Critique of Modern Monetary Theory (M.M.T.) in Regard to the National Debt and Other Topics (Incomplete)

Table of Contents

1. First Introduction: Paying Off the Debt vs. M.M.T.

2. Second Introduction: Basics of Modern Monetary Theory

3. My Plan to Pay Off the National Debt

4. My Plan is to Create a Surplus Without Raising Taxes

5. Removing Money from the Economy, and Private Issuance of Currency

6. What Does a "Private Sector Surplus" Really Mean, Anyway?

7. Do Deficits Really Pay for Imports? (Including Thoughts on China)

[more sections to come at a later date]

Content

1. First Introduction: Paying Off the Debt vs. M.M.T.

     I am currently running for the U.S. House of Representatives, on an independent platform which has, as its most important plank, a plan to pay off the U.S. national debt by 2047.

     Between April 20^th and 30^th, 2020, I was involved in an argument on Twitter regarding my plan to pay off the national debt.

     That plan would involve generating a trillion-dollar annual federal budget surplus as soon as possible, paying that trillion dollars directly into the hands of the federal government's creditors, and then doing that again each year until the debt is fully paid off. Since the national debt is currently above $23 trillion, this task will take at least 23 years to implement, so I have estimated that it could be completed as early as some time between 2044 and 2047.

     The argument began when a proponent of Modern Monetary Theory criticized my claim that I have a serious plan to pay off the national debt (saying that there is no such thing as a serious plan to pay off the national debt). That Twitter user, who calls himself “Bill”, later told me that my plan to create a federal government surplus (as opposed to the deficits that we're used to) would create problems which he worries I have not anticipated.

2. Second Introduction: Basics of Modern Monetary Theory

     In order to better understand the argument I had with “Bill” - and in order to understand why someone would want to criticize a plan to pay off the national debt in the first place - it will first be necessary to understand a few basic things about Modern Monetary Theory.

     Modern Monetary Theory (initialized as M.M.T.) is a school of economics which is an offshoot of the Keynesian school (founded by mid-20th-century British economist John Maynard Keynes).

“Bill” urged me to watch a video by M.M.T. economist Rohan Grey, titled “What is Modern Monetary Theory?”. That video was posted to the YouTube channel “Michabo Sustainable Harmony” in July 2019, and can be viewed at the following link: http://youtu.be/gr1PxeW5yWw

     In the video, Grey said the phrase “Modern Monetary Theory” originated in Keynes's explanation that the state has authority to enforce contracts, and also to enforce what sort of things can be used to make payments.

     Keynesianism and M.M.T. both hold that debt, deficit spending, and inflating the money supply in order to make up for shortfalls in the budgets, are essentially not serious problems, and perhaps not even problems at all. Certainly not as important, anyway, as goals such as keeping inflation under control, and preventing too much money from being saved rather than spent. M.M.T. proponents and      Keynesians tend to view paying off the national debt as undesirable and probably also impossible.

Economists who associate with free-market, conservative, and Austrian school strains of thought, on the other hand, reject that view completely. They argue that government debt is a bad thing, that it should be avoided if possible, and that it must be paid back.

     Many such critics of M.M.T. also believe that their goals of keeping inflation under control and preventing too much savings, are not as important as the goals which could be pursued by abandoning monetary policies influenced by Keynesian and M.M.T. thinking. Such goals include ensuring high or even full employment, and achieving a stable currency which has a slowly rising purchasing power because it's backed by balanced budgets. The tendency of M.M.T. proponents has been to criticize, minimize, or even dismiss these concerns.

     I have written the following article in order to explain what objections I have to Modern Monetary Theory, with particular regard to M.M.T. as presented by economist Rohan Grey in the video “What is Modern Monetary Theory?”, and also as presented by the proponent of M.M.T. who criticized my plan to pay off the national debt on Twitter (“Bill”).

3. My Plan to Pay Off the National Debt

     Before continuing, it will be necessary for the reader to understand several things about my proposal to pay off the national debt:

     1) Spending two trillion annually while taking in three trillion annually, would require decreasing both spending and revenue (and that's why it's my preferred solution as to how to generate a trillion-dollar surplus);

     2) I would hope to achieve this by reducing military spending not essential to our national defense; localizing Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security; and passing reforms which would achieve price relief in health goods and other goods;

     3) Three trillion in revenue and two trillion in spending is not the only way to achieve a trillion-dollar surplus; there are numerous other possibilities which will, though (such as taking in four trillion while spending three trillion, taking in two trillion while spending one trillion, taking in one trillion while spending and doing nothing, etc.); and
     4) It's probably possible to finish paying off the debt earlier than between 2044 and 2047. If legislators begin to see early that the reforms are working, then they will be able to plan future spending and taxation in accordance with the limitations I have outlined.

     I tweeted to “Bill” the following: “Suppose we started taking in $3 trillion a year, and reduced our spending to $2 trillion.” I continued: “Say we did that every year, and paid the leftover trillion directly to our creditors. And we did it for 25 years until the debt got down to zero. Are you saying that would be: A) impossible; B) undesirable; or C) both?”

