Cthulhu's Mirages #893247 - Tremendous economy.

It is common for Cthulhu to attack the very nature of reality through his mirages, to sabotage or forestall some actions that might help a prey species avert its own destruction by natural calamity or carefully induced negligence.

Some mirages are used to fuel improper inferences, "The economy is in good shape because the stock market is high", however by this standard The American economy was in great shape on October 23, 1929, shortly after that it more resembled stale chowder, as October 24 was "Black Tuesday" the start of the great crash, during which, Wall Street was littered with the mangled corpses of stockbrokers who had been ruined by the "strong stock market" as  half the value of stocks just evaporated.

Today the stock market is in record territory once again, just as it was in the tech boom, and in 2008. Overconfidence in the market is a sign, it is all about to go belly up. The bond rate is now inverted, these are usually bought as a hedge against inflation, but now the banks that by them are making losses on them. This is a loud signal the system is about to implode.

The IMF world economic outlook has worrying news for the American economy but also notes challenges in the agricultural sector including the tight labor market and the trade war with China. (See https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/REO/WH)

Over the medium term, however, global growth is expected to soften, and risks are tilted to the downside, owing to the possibility of a sharp tightening of financial conditions, escalating trade tensions and risks of a further shift toward protectionist policies, and geopolitical strains.

Tax policy still encourages manufactures to seek cheap labor in Asia and elsewhere, doing little for America's struggling middle class.

Also facing the middle is the opioid drug crisis, and the lack of accessible quality essential healthcare, because healthcare is rationed by a private insurance bureaucracy that denies 80% of all claims in the first instance, in hope that claimants will find the money some other way, just die, or horror of horrors successfully argue that tests or treatments are indeed medically required. America remains the only developed nation where medical bankruptcy exists.

Deregulation of environmental policy is allowing for more pollution, which will result in public health impacts, and 100 million Americans are exposed to drinking water with unsafe contamination. While the case of Flint, Michigan is relatively high profile hundreds of other cities have unsafe water supplies. In part, because infrastructure has been neglected, to keep taxes low for corporations. Flint Michigan is perhaps a poster child for the political pressure to cut taxes to unsafe levels for the benefit of monied interests.

Many Americans filed tax returns for the first time since the Republican tax reform under the Trump administration, they could not help but notice, that many deductions that they had claimed in previous years, were no longer available to them. The bottom line for them was, they were paying more in taxes, when they would have expected a refund, if they were still due a refund, it was much smaller than previous years. However, corporations and billionaires benefited to the value of over USD1 trillion.

About that tight labor market, The is a measure of Americans actively looking for work, or as the Department of labor statistics calls it "U3". They also track another value called "U6", this measures people who are parttime for economic reasons alone, this stands at 7.2%, well above the 3.4% U3 commonly cited. There is also evidence that many Americans are underemployed in part-time work. This is because many employers prefer to keep more part-timers for whom they are not required to provide health coverage for, to fewer full-time staff for which health coverage is required. This problem existed before the Affordable Care Act. Medicare For All would eliminate this problem, as all workers would be covered by a payroll tax, which would half the value of current private health insurance premiums. (See https://www.macrotrends.net/1377/u6-unemployment-rate)

-- U6 Unemployment
-- U5 Unemployment
-- U3 Official unemployment rate

This graph shows the unemployment figures for the last 4 years, it shows a long trend of falling unemployment that continues undeflected by the last transfer of power between administrations, to credit the administration with outstanding performance, seems to overstate the facts, essentially they just haven't screwed up enough or otherwise impacted very much unemployment at all except for a slight leveling out, which may be indicative of economic issue not addressed by the administration or diminishing returns as available labor reduces. Some Americans were able to leave or reduce work commitments after the Affordable Care Act's introduction meant that they could afford health coverage. These people are not counted in unemployment figures.

Ken Bone

According to Ken Bone, "nothing has changed" in the coal industry, which continues to slide into the sunset. On the upside, the rooftop solar installer industry is still employing 3-4 times the number of people as the coal industry, despite the tariffs that had a negative impact on the roof-top solar industry. With the head of the EPA being a former coal industry lobbyist, it is arguable that the administration has a clear partiality to coal operators and limited concern for the current jobs market, let alone the economic future of the nation.

The state of the US economy is complex, by any standard it is a huge system by any measure and simple statements about its overall health are easily misleading, but this one thing does seem important, over the last 30 years, the American 1% of greatest wealth  holders have in that time see their wealth grow by USD21 Trillion, while the lest wealthy 50% have seen their wealth fall by USD900Billion(see https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2019/06/14/top-1-up-21-trillion-bottom-50-down-900-billion/). Since that latter group only had USD700billion to start with they are now indebted by USD200billion. Someone is clearly winning, it is probably not you. That could change, a new administration focused on putting forward the agenda of working Americans, livable wages, medicare-for-all, tuition-free college to invest in technology and skills development, jobs plan to future proof the energy system, end the for profit-slavery industrial prison complex, end the stupid wars. Most Americans already agree with this agenda, usually significant margins, the one big thing stopping change so far is the corruption of monied interests. With the current administration's ties to the Mercer family (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mercer#2016_U.S._election), copious evidence, of influence peddling, and the industry ties of many of the administration appointments, it seems unlikely that this administration is the government you are looking for.  You're probably looking for a candidate with a long anti-war record, a long pro-labor record, that is not a demagogue prone outrageous statements about invisible planes, and tossing paper towels at hurricane survivors.

Play nice, and praise the Flying Spaghetti Monster for she is noodly, Ramen.

Cthulhu's Mirages #645298 - The Terrible Burden of Migrants

One of the more wild mirages is the notion that migrants are a burden on America, taking welfare, and not paying back into the systems, it sounds simple, and it is, too simple. It has been a long-running theme in the mirages of Cthulhu, essentially as Cthulhu sees deluding vertebrate species into self-destruction as a labor-saving device for his vision of cosmological de-populism which is the removal of all living species from the cosmos. Fear of the "other" weaker members of a species cohort is often injected into a population through leadership figures who proclaim strength, but whose weak minds make them exceptionally malleable to Cthulhu's will, not just in human society, but also in other primate societies, which may be readily observed. So the instinctual responses are there and all too easily exploited. A similar a set mirages were induced in central Europe in the 1920s and 1930s until Europe exploded into war just 2 decades after "The Great War", "The War to End All Wars". Once Germany had lost The Great War, reparations were sought and imposed on Germany to recoup the cost of defense for the nations that defeated them.

Measures of austerity imposed on Germany collapsed the German economy, by extracting wealth from the Germany economy in a manner that resembles loosely the IMF and world bank loan conditions that have lead to the collapse of many modern economies since, that have also seen radicalization and terrorism. America is also subject to austerity, as successive governments, at the behest of billionaires and corporations, have cut social services, neglected to raise minimum wage to keep up with rising costs of living, executing stock buybacks, and hoarding around USD31 trillion in tax havens and other "instruments"(see https://www.wealthx.com/report/world-ultra-wealth-report-2018/), while decreasing the tax burden for a very few who would not imagine any person to be interesting with less than $100m.

