saltwind 78 Loc: Murrells Inlet, South Carolina

Bernie Sanders, the US Senator from Vermont admits he is a socialist. He has a reputation of being absolutely honest and, a crusading champion of liberal causes. I don't know his agenda for American capitalism. He is loved by the people of Vermont.

JMHO Loc: Utah

Yep, a hardcore admitted socialist (borderline Marxist)...who will NEVER become president of the United States. We may have a lot of entitlement dependent voters and low information voters, but the American voters are not stupid enough to set this country back 40-50 years. You can take that to the bank.

robmull Loc: florida

Communists, socialists, fascists, Theocracies, dictators, tyrants, LGBT's and Islam have ALWAYS been straight-up with America, 78. Just because they are all coming out-of-the-closet in America currently doesn't mean "WE" are no-longer the Elective Constitutional Republic our Founding Fathers envisioned when "WE" cast-off from the Euro-socialist pagan-leaning society a few centuries ago. Or does it???

MarvinSussman

Take this to the bank. You cannot find a single error in fact or logic and it will drive you into frothing vituperation:

A PURELY RATIONAL VIEW OF CONGRESSIONAL SPENDING AND TAXING CONTAINING NO OPINIONS, ONLY FACTS AND LOGIC.
1. Inflation is caused by too much money buying too few resources (goods and services) and is harmful whenever moderate interest rates cannot keep annual inflation below 3%. By discouraging saving and encouraging investment, annual inflation between 2% and 3% is beneficial. Annual inflation below 2% is dangerously close to deflation, which is a disaster caused by too little money buying too many resources. Who would spend a dollar today if it would buy more stuff tomorrow? With illiquidity threatening all commerce, our economy would freeze, as it did early in the Great Depression of the 1930s.

2. Our Constitution obliges Congress to spend on raising armies, navies, etc. and sets no limit on spending or debt. Thus, Congress has no need for income and its supply of money has no limit. Congress is responsible for directing the economy; the President exerts control only by influencing Congress. By over-spending and/or under-taxing, Congress could cause harmful inflation, the only limit on its spending. As its main purpose, federal taxation reduces inflation by confiscating money from would-be consumers. Thus, spending and taxing are a source and a drain for a money supply that can vary widely between them.

3. The Federal Reserve System (the Fed) is a creature of Congress and, in theory, can be pressured to do Congress’ bidding. Political science professor Michael D. Reagan has written that: (from Wikipedia)

“…the “ownership” of the Reserve Banks by the commercial banks is symbolic; they do not exercise the proprietary control associated with the concept of ownership nor share, beyond the statutory dividend, in Reserve Bank “profits.”…Bank ownership and election at the base are therefore devoid of substantive significance, despite the superficial appearance of private bank control…”

The Fed, besides administrating a check-clearing service, is mandated by Congress to seek “…maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates…” With the last two items being closely related, this is often called the Fed’s dual mandate. In fact, it is only Congress itself, with its spending power, that can directly carry out the employment mandate. Thus, Congress has dishonestly shifted this critical responsibility onto a subordinate incapable of succeeding in the task.

The Fed mainly influences the economy via interest rates. It sets the overnight federal funds rate and buys and sells government guaranteed assets: treasuries on the open market, mortgage-backed securities from Fannie Mae, etc. The Fed creates fiat money for the purchases, adding liquidity to the marketplace. Those who sell their treasuries accept greater risk and seek greater yield in stocks, commodities, real estate, etc. This raises prices and inflation, lowers long-term interest rates on treasuries, and tends to reduce short-term rates. Thus, borrowing and buying becomes easier in a recession, as the Fed wishes. Of the profit made annually by the Fed, 94% must be returned to the Treasury. In 2014, about $90B was returned.

4. By consuming resources, Congress’ spending increases inflation and opposes deflation. It also combats recessions by adding to consumer demand for resources (see: J. M. Keynes). Ultimately, by consuming sufficient resources and adding sufficiently to consumer demand, Congress’ spending can end recessions. (See: H. Schacht, A. Hitler, and World War II. Tragically, B. H. Obama ignored economic history.)

5. More and/or better infrastructure improves our productivity and reduces our costs. Our nation’s wealth is increased whenever Congress, through private contractors, builds infrastructure by hiring people and resources that would otherwise remain idle. Also, the greater spending of hired people increases inflation.

6. Inflation and our nation’s wealth are increased whenever Congress, through private contractors, builds infrastructure by hiring people and resources in competition with private industry, limited only by the onset of harmful inflation. Congress choses the competition winners through spending and taxing.

