Yes, a nice psycho/cultural/historical analysis of post war Europe and the EU. I read several blogs (not this one) where well meaning reformers get off on tangents about “the cartel” “the deep state” etc. The fact is that Capitalism generally and Finance Capitalism specifically are so riven with the psychology of power, profit and control that there isn’t really any need for conspirators to be evilly slavering over some vector analysis board consciously manipulating nations and regions…all that is required is to let leader’s psycho/cultural/historical biases compete for power, profit and control. Having said this, there undoubtedly are Gordon Gecko and Dr. Strange Love types out there, but again the underlying psychology of the paradigm/zeitgeist of PP & C is what must be dealt with if Mankind is ever to flourish…or even survive. All the more to contemplate Wisdom and its pinnacle concepts, and then apply them as policy in our systems.

The minds of libertarians and Austrians clamp shut too quickly…before they consider that a citizen’s dividend is only half of the component policy parts of the solution. The other half being the rebated back to merchants retail discount mechanism….which would not only prevent any inflation, but, it being a true macro-economic mechanism could actually be used to create proactive price deflation….even while creating truly adequate aggregate demand and hence a permanently good business and investment climate. Orthodox “thinking” is the bane of progress. Avoid it at all costs.

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An actual equilibrium between total individual incomes and total costs/prices has never been attained since the industrial revolution, hence the business cycle and the necessary delusions of  Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium as “immutable” orthodoxies to cover the hiding in plain sight dominance of the business model known as Finance. Socialist doctrine of course is no more effective and is historically less gracious and free than capitalism, but why not try a truly third and unifying alternative like the profit making theory of monetary Distributism known as Social Credit?  Short answer…ossified orthodox “thinking” and either ego involvement with one’s own beliefs or the deliciousness of money and power if you work or own in Finance. Break up your intellectual “fallow ground”. It might save you, your sons and daughters and if you’re a business owner, your productive facilities in the very likely historically rhyming war that follows long economic downturns.

Consciousnessonomics is what economic theory and policy needs. We are after all homo sapiens, wise and discerning man not homo economicus.

We are conscious to one degree or another, and present time is where we experience everything….no matter however dimly or vibrantly.  The reality of present time will tend to be expressed no matter what financial and economic orthodoxy to the contrary may purport, whether it be that all money must be created and distributed as Debt by private banks, or that money, which is 99% digital, is necessarily scarce. In other words a scarcity of money in the hands of individuals is a reality long experienced….and actually enforced by the idea that systemic austerity is a good,….despite the fact of our tremendous capability to produce and our ability to also produce money in a basically costless fashion. Orthodoxies and paradigms of necessary monetary and productive scarcity need to be dragged into present time where they can be consciously examined in the light of….all the developed capital lying around all over the place and our increasing capacity  to produce more with less.  The future survival of profit making systems in fact relies upon the majority of businessmen and individuals awakening to the hypnotized financial and economic state they have been conditioned to believe….and that is contrary to good sense and present time reality.

Inflation IS inevitable because the system is complex; because human beings are complex and to one degree or another flawed probably most basically because security is so important and so poorly addressed by the system, and because as Minsky said: “The fundamental direction of capitalism is up.”

As depressing as that seems it is not a hopeless condition because most basically money is creditary, i.e. digital in nature and also, despite the complexity of the system and the legerdemain of Finance, it is basically accounting. So if this is the case then a chronic and continual scarcity of total individual income in ratio to total costs/prices (all profit making enterprises are currently bound to the cost accounting convention that ALL costs must go into price) then that scarcity can be equated simply by gifting the individual a supplementary income. $10 in costs/prices and $5 in wages and salaries + $5 in citizen’s dividend = a continual ratio of $10 to $10.

But wait you say, “the fundamental direction of capitalism is up.” Right. But if you reduce the price at retail sale which is where all costs of goods and services are terminally summed….the individual suffers no inflation, the system’s fundamental tendency is thwarted and, if we’re real smart (because a citizen’s dividend and a rebated back to merchants retail discount are macro-economic policy mechanisms) we discount prices by 30, 40 maybe 50% and we end up with the win-win situation of a stable, monetarily abundant profit making economy…with active price deflation. And additionally you’ve broken up the present monopoly on credit creation by private finance (and its monopolistic claim of ownership of credit it creates out of nothing as well) so that it takes its proper and smaller place in the overall economy.

