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America is Not Broke!

Scott BakerThe Henry George School6/23/15

4 Multi-Trillion Dollar Paths to a Thriving America

Based on the book “America is Not Broke!” available from Tayen Lane: https://tayen-lane.squarespace.com/america-is-not-broke And Amazon: http://amzn.to/1zZQKksWebsite: americaisnotbroke.net

The Big Four: Each worth over a Trillion Dollars per Year1 Sovereign Money, aka Debt-Free Money

2 Land Value Taxation, aka Georgism3 Public Banking4 Ending Government Financial Asset Hoarding

(GFAH)Also, smaller reforms can still add billions to the economy, such as… Local Exchange Currency Systems (LETS)* Appropriate Regulation – because a criminogenic environment ultimately costs society more*

All of these super-macro economic solutions have been shown to work though their proponents don’t always work together. This has to change! To succeed, we have to stipulate that:1.People are plastic and can change, at least given the right incentives2.People are open to reason and persuasion3.People want something better, even if outside their comfort zone

*These are discussed in more detail in chapter 5 of my book, but I won’t cover them today.

$$$ 1. Sovereign Money $$$

What is Money?Is money a “thing”? Money has been everything from Cowrie shells to beads to precious metal tokens. Some of these worked well for a long time, but were all ultimately limited by the quantity and availability of the underlying commodity.

Money is:1.A means of exchange2.A Store of Value (however imperfect!)3.Not Wealth! I bought one of these for U.S. $7!

1rst Axiom: Money should exist in sufficient quantity to meet the Productive Capacity of the Nation.

Modern American money, since coming off the gold standard in the 1971, is purely fiat money. Fiat Money is not based on a commodity and is simply:“inconvertible money made legal tender by a government decree (fiat).”

Taxes are one of the main ways Government can make a particular kind of money acceptable as “legal tender.”

What can Fiat Money do for the Economy?

1 Pay for infrastructure2 Pay for Social Security3 Pay for R&D in science, space

programs, foreign aid, education, etc.

4 …Pay for anything that has a positive money multiplier – e.g. The Money Multiplier for Social Security is from $1.80 to $2.00 for every dollar spent, according to 2 independent studies.

If the money multiplier is positive, the money spent is an investment that pays off more than the amount spent. Examples of negative Money Multipliers are tax cuts for the rich – who mostly

invest in non-productive assets like stocks, bonds and land – and military spending, which produces things that mostly get blown up or can’t be used or repurposed.

But, what have the trillions spent on banks – up to $29 Trillion including rolling loans, says Professor L. Randall Wray – actually produced, other than asset bubble inflation?

But…what about inflation?

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) calculates the Output Gap. From Investopedia:

Remember the first axiom: Money should exist in sufficient quantity to meet the Productive Capacity of the Nation.

The CBO says we averaged a trillion dollar/year Negative Output Gap from 2008-2013. So, we could have spent nearly a trillion dollars per year into the real economy without producing inflation and many economists say we are still below our productive capacity.

There are other proposals to control inflation too: including creating a new Government oversight body called a Monetary Authority (e.g. HR2990).

An economic measure of the difference between the actual output of an economy and the output it could achieve when it is most efficient, or at full capacity. There are two types of output gaps: positive and negative. A positive output gap occurs when actual output is more than the full-capacity output. Negative output gap occurs when actual output is less than full-capacity output. Has the FRB managed the Value of the Dollar

well?

Why are we Renting our Money when Government could Create it?

Since the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, with minor alterations, the Federal Government has paid the Federal Reserve Bank for money with interest-bearing Treasury Bonds whose rate is largely determined by the FRB itself.

But why?

1The Constitution has a Coinage Clause (Article 1, Section 8, Clause 5), which allows Congress to “coin Money”*

2We actually had debt-free paper money in circulation – United States Notes – from $451m to $300m from 1862-1996**.

