Economics
WEALTH AND MONEY PART XI: ENDING GOVERNMENT DEBT
The town of Plentyville had public land used to grow food for its people. The farmer was hired to plant the yearly crop and at harvest time the village sold the produce to its citizens for sustenance through the winter. Proceeds were used to provide community services.
The system worked well until a year when the farmer had problems with his tractor and had to spend his savings on repairs. Low on money, the farmer bought his annual seeds and fertilizer from the supply store on credit. This, of course, left him in debt. Because the supply store was waiting for payment ...
WEALTH AND MONEY PART X: DEBT – THE ULTIMATE WEAPON OF CONQUEST
“Meet the Campaign to Fix the Debt, the billionaire-funded project that uses Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles as figureheads for a fear mongering campaign to convince Americans that the deficits the United States has run throughout its history have suddenly metastasized into “a cancer that will destroy this country from within.” It is the latest incarnation of Wall Street mogul Pete Peterson’s long campaign to get Congress and the White House to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid while providing tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy.” ...
How Would You Spend $1 Trillion Dollars?
How Would You Spend $1 Trillion Dollars?
It is tax time again. Where do your taxes go? Would you rather see your tax dollars spent better? If you could be in charge, how would you spend $1 trillion?
Budgets are about choices. It is about choosing what you can do, or not do, with limited resources. Congress sets spending priorities each year in the Federal “discretionary” budget. They decide whether to spend more on education or tax breaks, cancer research or food stamps, space exploration or housing assistance, diplomacy or bombs.
The Federal budget ...
WEALTH AND MONEY PART IX: FRACTIONAL RESERVE BANKING AND THE FREE HOUSE
“Commercial banks create money, in the form of bank deposits, by making new loans. When a bank makes a loan, for example to someone taking out a mortgage to buy a house, it does not typically do so by giving them thousands of pounds worth of banknotes. Instead, it credits their bank account with a bank deposit of the size of the mortgage. At that moment, new money is created. For this reason, some economists have referred to bank deposits as ‘fountain pen money’, created at the stroke of bankers’ pens when they approve loans.”
- - Bank of England Quarterly ...
HOW WOULD YOU SPEND $1 TRILLION?
If you could set the priorities, how would you spend the money? Look at current Federal budget priorities and vote for how you would prioritize funds.
WEALTH AND MONEY PART VIII: FRACTIONAL RESERVE BANKING
It started with goldsmiths. As early bankers, they initially provided safekeeping services, making a profit from vault storage fees for gold and coins deposited with them. People would redeem their "deposit receipts" whenever they needed gold or coins to purchase something, and physically take the gold or coins to the seller who, in turn, would deposit them for safekeeping, often with the same banker. Everyone soon found that it was a lot easier simply to use the deposit receipts directly as a means of payment. These receipts, which became known as notes, were ...
POVERTY IN WISCONSIN IS HIGHEST IN 30 YEARS
Poverty in Wisconsin hit its highest level in 30 years between 2010 and 2014. 738,000 people were living in poverty--a 20% increase from the previous five year period.
Inequality is worse now than in 1984. Poverty increased more dramatically in Wisconsin than many other states and is increasing at a faster rate.
239,000 (or one in five) children are living in poverty. This is 18.5% of Wisconsin’s children—a dramatic increase of 50,000 more children from the period of 2005-2009.
Research shows that brain development in children is affected by poverty due to ...
WEALTH AND MONEY PART VII: PUBLIC BANKING AT THE CITY AND LOCAL LEVEL
Saving banks at any cost, making the public pay the price, foregoing a firm commitment to reviewing and reforming the entire system, only reaffirms the absolute power of a financial system, a power which has no future and will only give rise to new crises after a slow, costly and only apparent recovery. The financial crisis of 2007-08 provided an opportunity to develop a new economy, more attentive to ethical principles, and new ways of regulating speculative financial practices and virtual wealth. But the response to the crisis did not include rethinking the outdated ...
DEAR DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE
DEAR DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE
First, permit me to introduce myself. My name is John Spiegelhoff and I am a middle class voter in the Midwest. I think it is appropriate to inform you that I have voted Democratic since as long as I have been a registered voter. I have financially supported Democratic candidates mostly at the state and local levels. Since-really-all politics are local. Or so I have heard.
So with that in mind, I wish to respond to your survey but not on the mind numbing pre-fill form that you sent me along with the obligatory “send us some ...
UPDATE ON PULP AND PAPER INDUSTRY IN WISCONSIN
By Nancy Stencil 86th Assembly Candidate / www.stencilforassembly.com
Wisconsin Welcomes You” is the visitor friendly message on the highway signs along our borders. Five years ago an additional notice was suspended underneath: “Open for Business.” Our state (unlike before, presumably) had now instantly transformed into a place for limitless corporate opportunity-and profit! A plethora of jobs awaited just beyond the horizon, and an era of stagnation, never quite documented but loudly proclaimed, was finally over.
One business that Wisconsin has ...