     “Bill” responded “both”, specifying that he was answering in terms of whether it would benefit the American economy and benefit the status of the U.S. Dollar as the world reserve currency. He added, “Economics is about distribution of real production and resources. Money is the tool we use to do that. Removing money from the economy makes distribution of real stuff more difficult. No reason to do this... ever.” He also said, “A federal surplus is literally a non-federal deficit. This is a reduction in the net money supply.”

     I initially responded by saying that my proposal would not take U.S. Dollars out of the economy. However, “Bill” responded by saying that studying fiscal flows will show that private sector savings and wealth are decreased when the government runs a surplus budget. As “Bill” put it, “a federal surplus means a deficit for everybody else” (i.e., for the private sector and for the foreign economy.

     Basically, “Bill”'s argument was the following: 1) it would be both impossible and undesirable to try to pay off the national debt; and 2) a surplus should not be created, because that would remove money from the economy, and make it harder for people in the private and foreign sectors to spend enough money in a way that distributes resources effectively.

     I suppose that "Bill" was trying to point out that if the federal government wants to create a surplus, then it will have to raise taxes in order to cover the current budget shortfall, and that will require taking more from the private sector and from personal and household wealth, causing unemployment and stagnation.

     “Bill” also explained that there is a private sector surplus whenever the government runs a deficit (which is because the government is not taxing the private sector as much as it would have to in order to balance the budget). “Bill”'s analysis of this concept was that “Basically federal deficits 'pay for' imports and private sector savings.”

4. My Plan is to Create a Surplus Without Raising Taxes

     What “Bill” neglected to notice, is that my proposal does not call for raising taxes. What I mean is that - while it may call for tax rates to be raised on certain activities - the total amount of revenue which the government would take in as federal tax receipts, would not be any higher than it is now; in fact, it would be much lower.

     I want the federal government to spend $2 trillion per year, while it currently spends about $4 trillion per year. This means that I am calling for approximately a two-trillion-dollar reduction in the total amount spent by the federal government annually. I am calling for balancing the budget while reducing total spending; I am not calling for balancing the budget through raising the amount expected to be generated through tax revenues.

     Moreover, I am not only calling for paying off the debt and serious budgetary reform; I am also proposing that governments change the sources of their tax revenue to something more efficient. In 2014, Georgist economist Scott Baker told RussiaToday (RT) that taxing the unimproved value of land (land value taxation) could yield $7 trillion in annual revenue. In 2014, $7 trillion was also roughly the same amount of money spent by all governments in the United States combined (at all levels). That means that replacing all current forms of government revenue with taxes on the unimproved value of land, could pay for all government services.

     I have certainly called for creating a surplus, but creating a surplus does not necessarily require raising taxes. People only think it does, because we have never tried to reduce the debt through requiring balanced budgets, making taxes more efficient, and making spending more efficient too, all at the same time.

     The goal of Georgist taxation is to tax land in order to make taxation on labor and capital unnecessary. Adopting Georgist and geo-libertarian policies on taxes will help achieve that increase in tax efficiency for which we are looking, as well as help simplify taxes while making them avoidable and (to the extent possible) voluntary.

     Once land is the only thing taxed, the need for income taxes, sales taxes, and taxes on home value will disappear. That's because taxing unimproved value would involve taxing the waste and hoarding of land, and land speculation (key causes of high land prices), which will help bring about cheaper prices for capital and labor (because they would be untaxed, and because their prices would be reduced because the land upon which they rest will have declined in price).

     Once Georgist taxation is in place, the price of owning land as private property will be high, but only for the sake of compensating the community for recognizing and protecting that property claim. Also, the price of tending land (and of building and dwelling and producing upon it) will be low. What this all means is that nobody will be discouraged from building, nor from producing, due to the imposition of taxes (in which a large portion of their earnings are confiscated through an act of legalized extortion). Nobody will be discouraged from building upon the land they tend, for fear that increasing their property value will increase their property taxes. Only actual ownership of the land should be taxed; not the rental of a housing unit on the land, nor productivity upon the land.

     Once nobody is too afraid of high tax rates, to build and produce to their full potential – and once they're free to keep all of what they produce – none of the “unemployment and stagnation” which we usually see with tax increases, will be seen as the result of switching to a more efficient system of tax revenue sourcing. Most of the dozen Pittsburgh-area communities which experimented with land value taxation and split-rate taxation saw decreases in not only unemployment, but also rent and average household taxes.

     In short, increasing unemployment and causing economic stagnation are problems which are typically associated with increasing taxes, but my proposal would not increase taxes; I would instead solve the budget deficit and create a surplus by making taxes more efficient (by switching to Land Value Taxation as our primary – maybe even our only – source of tax revenue).

     In the process, I would also like to localize as many government services as possible to states and communities, and repeal any laws which interfere with the natural freedom of locomotion. I believe that these measures will help accomplish three important goals: 1) Stop trusting the federal government with large amounts of money; 2) Stop trusting the federal government with the authority to regulate environmental, health, and land issues; and 3) Leave people free to travel to any community they please, and free to transact with any Community Land Trust they please.