3The Supreme Court ruled in Julliard vs. Greenman (1884) that the Government may make paper money under the Constitution.

4We can create electronically any kind of money we can create physically.

* Case structure in the original clause, and lower case ‘c’ was used consistently when referring to ‘coin’ as in ‘to make’ while actual ‘Coin’ was always capitalized.** Treasury burned its stock in 1996, but U.S. Notes are available on eBay for about twice face value.

United States Note: Note Red seal and wording at top “United States Note” vs. “Federal Reserve Note”

Why does the Debt matter?Some schools of thought say the debt doesn’t matter because they believe that the Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) is already part of government and so we are already creating our own money. But consider:1The FRB owns only about 18% of Treasury Bonds. The rest are owned by other entities, including foreign governments like China (the second largest holder), who use them to depreciate their own currency and strengthen ours, making their exports more competitive vs. ours, and ultimately taking away our jobs through off-shoring.2A whole class of very wealthy Rentiers makes a living off the interest on Treasury Bonds – money that government could issue itself interest-free.3 The independent FRB can neutralize government spending with high interest rates precisely

when it is needed the most, during a recession/depression (e.g. The Great Depression).4 Even in “good times” interest-bearing debt adds as much as 50% to the cost of long-term

projects, including those where the money multiplier shows there is a net benefit!5 But what about Government corruption? Well, is Government inherently corrupt or is it corrupt

because of the influence of outside money, and if the latter, then would Sovereign Money help end that corruption?

6 As Thomas Edison said “If the government can create a dollar bond, it can create a dollar bill.”

Who do you trust to create money for the People more: the Banks or the Government? (We could also have both).

2. Land Value Taxation, aka GeorgismHenry George was

a 19th Century Political-Economist who wrote the best-seller “Progress and Poverty” in which he identified monopoly in Land as the cause of unjust inequality. It is particularly evident in dense urban areas. His philosophy is called Georgism.

Location

2nd Axiom: “There is Enough, and to Spare,” (Henry George) for us all to live a decent life.

But is Location Really that Important?

Well, try to imagine an ultra-lux building like One57, where condos go for up to $100m, relocated from midtown Manhattan to midstate New York. How much would it be worth then?

In fact, NYC is the most densely productive place in the country with over $1 billion in GDP per square mile.

Explaining Home Value Change

The Canons of TaxationSources of public revenue should be:

1. Light on production

2. Easy and cheap to collect

3. Certain

4. Fair

"Left-wing" proposals call for society to achieve equity by redistributing most of the wealth. No distinction is made between the sources of income (land, labor or capital), and individuals control only a small portion of the wealth.

Taxing the Fruits of Labor and Capital vs. Collecting Land Value

"Right-wing" proposals hold that efficiency requires more wealth to remain in private hands (also making no distinction between rent, wages and interest), and that society, or government, should only get the minimum it needs for necessary services, e.g., the role of "traffic cop.”

The Georgist proposal makes a distinction between the unearned income of land (rent) and the earned incomes of labor and capital (wages and interest). Rent goes to society, wages and interest to the individuals who earned them.

The Georgist proposal achieves the goal of "left-wingers" for security and social action, but without restrictions on liberty. It achieves the goal of "right-wingers" to attain freedom, but

without privilege and monopoly.

How Bad is it Now? We have Anti-Georgism!Ultra-Lux Condos like One57 paying less than 1/100th

the property tax rate of Condos costing 1/100th as much! And many of their owners don’t even live or spend here!

Parking lots paying 1/10th the property tax

as efficiently used built-upon property

next door! (36-37 St. & 2nd Ave.)

Vacant Lots paying just $300/year in Property Taxes! (301 East 139th St.)

Meanwhile, nearly 60,000 people are homeless while vacant and underutilized land is warehoused and under-

taxed!

What would we lose under LVT?Answer: Record-setting 8-figure, even 9-figure, condo sales. As the rent is

increased, the price will come down, because low rent is capitalized into high prices.