So really, are migrants a burden? Not so much according to the National Bureau of economic research, which shows migrants return $21k after 20years. https://www.nber.org/papers/w23498). Another study has been reported as showing a lifetime benefit to the American taxpayer of approximately $80k.
(Source:
The work the low wage jobs Americans can't do because of inertia created by the normal pressures of family, community, holding multiple low wage jobs keeping them too busy to look outside the box. Without migrant workers, crops would rot in the ground, in fact, agriculture is experiencing a labor shortage, and crops are being left to rot, because of the lack of harvest time labor.(See https://agamerica.com/farm-larbor-shortage/) Sure, low wage Americans might take jobs in this industry, but it's seasonal nature, and the generally high cost of living, finding work beyond the season labor creates gaps in income which are intolerable for families, with most American families unable to sustain a $500 unplanned expense. (See https://allthatsinteresting.com/american-savings).


There is more data pointing to how migrants offer economic benefit to the American economy and treasury but also data pointing to migrants having a lower rate of criminal behavior than native-born Americans. The effect is strong enough that the imprisoned migrant population has been falling since 1990, (See https://www.businessinsider.com/immigrants-commit-less-crime-than-native-born-americans-trump-speech-2017-3//?r=AU&IR=T)

Net migration across the Southern border has been southward for more than 10 years. Liberal and Left criticism of the Obama administration included the notion of "Deporter in Chief" as a reference to the 44^th president. Barriers, are actually slow this migrant as people increasingly need to save money to travel south rather use cheaper modes of movement. (See https://www.pewhispanic.org/2015/11/19/more-mexicans-leaving-than-coming-to-the-u-s/)


It seems that amid wild promises to "Make America Great Again" some of the people working hardest at such a lofty goal are really not appreciated for their contribution, but are instead being demagogued, libeled and slandered while living very modest lives, centered around hard work for low pay, and very little influence, while others laugh all the way to their Cayman Island shell companies, DeutcheBank, and other tax-havens.

There are better sources and more research on these topics, I'd like to know about them, and may include them here. So please make suggestions below.

As always, stay noodly, Play nice ok, and praise the Flying Spaghetti Monster for she is noodly. Ramen.

Cthulhu's Mirages #458652 - Marx's "antisemitism"

As we pirates attempt to rescue reason from the clutches of Cthulhu's minions who are of course driven by the mirages of Cthulhu, we sometimes find interesting true things along the way. There is room for a series about these things, exposing some of the more interesting treasures buried under chowder, myth and Cephalopoda scat.

Today the topic is "Marx was anti-semitic", it sounds bad to any socialist ear and to anyone with a basic understanding of mid 20th Century history, but to especially those not familiar with the many works of Karl Marx, Das Capital is well known, but his life and works are, shall we say less known to many. Less still is an 1844 work called "On the Jewish Question". At that time some were questioning whether European Jewish people could be really free in Europe and Russia, and still be, well... Jewish. Marx thought it a pertinent question and offered his opinion on this very question. The upshot of which was yes, Jewish people can indeed be free and Jewish in Europe, and there should be no need for them to abandon their religious consciousness in order to achieve that freedom. This may sound terrible to some, but I find it tricky to imagine them being Jewish at least without developing some sort of cognitive dissonance, the same way some in an oppressed class identify with the ideology of their oppressors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Jewish_Question
The claim gets a little silly when we look further, as Marx himself was ethnically Jewish, his maternal grandfather a rabbi, and his father's family having rabbis through the century before his birth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx 
It seems strange that anyone might accuse, in anything other than jest, Marx of antisemitism, given Marx's personal history and expressed opinions.

Marx made a study of, and extensively wrote on alienation in capitalist society and he like many of his time was a fan of the aims of the French Revolution, as he grew up in a French-German border town. He could not, however, ignore that capitalism was showing signs that it was incapable of meeting the high expectations placed upon it. And in just 50 years, it was already showing signs of developing similar issues to those it was intended to resolve. Including the entrenchment of wealth and power, and the crushing power exerted on working people, who frankly if it were left to them would not be likely to build mansions and castles from the fruits of their labor. Even today, it is fair to ask if Amazon workers would prefer to use the value they create to send their boss by rocket to the moon as Mr. Bezos uses the portion of that value which he claims to do just that.

Marx pointed out that the alienation of minorities was a way of scapegoating to serve those that those who held political and economic power and to maintain their status. Such behavior appears to have bothered Marx, in part because he was "sent out" of his home town in which he had the job he desired as a student - that of professor, and was put on a train to Parish. His terrible crime was community organizing in a region with a lot conservative and wealthy people who seemed likely to have been concerned that they might be required to engage in fair dealing with employees, the terrible specter of labor rights, occupational health and safety, or the curtailing of child labor.

A further discussion of the life and work of Karl Marx can be found here, with Richard Wolff - Economics Professor Emeritus at MIT.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU-AkeOyiOQ

In the conversation that brought up the Marx antisemitism claim, another claim was made "socialism collapses quickly". We can be sure that that one would give our Norwegian friends quite the chuckle, after all, they came up with the hashtag #shitholeUSA and they have enjoyed a socialist politic for the best part of a century. And in Germany, the only reason the word "Socialist" appeared in the NAZI party name, was because the German public would never have given Hitler's party the time of day without it. None the less, Hitler and his following turned out to be a terrible fraud and worse but is generally identified as a fascist phenomenon, not simply for the jackboots, militarism, varied misanthropies, and empire building by conquest, but for the unity of public and private sector interests. Hyperinflation and a collapsing economy brought about by the extraction of war reparations led to desperation in German populace, this means populist style rhetoric even when fake was very appealing. World Bank Policy and IMF loans have by similar means caused great distress in many countries in the last 50 years, and these nations have had issues with radicalization. And now, the 1% is essentially applying similar pressure on industrialized nations, causing great inequality, social/political tribalism, and a mass migration of red hats manufactured in low wage China, to make nests in North America on those who hunt squirrels accused of ruining the economy as the billionaires laugh all the way to the too-big-to-jail banks as they point in random directions shouting "squirrel" any red hats with an AR15 poking the sky they see.
David Pakman's Debunked: "Socialism has never worked"  is a useful place to start. And can be found  here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k79wCaFgU40
Norway's socialism goes back almost a century, and collective labor organization operated successfully for 300 years in Aztec society prior to the arrival of Columbus in the New World.

As always, praise the Flying Spaghetti Monster for she is noodly, and play nice ok. Ramen.

Lies, Damned lies, and foreign investment.

So, it has been revealed by the Panama Papers that one foreign company is using a secret trust to hide approximately $150m dollars in investment in New Zealand. While Inland Revenue report that NZ$1.5b is being hidden by shell companies. Listening to the radio this morning, one DJ asked the question "If they are putting money into this country and creating more money why is it wrong?"

