Jesus Died For Your Debts

 I have a problem with the way public affairs media slices the pie.

1. Myth of bipartisanship:
Obviously the reason Republicans have been willing to send out some relief is in an effort to salvage the approaching November elections. Look at the packages in detail and you will see that the bulk has amounted to another "tax cut" for the rich and big business. Now they warn of a deficit... preposterous! Democrats claim to worry about households, but they too have wealthy sponsors with hands out. Are you going to sell your vote to either team for $1200. My observation is that people have tired of the old political whores' race concept. We've discovered we don't need this and other diversions (sports, celebrity, office culture) so much in a time of multiple existential threats. Your guests are handicappers reminiscing about dead horses and closed tracks: "I got the horse right here.His name is Paul Revere.And the expert says if the weather's clear. Can do; can do... guarantees that the horse can do." (Fugue for Tinhorns, from Guys and Dolls) The Duopoly is careworn material, isn't it?

2. Uncharted economics: 
Brian Moynihan (Moneyhands) of Bank of America appeared on Face the Nation Sunday morning to predict a complete economic turnaround by 2021. Common sense says this is magical thinking akin to VP Pence saying commerce will be back to normal by May 31st (Memorial Day). Obvious lies are not optimism: They are betrayal and resignation. Maybe we are fortunate that some competent public intellectuals have been brainstorming about a Socialist turn and Modern Monetary Theory, that large deficits can be good. Good because the alternative is Totalitarian Feudalism with all property monopolized by a shrinking pool of creditors.
Meanwhile the FED has reduced interest to zero percent and is buying up junk debt at a record rate.
You can observe the stock market bump when they open their stimulus buying at 10 am, and another at 2pm when corporations use the handouts to buy their own stocks. The bailing out of creditors is far larger than Congressional stimulus outlays. Unlimited free money? The global debt bubble was pierced when oil prices collapsed and Covid19 was only flowers on Capitalism's grave. Let's not blame a really nasty plague for the non-viability of our economic system which has also destroyed our ecology.
Surviving this contagious disease and the next depends upon changing our expectations and ways.
And here we are unable even to put universal health care in place. We are more worried about wagerers (Hospital corporations, insurance companies, drug sellers, and enslaving employers) than wage earners. And we can't get a trusted vaccine, or even tests because of chaotic and speculative markets.

3. Households are going to get the short end of the stick on checks and loans, and the underclass barely a toothpick. That is inevitable under prevailing norms. So let's quit chasing normalcy and go for fairer and better. It would take $5,000 a month per family minimum to go Keynesian, on the model of the Great Depression. Wants and needs are not economic demand. If people have no money there can be no pent-up demand.
The way to help us all would be new rules (law code and commerce). Michael Hudson wisely observes that Jubilee is the start. Just wipe all mortgages, business loans, student loans, medical bills, credit cards, even car loans off the books and start over with a more egalitarian and humane approach. Hudson observes that debts that cannot be paid will never be paid, that early civilizations stabilized themselves using periodic debt forgiveness, and that Christ's first preaching tour is an example of that activist policy.
Matthew 4 ...
14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor (meaning Jubilee)
So then the creditors tried to throw Him off a cliff, but he escaped.
Jesus was an activist who died for your debts as well as your transgressions.
The friction of debt always cripples exchange because interest eats up disposable income.
Maybe writing off what is owed is the only path to recovery and improvement.

Here is but one example of needed imagination public affairs broadcasts lack. Their tongues are tied by fear of the rich and powerful, just like Dr. Deborah Birks at Trump's press briefing.

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