are nationalized and both they and the Board of Governors are placed under the authority of the Secretary of the Treasury, so that the Secretary is empowered to create reserves out of thin air to fill the Treasury’s spending account, and keep it filled with sufficient funds to repay the national debt and cover the deficit without borrowing? And what if we tell them further, that we know that Congress has the Constitutional authority to do this? And what if we ask them, why doesn’t it do this, and get the national debt that you, our leaders, are so worried about, paid off, and keep us debt free? And what if we ask them still further, and if you do this then why would we have to have any spending cuts or tax increases, at all?
And what if we say to them, we also know that to pay off the national debt and cover the deficits for years to come; it isn’t even necessary for Congress to reorganize the Fed, because the Treasury can use the Fed to create money in Treasury’s account from seigniorage? What if we say to them that all that’s necessary is for the President to mint a High Value Platinum Coin (HVPC) with a face value of $60 Trillion dollars, deposit it at the Fed, and then begin to pay off the national debt and implement deficit spending using the electronic credits created in the process of seigniorage?
And what if we say to them, we also know that it is a myth that the Federal Government can only get money for spending from taxing or borrowing because Congress can modify the laws, as just described, so Treasury can generate US money out of thin air, just as the Fed does today, that Treasury can use to pay down the debt and cover deficit spending?
And what if we say to them, we know that you’ll say that this is “printing money” and will cause inflation? But what if we then say, sorry, but we know very well that it will not cause inflation; because reserves issued unaccompanied by debt are no more inflationary than reserves issued along with debt and, most importantly, we also know that if you legislate the ability for Treasury to do this, then you won’t have to worry about the deficit and debt or our grand children anymore; and we won’t have to worry about your cutting safety net and other necessary programs anymore?
And what if we say to them, we also know that it is a myth that the Federal Government can only get money for spending from taxing or borrowing, because the President can use Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PCS) to harness the power of the Fed to generate reserves that end up in the Treasury General Account (TGA), and Treasury can then use the reserves to pay down the debt and cover deficit spending?
And what if we say to them, we also know that this won’t cause inflation for reasons stated above, and, most importantly, we also know that if Treasury does this on orders of the President, then you won’t have to worry about the deficit and debt or our grand children anymore; and we won’t have to worry about your cutting safety net and other necessary programs anymore either?
And what if we tell them that, for all the reasons indicated in these questions, we also know that all your reasons for wanting to reduce the deficit and impose austerity on the 99% are bogus? We don’t know which of you believe in these reasons and which of you do not. But this isn’t as important as it seems, because we know that the debt commissions, the debt ceiling crises, the fiscal cliff, the sequestration, the continuing resolution, budgetary crises, and the constant propaganda campaign from all of you directed at all of us, is a grand “shock doctrine” process attempting to swindle us out of a government that works for 99% of us rather than the 1%. We know that “the Grand Bargain” is “the Great Betrayal”! And we won’t have it!
(Cross-posted from New Economic Perspectives.)



18 Comments

The system is played out. Time for new ideas. OOPS sorry too late.
What the folks in the upper 2-10% don’t get, is that after the FIRE sector MOTU get done emptying the pockets of the 90%, they’ll come for them.
First they came for the dishwashers, but I wasn’t a dishwasher, so I said nothing.
Then they came for the salespeople and the clerks, but I wasn’t a salesperson or clerk so I said nothing.
Then they came for the carpenters, but I wan’t a carpenter, so I said nothing.
Then they came for the school teachers, but I wasn’t a school teacher so I said nothing.
Then they came for the small businessmen, me! All my customers had been driven into poverty so they did nothing, in fact they laughed at me.
Thanks. Rec’d.
Rec’d. Thank you, letsgetitdone.
That’s pretty much the sequence of the union busting that began with Reagan attack on the Air Traffic Controllers thirty years ago. The broke the unions one industry at a time. Now it’s mostly the public employees that are unionized and they are next.
Thanks,letsgetitdone. You’ve done it again. Explaining the situation in plain English and getting Americans to believe it are easier said than done. I promise i’ll try. Unfortunately, most people can’t (or refuse) to handle the truth until it hits them (or someone close to them) in the face. We are screwed. PEACE
You underestimate their greed.
The top 400 families will provide business for the next 10,000 families (the merchants), and employ another 100,000 families as menial labor.
The rest of the RAM can starve, because it all the RAM’s fault for choosing the wrong parents.
RAM = Raggedy Assed Masses.
Now I wonder where we can find such a society described? Jane Austin perhaps?
Just in the past weeks, some eighty nine billion dollars was offered for Corporate Welfare programs during the “Austerity Budget”/”DebtCeiling” discussions. This is some 17 billion dollars more than what was spent on Food stamps in 2011.
The money goes to companies like DISNEY, NASCAR, McDonalds and other Big Piggy Companies that like to keep feeding at the trough.
Apparently Corporate Welfare is good, but welfare for actual people is bad.
Yeah, but Socialism, ooof!
Oy vey, choices.
Thanks everyone. It looks like the debt ceiling battle may fade away. Word is that the Kochs have told the Rethugs to cool it on the debt ceiling and fight on the Sequestration and the CR. Seems the debt ceiling fight was too dangerous to their interests, or maybe it was the threat of the coin, or maybe Bernanke made a deal with Boehner, saying he wouldn’t allow the coin if Boehner headed off the debt ceiling fight. All this is speculation. But there are noises coming out of the R camp confirming that they don’t intend to fight on the debt ceiling after all.
Of course, the $60 T coin is just as good to undermine the R position on sequestration and the CR. So, we need to create another boomlet for the coin. The bigger it is, the greater the leverage over TPTB.
The coin is the trump card. Even if they do make good on their threat, Obama can always pull a coin out of his pocket and end their nonsense.
But, I now expect a big bipartisan push to repeal 31USC5112(k). Not big in terms of appearing on the news, simply big in terms of being a very well-funded effort.
…X 2
Agreed. Obama can go down in history as the Greatest President or maybe the LAST President of the United States of America. Which will he choose? Does he even realize it? Follow the money. PEACE
What if we tell them all kinds of useful and accurate things for years and years and years and they pretend that they don’t or can’t hear us? And they go on doing whatever it is they think is best for them, bugger everyone else, and bugger the actual results?
That’s what’s been going on, isn’t it?
That’s a great comment. May I steal it and improvise?
Feel free OB.
Tell that to automobile dealers whose customers have no money.
They’ve broken their own system, it just hasn’t totally come into focus yet.
Small business people will eventually figure out what happened, but right now they’re still counting on all the savings they’re supposed to reap from downward pressure on wages.
They’re engaged in strangling consumers ability to spend, and expecting their sales to return to normal.
That expectation isn’t going to happen.
Recommended!
For further verification see
Economy – http://newprogs.org/blog/2011/11/10/economy-under-democraticrepublican-uni-party
and
Economic Graphs – http://newprogs.org/blog/2012/03/02/economic-graphs