     Goal #2 is important for two reasons: A) because each locality is directly affected by the set of unique health and environmental factors in that region, and B) because those issues were never specifically delegated to the national government in the Enumerated Powers in the first place.

     If we learn to live within our means, do more with the money we're already taking in, and avoid antagonizing production with the taxes we levy going forward, then the national debt will go from “unsolvable, but not a problem” to “a problem, but easily solvable (given enough time)”.

5. Removing Money from the Economy, and Private Issuance of Currency

     I told “Bill” the following: “It's not a problem that money will be removed from the economy, as long as: 1) the money comes from the taxation of the wealthiest who reap the most from government handouts (i.e., land speculators and land hoarders, corporate polluters, etc.); and/or 2) people are sick of the fiat USD (U.S. Dollar) and want real money.”

     By “real money”, I meant that the U.S. Dollar is partially backed by debt, and that this constitutes usury, vacating all responsibility to ensure that transactions do not take place unless all assets are fully possessed (rather than existing due to debt, inflation, deficit spending, leverage, and speculation).

     “Bill” responded “There is no 'real money'”, adding that” You can combine a liability with a material of your choice, but there is no need to conflate financial assets with real assets.” I find it odd that he said that, because I don't think I am conflating “financial assets with real assets”, as much as I am criticizing the conflation of financial assets (i.e., the face value of the dollar) with real assets (i.e., the real savings and real revenue which back-up, and form a basis for, the ability to finance. I'm saying that proponents of the dollar are “conflating financial assets with real assets”, by taking dollars at their face value, and neglecting to consider that they are backed by fiat (that is, government say-so).

     I agree with “Bill” that it is possible to “combine a liability with a material of your choice” in order to try to make a currency or money which is more solvent than the U.S. Dollar. However, there is a difference between saying “you can”, and saying “you can, if you can get away with it”. What “Bill” neglected to mention is that, in the United States, you can be charged with a crime, and put in prison, for issuing your own currency.

     That is what happened to Bernard von NotHaus, who issued .999-purity silver coins (and certificates redeemable for precious metals, and other forms of tender) as “American Liberty Dollars” (ALD). Von NotHaus never claimed his coins to be official United States currency; despite this fact, he was charged with manufacturing coins which bear similarity to American money. Von NotHaus was charged with “making, possessing and selling his own coins”, was ordered to pay the government $7 million, and now faces 15 years in prison.

     “Bill” was correct to point out to me that it's possible and legal to exchange your U.S. Dollars for things like tickets, coupons, and money created by stores (such as Chuck E. Cheese tokens and Disney Dollars). However, it needs to be both possible and legal to create your own currency, not just to exchange your dollars for tokens created by legally operating businesses (which are incorporated, licensed, and regulated by the same government that creates the dollars). Right now it is possible, but not legal, to create your own currency without the permission of the federal government (that is, if you want it to be made of gold or silver).

     We deserve a free economy. A person should not have to worry about being kidnapped by police, cuffed, and put into a cage, just because he pressed some gold or silver into disc shapes (unless he lied about what they're made of and how much).

     Considering the fact that the U.S. Dollar has lost some 98-99% of its purchasing power since 1913, it's safe to say that nearly any currency which is issued by a private citizen, is likely to be more solvent than the dollar is. So why not arrest the people at the Federal Reserve, instead of arresting people like Bernard von NotHaus and marking him a counterfeiter for life?

     After all, von NotHaus never tried to use physical force, nor threats, to get people to use his currency (in the way that the government does). Is the possibility that he committed a form of fraud, really as bad as the sort of violent crimes which are committed overseas in the name of "opening foreign markets to American products and the dollar", that von NotHaus should be treated like a violent criminal and have his "freedom" taken away?

     The fact that private issuers of currencies backed by precious metals have to live in fear of being thrown in prison, and the fact that they cannot confiscate people's property and wealth, means that private issuers of currency are difficult to compare to issuers of currency which have strong ties to the public sector. That's because those private issuers are effectively captive to public currency issuers' interests and control.

     It's not only difficult to compete against a legal monopoly, it's illegal. To say "you can combine a liability with a material of your choice", is to leave out a lot of important information about how, if that material is silver or gold, and you're in "the land of the free", and subject to the laws of the United States of America, your body might be put into a cage.

     To say "you can" do something that's sometimes illegal, is to dare people who want a more just society with fairer laws, to put themselves in cages, supposedly for the sake of proving the point that it's better to work with the government you have than to live in a lawless society (even if that government is tyrannical and flouts the law on a daily basis).

6. What Does a "Private Sector Surplus" Really Mean, Anyway?

     “Bill” said there is a private sector surplus whenever there is a federal government deficit. That is why, according to “Bill”, it would be bad to create a federal government surplus; that is, because it would create deficits in the private sector and the foreign sector.

