All true, all true. Trump and his supporters are now using glamor to launder the oligarchic takeover (see Lauren Sanchez/Bezos at the Met), and they’re winning the messaging war. Facts, figures and white papers aren’t cutting through, and as long as we permit Fox News to lie to 38% of the nation, they never will. Taking the tax issue into the legal system, Trump / Blanche and the DOJ have outright lied about the Southern Poverty Law Center in federal court, and are defending their false pleadings on Fox News, because that is the only audience that matters to them. It's clear to me that nothing will righted until we return to requiring accuracy in the news.
Thom, Can you write about Corbin Trent and A Fight Worth Having? They've published a detailed platform that progressives could run on. Their basic argument is that the US has to invest in public services, built and run by public funds, in order to remake our economy and society -- basically a 21st Century Green New Deal built on the principles of Roosevelt's New Deal. It's very interesting, and I would like to see what a veteran of the barricades such as yourself thinks about it. If it seems as sound to you as it seems to me, it should be something progressives actively support. There is no Democratic Party platform, no clear plan emerging for how a Democratic Party would govern, which means that there is no coherent message against the emerging GOP agenda. Is A Fight Worth Having worth supporting? Please let us know what you think about it. They've done a lot of detailed work. Their position that UBI can't work is something in particular that I would appreciate your analysis of. Thanks!
trump loves debt because he never pays it back & that's what he is doing now in spades! Plus he gets to scam people on a massive scale, enrich himself, his family, his Mar a Lago cronies on the tax payer "dime"!
It is worth noting that the Democrats have done little to reverse this rising national debt trend. With the exception of the Clinton era, the debt has been on the rise since Reaganomics started trickling down on us. Also, some of the steepness is due to inflation. Of course, that is no excuse for forcing average Americans to live paycheck to paycheck.
I will never forget Rep Ocassio-Cortez pointing out that "Nobody earns a billion dollars, they take a billion dollars." That makes it easy to see that taxation is the easiest fix, and that means eliminating or putting an income ceiling on deductions (loopholes) used mainly by the super-rich.
Sadly, that and David Hogg, who dared to suggest primarying geezers into retirement and was kicked off the DNC board, which then a few months later, did exactly what Hogg had encouraged them to do.
Tom-It's going to take a revolution. We can start by calling the " Nazis" in the Trump party just exactly what they are "Nazis" .Secondly we should develope a strategy for going after the Tech Billionaires,not sure what that strategy would be but there has to be some good ideas out there.
Not to pick a quarrel Tom. But the question of the National debt as a political weapon has bothered me.
First the national debt is not like a household debt, There is no sheriff that is going to show up and kicked you out of your house, the worst that can happen if you don't own property is to have your credit rating tank, and not be able to use credit cards, mortgage a house or buy a car on credit.
When it comes to national debt I am a Keynesian. Japan in the 1980's experience a serious depression, their response was to invest heavily in Education, and it paid dividends, for when the depression was in the rear view mirror, the Japanese economy took off like a rocket because they had all of these educated people, caveat Japan differs from the US in that they aren't diploma mills, producing degrees in theater, literature, or mating habits of humming birds.
Here is why the national debt is such a big talking point, it is because the Republican party has used it to beat Democrats over the head, each election cycle, they as Tom stated, when they get in office they explode the national debt, then beat the Dems over the head.
Now for the first time the national debt exceeds the GDP. But how valid is the ESTIMATION of the GDP. It is in actuality a figure pulled out of the air, an opinion.
The real effect is that for the first time in our history, the credit rating of the country has been downgraded, and the effect of that is that US Government Securities have to sell the bonds at a greater discount, When government securities (like Treasury bills) are sold at a discount, investors purchase them for less than their face value (par value) and receive the full face value at maturity. The difference between the purchase price and the face value acts as the interest earned,
To understand the process.
Congress authorizes spending, The bill goes to the Treasury, which prints government securities, which is sold at discount to the Association of Primary Dealers in Government Securities (a cartel of 25 banks, always 25, members come and go), the cartel then sells the securities to 1. The Fed and 2. Overseas investors, l like Central Banks, Sovereign funds, like Saudis, Public Investment Fund (PIF)
When primary dealers sell U.S. government securities (Treasuries) to overseas investors, it generally facilitates the financing of federal debt, keeps domestic interest rates lower than they might otherwise be, and supports the liquidity of the Treasury market. This process is crucial because it allows the U.S. to import capital to cover fiscal deficits, while fostering demand for dollars in international trade
This nation, it's economy is based on built on debt. No debt means no money,no money means no jobs, no purchases, means hunger, crime.