7. In the past hundred years, the only serious inflation was caused by an energy shortage and not by over-spending. The frictional unemployment rate is that irreducible amount, generally assumed to be at least 3%, caused by people being in temporary flux. Unemployment rates greater than 3% are caused by chronic underspending by a Congress worried about inflation that is caused mainly by bank lending, which creates most of our currency. The only cure is better bank regulation, opposed by Congress’ majority!

Pricing construction labor at an annual $40,000 average salary and assuming a population of 150 million adults, each percentage point of unemployment represents $60B of infrastructure not produced. Over our past forty years of fiat currency, we have lost $2.4T of infrastructure for every percentage point of excess unemployment and its equivalent in underemployment and non-participation in the work force. The total easily exceeds $18T, more than 20 times larger than the 2009 stimulus and sufficient to provide enough desalination plants and the energy to run them to make all our deserts bloom and provide food and all the other agricultural and forest products we require. Fear of inflation is the cause of poverty!

8. For Congress, money is only a means of keeping score and never a store of value. Congress can increase the funding of its trust funds by any amount of money. Among other funds, Congress can fully fund FEMA, the Highway Trust Fund, the Medicare Trust Fund, and the Social Security Trust Fund. Congress requires only resources and time to provide our nation with needed highways and other infrastructure, medical care for all, and sustenance for all the aged. For that, Congress will need everything but money. Instead of putting money into a trust fund, it would be far more practical to invest in infrastructure for the future.

9. The above statements are true regardless of any federal debt. Congress could spend without need for borrowing if Congress would only rescind its law requiring that the Treasury, by auctioning interest-bearing treasuries, borrow an amount at least equal to the annual federal budget deficit. Under the former gold standard regime, by providing savers with a better investment than trading their currency for gold, that law protected our gold supply from depletion. The gold standard regime was finally dropped when our large trade deficit allowed foreign governments to threaten depletion of our gold supply.
Since 1973, we have been under a fiat currency regime and have no further need to protect our gold supply. Still enforced, the law unnecessarily increases federal debt and inhibits Congress’ spending.

If, within a brief time, a very large number of savers were to trade their treasuries for cash and spend it, harmful inflation could occur. However, those savers would make such a trade and get rid of their dollars only if, by our failure to maintain and renew our infrastructure, we allow other nations to far exceed our productivity, to surpass our manufacturing ability, and to dominate our nation in the world marketplace.

10. Only an irrational or moronic voter could possibly disagree with any of the preceding statements. In a just, rational society, such disagreement would bring disenfranchisement. Fiat iustitia et rationalitatem!

©2015 Marvin Sussman All Rights Reserved. Permission granted only to copy entirely. May 28, 2015

JMHO Loc: Utah

Blah, blah, blah...yawn...ho hum...more Marvin bullshit economics...yawn...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

©2015 JMHO All Rights Reserved.

robmull Loc: florida

Funny, [peculiar, not ha, ha] but while I was watching my OPP screen's diversity of political subjects, 78, I was about to do a "thread" on "Our government is being run like Baltimore," and the title disappeared. Just disappeared. Is this "Net Neutrality," and did a "jackass" not like the connotation of liberal progressive "demonrats," overall, having the same "fundamental transformation" of America in mind??? Hummmmmm. Something about liberal progressive "morning talking points???"

JMHO Loc: Utah

I posted that thread "Our government is being run like Baltimore," you can find it on http://frontpagemag.com.

DamnYANKEE

HUH ??? :roll: :roll: :roll: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

no propaganda please Loc: moon orbiting the third rock from the sun

We have a Marxist- socialist in the white house right now, and another one who was secretary of state and is now running for president. At least with Sanders he has admitted that he would like the country to be run like Greece or maybe Russia so we know where he is coming from. Maybe the communists (sorry I mean Democrats) will add Elisabeth Warren to the mix, and have a threesome to choose from.

MarvinSussman

Is that a request for explanation?

3jack

Here is another list of morons who will never become President:

Walker
Bush
Paul
Carson
Fiorina
Christie
Santorum
Cruz
Pataki
Perry
Graham
etc, etc, etc

LAPhil Loc: Los Angeles, CA

So in other words, you're saying Hillary has it in the bag, right? Guess again.

LAPhil Loc: Los Angeles, CA

And the point of your post is?

no propaganda please Loc: moon orbiting the third rock from the sun

I would guess by his post that he admires Marxist socialist dictators. Ultimately there is no way to keep this type of"government " going without a dictator in charge, history proves that.

3jack

I don't know who's in the bag, but I listed some of those who are guaranteed not to be in the bag.