     When the federal government runs a deficit (that is, when it takes in less than it spends in a given year), the private sector considers this government deficit to be a surplus for itself. That's because the government isn't taking enough in revenues from the private sector as would be necessary to cover the hole in the budget, so the private sector considers the funds which are not taxed away, to be more money for themselves (i.e., a “surplus”).

     However, I have to take issue with “Bill”'s position that “Basically federal deficits 'pay for' imports and private sector savings”. To me, the fact that “Bill” put the phrase “pay for” in quotes, suggests that “Bill” might be twisting logic to fit his own “truth”.

     It's true that when there is a federal deficit, there is more money available to be saved in the private sector, because it has not been taxed. However, the fact that the private sector considers it a surplus that there's more money for itself than it expected there to be, does not necessarily make it so.

     A “surplus” (which I am proposing the federal government create) is when you take in more money than you spend. Having more money left over at the end of the year, because the government didn't tax you as much as you expected it to, is not exactly the same thing as running a surplus. True; each results in having money left over.

     But a federal government surplus and a private sector surplus are fundamentally different things, because the private sector has much less power than the federal government (part of the public sector) to legally confiscate people's wealth. Government does this in several ways: 1) through taxation; 2) through inflation of the currency in a way that devalues the money in people's pockets; and 3) through legal means (such as levying liens against landed properties, homes, and other assets).

     Government has the ability to order people to purchase products. Because it has the military and armed bureaucrats on its side, the government has the ability to enforce the laws which provide for the expenditure of the taxable portions of people's transactions, on particular spending items (such as health insurance and government identification).

     Although the government is very often subject to capture by the interests of private sector entities, the opposite is also true, as private entities abide by government laws even when it goes against their interests. Unless the private-sector entity in question is a military, or a private army, a private sector entity generally cannot simply conquer people's land, nor compel people to do business with it (without the government to help make that happen).

     It is this unique power which sets government apart from the private sector.

     However, the fact that this is a unique power, vested in the government, should not be construed to mean, that government deserves this unique power, nor that it can or should be trusted with it. Nor ought we conclude that the public sector is “special” simply because it has the power to confiscate people's property and wealth at will. This power is neither “unique” nor “special”. What it is, is evil.

     If you think about it, what we are doing by describing “the private sector being taxed an amount lower than was expected” as “a private surplus”, is giving in to the idea that the government can and should confiscate as much property and wealth as it pleases. The mere fact that the federal government has the authority to raise tax rates, should not be construed to mean that it should raise tax rates.

     If a business operates within its means, and the government declines to tax the business (or declines to tax it at a high enough rate, for whatever reason), are we to assume that the “surplus” which would be generated, would be generated through the action of the business, or through the action of the government?

     Whose actual action and productivity caused that surplus? Did the government actually produce something by performing the very passive “act” of declining to tax away the funds in question? Probably not, because the government doesn't produce anything. But did the company produce something, or act in a way that directly caused that surplus? Arguably, yes it did. But what if the company made its money through destruction; like through war profiteering, or through polluting land?

     We must not treat destruction as if it were production, in the way we describe them and tax them. With a taxation system influenced by Georgism, we will tax the destruction and degradation of land, not the labor and capital which are mixed on top of it. This means that businesses will be taxed without regard to how much they produce and how much income they reap; that is, unless they reap that income through polluting, wasting, hoarding, or destroying land. Businesses would be taxed to the extent that they engage in those behaviors.

     Many people are aware that everything the government has was legally extorted from private people and entities; and that just because the government balanced its budgets or created a surplus, it doesn't necessarily mean that the government deserved all of the money it took in through taxes to achieve those goals, nor did the government produce anything in order to acquire those funds.

     But we need to understand that the private sector is capable of acquiring funds without producing, in exactly the same way that the government is. And the government and the private sector both have long track records of destroying and polluting for the sake of producing and acquiring funds.

     The fact that private businesses and the public government appear to be the only entities fighting over these funds which could be taxed, does not necessarily mean that either of them produced that wealth, nor does it mean that either of them deserves it, nor that one or the other knows how to spend it wisely.

     What is being fought over, was created by neither government nor the private sector, and it belongs to neither of them. The government's position is that that wealth should be spent and saved by government. The private sector's position is that that wealth should be spent and saved by private entities. This is a disagreement, but only in part; they each agree that the wealth should be spent and saved by someone. The only disagreements lie in who should do the saving and spending, and how much should be spent vs. how much should be saved.

     The fact that they agree to an extent, suggests that there is wider agreement that that wealth be spent or saved, than there is agreement about who ought to spend or save it. So why not allow that wealth to be spent and saved by the sectors of the economy other than the public government sector and the private business sector?

     The simple answer is that most people have forgotten that other sectors of the economy even exist. But the foreign sector, the non-profit (voluntary / charity) sector, private-public partnerships, cooperatives, the commons, and clubs and club goods, each have distinct characteristics which arguably could merit them being considered sectors of the economy unto themselves (distinct from the public and private spheres).