And by debt I mean all debt, public and private, government securities and credit cards
There is no such thing as a balanced budget. A truly balanced budget where expenses (government spending) equaled income (taxes), would mean stagnation.
The US is now in uncharted territory that could trigger dollar devaluation in a way that would make Hormuz look like Pickleball from a household finance perspective. The danger as I see it is how psychologically lenders and investors react to a super-high debt. Trump is the first president to force world leaders to worry that the US will not honor its commitments - Greenland and NATO fuss, for example. We print money, but doing so deflates the value of a dollar thereby inflating the cost of stuff. Stephanie Kelton at SUNY SB, is the champion of Modern Monetary Theory. While she is skeptical of defalt over the debt, that does not mean the price of stuff will not rise as debt rises.
The world is moving away from the dollar, but not because of the national debt, but because of the policies of Trump.
The world no longer has faith nor trust in America., it has been moving away from the petrodollar and moving towards the renmembi,(the yuan)
For instance, Iran, who sells it oil, primarily to China, but also to Pakistan and India requires patyment in the yuan and cyber coin, and most amusingly the Trump coin., which fattens Donalds purse.
I am are of the book Modern Monetary Theory, and also the book The Creature from Jeckyl Island., which is basically based on a monolith I wrote (138 pages, with footnotes and refencences) to meet a requirement for my master degree. I put out on the net under a pseudonym back in the late 1990's
My starting point was the Federal Reserve Conspiracy by EustaceMullins, I later found out that he was a fascist and anti semite, but he had info that I could and did verify. footnote and reference, which he did not.
To understand money in the modern world. I obtained a foot locker full (literally) of publicans, free, from the Federal Reserve, Inc. The NY Fed distributes the books, and publications from the Bank of International Settlements, and the Bank of Israel. those are the only banks that honored my request. I also found some academic books on Soviet Banking and Marketing.
Most importantly the pamphlet, Modern Money Mechanaics, download free at
Explains how money is created, and thus inflation.
All money is created out of debt, public and private.
No debt, not money, hence deflation and depression. Financial institutions love deflation, it enables them to repossess real assets, they hate inflation, because you can pay off mortgages and large loans with cheap money, as did the Germans during the German hyper inflation, not the of 1922. Workers were paying off mortgages with the wages of one hours of work.
As regards inflation. There are two types, Short Term and long term.
Short term is an increase in the money supply, caused by an increase in the demand for debt. No debt means money.
The short term increase is reduced by taxes. You have heard of the money multiplier effect. that money goes around seven times or so, before it is taxed out of existence. but also money created out of debt is wiped off the books as the principal is paid off.
What doesn't disappear is the interest on the debt. The act of indebtedness only creates the principal, but not the interest.
It is the cumulative interest on all debts, public and private, that creates inflation.
The inflation that has caused a #.05 candy bar in 1972 to cost $2.00 today.not the money supply per se.
As debt rises so will inflation.
And debt is not a buggy aboo, if wages and salaries keep pace, by the over class, doesn't want that, the over class depends on serfs
What is the sense of being a millionaire and flaunting your wealth and class,if there is an opulent middle class.
Henry VIII had this problem, his fathers policies, actually created a middle class of shop keepers, producers guilds men, who were so wealthy that they started to dress like the nobility, even own carriages and carry swords, built manor homes, estates and earned money from rents and leases.
The nobility complained to Henry, so he issued an edict forbidding all but the nobility to wear linen, furs, silk and dress like the nobility.. called the Sumptuary laws.
The only free press is Free Speech TV, and small scale publications and even those are under threat from lawfare by the Trump Crime family and its associates. Father and son team Larry and David Ellison own CBS and CNN, Bezo's owns WAPO, NYT is gun shy of being sued, again and again, by the Trump crime family and it's assoicates.
ABC and NBC are controlled by Robrt Iger and Brian L Roberts, and live in fear of Brendan Carr, Trump's FCC.
Independent media are sued or threatned to be sued constantly, such as Meidas touch, and Jim Stewardsons Mindwar..
Are we really in a different place than Hungary under Orban.?
We are already living in a surveillance/police state, with Palantir, AI, the NSA server farm at Bluffdale, UT.
We need our own Peter Magyar, but one not so right wing.
William,glad you mentioned Palantir,the surveillance/police state under the direction of Alex Karp,a maniac. More people should become familiar with Palantir,they are the verge of letting americans know when it is time to go to the bathroom. Will americans get up ion arms before it is to late.
