Congressman Declares Worthless Piles Of Paper As Wealth

I hate to bring any attention at all to Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) because he is ignorant, uninformed, and irrational. I think that is the definition of a populist-socialist (i.e., Progressive) today.

But I caught this story from Bob Wenzel’s Economic Policy Journal, the National Insanity Monetary Act. It refers to a bill introduced by Kucinich to nationalize the monetary system, do away with the Fed, wipe out all debt, government and private, print money at will, control interest rates, and enable national economic planning. The bill, HR 6550, National Emergency Employment Defense Act of 2010, was introduced December 17.

Here is what Wenzel has to say about it:

The bill calls for among other things:

To abolish the creation of money, or purchasing power, by private persons through lending against deposits, by means of fractional reserve banking, or by any other means.

Now, there is nothing wrong with stopping the issuance of loans where a bank doesn’t have the funds on deposit to make the loans. i.e. fractional reserve banking. That’s simply preventing fraud, but to call for the limitation of loans where on all deposits is simply mad. An economy grows because people save by depositing  money in banking institutions, where the money is lent out. To the degree the money is loaned to the business sector, capital is available for further production. There is simply nothing wrong with this at all. [NOTE: To further clarify what type of deposits a bank should be allowed to make loans against, it should only be against deposits where depositors leave their money with understood time restrictions, such as certificates of deposits, as opposed to, say, demand deposits.]

The bill also calls for the loans function to be turned over to the government:

To enable the Federal Government to invest or lend new money into circulation as authorized by Congress and to provide means for public investment in capital infrastructure.

This is simply central planning. Instead of money being placed in the hands of multitudes of entrepreneurs via bank loans, this bill calls for loans to be made by the government. The same government, I might add, that funneled billions upon billions in TARP funds to elite banks. Entrepreneurship will thus be replaced by a government power structure that will dole out money based, of course, on influence. Further, it appears that there is no limit set on how much money may be printed for this mad adventure.

The bill goes on:

To incorporate the Federal Reserve System into the Executive Branch under the United States Treasury, and to make other provisions for reorganization of the Federal Reserve System.

The executive branch has gained and continues to gain enormous power. The executive branch now wages wars at will, this bill would give even more power to control the entire economy. “He who has the gold” or in this case, paper money, makes the rules.  This is simply mind boggling. It is giving the exeecutive branch the power to declare  a great economic war over its own citizens.

The bill also calls for the inflationary idea of printing money to resolve any deficit problems:

In General- After the effective date, and subject to limitations established by the United States Monetary Authority under provisions of section 302, the Secretary shall originate United States Money to address any negative fund balances resulting from a shortfall in available Government receipts to fund Government appropriations authorized by Congress under law.

Even more inflationary, the bill calls for paying off the entire U.S. debt by simply printing money:

Before the effective date, the Secretary shall commence to retire all outstanding instruments of indebtedness of the United States by payment in full of the amount legally due the bearer in United States Money, as such amounts become due.

Just for good measure, the bill throws in controls on interest rates:

Limit on Rate- The annual percentage rate applicable to any loan of money may not exceed 8 percent on unpaid balances, inclusive of all charges

In addition, the bill calls for the printing of money for education, mortgages, local governments and on and on:

The Congress shall be aware that funding through this Act is available for a universal health care plan as may be enacted by Congress…

The Congress shall be aware that funding through this Act is available for Congressional enactments for resolving aspects of the mortgage crisis….

Before the end of the 180-day period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall provide recommendations to the Congress for a program of interest-free lending of United States Money to State and local governmental entities, including school boards and emergency fire services for infrastructure improvements under their control and within their jurisdictions, based on per capita amounts and other criteria to assure equity as determined by the Monetary Authority…

And, what the hell, they are just going to print money and give it to everyone:

In General- Before the effective date, the Secretary, in cooperation with the Monetary Authority, shall make recommendations to the Congress for payment of a Citizens Dividend as a tax-free grant to all United States citizens residing in the United States in order to provide liquidity to the banking system at the commencement of this Act, before governmental infrastructure expenditures have had a chance to work into circulation…

This is the Robert Mugabe solution to economics. Kucinich, like Lear, tries to defy the Laws of Nature, which as we know, can’t be done. In essence he has no clue what money is. He is arrogant and uneducated about economics. He “feels” strongly about things though. When you have such brilliant philosopher-economists like Carl Menger, Eugen Böhm-Bawerk, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich von Hayek, and Murray Rothbard out there with beautiful ideas born of reason and an extremely rigorous intellectual tradition, it is tragic that people listen to fools like Kucinich.

Out of curiosity I visited Kucinich’s congressional web site. If you want to know what kind of guy he is read his official biography. While you are there you might also check out the web site of his wife, Elizabeth, a Nicole Kidman lookalike who is obviously of like mind. I urge you to read this account of how they met and fell in love.

Apparently it is Elizabeth who came up with money idea through her former employment with something called the American Monetary Institute, a purveyor of bad ideas about money. Elizabeth “feels strongly” about things too.

I assume that Mr. and Mrs. Kucinich are just fools and no one takes them seriously. But, unfortunately, some people do. And they are dangerous.

Hat tip to Bob Wenzel, Economic Policy Journal.