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The Daily Show – American Workforce Makeover
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Well now this is a rather interesting editorial:

Today, we should all be paying attention to a new theme: the simultaneous and significant deterioration in the public finances of many advanced economies. At present this is being viewed primarily – and excessively – through the narrow prism of Greece. Down the road, it will be recognised for what it is: a significant regime shift in advanced economies with consequential and long-lasting effects. To stay ahead of the process, we should keep the following six points in mind.

El-Erian goes on to list six points that make most people’s eyes glaze over.  Indeed, the entire editorial is one of those things that reminds one of Alan Greenspan and his famous “how to write 3,000 words and yet never find two people who agree on what you said.”

The final three paragraphs are worth reading though:

This leads to the sixth and final point. We should expect (rather than be surprised by) damaging recognition lags in both the public and private sectors. Playbooks are not readily available when it comes to new systemic themes. This leads many to revert to backward-looking analytical models, the thrust of which is essentially to assume away the relevance of the new systemic phenomena.

You mean things like taking in 30% of what the government spends via taxes, then dismissing this as “oh we’ll just issue some more T-bills”?

There is a further complication. Timely recognition is necessary but not sufficient. It must be followed by the correct response. Here, history suggests that it is not easy for companies and governments to overcome the tyranny of backward-looking internal commitments.

Uh, did you parse that one folks?

“…..tyranny of backward-looking internal commitments”

That’s code for “entitlements that were promised to people but cannot possibly be provided, no matter how long people howl – or how loudly.”

Where does all this leave us? Our sense is that the importance of the shock to public finances in advanced economies is not yet sufficiently appreciated and understood. Yet, with time, it will prove to be highly consequential. The sooner this is recognised (sp), the greater the probability of being able to stay ahead of the disruptions rather than be hurt by them.

Forget it.  One need only look to Greece, where telling people they have to actually go to work and produce something in order to earn a public-sector salary produces riots.

If you think we’re “more advanced” in our thinking here in the United States you’re simply insane.

Times like this require a man in the left seat with a big fat church-bell sized set of balls, and the willingness to be unpopular enough to be a one-term wonder.  This is inherently in conflict with the narcissist personality required to run for President in the first place.

Nobody who wants the job and is electable to the office is fit for it at a time like this.  I’d do it if drafted, but I’d never put up with the crap required to get there, nor am I electable – because I refuse to lie in the fashion required to obtain the office.  Stumping for votes while pointing out that promising to pay $100 trillion in Social Security and Medicare that we don’t have and can’t acquire, that if we try to print our way out of debt that “obligation” will go from $100 trillion to $250 trillion (which still can’t be paid), and that the sort of measures required to bring the economy and government back into balance – at both a state and federal level – will result in massive shifts in the economy’s balance and, in the short-term, lead to even more pain, are not popular.  To the contrary – not one person receiving those handouts would vote for me, and since they’re nearly half the population there’s not a snowball’s chance in Hades that I could carry the day at the polls.

So what’s required is a paradox.  You need a man or woman who will run for the office saying all the “right things” while lying through their teeth.  Someone who will shed that veneer the instant the election is over, then take the left seat and be a five-alarm bastard once in office, placing a big sign on the door “$ = NO!”

Someone who will take a look at The Constitution and if they can’t find whatever it is being proposed in the four corners of the text, it’s gone.  That is, Social Security and Medicare – gone.  Provide some sort of subsidy to the states with whatever we’ve actually got in the so-called “Trust Fund” (that is, distribute to them the “special Treasuries” in the so-called “box”) and immediately end FICA.  The States are then free to run the programs as they see fit.  This will instantly force accountability and a transition to a privately-owned pair of accounts, or perhaps one account that provides both functions, since people move and won’t accept anything else.

Someone who will align tax revenue with GDP permanently and radically.  This means The Fair Tax, and if Congress won’t enact it, then The President does it by executive order – by abolishing the IRS’ funding and authority!  Issue an executive order barring the DOJ and other Federal Law Enforcement from enforcing anything in The Internal Revenue Code, and suddenly Congress will become far more reasonable since in order to acquire funds they will have to do the right thing.  Radical?  Yes.  Bye-bye 16th Amendment and “K Street.”

Now go find the rest.  Departments of Education and Agriculture, as just two examples: Gone.  All State Mandates from The Federal Government: Gone.