Palantir and the NSA Data center at Bluffdale, UT work in synchronicity and if there was ever a big brother it is they. Scary, very scary.
People don't realize that eveyrthing that is transmited electronically, including stuff you order on the net, post on substack, reddit, is sniffed by the NSA data center.
And now anyone who is anti the right wing establishment is flagged as a terrorist.
Including anti fascist, which means that the regime is fascist.
The New York Times has a lengthy article on that topic today. Thom has a good history of it in one of his books, probably "The Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America."
While the perspective is appreciated, let's not forget that Democrats sold us out to the for-profit health care conglomerates further robbing us and our treasury, and over the past 50 years they have approved $60 trillion for the military and their false wars. Biden could have negotiated a peace with Putin before he invaded Ukraine, but instead pundits like you perpetuated the Red Scare and spread propaganda to justify his rejection of any shred of diplomacy. Another $150 billion down the drain. Not to mention the wasted lives and ravaged infrastructure of both Ukraine and Russia. So while the Republicans are as awful as you say, Democrats are just as wasteful and while they've thrown us a few more scraps than Republicans they still do the bidding of the ruling class. The proof is in where our country is today. Last time I checked there was supposed to be an opposition party but how precisely has that opposition protected us? https://barryjkaufmando.substack.com/p/no-democrats-its-not-republicans
I agree with you about the Dems selling out to the for profit health care conglomerates.
Disagee wholeheartedly about Putin.. Putin is fixated on reesablishing the Soviet Empire, he bemoaned the collapse of the Soviet Union, and to reclaim the Soviet Empire, requires first subduing Ukraine.
Enough of that Red Scare b.s., i is old, shop worn, and stupid in 2026. However you are basically admiting that Putin's Russia is indeed communism, reformatted, the plight of the peasants is unchanged, the only difference is now there is a visible prominent over class of oligarches.
If you were a real true Marxist, the economic and political structure of Russia would outrage you and you would be cheering on any attempt to destroy this colonial empire.
Absolutely. Show the facts, history and visceral truth and contrast. Flyovers of the mansions, compounds, giant houses with elevators for their cars, 14 stall garages, the Met Gals, the super yachts. Show the record oil company profits from 2022, when they were charging $6/gal for gas to create “inflation” to make Biden look bad. Show the CEO pay and bonuses. Contrast average CEO pay vs worker pay in the 60s and 70s vs those of today. Show the top tax rates on the rich from then (92% to 70%) vs today with billionaires paying 4%. Show the increases in wealth for Zuckerberg, Musk and others over just the last 10 years. Republicans have wages class warfare on the middle class since 1981. Time for us to declare class warfare on the Republicans and their rich benefactors. FDR fought and beat the “economic royalists” of his day. We need another FDR to defeat today’s morbidly rich and reverse the disastrous policies of Reagan, W Bush and Trump.
The current Republican solution is to take healthcare and food from the poorest Americans to continue giving tax cuts to the richest. I propose the opposite solution to this debt crisis. Since the rich gained the most from these deficits they should have to pay off the National debt.
I propose a National Debt Elimination Wealth Tax (NDEWT), which tax revenue can only be used to finance the deficit or purchase the National Debt. This would be a progressive tax structure. The first $10 million of wealth would be exempted. Between $10 to $100 Million would have a 2% rate, with a maximum tax of $1.8 Million.
$100 Million to-$1 Billion 3% rate, max tax $27 Million.
$1-$100 Billion 4% tax rate , max tax $4 Billion
Over $100 Billion 5% tax rate.
The tax would be paid by purchasing special National Debt bonds that would pay zero interest. The bonds will only be used to finance the deficit and once a surplus has bee reached to retire national debt. The bonds could not be cashed in or traded. At the time of the bond holders death the bonds would be returned to the government to eliminate that amount of national debt.
Wealth would be determined by stock value at end of year, property value would be appraised, insured or purchase price, whichever is most current. Billionaires that have a trust to give all or most of their wealth away would not be taxed on that wealth since they are already helping the less fortunate. The National Debt should be paid off as a percentage of private wealth, not as currently calculated per capita.
Sorry, but to me, what you propose sounds like trying to fix something by giving it a new coat of paint. I do like the idea of forcing a percentage of tax revenue to buy down the debt. But until we all pay our fair share of taxes (restore higher rates for those benefitting the most from government services (e.g., corporate America), there will always be loopholes to skirt taxes.
Government securities were redeemed by tax revenue, First the interest, then if any left over redemption of maturing debt. If maturing debt exceeded revenue, the the Treasury printed more securities.