Here's today's Quiz:Assume you are a billionaire looking to buy that $100m penthouse that just sold at One57. Now, how high would you go if the property tax was $1.73m/year instead of just $17,268/year (in other words, the property was taxed at about the same rate as for the $1m condo)?A. The same $100mB. $75mC. $50mD. Less than any of the above

Several factors probably play into your decision, like how long you will retain the apartment, i.e. how long you have to pay the property tax (which will probably go up over time too). One thing is for sure though: a $100m Condo looks a lot less attractive when the property tax is $1.73m than when it is only $17,268. Another thing is for sure, the city would benefit immensely from collection of a more appropriate property tax.

How much Money Are we Talking About?Georgist economist Mason Gaffney, explains the

loss of economic rent. US Governments could scrap their bad taxes and fund public services out of community-created rents of $5.3 Trillion. Another professor of economics, Nicolaus Tideman, reports that the rent readily available through taxation is at least $1.5 trillion, compared to about $175 billion in rent collected today, and he calculates that annual income of the average American family would rise by $6,300 if the Single Tax was adopted.

With the Land Value Tax, we could eliminate:• Deadweight taxes on wages, sales, fixed capital, etc.• The major cause of boom-bust cycles: Land Speculation• Most Rent-Seeking activity• Much of the cause of political and other corruption• Unjust inequality based on monopoly of resources• Urban sprawl, as land gets used more efficiently• Blighted warehoused neighborhoods• Enormous tax breaks for Developers who would then build to sell at more reasonable prices

Under current NYC assessments:

We could replace the taxes on

1 Wages

2 Sales

3 Buildings

4 Commercial occupancy

5 Hotels

6 etc.!

...with a levy of 18% on land value alone

Under current assessmentsUnder current assessments

We could replace the taxes onWe could replace the taxes on

11 WagesWages

22 SalesSales

33 BuildingsBuildings

44 Commercial occupancyCommercial occupancy

55 HotelsHotels

66 etc.!etc.!

...with a levy of 18% on land value alone...with a levy of 18% on land value alone

1818% !?!?% !?!?

Isn't that WAY too much?Isn't that WAY too much?

Don't Panic!Don't Panic!

NYC's land is NYC's land is drastically under-assessed.drastically under-assessed.

A shift toward LVT

would increase the cost of holding land. This would:

Stimulate new construction!Create new jobs and new housing!

More revenue from land

means less penalty on

Buildings, both new and renovated!Sales, and commerce in general!Wages — costs less to hire workers

What’s the bottom line for me?

Even under the mess that isour current assessment system,

A revenue-neutral shift to a 25% lower tax on buildings,making up the differencewith a higher tax on land value

would mean lower taxes

for most homeowners in NYC!

Guess what! It’s been tried, right here!

Here is a Lexington Avenue street fair, in front of a bunch of those classic “pre-war” buildings that New Yorkers prize.

3. Public Banking – Banking in the Public Interest

There is currently one State Public Bank in North Dakota (The Bank of North Dakota), and a fully owned Indian Nations Bank in Oklahoma (Bank2)

Banks literally make money. As the Bank of England recently put it . . .

“Banks do not act simply as intermediaries, lending out deposits that savers place with them, and nor do they ‘multiply up’ central bank money to create new loans and deposits … Commercial banks create money, in the form of bank deposits, by making new loans.”

‘Money creation in the modern economy’, Quarterly Bulletin, 2014 Q1, Bank of England.

Why a Bank?

Community banks

Dividends

(Interest)

& Local Needs

A typical Systemically Important Financial Institution (SIFI) like JP Morgan has just a 31% Loan to Asset ratio – less than ½ of ND’s community banks. SIFIs don’t make most of their money by making loans!

The Smallest Banks Make Most of the Small Business Loans, but the Biggest Banks have Most of the Assets

3rd Axiom: Small and Close Services are Better for Communities than Large and Distant Services.