Firstly his question presents a false premise, the money added to the invested isn't emerging from a vacuum like energy from some Zero Point Module on Stargate. That money has already been created, and it is being drawn from the broad economy as fees, rents, interest payments. All the $150m is doing is capturing money like a magnet dropped in a box of paper clips. Over time, that fund may double, and eventually the investor will find an opportunity offering a better return rate, what happens then? They pull their investment and the collected returns, taking say $300m, leaving our country $150m down. And worst still they have not paid 1 cent in taxes here. They are freeloading on our nations good name and low corruption index, while 250,000 children live in poverty and thousands of Aucklanders are without a home. Mean while the minister for Revenue says "its not a problem" and the PM says it barking mad to describe New Zealand as a tax haven.
What being done? nothing obviously. What could be done, the world over we could and should tax all business activity in the country in which it occurs. Not where the corporation claims to be, Google is not an Irish Company unless you are reading their tax filings. It seems Corporations today are less patriotic than the fifth columnists of 80years ago.

This is just one of the many ways the 1% are bleeding this country and others dry. Now you can understand how parasitism really works in economics. Leaches and  flees invest anticoagulants so they can get a higher investment return. That is why they're bites itch so much.
The working people who may or may not be employed are the people who make the economy work, every dollar they get they put back into the community, as they buy food clothing, public transport, local body rates. This is much more of a commitment that the 1% who might spend as much as 5% of their income in the broad economy, occasionally buying a new luxury car, or penthouse.

Naturally there are those who say "go easy on the rich, they work to you know". Sure their nice offices, phone calls and stock trades over the internet really compare to the back breaking work of care giving the elder for minimum wage, burger flipping for long hours, or the black lung of coal miners. I get it, these poor billionaire are really struggling they don't even know where their next Concorde airliner is coming from.

This country is itching like a meth-addict after forty years of free-trade and foreign investment and still the Rentier in Chief John Key begs for more. Of course turkey never vote for Solstice feasts.


#smellEstablishmentDecomp and pass the Vaseline.

See also NZ Herald
   Daily Caller

Bad inflation - not a reason against unconditional basic income

"Well, " they say "if you increase wages, or benefits, the inflation boogeyman will eat your children" or something similar. It almost sounds convincing, premised on the free market law of supply and demand, Yes demand increases. But so do the opportunities for people to meet that demand, and trials of unconditional basic income have shown that communities and individuals are more than willing to work and increase supply, and so successful are they at meeting market demand prices fall.

Also price pressure reduces because labour costs fall for such enterprises, as workers supported by the UBI, choose to work not because they need the money, but because they see the value of the work product to their community. And profits from the enterprise can benefit the community as a whole.
For the individual or family group, they can enrich their lives by contributing time to the community, and perhaps starting and enterprise of the their own, creating further down pressure in whatever market they choose.

Corporations and billionaires enjoy inflation it drives their increasing prices. In the 80's they gave us 12% mortgage rates, and now the can  today scare those us over 30 us into fearing high inflation.

Today, we see job disappearing as manufacturing production is shifted to South  and East Asia and china brands itself as factory floor to the world. But all hush hush on the long work shifts and high suicide rates.  If think your neighbours can continue to support themselves and their families, purely "good honest work" it may be worth noting not even National is willing to make that bold claim, which the would have to in order to kill "Working for Families" tax credits.

Today, a $25 Child Hardship addon for families on benefits starts. While not universal, it will stimulate demand, companies will hire, especially in food production and clothing retail. While it is tempting to think this is a handout to "lazy poor second class citizens better off enslaved or euthanized" (as is the attitude of some) It is actually more of a handout to the retail sector, so if you are against "handouts" be consistent, Briscoes, the Warehouse, and welfare queens like Anadarko, Tag Oil, the woolworths chain. The Aussie banks. And the others who slide on NZ$6b in tax evasion.

You might also stop asking for hand outs like the building and maintenance of roads universities, hospitals, if you are sick build your own hospital. Like to travel build your own private road, because by you own hypothesis you can't use public roads, at least without being a chisling hypocrite.

Monday, I had a conversation with someone who "worked hard" "from the age of 14" owned his own home, who seemed unmovable on the idea that hand outs to lazy people were unacceptable to him. Then he stepped aboard a bus - public transport - bloody leach ;)

Say no to hot housing.

A little over a week a ago, a house fire ravaged the home of 5 people killing 2 and putting 3 in hospital. Firefighters found smoke alarms in boxes in a cupboard.

A discussion led to a friend pointing out that some dwellings have only one safe exit. Bad news if the seat of a fire blocks the path to that exit.  While electric water heater fires are rare, they can happen I once live in an apparent where the water heater was next the apartment's one exit.

The thinking behind such an arrangement is that a concrete building is fire proof and smoke the main cause of death. If you can't escape the smoke because the exit is blocked you're screwed.

This arrangement is clearly the design product of Cthulhu. It's almost like someone is trying to creatively engineer terrible accidents so they go all Bart Simpson and deny responsibility while eliminating a "useless" or "hopeless" segment of the population. That is very unlikely, but perhaps it is a case that some just don't give a monkeys toss.

There are of course unanswered questions about the house fire, why were the smoke alarms in the cupboard and not in service? It is likely the residents were on low incomes, and preferred to buy food rather than spend upwards of $5 on a battery. After all people need to eat daily, house fires are rare. Alarms beep when the battery is low, this can be annoying and frustrating. Low income families may not keep a supply of thing they don't need regularly, Hope to buy the batteries next week, but eventually the priority just slips away, as it can for any task given to anyone.

As a society we ask people to give up "luxuries" or "privileges" to reduce costs and "live within their means" but if the costs rise as a function of inflation, but the means do not, at some point it is not just the "luxuries" that get cut it is the essentials, doctors visits, food. While some utility and food inflation  has reversed in New Zealand, housing costs have continued to rise at an average of 3.9%p.a over much of the last decade. Even in Wellington, which is not subject to Cthulhu's mind bending market manipulation in Auckland.

People on fixed incomes, while adjusted for the Cost Price Index(CPI), take no account for the increasing cost of housing. But even working adults here are getting short changed too. Their real wages have fallen since 1991, by about 25%. While New Zealand GDP rose 80% at the same time. If tomorrow you arrived at work to be asked to work twice as hard, and take a 25% cut in pay, wouldn't you  be pretty pissed? If not, what is wrong with you? Has Cthulhu got your brain in a jar?

They say companies can't afford the living wage, if true, perhaps it is also true that these companies can't afford to be in business. The economic fact is there is good data that supports the living wage as a boon to businesses, and as Henry Ford put it "the best customer is a well paid worker" the living wage makes the vast majority businesses more profitable. So here's to $19.25 for 2015.
Ramen.

See also
   Radio NZ - PN House Investigation Begins

Thousands Protest TPPA, Cthulhu's office minions hide under desks.

When an ancient monster of the deep doesn't get things going their way, things tend to get ugly. As evidenced after Cthulhu's return from Wellington to supervise John Key as he addressed a crowd of thousands critical of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The whole affair went so badly Cthulhu had to pretend he was one of the protesters, just to not complicate the already huge mess his plan for economic and social devastation had become. Needless to say, his mood is considerably darker, than our last report. There is speculation of a Rick Astley revival tour, because this has escalated beyond a Justin Bieber concert level event.

