Paul Craig Roberts: The Real Crisis is Not the Government Shutdown, But Rather the Lack of Intelligence with Integrity Across US Society

03 Economy, 04 Education, 11 Society, Commercial Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Cultural Intelligence, IO Impotency, Officers Call
Paul Craig Roberts
Paul Craig Roberts

The Real Crisis Is Not The Government Shutdown

The inability of the media and politicians to focus on the real issues never ceases to amaze.

The real crisis is not the “debt ceiling crisis.” The government shutdown is merely a result of the Republicans using the debt limit ceiling to attempt to block the implementation of Obamacare. If the shutdown persists and becomes a problem, Obama has enough power under the various “war on terror” rulings to declare a national emergency and raise the debt ceiling by executive order. An executive branch that has the power to inter citizens indefinitely and to murder them without due process of law, can certainly set aside a ceiling on debt that jeopardizes the government.

The real crisis is that jobs offshoring by US corporations has permanently lowered US tax revenues by shifting what would have been consumer income, US GDP, and tax base to China, India, and other countries where wages and the cost of living are relatively low. On the spending side, twelve years of wars have inflated annual expenditures. The consequence is a wide deficit gap between revenues and expenditures.

Under the present circumstances, the deficit is too large to be closed. The Federal Reserve covers the deficit by printing $1,000 billion annually with which to purchase Treasury debt and mortgage-backed financial instruments. The use of the printing press on such a large scale undermines the US dollar’s role as reserve currency, the basis for US power. Raising the debt limit simply allows the real crisis to continue. More money will be printed with which to purchase more new debt issues needed to close the gap between revenues and expenditures.

The supply of dollars or dollar denominated assets in foreign hands is vast. (The Social Security system’s large surplus accumulated over a quarter century was borrowed by the Treasury and spent. In its place are non-marketable Treasury IOUs. Consequently, Social Security is one of the largest creditors to the US government.)

If foreigners lose confidence in the dollar, the drop in the dollar’s exchange value would mean high inflation and the Federal Reserve’s loss of control over interest rates. It is possible that a drop in the dollar’s exchange value could initiate hyperinflation in the US.

The real crisis is the absence of intelligence among economists and policymakers who told us for 20 years not to worry about the offshoring of US jobs, because we were going to have a “New Economy” with better jobs.

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Berto Jongman: War on Drugs a Failure — Could This Be Government Policy and the Desired Outcome?

04 Education, 07 Health, 09 Justice, 11 Society
Berto Jongman
Berto Jongman

War on illegal drugs failing, medical researchers warn

Illegal drugs are now cheaper and purer globally than at any time over the last 20 years, a report has warned.

The International Centre for Science in Drug Policy said its report suggested the war on drugs had failed.

The report, published in the British Medical Journal Open, looked at data from seven international government-funded drug surveillance systems.

Its researchers said it was time to consider drug use a public health issue rather than a criminal justice issue.

Read full article.

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Eagle: Charles Hugh Smith on Why the Higher Education System is Doomed

04 Education, 11 Society
300 Million Talons...
300 Million Talons…

Why the Higher Education System Is Unsustainable (i.e. Doomed) 

Higher education is a self-serving cartel that is failing students, the economy and the nation.

That which is unaffordable is unsustainable and will go away. The current system of higher education is profoundly unaffordable: it exists on an immoral foundation of student debt–$560 billion of which is Federal. Enormous expansions of student debt are required to keep the current system of higher education afloat. This chart shows the insane trajectory of Federal student debt:

 

Read full article with graphic.

See Also:

 

SchwartzReport: Cost of 11 Days of War = 1 Year Free Tuition at All Public Colleges

04 Education, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Idiocy, Peace Intelligence

The headline says it all, and I have been unable to get this statistic out of my mind since I read it this morning. We have beggared ourselves as a nation through an endless series of wars whose only beneficiaries are the war profiteers

11 Days US Unlawful Wars Cost = 1 Year Free Tuition For All US Public Colleges
CARL HERMAN – Washington's Blog

Eagle: Eight Reasons US Youth Do Not Fight Back…

04 Education, 07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Cultural Intelligence, Officers Call
300 Million Talons...
300 Million Talons…

8 Reasons Young Americans Don't Fight Back: How the US Crushed Youth Resistance

The ruling elite has created social institutions that have subdued young Americans and broken their spirit of resistance.