The current situation, because corporations and billionaires don't pay their fair share, then all revenues are going to pay interest on debt, since there is nothing left to redeem maturing bonds, the Treasury has to print and the APDGS sell more government securities, and because our government credit rating has been downrated. out securities are having to be sold at discount.
Wealth is more important than income especially stock value. Capital gains tax rate cuts and carried interest for hedge fund managers have created the New Gilded Age. Need to restore inheritance tax and capital gains taxes for stock appreciation not just when it is sold. Restoring the old tax rates will not work.
The word wealth is misused. Wealth isn't measured in dollars and cents, Wealth is what makes you happy. I consider myself wealthy, but not even a millionaire.
Agreed on reinstating the inheritance tax, capital gains tax, and capital loss carryovers.
There are a lot of things tha NEED to be done, question is How?
No argument there. However, how one defines wealth is fuzzy to say the least when it is derived from non-monitored sources like salary and possessions. IRS does not know about my house in Europe, cars, bank accounts etc. It is too easy for very wealthy people to hide assets all over the world. IRS has no way to find hidden wealth in a well-manicured tax return.
Not sure taxing stock appreciation makes sense because not all stocks appreciate. Do I get a tax refund if a stock loses value? How would my ETF managers keep track of all those daily trade gains and losses? What would the impact be on investment generally? My motivation for stock investments is to serve first as an inflation hedge for accumulated unspent income.
If I put my excess income into a CD at 3.8%, and inflation is 4.2%, I have lost money by putting it in the bank. Start taxing investment gains, and inflation takes the air out of your re-tire savings. Of course, if I had a comfortable pension, then wealth is less of an issue as most of my pension is taxable. Our complex capitalist system is not that easy to re-engineer due to unforeseeable consequences that could make things worse.
My wife had her before tax deductions and contributions put in a tax deferred program, well managed,and because she came of age (72 1/2) where she had to withdraw, and withdrawal meant a flat 20% tax, she had it transferred, sans tax deduction, to an annuity run by another company (well established) and when she withdraws from it in the future, it will be taxed at our current rate.
The zero interest bond is how the wealth tax is paid to insure that all the tax goes to finance the debt. The way to calculate wealth is the same way Forbes calculates wealth to produce the billionaire list. If stocks go down or wealth goes down you do not get a refund you just pay less next year. The same as if the value of your house decreases and thus your tax assessment on the property goes down but you do not get a refund. Remember we start this tax at $10 million which will allow the IRS to concentrate on a much smaller population. The great inequality of wealth of financial assets has to be addressed. It is much more skewed than income tables.
Please, please, let us stop all this griping about the present and make the future assured….so that they can come to make all Hartmann’s things come to pass.
Money worries are not enough for them. Donald's Zombies will not "Get It" until MTG, Tucker, or Alex leads a demonstration that the Federales massacre.
#Vote to kick Rupert and his yellow-rag back to Oz.
The petro-dollar system allowed free printing of money while the Middle East dictators propped up the dollar. American governments used the dollar as a powerful cudgel to impose sanctions, seize the assets of foreign countries like Russia and Iran blocking access to the SWIFT system that all countries trading in dollars needed. Now, the game is almost over. China and other countries are gradually dumping their dollar holdings and systematically undermining treasury bonds. The Yuan is offering an alternative to sanctioned countries and doing just fine. Even the Emiratis and the Saudis are seriously using the Yuan.
Maybe the inevitable collapse of the dollar will awaken policy makers do veer more toward manufacturing and less toward financialization. The world is changing and we seem to be mired in our own self-delusion.
Great article. All the public service’s American money could buy, and how things should be, such as renewable energy, national healthcare and free tuition make an excellent pollical platform. Candidates could also suggest making an improved, low cost, national passenger railroad. Unfortunately, Americans don’t miss all the good things they never had, and will have to be educated about and convinced that Republicans are leading us down a road to hell, and how public services, socialists and socialist democrats can improve our lives.
All true, all true. Trump and his supporters are now using glamor to launder the oligarchic takeover (see Lauren Sanchez/Bezos at the Met), and they’re winning the messaging war. Facts, figures and white papers aren’t cutting through, and as long as we permit Fox News to lie to 38% of the nation, they never will. Taking the tax issue into the legal system, Trump / Blanche and the DOJ have outright lied about the Southern Poverty Law Center in federal court, and are defending their false pleadings on Fox News, because that is the only audience that matters to them. It's clear to me that nothing will righted until we return to requiring accuracy in the news.
Sabrina,I agree 100%.How are we going to do that?