The Biggest Banks have the Biggest Losses by Percent and

Amount

Small Banks are Disappearing

40% of the cost of public projects goes to interest.

Rent in Public HousingCost of interest on capital

77%

Drinking WaterCost of interest on capital 38%

Garbage Collection FeesCost of interest on capital 12%

From Margrit Kennedy, http://www.monneta.org/upload/pdf/Pres_MK_CompC.pdf

What of public expenditures?

Other Reasons for a Public Bank New liquidity rules could cause bond interest rates to soar

State and municipal bonds excluded from “high quality liquid assets.” Without interest, California could be $72 billion richer. General Obligation, Revenue, & other bonds, 2013

$92 billion principal + $72 billion interest = $164 billion. Nearly double!

Minimal operating costs No bonuses, fees, commissions No high-paid CEOs No need for buildings, branches, tellers No need to advertise

Banks have unlimited low-interest credit Lines with the Fed: States and municipal governments have no credit line with the

Fed States are now hit with lower credit ratings, making borrowing even more expensive

Banks face new regulatory & compliance issues with Dodd-Frank. A State Public Bank could help community banks comply.

A much better lending option for the poor & unbanked. Can team up with existing micro-lenders too (e.g. Grameen Bank, Postal Banks).

Countercyclical lending allows sustained growth. Less corrupt, more efficient, more profitable.

The Bank of North Dakota outperformed private banks and has been scandal-free since inception (1919)

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%

interest

principal

Interest & Principal owed by California

Possible Funding Sources

6) Transfer of City’s/State’s deposits and cash accounts currently held in large commercial banking or other institutions

7) City’s/State’s equity investment, funded through a one-time appropriation from the General Fund or transfers of assets from the municipality’s existing investment pool (see next section).

A public bank could funded through a variety of sources and vehicles, including:

Source: http://www.seattlepublicbankcoalition.org/public-bank-solutions

1) Equity investments in non-voting shares sold to local governments and pension funds

2) The issue of debt (short-term and medium-term notes) purchased using funds under management by the City/State Treasurer

3) New Certificates of Deposit sold to the Treasurer and other “outside” investors

4) Banker’s acceptances

5) Repo-like operations that would be conducted with the City/State Treasurer to insure adequate provision of short-term liquidity.

…And about that funding:

4. Ending Government Financial Asset Hoarding (GFAH)

Each year, every government entity from the local fire department to the State Pension fund, is required to produce a report of their total assets. This is called the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR). The CAFR lists all assets of the entity for all time, and differs from the Budget, which is just a statement of liabilities and assets for the year.

There are over 200,000 CAFRs adding up to Trillions of dollars…maybe much more.

A gusher of money…but for whom?

What does the CAFR Include?

1. Governmental Funds2. Propriety Funds3. Fiduciary Funds4. Component Units

The budget you hear about involves primarily the Governmental Funds. The other three major categories are not included in the budget and this is in most cases where most of the surpluses are located…Even in the items that are part of the budget (Governmental Funds) there are surpluses they are not telling you about. Here is how it works. A proper budget is made up of three parts: 1)Balance brought forward from previous year's revenues not spent; 2)Current projected revenues; and 3)Current projected expenditures. The budget is Items 1 and 2 minus Item 3. It is just that simple. However, in the governments' budget process, they forget about Item 1. Money available and not spent in previous years is not included in the budget.” – from CAFRMAN.COM

“The CAFR is prepared under the accounting and reporting standards outlined by the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB). It is an audited report. The CAFR has four parts:

4th Axiom: If a Process can be Made Complex and Obscure in order to Benefit the Elite, it Will Be.