If you can’t find it in The Constitution it goes back to The States and is regulated within their borders.  The ability of the people to freely migrate from one state to another enforces fiscal responsibility – if you behave like a jackass, such as California has done, you will be rapidly de-populated and without a tax base, your policies fail.  End of discussion.  No more Federal Welfare of any sort.  If The States want to provide it and can fund it, goody for them.  More likely what happens is that The States suddenly find that they can provide lots of workfare doing things that need done, provided they outlaw public employee unions first to disarm those thugs.

On monetary policy it’s simple: The Fed either honors its actual written mandate or they’re gone too.  No more BS, no more opacity.  Everything they do is public and published on The Internet. Send up a bill mandating that any gaming of economic statistics or monetary policy is a federal offense garnering you 20-to-life in the can and demand that it pass or you’ll veto every bill that comes to your desk until it does.

On Credit Default Swaps and other instruments: All trade on a public exchange.  All exchanges in the US are public, non-profit organizations.  The Federal Government will run one and The States are welcome to set them up too – but only as public non-profits.  National Best Bid and Offer (NBBO) is guaranteed by law with felony criminal penalties for anyone gaming it – like offering ”Flash Orders.”  Any federally-chartered institution that fails to adhere to One Dollar of Capital is instantaneously closed – without exception.  All firms trading on a public exchange or doing business in The United States across state borders (and therefore under proper federal regulation) is required to produce full, complete and truthful financial statements, without exception.  This means the use of off-balance sheet anything is absolutely prohibited under pain of immediate delisting and felony fraud prosecution.

We adopt a national policy that tariffs are set to provide wage parity.  This will produce howling from the WTO.  Tough.  No longer will we permit wage arbitrage as a reason to offshore jobs.  This is not only Constitutional, it is the premise upon which this nation was founded in terms of how the Federal Government is supposed to acquire its funds!  Combined with The Fair Tax, which will make the United States a corporate tax haven (zero corporate and personal income tax rate) this will result in an instantaneous flood of manufacturing and high-tech jobs back into the United States – all GDP boosters.  The United States GDP would double within a decade.

Refuse to sign any budget that does not run a primary surplus, except in times of declared war.  If Congress or The Administration wants to play International Cop it either funds the entire thing on-budget and pays for it or declares war and has the ability to do so via deficit spending.

Adopt Freedom’s Vision for monetary policy.  No more debt-backed currency.  If The Fed doesn’t like being relegated to a clearing house for payments that’s too damn bad.  Tell the CFTC you’d like them to list a “boiled rope” futures contract just to underline the point.

Radical?  Yes.

The only solution long-term?  Yes.

Will it happen?  Not unless our present Administration grows a set of balls, which it does not at present possess, or someone is willing to both lie themselves into office and then do it anyway.

As a consequence what El-Erian is talking about will happen – an “unexpected” recognition of the reality that what is being done today both is unsustainable and won’t work, but we will do nothing appropriate about any of it until we find ourselves well-off the cliff and furiously pedaling in the air like Wile-E-Coyote – and at that point it will be to late to avoid the ugly consequences.

Any business or organization that wishes to become successful is well served to ask itself a simple, but oh so important question… What is our mission?

Creating a mission statement lifts your head up to focus your eyes squarely on the future and on the ultimate objective of the organization. With that objective in sight, an organization can then create goals and take steps to support and achieve the mission.

Anytime you have many people involved, getting all the various self-interests and egos headed in the same direction is a challenge, to say the least. Just look at all the “grass-roots” campaigns that are springing up all over America. There are a lot of American citizens who rightly are concerned to the point of becoming vocal. But they are generally unfocused, mostly operating without a fundamental understanding of the root causes much less a clear objective. This lack of objective and focus allows various agendas and points-of-view to pull the groups off target and allows the opposition the opportunity to practice divide-and-conquer.

Does America seem divided right now?

“You just want a handout, that’s ____ism, you _____ist!” Says Jane.

Angry, John retorts, “Well, I’m a _____ (religion), and I don’t care who supports common sense economic reform, if they are for ______ (the state of Israel, gay rights, abortion, running in the park naked, etc.), I will NEVER vote for them! Oh, and by the way, your brand of ____ism comes straight from the myths of ____ology!”

“Okay, well I’m just going to go start the left-wing, anti-____ libertarian 3rd party faction of the pro-____ movement! You right-wing, red state, freedom sucking so-and-so!”