Thom, Can you write about Corbin Trent and A Fight Worth Having? They've published a detailed platform that progressives could run on. Their basic argument is that the US has to invest in public services, built and run by public funds, in order to remake our economy and society -- basically a 21st Century Green New Deal built on the principles of Roosevelt's New Deal. It's very interesting, and I would like to see what a veteran of the barricades such as yourself thinks about it. If it seems as sound to you as it seems to me, it should be something progressives actively support. There is no Democratic Party platform, no clear plan emerging for how a Democratic Party would govern, which means that there is no coherent message against the emerging GOP agenda. Is A Fight Worth Having worth supporting? Please let us know what you think about it. They've done a lot of detailed work. Their position that UBI can't work is something in particular that I would appreciate your analysis of. Thanks!
trump loves debt because he never pays it back & that's what he is doing now in spades! Plus he gets to scam people on a massive scale, enrich himself, his family, his Mar a Lago cronies on the tax payer "dime"!
Kleptocracy by the Oligarchy!
It is worth noting that the Democrats have done little to reverse this rising national debt trend. With the exception of the Clinton era, the debt has been on the rise since Reaganomics started trickling down on us. Also, some of the steepness is due to inflation. Of course, that is no excuse for forcing average Americans to live paycheck to paycheck.
I will never forget Rep Ocassio-Cortez pointing out that "Nobody earns a billion dollars, they take a billion dollars." That makes it easy to see that taxation is the easiest fix, and that means eliminating or putting an income ceiling on deductions (loopholes) used mainly by the super-rich.
Democratic “leadership” regards people like AOC as “radical” annoyances.
Sadly, that and David Hogg, who dared to suggest primarying geezers into retirement and was kicked off the DNC board, which then a few months later, did exactly what Hogg had encouraged them to do.
Tom-It's going to take a revolution. We can start by calling the " Nazis" in the Trump party just exactly what they are "Nazis" .Secondly we should develope a strategy for going after the Tech Billionaires,not sure what that strategy would be but there has to be some good ideas out there.
Not to pick a quarrel Tom. But the question of the National debt as a political weapon has bothered me.
First the national debt is not like a household debt, There is no sheriff that is going to show up and kicked you out of your house, the worst that can happen if you don't own property is to have your credit rating tank, and not be able to use credit cards, mortgage a house or buy a car on credit.
When it comes to national debt I am a Keynesian. Japan in the 1980's experience a serious depression, their response was to invest heavily in Education, and it paid dividends, for when the depression was in the rear view mirror, the Japanese economy took off like a rocket because they had all of these educated people, caveat Japan differs from the US in that they aren't diploma mills, producing degrees in theater, literature, or mating habits of humming birds.
Here is why the national debt is such a big talking point, it is because the Republican party has used it to beat Democrats over the head, each election cycle, they as Tom stated, when they get in office they explode the national debt, then beat the Dems over the head.
Now for the first time the national debt exceeds the GDP. But how valid is the ESTIMATION of the GDP. It is in actuality a figure pulled out of the air, an opinion.
The real effect is that for the first time in our history, the credit rating of the country has been downgraded, and the effect of that is that US Government Securities have to sell the bonds at a greater discount, When government securities (like Treasury bills) are sold at a discount, investors purchase them for less than their face value (par value) and receive the full face value at maturity. The difference between the purchase price and the face value acts as the interest earned,
To understand the process.
Congress authorizes spending, The bill goes to the Treasury, which prints government securities, which is sold at discount to the Association of Primary Dealers in Government Securities (a cartel of 25 banks, always 25, members come and go), the cartel then sells the securities to 1. The Fed and 2. Overseas investors, l like Central Banks, Sovereign funds, like Saudis, Public Investment Fund (PIF)
When primary dealers sell U.S. government securities (Treasuries) to overseas investors, it generally facilitates the financing of federal debt, keeps domestic interest rates lower than they might otherwise be, and supports the liquidity of the Treasury market. This process is crucial because it allows the U.S. to import capital to cover fiscal deficits, while fostering demand for dollars in international trade
This nation, it's economy is based on built on debt. No debt means no money,no money means no jobs, no purchases, means hunger, crime.
And by debt I mean all debt, public and private, government securities and credit cards
There is no such thing as a balanced budget. A truly balanced budget where expenses (government spending) equaled income (taxes), would mean stagnation.
