The title, "Operation Intervention Failmerica", speaks for itself. America needs an economic intervention. Enough is enough of the "Charge it" mentality and of Wall St acting like the current market practices are economically sound, and that our lotto jackpot style stocks and bonds are something everyone should be investing in. These guys are either lying about their confidence in the security of the markets to benefit from the results of the lies, or they really don't know what they are talking about. I'm guessing it's a bit of both. After all, a successful fiat system in which the fiat units are unbacked is a relatively new concept, and it is in it's infancy. No matter what these guys say, even the most honest among them and well meaning ones, they really don't know exactly how things will play out and honestly it's become pretty obvious. It is leading to constant devaluing of our currency, and I'm not seeing 99% of us getting any significant raises to offset this effect.
The basis of the Intervention Failmerica concept is pretty simple. America is obviously failing hard right now, I'm calling Failmerica because of that, and it needs an Intervention. Right? Anyone can understand it. It's straightforward, no bullshit, and even if it sucks to hear, read, or talk about, it needs to be talked about. You should go help #OCCUPYWALLSTREET if you agree, because they agree, and they are talking about it and they are Occupying Wall St. as a result.
Much of modern Wall St. trading to generate wealth, especially robot trading, are simply illegitimate economic practices that need to be brought to an end. This wasn't what the open trade markets were meant for. Assuming a market within normal volitility parameters, these trade-bots can manipulate prices to whatever the algorithm programmers desire. And then they can maintain the prices. The bailout money that was supposed to create jobs? A lot of it went into trading bots on Wall St. It didn't create jobs, it created a leverage mechanism to further warp the under-regulated system that is responsible for warping things this badly in the first place.
Additionally about Wall St.; a sound economy needs to end the legality of buyout liquidation practices of real physical business as means of instant liquid cash generation. It needs to do that by forcing sales profit of such entities back into the economy as monetary reinvestment in our nation’s physical infrastructure. These liquidation profits create massive liquid cash holdings that warp our dollar by holding the wealth represented by our economy, outside of our economy. This needs to end. Liquid holdings need to be capped, forcing money over this limit back into investmentsd in physical infrastructure.
This will FINALLY CREATE THE JOBS WE NEED. IT WILL CREATE PROPER LEVELS OF INCOME TAX REVENUE TO PAY THE BILLS AND DEBTS, AND RETURN US TO AN AGE OF ECONOMIC PROSPERITY.
I'm not even going to pick about spending. Spending is a non issue. Our entire concept of infinite wealth has led us to an entirely broken economic model. We need to eliminate this debt mythology and call it what it is; a failed system of under-regulated libertarian economic policy. We need to break the addiction of constant credit on both ends of the system. The creditors are addicted to 23%, "you missed a payment" interest rate income, and the poor are addicted to getting things without saving money for any of it. It doesn't do any good for either end. And most of the things the poor have to buy on credit, shouldn't need "credit" involved as a medium of attaining them in the first place.
We need to eliminate the incentive of the majority wealth holders to fore-go income payments in lieu of capitol gains bonuses. Income is taxed at around 35% for earners over $330K a year while the capitol gains bonuses are taxed at a 15% tax rate.
We need to eliminate the practices of industrial acquisition with the intent of liquidation of factories and businesses. These businesses have real value that has much more long term stability than liquid "in the bank" type, cash type holdings. As a result, physical holdings hold their value better than liquid holdings like those that are traded on open markets. At the same time physical business infrastructure assets provide income to a much larger group of people, employees, businesses in the area of the employees; this serves to effectively, "spread the wealth" rather than have it sitting worthlessly in a bank. These physical infrastructure form holdings generate real incomes and generate real tax revenues. We need to stop allowing liquidation of viable business entities for the sole purpose of a single individual to make a percentage gain on the liquidation action. The majority wealth holders do this for the sole reason that it generates an amount of money that is greater than the initial investment. They make money, but they do so without paying any heed to the real social costs of their actions, or any respect to the impact it will have on the workers that made the entity worth that money in the first place.
These wealth hoarders don't care about anyone but themselves and the amount of money sitting in their accounts. They have no concern, care, or worry about you, your income needs, your right to a share of the wealth you have helped generate, your family, your kids, your life, your health. The wealth hoarders don't care about any of it. They care about generating wealth, AND KEEPING IT. Their every action is from the motivation to increase the number in their bank statement. These are driven, successful, disturbingly intelligent people. We need to harness them again, their ability, their leadership, their ability to thrive economically, and set things back on the right track. The one thing we can't let them do any longer, and needs to be stopped, is to allow the unchecked collection and holding of liquid money.
Liquid money of course is not necessarily cash, it can also be considered the amount in a bank statement, or other holding that is easily ready and constantly liquidly available. In an un-backed-unit, fiat-currency system like that of the US, liquid holdings represent the economic total of physical US wealth. This physical wealth is finite, and the more units of liquid currency there are, the less each unit is worth. Our units are dollars, and every-time someone gets a billion dollar units and sits on them (for example), we have to introduce new units to keep the system running. Now all of those units are worth less they were before those units were taken out of system circulation. Infinite units cannot be taken out of circulation. The introduction of the new money units devalues all of the previously existing money, and by default, devalues the goods, services, products, assets, etc. This drives inflation. You get paid less money by your employer because your wage stayed the same and the money's value became less.