Despite failing to win over the crowd on the Trans-Pacific partnership, John Key did manage to entertain the throng with dancing, air guitar and pony tail pulling.

At the end of the protest, dancing broke out behind him. Minions manoeuvred to squash the fun, but could only hold it to the base of the steps of Parliament.

Cthulhu hides in crowd to avoid "complicating" the destruction of reality.

Huge crowd at impromptu protest after the protest.

Extra speeches enthusiastically welcomed, but not from Minion John Key.

The protest finished some time ago, almost everyone is still here

It seems Cthulhu may be worried that if enough people know how bad this deal is, it may well fail and new plans will have to be developed to bring on the destruction of the great Galleon Earth.

Meanwhile, his suspicions have been confirmed, and what little has been leaked about the Trans-Pacific Partnership is devastatingly powerful, and his great mind bending powers may not be enough to turn public opinion around.

Worst still, the minions in charge of the project are engaged in infighting with some plotting to barbecue Tim Groser on a spit.

One minion said "I wouldn't call it utter chaos, but it is complete bedlam around here."

Captain Jack Noodle of Pastafarian Pirates of the Pacific, had this to say "Aye, This be interesting, the deal be straining under the weight of its own stupidity. Complete dissonant collapse be imminent... Stand back, put on yer goggles and hazmat suit, this is going to get rough! Arr 'tis better it implode before it matures to a working derangement. His Noodliness, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, will, find some comfort in this news. We may yet clear the foul winds of the Trans-Pacific Purgatory."

Update 12 Apr 2016 Thanks to Karin G for her fine work administering "John Key leave New Zealand be" on facebook.

See Also
   3News - Thousands protest against the TPPA Deal

Bitching about NZ$570 Super for comfortable retirees.

Today's top story in the DomPost is about how the New Zealand Government is shelling out over a half billion on National Superannuation to well off senior citizens.

My guess is many of these retirees got to be so comfortable, by working through their productive years while saving and/or investing, Or put another way following the instructions of the 1% in a demand side economic environment which allowed them to do so. What makes things different to now is the economy was geared towards providing a decent income for working and middle class families, rather than geared towards extracting money from working and poor New Zealanders in exchange for shelter, food and services while compensating them has little as possible for their labour.

US income distribution since 1979,
New Zealand has followed a similar path.

Since then things have changed, back then working and becoming comfortably well off was a more reasonable proposition and a good thing because it showed demand side economics worked and there was a reasonable expectation that anyone could follow that path. Now, enter the age of Gordon Gecko. "If you're getting money you better be giving something back and I don't care how little you make, along as I make much more."

Are we now supposed to break this contract with these retirees who kept up their side of the bargain because national retirement planning has been a political foot ball for 40 years.

We knew the baby boomer bubble was coming in the 70's and we did the right thing, until Gecko-esque neoliberal doctrine over took the fourth labour government. An 8% tax was levied which when into compulsory savings. Norway does something like this, and retired Norwegians get to be very comfortable indeed. Our scheme died when Roger Douglas killed it.

The baby boomer bubble has loomed of every government for the last 30 years, and every one of them has done nothing more than punt it along for the next regime to deal with.  The problem is it's in no party's short term interest to increase costs on voters, which must be done in order to generate wealth.

Thomas Pikity's, Capital in the 21st Century points out that wealth grows at 4-8% per annum while income for workers grows at about 1% per annum. it also points to how wealth is becoming entrenched in a small number of wealthy families. I see little reason to deny working people the advantage of this wealth generating mechanism other than to those who are social dominance oriented and fear a large affluent middle class and the challenge it brings to their power in politics just as it did in the 60-70s when a strong middle class protested war, fought for women's rights and the end of segregation. Often meeting brutal and sometimes lethal violence from the establishment. such over top reactionary behaviour has not been abandoned, Operation 8, and mistreatment of the Occupy movement still rings loudly "Don't mess with the silver-back alpha ape". And yet mess with them we must if we are to have a decent society, rather than the brutal savagery of Social Darwinism.

I wonder how much the 1% will think something like "Pfffft nouvo riche, they're not like us, they are takers, cut them off!" No doubt someone will be looking to means test National Super. But is not a real solution to the problem at hand.

Around the 60-70s, there were about 6 working age people for each retiree, soon we will have just two working age people per retiree. and if that is not bad enough, neoliberal economics, especially since the 1980's has left wages stagnant, while productivity has almost doubled. and what's worse since the 1980s those entering the workforce are leaving higher education with a mountain of debt. And the work force they enter is often not the local workforce, preferring to seek higher remuneration overseas.

What would be a better solution? To leverage the wealth generating capacity of investment markets, with the financial transfer tax. It will also reduce the instability of markets, and maintain growth in the economy. This kind of tax has been implemented in Europe and is working well. Additionally, a capital gains tax, would fund a universal basic income, allowing poor and low income families to drive demand and drive economy growth creating more jobs. Also enforcing a maximum salary tied to the lowest wages in a company in a ratio. Thus ensuring company profits can be reinvested in staff and growing the business, rather than be syphoned off in obscenely inflated directors fees.  The economy would respond to this stimulus within 6 months ultimately raising the tax take.

America for all its faults did deal with the problem, they set up a social security trust fund that will fund the baby boomer retirees until around 2037. But Roger Douglas, or rather Rogernomics was not that smart.





Seriously it is time to put end to the economic model of the chiseling 1%.

See also
   Stuff.co.nz - Super for rich has 570m price tag

Can we feed the kids now?

"Energize the demolition beams" Education Minister
Hekia Parata considers how best to deal with hungry

kids in decile 1 & 2 Schools.

After three false starts, one time at 10:30 pm, it looks like Hone Harawira's Feed the Kids bill will at last get its first reading on Wednesday, 12 March. The bill was postponed so that the public and the press would have the opportunity to observe the debate.

On the issue of hungry kids in schools, Nationals peacemeal Food in Schools programme brings together NGOs and corporate suppliers including Sanitarium and Anchor, but reaches only 8,000 kids of 87,000 kids living poverty.  The programme is more of a political solution creating the appearance of addressing the issue without actually attempting to fix the problem.

Now why is that? Here we have 208,000 kids living below the poverty line unable to afford extravagances like breakfast and shoes because mum and dad keep blowing the dough of frivolous things like rent, power, phone and doctors bills.  It should be a no-brainer to fix this. The Government's solution is more of a gift to faith based NGO's and corporations than it is a salve for the economic depredations families in the  25th percentile of household income.