The US is now in uncharted territory that could trigger dollar devaluation in a way that would make Hormuz look like Pickleball from a household finance perspective. The danger as I see it is how psychologically lenders and investors react to a super-high debt. Trump is the first president to force world leaders to worry that the US will not honor its commitments - Greenland and NATO fuss, for example. We print money, but doing so deflates the value of a dollar thereby inflating the cost of stuff. Stephanie Kelton at SUNY SB, is the champion of Modern Monetary Theory. While she is skeptical of defalt over the debt, that does not mean the price of stuff will not rise as debt rises.
The world is moving away from the dollar, but not because of the national debt, but because of the policies of Trump.
The world no longer has faith nor trust in America., it has been moving away from the petrodollar and moving towards the renmembi,(the yuan)
For instance, Iran, who sells it oil, primarily to China, but also to Pakistan and India requires patyment in the yuan and cyber coin, and most amusingly the Trump coin., which fattens Donalds purse.
I am are of the book Modern Monetary Theory, and also the book The Creature from Jeckyl Island., which is basically based on a monolith I wrote (138 pages, with footnotes and refencences) to meet a requirement for my master degree. I put out on the net under a pseudonym back in the late 1990's
My starting point was the Federal Reserve Conspiracy by EustaceMullins, I later found out that he was a fascist and anti semite, but he had info that I could and did verify. footnote and reference, which he did not.
To understand money in the modern world. I obtained a foot locker full (literally) of publicans, free, from the Federal Reserve, Inc. The NY Fed distributes the books, and publications from the Bank of International Settlements, and the Bank of Israel. those are the only banks that honored my request. I also found some academic books on Soviet Banking and Marketing.
Most importantly the pamphlet, Modern Money Mechanaics, download free at
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Modern_Money_Mechanics.pdf
Explains how money is created, and thus inflation.
All money is created out of debt, public and private.
No debt, not money, hence deflation and depression. Financial institutions love deflation, it enables them to repossess real assets, they hate inflation, because you can pay off mortgages and large loans with cheap money, as did the Germans during the German hyper inflation, not the of 1922. Workers were paying off mortgages with the wages of one hours of work.
As regards inflation. There are two types, Short Term and long term.
Short term is an increase in the money supply, caused by an increase in the demand for debt. No debt means money.
The short term increase is reduced by taxes. You have heard of the money multiplier effect. that money goes around seven times or so, before it is taxed out of existence. but also money created out of debt is wiped off the books as the principal is paid off.
What doesn't disappear is the interest on the debt. The act of indebtedness only creates the principal, but not the interest.
It is the cumulative interest on all debts, public and private, that creates inflation.
The inflation that has caused a #.05 candy bar in 1972 to cost $2.00 today.not the money supply per se.
As debt rises so will inflation.
And debt is not a buggy aboo, if wages and salaries keep pace, by the over class, doesn't want that, the over class depends on serfs
What is the sense of being a millionaire and flaunting your wealth and class,if there is an opulent middle class.
Henry VIII had this problem, his fathers policies, actually created a middle class of shop keepers, producers guilds men, who were so wealthy that they started to dress like the nobility, even own carriages and carry swords, built manor homes, estates and earned money from rents and leases.
The nobility complained to Henry, so he issued an edict forbidding all but the nobility to wear linen, furs, silk and dress like the nobility.. called the Sumptuary laws.
The only free press is Free Speech TV, and small scale publications and even those are under threat from lawfare by the Trump Crime family and its associates. Father and son team Larry and David Ellison own CBS and CNN, Bezo's owns WAPO, NYT is gun shy of being sued, again and again, by the Trump crime family and it's assoicates.
ABC and NBC are controlled by Robrt Iger and Brian L Roberts, and live in fear of Brendan Carr, Trump's FCC.
Independent media are sued or threatned to be sued constantly, such as Meidas touch, and Jim Stewardsons Mindwar..
Are we really in a different place than Hungary under Orban.?
We are already living in a surveillance/police state, with Palantir, AI, the NSA server farm at Bluffdale, UT.
We need our own Peter Magyar, but one not so right wing.
William,glad you mentioned Palantir,the surveillance/police state under the direction of Alex Karp,a maniac. More people should become familiar with Palantir,they are the verge of letting americans know when it is time to go to the bathroom. Will americans get up ion arms before it is to late.
Palantir and the NSA Data center at Bluffdale, UT work in synchronicity and if there was ever a big brother it is they. Scary, very scary.
People don't realize that eveyrthing that is transmited electronically, including stuff you order on the net, post on substack, reddit, is sniffed by the NSA data center.
And now anyone who is anti the right wing establishment is flagged as a terrorist.
Including anti fascist, which means that the regime is fascist.
William,this is well beyond scary,myn guess is onlyn about 2% of americns know this.Is there a way to the word out?
