Sovereignty versus the Zealots for Ignore-ance . .



Sovereignty versus the Zealots for Ignore-ance
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Reason One
Why Today's Balanced Budget Discussions Are Ridiculous
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The core value of money
the reason why this clever invention has survived the ages:


money enables wise national governments to operate
on budgets that look unbalanced when scrutinized by bean counters.

By Bob Komives
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The only way to force bean counting to a balanced federal budget in the United States of America is to give up the dollar and fund our national government with euros, yen, pesos, diamonds, Honda motorcycles, !beans!, or some other item the federal government does not produce.
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Even good economies need to be bailed out when they don't mint and print their own money. If this were not true, there would be no need for federal disaster assistance. The reason why the federal government passes large sums of money to states in  crisis is that it can. That’s what governments with sovereign  currency can do and states and countries without sovereign currencies cannot do. That’s what the Euro Zone can do as an entity, but which its members cannot do as proud-now-humbled countries. 
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To strap our nation to a bean-counter version of balanced budget it will be necessary to rob the nation of its sovereign currency—and thereby, much of its sovereignty. Sadly, for those who wish it otherwise, this is the only honest way to do it. The debate over how to balance federal dollars-out with federal dollars-in makes as little sense as a debate over how to navigate our flat earth. To participate, one must be a faithful zealot for ignore-ance.  For the core value of money, and the reason why this clever invention has survived the ages, is that money enables wise national governments to operate on budgets that look unbalanced when scrutinized by bean counters.
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Wikipedia says California has the 8th largest economy in the world. The "G7" powerful economies, it would seem, should let California in and call itself the "G8." Yet, California is a wimp when it comes to dealing with natural disasters of the scale that most wealthy countries could absorb without calling for significant outside help. California has asked for and received thirteen declarations of Major Disaster by the federal government in this young century alone. These declarations brought national budget money into the state to deal with the aftermath of the events. If you and I did not notice, it's because we weren't victims, we didn't pay attention, and perhaps because none of the disasters were of a scale that would legitimately shock the world into action. 
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They were disasters such as wildfires, mudslides, flooding from a broken levee, and, yes, a couple of earthquakes. These were disastrous events to many people and to some of the natural and man-made resources of California. However, why did California need a targeted bail-out by the federal government to deal with the aftermath? Certainly there are countries who don't have one of the top eight economies in the world that could have suffered some of these events, struggled temporarily through to recovery, and gone on to an economic resurgence with little or no outside help. What's the difference? 
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The difference is money—specifically, home-grown, sovereign currency. California, like the Euro-zone countries, must budget using somebody else's currency.  Paul Krugman, in a piece well-titled "Spanish Prisoner," explains the difference by comparing the situation in Spain to that of the United States. There are more similarities than differences in how the two economies entered this depression but they face huge differences in their means to foster recovery.

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