To understand how the government could say they understand the problem and miss the mark so badly that they hit someone else's barn door, we must understand their priorities. This government's agenda is more about helping out its wealthy and connected friends. While not actually evil, they're bureaucratic, officious and callous. (thanks Douglas Adams). Despite spin and protestations to the contrary, the governments priorities are not for a bright future for New Zealand across the board, indeed the governments focus is for those that are found at Chambers of Commerce, Business Round Tables and Manuwera mansions. They are also willing to pander to faith based NGOs to win votes from church laity by creating the illusion  that their vote supports the kind of social programmes they support. Meanwhile the corporations get few extra dollars for the bottom line and public recognition for seemingly charitable behaviour as the government polishes their brass knobs with a fine chamois while counting electorate and list seats with the other hand.

Meanwhile, power companies, landlords, and telcos are effectively the big boys in the playground stealing the other kids lunch money.

Ultimately, we should ask what does it cost us? In short NZ$6b, in increased medical interventions, remedial education, and lost productivity. To help put that into scale, that is 3/4 of New Zealand's imported fuel bill. Can we afford it? We can't afford not to fix this, but why wouldn't we.

It could be argued, the 1% are too busy sucking the economic vitality out of the middle class, the last thing they would want to see is people leaving the carefully engineered poverty and entering the middle and undoing all their hard work. After 30 years, they haven't quite halved the wage/productivity ratio, but the are close, and there is no reason in their minds why the should stop now, they can't even chain the staff to work stations yet and damn it the staff still insist on having tea breaks, going home at the end of their shift and being paid at least the minimum wage, sometimes more if they call themselves "skilled" or the work "high value".
But it is much simpler than that, a portion of 1% are greedy and callous, and rort(game) the system to their advantage, without prejudice. And that is why we need to change the government, and seriously consider the problem of unbridled power weilded by a demented grasping uber class of ethical voids.

See also
   Bill Maher on Billionaire whiners (Raw Story)

Did solar fail in Germany?

Over the last couple of years I've had a few people tell me online and to my face that the German government were back peddling on solar investment because solar energy is a failure there. Often in response to mentioning that Germany creates more than half of it's energy needs from solar on some days, and even has to export energy to its neighbours.

Annoyingly, I never had the facts available to refute the claim if that were possible. And now it seems that it is entirely possible to refute this typically right -wing pro-carbon nonsense.

Solar it seems is not a failure, the original goal was to produce as much energy as 2 yet-to-be-built nuclear reactors after running the numbers solar worked out cheaper than building the reactors. But more than that, the programme was so enthusiastically adopted by home owners that solar generates the equivalent of 10 reactors, and over-supply started to threaten the stability of the grid. This is less of a failure than it is more of a sign the programme has become a victim of its own blow-the-doors-off success.

In recent years, the German government has chosen to reduce the programme and now expects to phase out the subsidies by 2018.

While some solar companies have run into insolvency, this marks a change in the market dynamic that should be expected with saturation. It is typical at this point in a market lifecycle to see consolidation. And this is normal with the emergence of green field technology into the mainstream.

In Conclusion...

Failure? Far from it, the policy has been more successful than originally envisaged, creating more energy at times than could be consumed within Germany's borders. So from the technical perspective it is too successful while the business failures are no more than a predictable effect of a maturing market.


Sea also...
  AFP - Germany to pull plug on solar subsidies by 2018.
  BigPictureRT - Conversations with great Minds.

Why the right wing is shocked by "class warfare".

It is not really class warfare that is shocking the delicate sensibility of wealthy avaricious elite, it is the fact that 30 years after Reagan all opposition has not yet be crushed and even though unions are arguably in the worst state that they have been in within the last fifty years, victory is not yet complete, and worse still as they would say, opposition is grown.

If we argue for higher taxes, for public works and employment that can reinvigorate a sagging economy such as America's WPA or for universal health care, right will shreik with horror "that's Socialism". Many of the millennial generation respond the such hysteria with, "if so, I'm cool with that."

The right wing perception of socialism comes from the cold war era Soviet Union, something to which Millennials have not been exposed, nor the reds-under-bed and Mcarthy-esque paranoiac propaganda. Or at least that propaganda which survives sales the oceans of public discourse like the Marie-Celeste. Flouridated water horror story are being promoted by a small vocal group and having disturbing influence that at least goes beyond the science, and even contradicts it.But that is another story for another time.

Meanwhile income inequality continues to crush to potential our children, the 1% in America captures 95% of income gains over the 5 years, while banksters make more money than they ever have and fix LIBOR rates for day old sushi rolls.

The fact is class warfare has been around for millennia. Sometimes the 1% wins, until the 99% are forced to rebel in self defence, but mostly everybody looses. Except when unions bring balance to the conflict, then labour wins some, capital wins some, ultimately everybody wins. Higher paid workers spend more increasing demand for for manufactured goods and services, increasing hiring, the tax base, profits, public services, leisure.

But there is another side, this week the 1% were likened to the Jews of Nazi Germany by one of their own. Attempting to point out how they are now being persecuted like in the 1930's. Here's the thing, 1930's Germany was a very different environment, anti-Semitism was official Catholic doctrine until Vatican II. No one today is talking about loading rail way cattle cars with 1%ers to work camps, these days the 1% run the work-camps  now called for-profit-prisons. Jews had little influence in government, otherwise much of what happened 80 years ago would not have happened. Today the 1%'s money runs government, thanks to Citizen's United and ALEC write the legislation for vaginal probes, ending sick leave(enjoy the bird flu in your clam chowder), taxing private solar installations, "right to work" laws gutting wages.

All of this is why Americans should support movetoamend.org and wolf-pac.com which both seek to put an end to Citizen's United and replace the "money is speech" nonsense with "money is property" and perhaps recriminalize graft at the federal level.

See also
   Rich/Jewish comparison
   day old sushi rolls for rate fixes

A retarded argument for no minimum wage.

There are many arguments for abandoning minimum wage laws, not that any I've seen have merit, still some have less merit than others while they are offered with varying degrees of eloquence by variously articulate prognosticators.

But few have been so spectaculary poorly conveyed, revealing just how hideously exploitative and supericilous such argument often are as that price moment when CEO Peter Schiff was asked by Samantha Bee "Give me a picture of a person who's work is worth  $2/hour?"

“You know someone that might be? Maybe someone who is – what’s the politically correct word, you know, for mentally retarded,” Schiff said. “I believe in the principles this country was founded on.”

“I’m not going to say that we’re all created equal,” he said. “You’re worth what you’re worth.”

Given the number of minimum wage jobs in an economy, and the high productivity  in advanced economies a living wage of US$10.10 or even US$15/hour, is unlikely to be a huge burden on a well run business, if it is, it shouldn't be a business.

In fact, it is not controversial in economics to say that raising minimum wages up to the poverty line creates more jobs, by increasing demand, because poor people and the almost poor people spend almost all of their income. Something, Mr Schiff ignored in his analysis.

Consider also that prices are not dependant on the intelligence of the buyer. And perhaps the argument appeals those hoping to hire those believed to be too slow to know when they are getting the short end of the stick or have the resources to get redress if they do figure it out.




Additionally, the inarticulate manner in which he conveyed his position perhaps indicates that he is by his own argument doing work that is worth $2/hour.