The problem is that as Steve Bannon said. throw a firehose at them, and they can't keep up
The problem is information. information is control. Control information and you control the populace.
Those that can disseminate information are too busy dealing with the crap thrown at the fan, especially when they have their own special interest.
How about just concentrating on Palantir,the 3 or 4 bullet points repeated every opportunity.
I understand the tactic.
I think their "Santa" is actually the Grinch, and Whoville has been occupied by ICE.
Thom, can you repost your work on the backstop of citizens united?
The New York Times has a lengthy article on that topic today. Thom has a good history of it in one of his books, probably "The Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America."
Thanks for the heads up.
While the perspective is appreciated, let's not forget that Democrats sold us out to the for-profit health care conglomerates further robbing us and our treasury, and over the past 50 years they have approved $60 trillion for the military and their false wars. Biden could have negotiated a peace with Putin before he invaded Ukraine, but instead pundits like you perpetuated the Red Scare and spread propaganda to justify his rejection of any shred of diplomacy. Another $150 billion down the drain. Not to mention the wasted lives and ravaged infrastructure of both Ukraine and Russia. So while the Republicans are as awful as you say, Democrats are just as wasteful and while they've thrown us a few more scraps than Republicans they still do the bidding of the ruling class. The proof is in where our country is today. Last time I checked there was supposed to be an opposition party but how precisely has that opposition protected us? https://barryjkaufmando.substack.com/p/no-democrats-its-not-republicans
I agree with you about the Dems selling out to the for profit health care conglomerates.
Disagee wholeheartedly about Putin.. Putin is fixated on reesablishing the Soviet Empire, he bemoaned the collapse of the Soviet Union, and to reclaim the Soviet Empire, requires first subduing Ukraine.
Enough of that Red Scare b.s., i is old, shop worn, and stupid in 2026. However you are basically admiting that Putin's Russia is indeed communism, reformatted, the plight of the peasants is unchanged, the only difference is now there is a visible prominent over class of oligarches.
If you were a real true Marxist, the economic and political structure of Russia would outrage you and you would be cheering on any attempt to destroy this colonial empire.
Absolutely. Show the facts, history and visceral truth and contrast. Flyovers of the mansions, compounds, giant houses with elevators for their cars, 14 stall garages, the Met Gals, the super yachts. Show the record oil company profits from 2022, when they were charging $6/gal for gas to create “inflation” to make Biden look bad. Show the CEO pay and bonuses. Contrast average CEO pay vs worker pay in the 60s and 70s vs those of today. Show the top tax rates on the rich from then (92% to 70%) vs today with billionaires paying 4%. Show the increases in wealth for Zuckerberg, Musk and others over just the last 10 years. Republicans have wages class warfare on the middle class since 1981. Time for us to declare class warfare on the Republicans and their rich benefactors. FDR fought and beat the “economic royalists” of his day. We need another FDR to defeat today’s morbidly rich and reverse the disastrous policies of Reagan, W Bush and Trump.
Indie,Agree 100%. How about doing this 5 or 6 bullet points to drive home the point. Remember Americans only have a 19 sec attention span.
Citizens United has been the icing on this corrupt cake.
National Debt Elimination Wealth Tax
The current Republican solution is to take healthcare and food from the poorest Americans to continue giving tax cuts to the richest. I propose the opposite solution to this debt crisis. Since the rich gained the most from these deficits they should have to pay off the National debt.
I propose a National Debt Elimination Wealth Tax (NDEWT), which tax revenue can only be used to finance the deficit or purchase the National Debt. This would be a progressive tax structure. The first $10 million of wealth would be exempted. Between $10 to $100 Million would have a 2% rate, with a maximum tax of $1.8 Million.
$100 Million to-$1 Billion 3% rate, max tax $27 Million.
$1-$100 Billion 4% tax rate , max tax $4 Billion
Over $100 Billion 5% tax rate.
The tax would be paid by purchasing special National Debt bonds that would pay zero interest. The bonds will only be used to finance the deficit and once a surplus has bee reached to retire national debt. The bonds could not be cashed in or traded. At the time of the bond holders death the bonds would be returned to the government to eliminate that amount of national debt.
Wealth would be determined by stock value at end of year, property value would be appraised, insured or purchase price, whichever is most current. Billionaires that have a trust to give all or most of their wealth away would not be taxed on that wealth since they are already helping the less fortunate. The National Debt should be paid off as a percentage of private wealth, not as currently calculated per capita.