     With Georgism and Land Value Taxation, each community would have a Community Land Trust, a non-state entity which would not necessarily operate for profit. The more non-state non-profits there are, the easier it will be to survive, for a person who wishes to boycott the coercive state and the unsustainable short-term profits which are enabled by the state's excesses. The more non-state non-profits there are, the larger the “voluntary sector” (also called the “charity sector”, the “non-profit sector”, or the “third sector”) can grow.

     The private sector promises that, if they are allowed to keep their money, they will spend it on their employees, and on creating new businesses and new jobs, and on things that will reduce the costs of needed goods and services, so that people can afford them more easily. The government promises that, if they are allowed to tax more money from the private sector, the government will spend the money on its citizens, and on creating new government job programs and bureaucrat positions, and on legislative measures that will reduce the costs of needed goods, and on a retirement program that will allow them to put money away for later.

     If the government and the private sector are so determined that the money will get spent on (or saved for) the neediest people – to help them save, and afford, and work, etc. - then the neediest people should be the ones who spend the money directly, in order to make sure that happens (as government and business claim to want it to). [Ideally, the neediest people should also be the ones who acquire the funds directly from whomever possesses them (whether that's the government or private owners).]

     The money should be saved or spent by the voluntary sector (and by enterprises operating on voluntary bases, such as Community Land Trusts); not by the private sector nor the public sector.

Why isn't anyone concerned about the non-profit sector's deficit?

7. Do Deficits Really Pay for Imports? (Including Thoughts on China)

     “Bill” stated that “Basically federal deficits 'pay for' imports and private sector savings”.

     I have already explained that “Bill” believes that federal government budget deficits “pay for” savings in/by the private sector, in the following manner: businesses would be left with more money (i.e., what could arguably be called a surplus) – money which they can save - because those businesses would be taxed out of less money than they expected.

     But now we must continue, to the issue of whether deficits, in any sense, “pay for” savings in the private sector.

     Admittedly, I was unfamiliar with the idea that “deficits pay for private sector savings” until “Bill” brought it up. But after thinking about the issue in the context of financial relations with China, it started to make sense.

     What I figure “Bill” is trying to say, is this: When the federal government agrees to generate a deficit, it goes further into debt. Allowing itself to go into debt, allows American consumers to “profit” through America's relationship with its creditor nation China; that is, debt supposedly helps Americans purchase imported goods at prices which are relatively cheap. They are relatively cheap because of the close financial and trade relationship between the two countries, with China loaning to the United States, and the United States investing in Chinese goods in return. But more importantly, these goods are relatively cheap, because while America is buying Chinese products, it's buying them with a U.S. dollar that's partially backed by Chinese loans.

     And don't get me wrong; that sounds like an amazing deal for the United States! That's because it means that China is essentially paying us to buy their products. Several years ago, Senator Rand Paul stated something to the effect of “we are borrowing from China to pay China”. But we should take pause: we should think, “If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is too good to be true.”

     Think about it: If a seller is so desperate to unload his product that he is willing to pay you to buy his product, then that could mean that: 1) the product is bad; 2) the money is worthless; or 3) both 1 and 2. We ought to ask, “You want to pay me to buy it? It sounds too good to be true. What's wrong with it?”

     Is the appeal of massive savings through importing cheap goods from China, really worth the risks associated with importing large amounts of products, which could be faulty, feature safety hazards, and/or be made from low-cost material that's carcinogenic? We must not use the allure of cheap products from China to justify continuing to enable the U.S. federal government's cycle of addiction to debt to foreign nations.

     I want free markets and a free economy; not captive markets and a rigged economy. To avoid captive markets and the rigging of markets, we must avoid borrowing from countries from which we purchase massive amounts of goods.

     If we buy a lot of goods from one country, then we should look to other countries for loans. If we notice ourselves depending too much upon one country for loans, then we should try to avoid buying too much from that country, and import goods from different countries instead.

     On the other hand, if we don't do that, and instead we buy most of our goods from one country, and borrow from that country more than we borrow from any other country, then that is a recipe for disaster. That's because so much money would be flowing from the United States to that country, from both its public sector and its private sector. If it became necessary to consider consciously decreasing the flow of money from the U.S. to that country, then resorting to legal methods could only solve half of the problem at best, while working outside of government in the private sector could only solve half of the problem just the same.
     It would cause U.S. markets to become subject to rigging of markets in favor of that creditor nation / chief trading partner. It would be a market captive to China. We must not allow ourselves to be lulled into such a "false sense of economic security"; especially not if China's goals are dependence on Chinese products, and seeing the Yuan replace the Dollar as the world reserve currency.

     My point is not that we literally can't borrow from China in order to spend money on imported goods from China. The issue is that the fact that we can, doesn't necessarily mean that we should.
     We must not risk depending too much upon China (nor upon any other country which could potentially become simultaneously our primary creditor nation and our primary trading partner). Depending too much on one country, for both goods and loans, is a recipe for economic ruin for the debtor nation (in this case, the United States).

     To answer the question posed in the title of this section - "Do deficits really pay for imports?" - the answer is no.