Simply put, the end-minimum-wage narrative is retarded in that it is regression, pushing economic regression. If they get it, look out for the maximum wage movement. Think that's ridiculous? It gets worse in the 19th century such laws did exist, on the hypothesis that if working-classes were paid too much they would demand changes that would challenge the ruling elite.  To some minds, the 1960s demonstrated that hypothesis, and neoconservativism is this architecture of their solution, and then we got Reagan and it started to turn to cr8p from there.

See also
    Raw Story

Why we don't need buried carbon.

Some say we could not build our society without coal oil and gas for energy sources, construction materials, chemicals for agriculture and industry. Others say maybe we could but it would be difficult and it would lead to an "inevitable" reduction in the quality of life or that it would be a difficult and morally dangerous experiment.

Well, that "experiment" has been done. And despite themselves the United States of America played a big part in setting up this experiment.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, much of the economic support Cuba received from the USSR, including oil imports, stopped coming. In the years following USA's government doubled down and tripled down on it's embargo's, at one point barring ship's that had entered Cuban ports in the prior six months from entering US ports.

This led to huge shortages of fuel needed to run electricity generation, run farm equipment, public transport, parts for machinery, agricultural chemicals and food.

Through community effort fostering innovation, education, and the use of low tech solutions Cuba now meets 90% of its energy needs from local production through biofuels and renewable energy. Urban farming supplies most of the food Cuban's need. and farmers are now among Cuba's affluent upper middle class. In short, Cuba thrives if not despite US embargo's but perhaps because of them, having forced Cuba to make the most of the resources they have while developing methods that respect the complex natural systems they were presented with after being forced to abandon industrial farming techniques.

This is a story fit for that "the opposite of what America does" punchline.

This could be easily one of those satires I write but here is the doco...

My guess is US Republicans  will continue to punish Cuba for this success, because in their minds if the American public understood this, it would demonstrate the counter factual nature of their rhetoric not only concerning Cuba specifically, but of the Republican narrative concerning jobs, economics, clean energy, even Socialism.

Actually the millennial generation are already looking more favourably on socialism, Republicans spent so much time bad mouthing socialism, the savvy bunch went and looked it and found it was nothing like what they were hearing from the GOP. Seattle just elected its first Socialist council woman and at less than only half the running cost of a regular council officer.

Money can't buy Academic integrity

Money can't buy academic integrity, but Charles G. Koch can buy veto rights to hiring academic staff at Florida State University.

It could hardly be more fascist a corporation having so much control in a state institution. Except perhaps if CGK were to become president of FSU, but he won't do that it is too much of a time commitment, so instead he has minions do hiring and firing at FSU economics department.

This is an obvious and blatant attempt to buy credibility for views favourable to Koch Industries and Corporations in general thus giving fascist friendly propaganda the appearance of Independent support.

See Also:
    Raw Story

IMF: Romneys tax plan as out dated as his hair

We should have known after the congressional Research service panned Supply side economics. That the IMF might see sense, even though it has been in the past no friend to the poor, extracting debt recovery and interest from poor nations and requiring disastrous economic policy that further crushed the economic prospects of poor nations.

There has been a turn around in their thinking lately, with the admission that they made mistakes, mis-handling the economies of nations. And now they have finally seen what economists have been saying for decades before Ronald Reagan's voodoo economic strategy possessed the soulless minions and ideologues of the conservative right by appealing to the vanity and greed of the rich and those who imagined themselves to be temporarily embarrassed rich, A.K.A. the right's useful idiots.  Now those idiots calling themselves the Tea Party have taken over congress after funding by the rich, namely the Koch Brothers, there are others but this pair are the best documented.

The question remains, will hair styles be dragged back 30 years, or can we keep our emo, punk, and goth cuts. The IMF are with us on this. New haircuts excite and revive an economy.  Also,  Tabatha Coffee would not have to work so hard taking over salons otherwise destined to go under.

Mitt Romney really should have guessed while he was running for president his hair style was not winning over voters, and vowing to repeal the Affordable Care Act wasn't helping either.

Paul Ryan is still pushing for his economic plan better known as the Romney Plan v1.0.1. while concessions, have meant the current presidency has overseen less spending than any presidency since Eisenhower. Though calls remain for further budget cuts.



See also
   AFP- IMF: tax rich to close budget deficits.
   Forbes - Obama: the cheapest president since Eisenhower.

Thorazine: Why the GOP is Afraid of Obamacare

Many theories have been circulating as experts have been trying to determine what is driving congress to threaten the American nation with complete economic collapse over the push to ensure 40,000,000 Americans can get health care that they can afford, Even though insurers like the Affordable Care Act.

Some say it is because incumbents are afraid of being replace by more extreme candidates in primary run offs for the 2014 mid-term elections.

Others say it is because of paid political operatives who are trying to destroy the government while many argue over whether such operatives read Green Eggs and Ham or Eat Salads grown in the Rose Garden.

To hear Republicans talk of "Obamacare", with their wild and unfounded accusations of implantable microchips, death panels, calling the president the Anti Christ Muslim terrorist from Kenya lining up Americans for drone strikes, we must consider that the real reason Tea Party congressmen and congresswomen especially, are so vitriolically opposed to the President's flagship legislation is that it may force them to get help for their anti-social personality disorder, delusional schizophrenia, and paranoid psychosis.

The preceding does use some technical terms the reader may not find familiar Let's have alook at anti-social personality disorder. It has several features

• Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest. The ACA has been law for three years, the Koch brothers are running a campaign to encourage law breaking by propagandizing young healthy Americans to not sign up for health insurance under The ACA. Also house Republicans are sworn to protect and defend the constitution and the laws of the USA.
• Deceitfulness Boehner says there are not enough votes to pass a clean CR yet several counts show at least the 217 declared votes ready to pass a clean continuing resolution.
• Impulsivity Republicans have no economic plan, Trickle down economics is a fiction design to reverse Robin Hood the system.
• Irritability and aggressiveness They still want to bomb Syria and Iran. Note also Iran's leader are described and fundamentalist Muslims funding terrorism and yet they are more willing to negotiate with President "Blackula" than the Tea Party.
• Reckless disregard for the safety of themselves and others. They voted to gut the SNAP programme, in Colorado springs they gutted emergency services because they did not like taxes and needed federal help when wild fires hit. Poll numbers show the GOP is being slammed hard as Americans realize the shutdown is been forced by intransigent kooks on a mission from a belfry bat. While Cancer kids on drug trials are not getting treatment WIC recipients will be under nourished.
• Consistent irresponsibilityConsistently they blame the president for every thing that is not wonderful, including the the steaming pile of national debt and unfinished wars, 1% failure rate of the clean energy in investment programme, the slow recovery (which is normal for a banking breakdown) that they obstructed by preventing infrastructure maintenance and development that would stimulate growth.
• Lack of remorse They are actually happy to have brought the US government to it's knees, Michelle Bachman said she was "very excited".

As Michelle Bachman last weekend expressed joy that in her view the President was bringing about the end times she was glee filled secure in her certainty that she would finally see her invisible friend.