Sorry, but to me, what you propose sounds like trying to fix something by giving it a new coat of paint. I do like the idea of forcing a percentage of tax revenue to buy down the debt. But until we all pay our fair share of taxes (restore higher rates for those benefitting the most from government services (e.g., corporate America), there will always be loopholes to skirt taxes.
Government securities were redeemed by tax revenue, First the interest, then if any left over redemption of maturing debt. If maturing debt exceeded revenue, the the Treasury printed more securities.
The current situation, because corporations and billionaires don't pay their fair share, then all revenues are going to pay interest on debt, since there is nothing left to redeem maturing bonds, the Treasury has to print and the APDGS sell more government securities, and because our government credit rating has been downrated. out securities are having to be sold at discount.
Wealth is more important than income especially stock value. Capital gains tax rate cuts and carried interest for hedge fund managers have created the New Gilded Age. Need to restore inheritance tax and capital gains taxes for stock appreciation not just when it is sold. Restoring the old tax rates will not work.
The word wealth is misused. Wealth isn't measured in dollars and cents, Wealth is what makes you happy. I consider myself wealthy, but not even a millionaire.
Agreed on reinstating the inheritance tax, capital gains tax, and capital loss carryovers.
There are a lot of things tha NEED to be done, question is How?
No argument there. However, how one defines wealth is fuzzy to say the least when it is derived from non-monitored sources like salary and possessions. IRS does not know about my house in Europe, cars, bank accounts etc. It is too easy for very wealthy people to hide assets all over the world. IRS has no way to find hidden wealth in a well-manicured tax return.
Not sure taxing stock appreciation makes sense because not all stocks appreciate. Do I get a tax refund if a stock loses value? How would my ETF managers keep track of all those daily trade gains and losses? What would the impact be on investment generally? My motivation for stock investments is to serve first as an inflation hedge for accumulated unspent income.
If I put my excess income into a CD at 3.8%, and inflation is 4.2%, I have lost money by putting it in the bank. Start taxing investment gains, and inflation takes the air out of your re-tire savings. Of course, if I had a comfortable pension, then wealth is less of an issue as most of my pension is taxable. Our complex capitalist system is not that easy to re-engineer due to unforeseeable consequences that could make things worse.
My wife had her before tax deductions and contributions put in a tax deferred program, well managed,and because she came of age (72 1/2) where she had to withdraw, and withdrawal meant a flat 20% tax, she had it transferred, sans tax deduction, to an annuity run by another company (well established) and when she withdraws from it in the future, it will be taxed at our current rate.
I addressed this in my lengthy TLDR answer to Tomonthe beach above.
No one would purchase zero interest bonds, you might was well have a go fund me.
The zero interest bond is how the wealth tax is paid to insure that all the tax goes to finance the debt. The way to calculate wealth is the same way Forbes calculates wealth to produce the billionaire list. If stocks go down or wealth goes down you do not get a refund you just pay less next year. The same as if the value of your house decreases and thus your tax assessment on the property goes down but you do not get a refund. Remember we start this tax at $10 million which will allow the IRS to concentrate on a much smaller population. The great inequality of wealth of financial assets has to be addressed. It is much more skewed than income tables.
Who is going to buy zero interest bonds.?
Don’t you mean “If the democrats take power”? We aren’t even close to that reality….
Please, please, let us stop all this griping about the present and make the future assured….so that they can come to make all Hartmann’s things come to pass.
Money worries are not enough for them. Donald's Zombies will not "Get It" until MTG, Tucker, or Alex leads a demonstration that the Federales massacre.
#Vote to kick Rupert and his yellow-rag back to Oz.
The petro-dollar system allowed free printing of money while the Middle East dictators propped up the dollar. American governments used the dollar as a powerful cudgel to impose sanctions, seize the assets of foreign countries like Russia and Iran blocking access to the SWIFT system that all countries trading in dollars needed. Now, the game is almost over. China and other countries are gradually dumping their dollar holdings and systematically undermining treasury bonds. The Yuan is offering an alternative to sanctioned countries and doing just fine. Even the Emiratis and the Saudis are seriously using the Yuan.
Maybe the inevitable collapse of the dollar will awaken policy makers do veer more toward manufacturing and less toward financialization. The world is changing and we seem to be mired in our own self-delusion.
Great article. All the public service’s American money could buy, and how things should be, such as renewable energy, national healthcare and free tuition make an excellent pollical platform. Candidates could also suggest making an improved, low cost, national passenger railroad. Unfortunately, Americans don’t miss all the good things they never had, and will have to be educated about and convinced that Republicans are leading us down a road to hell, and how public services, socialists and socialist democrats can improve our lives.
How can I share this with my high school students in my town ?