     We in the United States might like to think that they do, but that is a flight of fancy and an oversimplification. We suppose, from the mere fact that we are borrowing from China at the same time that we are buying lots of its products, that these loans from China are "paying for" the products we're buying.

     But we are wrong; first, because money is fungible. Money from China can be spent on anything. Although we do "borrow from China to buy from China" in the sense of trade (and also in the sense that some of the money from Chinese loans goes towards repaying our debt to China), some of what the money from Chinese loans is spent on, has absolutely nothing to do with China, and doesn't go to China. They are spent on other federal budget items; domestic, military, etc..

     Second, it's not as if the money from Chinese purchases of U.S. federal government debt are being funneled directly back to the Chinese government, to buy Chinese products. Although the Chinese government provides assistance to the state-owned enterprise Cosco (the shipping company), America's national government is not, in any real or literal way, directly spending China's money on Chinese goods. Especially not, considering that many of the firms "exporting" "Chinese" goods to the United States, are actually American-owned firms.

     Although it, perhaps, seems logical that borrowing money is the only realistic way we're going to get as many products into America as we need, and cheaply, that is not the truth.

     Here is the truth: Deficits and debt are bad. Spending more money than you take in, is bad. You don't buy products with deficits and deficit spending and borrowing; you buy products with money. You don't buy things with negative money; you don't buy things with no money; you buy things with positive money. Money that you have, or can have in your possession, so that you know it actually exists.

     Why should I feel like an idiot for believing that, if we want to buy products from China, we should use money instead of debt? Is the United States trying to pretend like it doesn't want to go into debt, so that it can get away with acting as if it's doing China a favor by allowing China to take a trillion dollars in debt off of the U.S. federal government's hands? That's hardly a way to be grateful to the country that's bailing you out more than any other country is.

     Let us not be mistaken; it is not necessarily a privilege to loan to America.

     If America's best days are ahead of it, then it is certainly a privilege. But certainly not if America is on its way out, like if production will never return. If that is the case, then the fact that the United States will owe China money, will not matter, because the U.S. will have no feasible way to repay that debt.

     We are certainly on track for that to happen now, considering the large number of Keynesian, M.M.T., and other economists who believe that the national debt is not only not a problem, but also that paying it off would be undesirable and probably even impossible. My position is that resolving to pay off the debt, and talking about it as if it were both desirable and possible (because it is), will help reassure our creditors (most importantly China) that we are on track to pay that debt off.

     Don't get me wrong; being a major trading partner of China is not undesirable. We just shouldn't depend on them any more than other countries. And we should stop acting as if debt were an asset, no different from “positive money” and currencies and goods, that you can have in front of you, and see and touch and feel.

     Perhaps that is why we treat China as if it is privileged to buy our debt (i.e., lend to us); as if we were doing China a favor by selling our debt to them (as opposed to some other country, perhaps). Again, lending to the United States is only a privilege if the U.S. eventually pays back its debts.

     I'd like to clarify something. America is borrowing money from China, not the other way around. The investment which the United States makes in China, is not a purchase of their debt; it is not a loan to China. The investment which the U.S. makes in China, is the purchase of its goods (and also, the establishment of U.S.-owned firms in that country). America is importing goods which were exported from China after being manufactured in China.

     We are not loaning money to China. We are borrowing from them, while buying a lot of their products (and employing some of their people). China is loaning America a lot more money than the U.S. is buying from China. So China is, by no means, in the inferior position. Certainly not in its lending position. It is worth noting that the U.S. now trades with China at a surplus, so China's status in trade has declined relative to the U.S. - especially considering that U.S. debt service has been increasing for the last two decades - but China's position relative to the U.S. is still superior overall (for now).

     We must do away with the notion that borrowing from China allows China to invest in the United States. Chinese market actors have always been able to invest in the United States; it's possible for them to do so without the U.S. doing any borrowing from China at all.

     We would be foolish to go on acting as if owing this money to China provides only an opportunity to invest in the U.S. by selling us cheap goods; it also provides an opportunity for China to exploit America's need for Chinese products and Chinese loans.

     Have we allowed ourselves to become so deluded, as to believe that the fact that we're supposed to pay China back, means that China is owed all of this money, and that that's supposed to be as good as having that money?

     Ostensibly, the U.S. is borrowing from China in order to do four things: 1) be able to more cheaply afford imports from China; 2) fix a hole in its budget; and 3) use some Chinese loan funds to fund programs aimed towards increasing jobs and productivity here in the United States. The goal of #3 is to help-along goal #4) to generate taxable revenues from those jobs, to fund government, while (eventually) decreasing dependency upon China for loans.

     And again, that sounds like it makes perfect sense! But once again, all it really means is that we're borrowing from China... in order to avoid borrowing from China.

     When we treat debt as if it were currency or money, and trade it and spend it as such, we risk turning debt, and the temptation of credit and loans, into currencies in their own rights.