Congressman Yoho(that really is his real name), looked forward to defaulting on the national debt saying it would bring stability. It is worth noting that former President Ronald Reagan's condition has been very stable around three decades, but it is safe to say there is little hope for recovery in his case. In all seriousness, defaulting would have serious implications for American and international business concerns. Notice how Yoho, and his agreeable colleagues have not deferred to the wisdom of economists or their donor base in forming this opinion. There is some speculation as to what tools they used to arrive at their conclusion, reading tea leaves, rune stones, ouija-boards, chicken entrails, or long drunken conversations over spiced baby goat simmered in its mother's milk.

One study on the subject of conspiracy theories, showed 4% of republicans believe reptilians are trying to take over the government. the fact it reality is much worse, at least reptilians would be rational, but since the Reagan era cuts to mental services, consumers have to find new accommodation, some of them appear to have chosen the people's house.

The dreaded Obamacare not only makes it easier for Americans to access general medical services, but also gives them access to mental health services too. This means sedatives, antipsychotics, SSRIs, and many other tools of the pharmacopia would become available to them and with the right counselling  they would be encouraged to develop consciousness of their actions and empathy for others. Their fear perhaps lies, in the notion of potential guilt knowing how many and how much they have hurt people many of them Americans whom they swore to serve as representatives, but to whom they have said through their actions "I got Mine, Fuck you."

Don't be surprised when Louie Gohmert vows "We must be prepared stop the Muslim Brotherhood by any means necessary, and so we directing NORAD to target the Whitehouse. And we demand to see the aliens at Area-51."

If there is a lesson to be learned here, it one accepted by many modern and well governed countries around the world, it is this we don't vote for crazy people, at least not often. Sure it may be reasonable to not have a religious test for public office, though holding the position that the Earth is less than 10,000 years old may call into question a candidates analytical prowess. But how about psyche exam? Nothing fancy, let's just be sure as we can be that powerful nation don't leaders who are inclined to drive their nations into self destructive spirals of nationalism, race-baiting, persecution of minorities, foreign wars, and economic hari kari in the name of "The Creator".

See also
   Salon - Christian delusions are driving the GOP insane

In Historically Unprecedented Move, Congressional Research Service Finding Is Squelched

Republicans moved to silence a Congressional Research Service scientific report that showed Supply Side economics is little more than a counter-factual narrative that leads to deepening income inequality and has little effect on economic growth.

According to the CRS paper:

Throughout the late-1940s and 1950s, the top marginal tax rate was typically above 90%; today it is 35%. Additionally, the top capital gains tax rate was 25% in the 1950s and 1960s, 35% in the 1970s; today it is 15%. The real GDP growth rate averaged 4.2% and real per capita GDP increased annually by 2.4% in the 1950s. In the 2000s, the average real GDP growth rate was 1.7% and real per capita GDP increased annually by less than 1%. There is not conclusive evidence, however, to substantiate a clear relationship between the 65-year steady reduction in the top tax rates and economic growth. Analysis of such data suggests the reduction in the top tax rates have had little association with saving, investment, or productivity growth. However, the top tax rate reductions appear to be associated with the increasing concentration of income at the top of the income distribution.

The paper was published in the lead up to the 2012 election, even though it was mentioned by the New York Times, the headline was so muted, and the article slanted by finishing off with a talking point the author had made a $5000 contribution to Democratic political causes. No reader, going by the article alone could accurately assess the nature of the article, or its veracity. This slimy trick could be applied to the discovery of a cure for cancer using stem cells of the patient by claiming the researcher eats babies for lunch. [Ed. Watch out researchers your big pharma competitors might actually try that].


If you are having to tighten your belt, and to do so, you have to punch a new hole in it, it's not just you. If your doctor is telling you that you have to eat more, but you're left with month at the end of your money, it's not just you. You are one of millions who have been swindled, not just out of any hope of prosperity, but out of any hope of even a comfortable standard of living.

If you have three of those 10,000,000 new jobs Rick Perry has bragged about the solution is not to get a 4th one. your only getting 6 hours of sleep a week as it is. What needs to change is the minimum wage. it must raise to a living wage, California has started the process, and from January 2016, Californian workers cannot be paid less than $10/hour. This is how it starts, workers will migrate to California and other states offering living wage levels. States sticking with the "I got mine, f*ck the rest of you" minimum wage rates, will find it harder to attract worker. So Texas will once again see net migration depopulating the state. Her only hope in the near future is Wendy Davis becoming Governor. But even if Wendy's Campaign does not take her into the the Governor's mansion, she will raise issues, and mobilize a Texan population that is turning blue not only from demographic trends but also from the strangle-hold of  theocratic anarcho-capitalist* aristocratic governance that has blighted the state for nearly 20 years. Texas becoming a blue state is inevitable on current trends. Republicans in Texas know this and it is why they a so keen to gerrymander the states electoral boundaries and laws, especially the winner -takes-all law.


* Anarcho-capitalism refers to the concept that governments should not regulate industry, which is fine until your unregulated fertilizer plant explodes or Wall Street tanks your economy by gambling your money and a mega tonne of money it doesn't have on risky stock market trades in junk markets like junk bonds and underwater mortgages.

See also
   BusinessInsider.com
   ThinkProgress.org

As Shutdown takes hold GOP demand more...

House Republicans, gleeful and bouyed by their success in shutting down federal Government, have issued new demands.

Michelle Obama must do her in the style of Nancy Reagan
Bring back Eight track tapes.
Release Elvis Presley from Area 51.
Make Chastity belts fashionable.

After every thing else that they have demanded is it so hard to believe anymore they would make such demands? Sadly the truth is such foolish behaviour is more credible than it should be.  For all their posturing over Obamacare, however, the above demands might well have been the GOP's primary focus, for all it actually matters to them. While they have chosen healthcare reform as their focus, it could have been anything, even building a mile long spaceship to boldly go where no one has gone before, for this crapfest, any turkey will do. Since 2009, Republicans have been plotting a government shutdown, because nearly pulling it off 17 years previously was so much fun the first time. In 2009, Orrin Hatch commented that health care reform must be stopped or it will become so popular no one would vote Republican again.

That's their goal. Move people into government that way. Do it in increments. They've actually said it. They've said it out loud.
...
A step-by-step approach to socialized medicine. And if they get there, of course, you're going to have a very rough time having a two-party system in this country, because almost everybody's going to say, "All we ever were, all we ever are, all we ever hope to be depends on the Democratic Party."

The entire spectacle is little more than a political stunt design to make the Democratic presidency look bad to those in their base and those with an affinity for the GOP and let's not forget the low-information-voters or as political-science calls them - dip-shits.

To the architects of this charade, It does not matter than 800,000 hard working federal employees wont know when they'll get paid next, or that the job market is so broken they may be unable to support themselves for the duration. It does not matter that it will hurt foreign trade relations. It does not matter that it hurts the tourist trade. Nor does it matter that the American people want the provisions of Obamacare when they under stand what they are.