RIGHT NOW, THERE IS TOO MUCH LIQUID MONEY. IT MAKES US ALL POORER WHILE THE RICH CONTINUOUSLY DRIVE THE AMOUNT OF MONEY IN CIRCULATION, EVER HIGHER.
There is something similar to a maximum attainable amount of wealth in a desirable society. I'm not talking like Stalin where we all get a cot and a nook, and I'm not talking about an end of capitalism, or a move towards communism. I want a pool, and a fiat currency, and a free market to shop in. Hell, I’m an American and for all our systems failures, it gets a few things right. I don't want to barter when i go to BJ's, and I don't want there to not be a BJ's.
We just have to remember that this entire system is in it’s infancy. It’s an un-backed fiat currency system. It’s all new. I think it could work, profit motive vs public service aside, and the fact that white-collar crime is overlooked in Washington and on Wall St. these days aside, I am sure a fiat system is necessary as humanity moves forward into the future. The longer we fail to recognize though that there is a maximum amount of wealth to represent with units of fiat currency, the longer we will suffer in the infancy of this system.
We have to regulate Wall St and banks again. These Alan Greenspan years of "hands off, let's-deregulate and watch", libertarian economics are a failure. What we need is regulations in place to protect the poorer earners from economic slavery to the wealth holders/builders. We need to force our top earners to hold that wealth in physical assets in our nations finite physical infrastructure again. I’m not even saying we need to take it in tax form and have the government do it, I’m saying the government plays a minimal role in guaranteeing that this wealth comes back into the system, to avoid warping the system. The wealth hoarders can still hoard the wealth, just not the way they are doing it currently. It’s a pretty small adjustment, and not exactly unreasonable or painful. Seeming infinitely smart men with seemingly infinite lines of bullshit trying to harness an infinite wealth that doesn’t exist is a rabbit-hole, trap-door, fairy-tale that we badly need to wake up from, LIKE YESTERDAY.
This plan isn't perfect, but it's not a radical change. It's an acknowledgement of reality, and a nod to a much better future. Right now it's a start, A PEACEFUL START, AND MOTHERFUCKERS, THAT SOUNDS DAMNED GOOD RIGHT NOW. EVEN TO ALL THE COPS THAT JUST LOST HALF THEIR 401K.
Someone is steering this country into the ground and they are doing it extremely well whether there is the presence of a vicious purpose or not. The modern cry of the Tea-party scares me really, I address it in another note, but what it boils down to is this; Uneducated people in an unregulated society are wealth-building cannon fodder, especially for wealth builders with money to program what you are going to think and the amoral ability to hire thug enforcers when that’s what’s called for to maintain the status quo.
Hello Tea Party redirection propaganda.##
“Schools are costing us too much money!”, “Deregulate!” “It’s all the evil and corrupt governments fault!” To me this screams lunacy and is quite obviously the next step in the wrong direction. We need to end our complacency in the face of “Expert” criticism, fix this system, and put the rich back into a position where they are benefitting society as a result of being financial sharks. It just doesn’t work when it’s the other way around. This means CONTINUING education funding, MAINTAINING REGULATIONS, and even FURTHER REGULATING when it is due and necessary.
The structure of a plan like this actually encourages wealth building at much lower income levels; AKA traditional savings for rainy days and retirement become a far easier accomplishment. This structure eliminates decidedly unhealthy wealth building at the mega-rich level which is a detriment to all of us, even the mega-rich that are building that wealth, whether they realize this truth or not.
We can all live happier, more productive lives. We can all have more time to hobby, tinker, care for our health, pursue education, etc. at far less stressful levels physically, mentally, and monetarily than currently exist. This is especially true for the lower earning classes as a result of the stresses of the current system.
We can all make more money working fewer hours.
We can all strive to own 5.8 billion dollars in business holdings, if not 5.8 billion dollars in cash money. They sky is still the limit; you just can’t stockpile insanely large amounts of raw cash any longer, period. You have to put that money back into the US as business investments to hold it, or pay it up in taxes.
Mega-bonuses in lieu of normally taxable pay are simply out of control and completely unacceptable. Let's fix that with the PROPER BONUS AND CAPITAL GAINS TAXATION ADDENDUM.
Bonuses will go directly onto yearly income for all earners earning more than 200,000$ dollars and for all bonuses exceeding 50,100$. For all other earners below 200,000$ dollars gross yearly income, cumulative yearly bonuses totaling up to 50,100$ are tax exempt. EG you can’t receive 2 or more 50k bonuses in a year without it counting towards your income at any income level, period. The tax bracket addendum rule applies here. EG you earn 205,000$ and get a 49,000$ bonus, you will not take home less than an earner making 198,000$ that has received the same bonus.
This is job generation, and a dagger in the heart of many factors that are currently dragging this nation into what has been predicted as the inevitable decline of our society. This is a solid step towards curing Failmerica and generating an end to the current labor crisis.
At which point Failmerica would become "America" again. Obviously. Proudly.
A really good watch about capitalism and economics with Paul Jay and Author Ha-Joon Chang, Reader in the Political Economy of Development at the University of Cambridge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_iLg00PuyU&feature=channel_video_title
##NOTE: Regulation info for the tea-party comment. Future blog.
&&Progressive taxation. IT WORKS. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_tax
**Physical reinvestment strategy example, "Charlie Machine's Topless Steakhouse Bar and Girll",
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