     That is to say, we risk monetizing debt as a matter of regular course, and we risk turning debt and I.O.U.s into something which is just as acceptable – and valuable – as a mode of payment, as are real, tangible, physical, hard assets (such as precious metals).

     When there are not strong anti-usury (and anti- fractional reserve) measures in place, we risk setting the value of some good, equal to the value of another object which claims to represent it. If a promise to pay is every bit as acceptable as a payment, then the value of a promise is likely to decrease. People who make promises will be less likely to be believed, because there will be a perverse incentive to borrow and receive without giving back as one has promised.

     The negative consequences of usury are, thus, not only economic and financial, but also social and moral. The fact that the government can aggress against people, and coerce them without consequences, should not be construed to excuse the government from the responsibility to act as any sane, civil individual would: 1) live within your means; 2) don't force anyone to buy from you or sell to you (or use your currency); 3) don't threaten or harm people unless they do the same to you first; and 4) keep your promises.

     After all, the government's authority rests on the will of the governed, and its duties are imposed by the individuals who constitute that government, who have duly delegated their own powers to the government for the purposes of protecting their liberties. The government should have every responsibility to behave as it would expect any of its law-abiding citizens to; because the government is comprised of those citizens.

[the remainder of this article will appear here at a later time]

Written on April 29th and 30th, and May 1st, 2020

Originally Published on May 1st, 2020

Updated on May 4th, 2020

Appreciating Your Possessions: Extending Faith Through Extending Credit

     Another moonth is upon us, just as the Jungian shadow of the Moon is upon the Earth every forthwith and forthwhence. If time is money, then it's money for another lesson. But first, what have we learned thus far?

     That, though your cracked subconscious be flawed, it and its master are of the utmost value, almost as if they were holey. That you must choose your possessions wisely, and possess them as would a ghost, or else they shall possess you. That spiritual appreciation is the source of financial appreciation; of appreciation in value. That the source of value is the meaning of your name: it is like Hanson Enhancing the Value of the Ensign.

     To be not fooled by claims that “witchcraft” is itself a “source” of value; it is but an intermediary, a midwife and witness to the Birth of Value. The Cherishing Technique^TM is as a divining rod, pointing us in the direction of The Source. Full ownership of yourself requires that you exploit the scarcity of your Unique, and redeem yourself – and the very sweat of your brow - for cash!

     To invest and extend credit is to invest and extend faith, that to put stock in your beliefs is how to take maximum advantage of your leverage. By choosing a living currency – one backed by time, and which is pierced, can be tethered, and keeps as current as the waters – we may procure a currency that works for us, instead of the other way around. Only then may we find a currency suitable for assisting us to work for one another, and for a wage other than death.

     To numismance the stone is to get through the Eye of the Rai. We mustn't fuck holes in ourselves by worshiping Mammon; instead, we must fuck those holes in order to sacrifice the hole for the whole of the donut. To do this is to see the Spiritual Light through the lens of the Eternal Bagel, to prevent the Moon from growing/glowing/growling/glowering red with blood mooney. It is to use the Moon as our spectacles, not as a spectacle, nor as a spectre.

     Only through the Cherishing Technique^TM may we save ourselves from losing sight of the (w)hole in the Donut. For the donut is the pierced blood cell which is at the root of all existence, and thus the root of all living value. To see the Black Hole Son, the Day Religion and the Night Religion, and the Cosmic Clock Theory (and its corresponding time=money system) verily, we must Fuck With a Sigil.

     Also, double your value by killing your doppelgänger.

     This much we know for sure.

     And that is why we must blow a hole in the Moon.

     We cannot fit into the hands of God unless you put a hole in there first. Similarly, if we, our money, our god, and our Moon do not have holes in them, then they cannot be tethered down, and the Heavens can Spirit them away. The Moon is the last of these four to remain whole; thus, it must become hole for the cosmic coin-counter to be complete. This is how you keep your value Earth-bound. For if the Moon has a hole, then it can be tied to the Earth.

     Oh, also, we're gonna blow a hole in the Earth.

     The Discordians evidently believe that all value derives from 2 and 3. It has apparently escaped their notice that 0 is the source of 1, and thus, the source of all value and values. Their numerology is like a god that someone forgot to properly tie down at the hitching post. We must teach the Discordians how to return the favor which 0 gave to 1; by annihilating the 1, by adding a negative 1. It is in this way that by adding a hole to a barrel, we decrease its weight, though we add something to it. Again, think negative space, think Mustard Seed.

     I'm sure you think you need a hole in the Moon and the Earth like you need a hole in your hand, but have ye not heard it said that “Cleanliness is next to godliness”? As this is true, we must be wary, for our “money” is unclean in so many ways, as has been elaborynthmiated previously. And also, that “portability is next to trackability”?

     Though itchy money be a wolf's bane, rejoice! For, fortunately for you, portability, durability, divisibility, fungibility, induplicability, rarity, stability, and trackability are also next to godliness! Though a cloned Christ, or a cloned you, be duplicable, take heart! For this exempts you - saves you - from being used like a currency!