Finally, these policies wouldn’t solve all possible problems, but they would solve its most basic and chronic one. Human systems, especially if they are made humane by policy, are reflective of human beings. It is a well known and observed behavioral phenomenon that when a neurotic resolves his/her most basic conflict many of the peripheral symptoms in their behavior tend to dissipate/disappear as well. This would probably tend to be the case with the economy as well. And where it didn’t gracious and yet definitive regulation would obviously be called for. But let us have monetary security and the clarity that such security would effect FIRST. Our economic motto should be “Transformational policy first! Rational and ethical regulation…right along with it.

God and Nature are simply two aspects of the same thing, namely Consciousness

The way to overcome resistance to a JG, BIG or citizen’s dividend is simply brush past any objections to them and implement it….probably best by marketing it to women who because part of them becomes another person tends to be a little more anchored to the temporal universe than men and so somewhat less prone to abstractionism. How long do you think even the most dedicated libertarian, conservative, tory arm chair theorist will refuse a citizen’s dividend? As long as they can resist their wives calling them idiots…and until (quickly) they see that everyone else is accepting it. Yes you’ll always have the occasional “iron maiden” like Margaret Thatcher, but in the temporal universe and so long as you have a body, a satisfactory if not abundant income will always trump austerity…even in the most “principled” as in deluded and macro-economically non-comprehending theorist.

The economy is in a chronic and continual state of disequilibrium and has a lot of moving parts, but if your macro-economic monetary policies pervade and bracket the entirety of the economy with the component parts of an equilibrium and at the correct place in the productive process like a citizen’s dividend and a rebated retail discount do then you’ll be able to effect an equilibrium. And an equilibrium that does not have to rigidly adhere to some orthodoxy about equilibrium itself either, but which in fact is fluid and malleable, and enables a proactive “push” toward both the dynamic tendencies of profit making systems and a generally shared abundance that technology and now AI have been trying to create…despite the regressive nature of the business model of Finance .

Positive Money has the right idea about sovereign creation of money, but how can anyone think that a committee of politicians and “experts”, i.e. probably former or current bankers, as generally ignorant of economics and money systems as they are, will have the knowledge and objectivity to create sane policy? Its a job for philosophers of economics and beyond that even, philosophers familiar with the world’s major wisdom traditions, to decipher.

Sovereignty is an aspect of the concept of Grace by the way, the natural concept that is. As a structural entity Public Banking also reflects an aspect of Grace, namely temporal presence, as well as sovereignty if it were a central bank with the power to create money and make monetary policy instead of foolishly allowing private finance to do so. In fact every current cutting edge theory and reform movement has one or more aspects of the concept of Grace as a part of their philosophical underpinning. Maybe we should integrate them and make them whole.

Larry,

The FED is “an arm of the federal government” in name only. Both the federal government and the FED are captive of/act hand in glove with the interests of Private Finance. Private banks create loans which create deposits…and then look for any reserves they may need later. The money system is endogenous. We require a central bank which is both a sovereign branch of the national government and also has policy mandates which effect the economic and financial freedom of the individual and the free flowingness of the system. Those mandates are not mutually exclusive.

The definition of an integration is a combination of truths that brings about a more unifying applicability, workability and ethical good. Integration is the very process of Wisdom itself. Economic theory requires the integration of the self interests of both the business community and the individual, and any business model, any corporate and/or political interest and any economic orthodoxy on the left or the right that is held dear and yet does not enable such integration must drop their opposition to such a unifying and ethical position. Monopoly, orthodoxy, ego and power are all trumped by the ethical imperative of the freedom of the individual and the free flowingness of the system.

Jesus H. Christ, haven’t we suffered enough bloody and enslaved history to rise above acquiesence or mere palliation of problems? The various leading edge theories and reform movements need to band together, integrate their separate aspects of the entirety of the solution, throw off the parasites and in so doing rescue humanity from the historically rhyming predicament of long term economic downturn followed by war…especially in an age of modern weaponry where no one’s life and no one’s productive capacity is safe.

Actually I’ve been wrong all along. There are probably only a couple here who are smart enough and aware enough to become nascent Social Crediters. The rest of you are so caught up in false and outmoded orthodoxy that you’re blinkered and  unconscious socialists.  Refusing to look at the empirical evidence in the cost accounting data of any enterprise and do the calculus on it so as to see that the system is inherently cost inflationary means you’ll all pi$$ and moan about various of your “hobby horse” beliefs until the system becomes completely unstable and we elect some fascist like Trump or an orthodox socialist like Bernie Sanders and we either surrender our freedoms and good sense or we wait around for war to enable us to rebuild our societies…and remain enslaved by the monopolist financiers.  Profit making systems’ only actual hope is the evolutionary natural concept of Grace as in the free monetary gift integrated into profit making systems. Now, clamp shut your minds…and carry on. Those whom the gods would destroy….they first make mad.