July 31, 2011  |

Traditionally, young people have energized democratic movements. So it is a major coup for the ruling elite to have created societal institutions that have subdued young Americans and broken their spirit of resistance to domination.

Young Americans—even more so than older Americans—appear to have acquiesced to the idea that the corporatocracy can completely screw them and that they are helpless to do anything about it. A 2010 Gallup poll asked Americans “Do you think the Social Security system will be able to pay you a benefit when you retire?” Among 18- to 34-years-olds, 76 percent of them said no. Yet despite their lack of confidence in the availability of Social Security for them, few have demanded it be shored up by more fairly payroll-taxing the wealthy; most appear resigned to having more money deducted from their paychecks for Social Security, even though they don’t believe it will be around to benefit them.

How exactly has American society subdued young Americans?

List only:

1. Student-Loan Debt.

2. Psychopathologizing and Medicating Noncompliance.

3. Schools That Educate for Compliance and Not for Democracy.

4. “No Child Left Behind” and “Race to the Top.”

5. Shaming Young People Who Take Education—But Not Their Schooling—Seriously.

6. The Normalization of Surveillance.

7. Television.

8. Fundamentalist Religion and Fundamentalist Consumerism.

Read full article.

David Swanson: Two US States Focus on Free/Affordable Education

04 Education
David Swanson
David Swanson

Now Two States Pursue Truly Affordable Education

Maryland may soon join Oregon in exploring solutions to the crisis of student debt and unaffordable education.

Education is supposed to be a human right.  But the United States puts people into deep debt to pay for it.  Short of taxing billionaires or dismantling bombers (both of which we're all, I hope, working on), what's the solution?

The state of Oregon has passed a law creating a commission to study a plan called “Pay it forward. Pay it back.”  See Katrina vanden Heuvel: An Oregon Trail to End Student Debt.

This is not a plan to make education truly free, and that would probably be ideal.  But this is not, I think, a step that would move us away from that goal — in the way that strengthening but tweaking the private health insurance system arguably moves us away from a single-payer solution.

This is, however, a plan that makes college tuition at state universities initially free.

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Eagle: If McDonald’s Paid a Living Wage…..AND Served Healthy Food?

03 Economy, 04 Education, 07 Health, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude
300 Million Talons...
300 Million Talons…

How Much Would A Big Mac Cost If McDonald's Workers Were Paid $15 Per Hour?

The plight of McDonald’s minimum-wage workersmade headlines earlier this month when the burger chain published a much-maligned sample monthly budget, purportedly aimed at helping its staffers save money.

In recent days, armchair prognosticators have taken their concerns to the internet, wondering on Twitter and in comments sections whether they’d be able to afford McDonald's MCD +0.96% food if the company doubled its workers’ wages.

Arnobio Morelix, a student at the University of Kansas School of Business, found himself asking the same question, so he did some financial modeling based on McDonald’s annual reports and data sets submitted to investors.

Morelix’s take: If McDonald’s workers were paid the $15 they’re demanding, the cost of a Big Mac would go up 68 cents, from its current price of $3.99 to $4.67.

A Big Mac meal would cost $6.66 rather than $5.69, and the chain’s famous Dollar Menu would go for $1.17.

“Some folks online are complaining they will not pay $2 for their Dollar Menu, but the truth is that even if McDonald’s doubled salaries the price hike would not be 100%,” Morelix said. “I will be happy to pay 17 cents more for my Dollar Menu so that fast food workers can have a living wage, and I believe people deserve to know that price hikes would not be as high as it is often portrayed.”

Read full article.

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