In fact that last point, sort of does matter, they know that when Obamacare is fully implemented, Like the UK's NHS, the people will fight to defend it and may hold a grudge against those who have sought to destroy it. Their greatest fear is the American people will never vote Republican again. they need to train with Yoda some more, these crackpots are too exposed to the darkside, and soon to be Empiror Palpitine, who's now going by the name Ted Cruz is bent on destroying the republic. Looking back to a week or two back, did we not just have a slaughter of younglings? When the Teahadists voted to cut the SNAP programme, this action targets the 21.8% of American children living in poverty. The head of Panera tried eat from US$4.50/day, it made him "listless and grumpy". We also know, that the physiology of the juvenile brain is such that, hungry kids don't learn well.

Rachel Maddow took a look this issue hours before the shutdown took effect.
Ultimately, Republicans have Obama exactly where he should want them for the 2014 mid-term congressional races according to Quinnipiac University...

source

As Abraham Lincoln said, the Bible is not my book, nor Christianity my profession. But for those that are here is a clue that maybe your God does not side with the party.

Sounds to me like this character wants to kick their asses. Pity that, like Star wars, it is fiction. I'm greatful that reality rarely as bad for the average 1st world punter as it is in such melodrama. The  GOP of course should be especially greatful, I guess.
Greek thinker Seneca said "Religion is seen by the masses as true, by the wise as false, and by the powerful as useful." Which is likely why GOP Representatives were busy quoting some of the worst parts of the bible, while preparing to vote to take food from hungry children and seniors.  Keep an eye on dog food stock prices.

See Also
    Kochs behind ridiculous ad campaign to get young people to break law.
    Religious kookery for shutting down the Fed Gov- huffpost.

The biggest fraud in two centuries

The Secret of Oz

Author L Robert Baum author of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, wasn't simply penning an entertaining children's story, he also authored a political allegory to highlight the biggest scam perpetrated upon the American nation.
The characters of the book were representations of political forces and players involved. Dorothy's shoes in the original story were silver, but were change to ruby in he movie to take advantage of the new Technicolor process, but the change also lost much of the symbolism of Baum's work. The brainless scarecrow represented the American farmers, who without college degrees understood the basics of economics. The tin woodsman represented the American worker who has been dumped into unemployment because of a lack of capital in industry. The cowardly lion represented William Jennings Bryan who railed against perpetrators of the biggest fraud ever seen but after two failed presidential runs withdrew from the movement that was trying to reign in the den of vipers.
The phrase “den of vipers” may seem strong, hardly even presidential. However it was the language of President Andrew Jackson, before one of the vipers assassinated him. But may not have been the only time this den of vipers struck at the power of the people to undo their ruse. Abraham Lincoln created the Greenback to return prosperity to the economy for which he as paid back with assassination at the hands of John Wilkes Booth.
The great fraud lies in the notion that private banks are the best institutions to control the money supply. This despite the “business cycle” tanking economies and destroying lives. How do they consider regular working people? Their language should tell us something, “inferior social strata”, so perhaps like a child looking down on ants and pointing the focal point of a magnifying glass in the sun at them.
You can no more borrow your way out of debt than can governments. Yet to “save” the “too big to fail” banks the US Government borrowed nearly one trillion dollars to give back to the same banks to “prevent collapse”. Indeed, while Republican scoffed at the idea of minting a trillion dollar coin to avoid the sequester, it may actually be the best way out of the untenable position of the rocky need for monetary injection in to the US economy and the hard place of having to pay back with interest any money borrowed from banksters.
The most pervasive part of the fraud is that government cannot be allowed to control the money supply, and yet history is replete with examples of governments successfully managing the money supply. To perpetrate this fraud there is the knee jerk reaction “governments can't print money because that would drive inflation.” And yet every few years the banks triple the money supply through mortgages and other lending.
North Dakota has a bank that is a bit different, it offers low interest loans, backed dollar for dollar by monetary reserves it actually holds. This bank has contributed hugely to the stability and prosperity of the state. And they've been doing this for over 90 years.

Ron Paul is a shill

Ron Paul's calls for a return to the gold standard simply plays into the agenda of the banksters, The gold standard, is simply a means to controlling the money supply favour by the banksters. It is a mechanism that has been used to promote the wealth of the money lenders / banksters and in the process has destroyed governments and civilisations.
It gets worse, it has been reveal that the libertarian movement was started by business interests as a pro-business fake grass roots movement in the 1970's and David Koch even ran as a presidential candidate on the libertarian ticket in 1979.

There has to be a better way.

Well yes there is. Nationalising reserve banks and keeping control of the money supply at arms length from politics and private banking interests in order to provide a moderated supply of money allowing for economic grow to a level of prosperity. At the same time requiring banks to have the assets to back the loans it issues.
Managing the transition is important, the first thing governments can do is create money to pay off the debts it owes. As they do this over time they increase the required level assets backing lending. Thus, you and I would not notice very much in banks operates towards us. But we would over time notice that business were hiring, new business were starting up and hiring, our pay checks would grow, poverty would shrink, to levels not seen in forty years.
The fact is no government is really in danger of running out of money. All they have to do to get out of banksters cuffs is grease them with cash they create. The very definition of sovereign goes back to the notional of governmental authority to control the money supply. In this sense the governments of the United States is no longer a sovereign state it is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wall Street.

It has been done before.

I've already mentioned the Greenback, there are many other examples including tally sticks created by an English king to Scrip created in collonial America. In New Zealand, during the 1930's the 1st Labour government created the state house building programme, this program was funded by debt free money created by the government. The injection of money into the economy led to a great period of prosperity not seen since.
I can almost hear the off key whine buy tories/GOP pudits say “but they failed”. Technically they are correct, but these things did not fail before they met and unnatural sticky end. Successive National governments watered down the state house build programme and reverted to bankster borrowing and whinged about how it was so expensive, and eventually started selling off the state house stock. Government issued currency in the US got killed along with two of its presidents.
In Adams Smith's time, their was a quaint way dealing with speculators, the had them executed. Smith himself had little time for banksters, writings make it clear that banks must be strongly regulated.

“Though the principles of the banking trade may appear somewhat abstruse, the practice is capable of being reduced to strict rules. To depart upon any occasion from those rules, in consequence of some flattering speculation of extraordinary gain, is almost always extremely dangerous and frequently fatal to the banking company which attempts it.” - Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, PART III. Of the Expense of public Works and public Institutions, ARTICLE I.—Of the public Works and Institutions for facilitating the Commerce of the Society.

When banksters and their shills say such method failed, what they really mean is these methods didn't create the socio-economic separation they feel they need to feel superior to everyone else. Or the point to economic collapses started by policy changes friendly to their interests, such as recalling the Greenback or repealing Glass-Stiegal, they never blame these collapses on these changes of course. They even call the 2008 collapse “natural” but indeed there is nothing natural about it. A steady supply of money from government would ensure a steady economy, indeed economies are struggling today under austerity precisely because money is being vacuumed out of economies through taxes to pay back loans that governments can never pay in a system where money only comes from borrowing from the lenders they are paying.

See also
  Libertarian party history