Is your eye off the ball yet?

This is exactly the type of distraction and “debate” that central bankers and other special interests finance (and the media propagates) when they provide funding for politicians who frame in these types issues.

Meanwhile our entire nation is suffering the effects of ever increasing debt loads… 11% of our entire nation is currently on food stamps (half the nation’s children will be fed at some point by them), shrinking retirements, debts that cannot ever be repaid, a banking system surviving only by marking their “assets” (debt instruments) to “model,” losses of freedom, and all but the bankers are being squeezed by the higher costs created by acts far outside the rule of law and any sense of morality (not to worry about them, they are still receiving their six to eight figure bonuses).

Come on, we are all American citizens and we are all in the same sinking ship together, none of us are immune. It is time for all of us to get focused on the key issues that will dramatically impact everyone’s lives, including the future of our children if we don’t act soon, and act together!

Can you recite the mission statement of the United States of America? No?

What are our goals in America, to “get credit flowing to the consumer again?” Hmmm… is it safe to say that perhaps we are serving someone else’s mission statement?

Let’s all join forces and work together to get our nation back on track! We can start by clearly defining our own mission.

Who are we? We are officially the American Party PAC. Our suggested reforms are found within the pages of the “American Party Papers,” otherwise known as Freedom’s Vision. Our method of implementing reform is called “Swarm Politics.” Our organization’s Immediate Action and long term Mission Statements follow:

Immediate Action Mission Statement

Enact monetary and political reform capable of transitioning our economy from its current debt and derivative entangled state to a prosperous & sustainable system that works to keep the quantity of money under control for the very long term.

Reform must:

1. Maintain the integrity of the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law.

2. Provide a common and debt-free dollar currency for the nation that is controlled by the people through our elected representatives in Congress, yet contains checks and balances working to ensure that the quantity of money remains under control for the very long term.

3. Provide meaningful, fair, and equitable relief for people, businesses, local, state, and federal governments.

4. Work to keep people’s experience with money as close as possible to what they know, believe, and expect.

5. Work to limit the influence of special interest money on politics, yet not discourage business nor unnecessarily interfere with the ability of capital to concentrate here in the United States.

6. Be capable of transitioning without creating severe inflation or deflation.

7. Maintain stable prices over time, yet allow for underlying growth or contraction in economic variables.

8. Be able to withstand severe shock.

9. Provide complete monetary transparency.

10. Create transparent, meaningful, timely, and historically relevant government economic data.

11. Be able to withstand attempts at manipulation or subterfuge.

12. Not allow the buildup of excessive debts or leverage.

13. Promote free enterprise and competition to build a robust and dynamic economy.

14. Cleanse and maintain a healthy and prosperous financial and banking system.

15. Contend with international ramifications.

16. Not create ongoing moral hazard.

17. Provide incentives and the means to encourage timely implementation.

Reforms must be enacted in a timely manner if we are to avoid the events that history proves follows excessive accumulations of debt, leverage, and money quantity.

Is it possible to create a monetary system that accomplishes all this? Yes! Is there anything on that list that one would not consider a worthy quality? If someone suggests reform that does not accomplish all of the above, then you must ask yourself what is their special interest? Reform must strive to benefit everyone equally.

Long Term Mission Statement

The Survival and Prosperity of the United States of America and the entire Human Race into perpetuity.

My, that’s a lofty goal! Yes it is, but please think about this… is there any American who could not agree that to be a worthy objective?

If survival and prosperity are your forever objective, then what steps must be taken to achieve that objective? Those steps become your goals.

Would it not behoove us to create a stable, dynamic, and lasting money system that can survive the test of time?

Would it not behoove us to prioritize education? Should developing abundant and clean energy be a national priority?

Go right on down the list of things that our government spends money on, and all at once the priorities begin to fall into place.

Take a good look at this – “In the latest quarter, the interest paid on the debt in December was $104.6 billion — 34% of federal outlays for the month (December deficit nearly doubles)!”

More than one third of our expenditures went to pay interest on the national debt? And that does not include the carrying costs of all our unfunded future liabilities, not even close. Is that an expenditure that supports the survival and prosperity of the United States into perpetuity? Didn’t think so, but most people don’t realize that it simply does not have to be this way. Please support Freedom’s Vision, thank you.

*Cover art by AZ Rainman