What are Our Assets Right Now?Check the Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (2014)…

$181 billion in NY State Fiduciary Net Position (March 31, 2014, p. 44)*

$192 billion in NY City Fiduciary Net Position (June 30, 2014, p. 52)*

What if 10% of these 2 liquid funds ($37.3B) was reallocated to a Public Bank?**

There are 10s of billions in other NY Investment funds too

OK, these assets are not quite a Money Tree, but they are money that can be loaned into the community, often with higher returns or at least less risk than some Wall Street investments. Remember: it is not under-funding that hurts pension fund returns, it is under-performance and volatility.

* Liquid investments only. Does not include fixed capital** By comparison, the Bank of North Dakota has $6.9B in assets (2014 FS)

Governments do have to pay their obligations for services and to pensioners, but are Governments really broke when…

1 In almost every case, governments have more than enough in their major investments (e.g. pension funds) to cover expenses for years, even decades, even with 0% ROI. They often have enough just in “Rainy Day” funds to cover their entire deficit. E.g. Public Banking Institute Founder Ellen Brown found $71b in a Treasurer’s rainy day fund, more than enough to cover California's 2010 $26.3 billion deficit. Since when was government supposed to operate at a profit and use those profits to pay its bills instead of taxes?!

2 New York State lost $42b from 2008 to 2009 in its pension fund, while complaining about a $9b “budget gap.” Which is the more serious amount?

3 Multi-decade projected investment returns are based on currently underperforming assets – e.g. bond returns in an historically low interest environment (Reuters).

4 Employee/Employer contributions are not counted as part of the fund income when deciding whether the fund has a “shortfall.” If it was, this could reduce the necessary ROI (often unrealistically given as high as 8%), in half.

5 It is the private fund managers who decide how to measure and present the ROI, not the overseeing Comptrollers and Treasurers. This has been shown to distort actual returns positively.

6 Non-current liabilities are measured years out, but only current assets are reported against them. “The new GAAP accounting implemented over the last 8 years established by (the) GASB requires local government accounting to project all liability as if it is due today.” – Walter Burien, CAFR1.COM.

Clearly, the CAFRs need an independent audit, and not by officials whose next job may be on Wall

Street!

Until then, anyone with patience and a computer can download their municipal CAFRs online and use this Review Process to learn what assets are available: http://www.cafrman.com/ReviewProcess.htm.

REVIEW PROCESS   Introduction The review process is very simple. It involves only two worksheets (schedules). [NOTE: Most people are not interested in the details of forms and explanations of the forms. However, in The CAFR eBook both forms are presented in a couple of ways as well as a spreadsheet program and a word processing program for each of school district, city, county and State.]A computer is not needed to conduct a review or do an economic impact analysis. All that is needed is: -A copy of the government’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) -Two forms -A sharp pencil -A calculator.Steps in conducting a review and preparing the economic impact analysis1. Get a copy of the government’s/school district’s most current Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR).2. Go to each fund/subfund section, locate the accounts with surpluses based on the steps shown below; total them for each subfund, and write them down as shown below. In addition the Exhibit A in each of the State reports provided in this writing. The Exhibit A is the complete review. So a person has over 40 examples to use in the learning process. 3. Total the list of subfund surpluses to arrive at the total surpluses for the government.4. Divide the result in Step 3. by the population and you have the per capita surpluses.5. Take the total surplus amount to the proper economic impact form and complete the computations shown for each cell in the economic impact form. The computations are very simple. That's it. The next step is preparing a report on the results of the review and economic impact analysis. Go to the Report Section of this writing.

Which Reform will you Choose to work on?

Sovereign Money? Land Value Taxation?

Public Banking?

Ending Government Financial Asset Hoarding

(GFAH)?Whichever one you choose, there are many groups and individuals to help guide and work with you.

Just remember…

America is Not Broke!

Thank You!

Available from Tayen Lane: https://tayen-lane.squarespace.com/america-is-not-brokeAnd Amazon: http://amzn.to/1Ihcc54Website: americaisnotbroke.net

America is Not Broke! by Scott Baker