     Just as well, redeemability in real assets; effort involved in creation; high purchasing power, and service as a unit of accounting, medium exchange, and real store of value, are next to godliness. All of these are like theology; they are Like a Prayer.

     If mankind is to be redeemed, then it must be redeemed in real assets. But if that's so, then given that cows (also known as beef-apples) were one of the earliest forms of currency – being that their value derives from their mobility, their ability to self-replicate, and, just like the Chinese tea brick, the ability to be eaten as food in an emergency - what is to prevent us from taking them as Sacred Cows? From treating them as Golden Bulls, instead of gold bullion? From crucifying mankind upon a Cross of Beef? I've got no beef with them!

     We all know that the buillon cube is a portable, divided unit of accounting on the beef stock market. But cubes are not the shape for buillon which God hath ordained. Nay, the proper shape is the shape of the Moon. But are the Moon and Earth shaped as we believe?

     We can start with what we know for certain: first, that We^TM Live^TM Inside^TM the^TM Earth^TM. It may take a Moonatic to explain, but we can infer from this that the Earth is a hollow disk. Those who doubt will ask, “Why, though the Earth seem flat from one perspective, from another it appear round as the disk of the Son?” But true believers will know that this is the result of the Earth being shaped like a nickel; and upon this nickel I shall build my Church. And just as the Earth is shaped like a nickel, so too is the Moon.

     The Earth goes 'round the Moon, just as naturally as the Moon goes around the Son. Everything revolves around the Son, just ask one of his followers. We celebrate Eostre, of course, by remembering that the Son hatched like an egg. Why? Because the Moon, just like God, is an egg. And just like the egg, God, and we His children, the Moon shall one day crack.

     Looking into the Eye of the Rai will afford us the Name. And the Name of the Rai is fei; Fay who say “they fill up slots with little things they find in space”. Our little Earth is but a nickel in the slot of a great cosmic slot machine, the plaything of some alien or deity who fashions zimself some sort of pinball wizard. And when the Earth and Moon have holes, they can be threaded with string. And if God can tie a string through his coins, then when God goes to play pinball, He can Get His Money Back.

     Just like the rai, and your god, you too must die while being brought to Shore. Or else, while helping others reach the shore. So the greater becomes the heroic tale of your money-carrying, Christ-carrying journey. And thus, the rai appreciate, while themselves being appreciated. As you are precious, so too are you appreciated. Although this sensing sentience - this touching feeling – is the root of the subject-object confusion, it is also its resolution.

     The only way to intellectually appreciate your possession - “your” god – is to poke a hole in it. It shows inquisitiveness; to poke a hole in it is to challenge it. And God always appreciates a challenge or a bet.

     Ye have heard it said that “He who does not work, neither shall he eat”. But from whom cometh this quote? St. Paul, of blessed memory, yes, and the Jamestown settlers, but also Lenin. What if you do as God commands, and walk around eating like a bird? Isn't it an assault on the freedom of worship to require a license for that?

     What is the purpose of a left-vs.-right divide on economic issues, when the “money” we all use is of no value to begin with? One side values labor and believes the Earth round, while the other values capital and believes the Earth flat. Reconciliation only becomes possible when currency stops being impossible; and that can only be done through alchemy.

     Just as “property is impossible” - since a society can't have property norms without either a state or unanimous agreement – currency is impossible. How can you hold a society's monetary norms together without either a standing army, or else mass psychology? Believe the Oculus, not the ochlocracy.

     As you will recall, Milton Friedman remarked that myth – that is, unquestioned, unverified superstition – is the most important element in a society's monetary system.

     A myth sets up the basis of an economic system, and thus a monetary system. As in the Cahokia Mounds, when a society chooses to spend hundreds of years building something – to help a warlord, or as tribute to a god – then its economy inevitably revolves around that. Just as well, its currency will be based on whichever resource occurs naturally in the area and has the popularity to become a durable form of currency for some amount of time.

     In his analysis of rai, Friedman rightfully avoided value judgments. But had Friedman concluded his research with a shamanic recommendation – like that we rip the cow's heart out before turning it into money, in order to boost the value of our beef-disks; or perhaps that we ought to eat our money to gain its purchasing power – then he could have made his observations that myth matters most in monetary matters more moving. ...By the way, do that.

     Why didn't Friedman ever shake a stick that had shrunken heads dangling from it, so the jaws open and close as the stick shakes up and down? Ludwig von Mises may be to blame. Ludwig von Mises (rhymes with “Jesus”) said, “Economics must not be relegated to classrooms and statistical offices, and must not be left to esoteric circles.”

     And so, the free-marketer flat-Earthist must ask himself, why didn't Friedman ever notice his disagreement with Mises? Surely you can't have a coherent economic theory (and corresponding monetary cosmology) if one of your theorists believes that myth is essential to economics, while another believes that economics “must not be left to esoteric circles”? Blasphemy!

     Esoteric circles ought to determine everything! If indeed the Chaos Theory of Value is the key to overcumming the Power Theory of Value, then it must support a currency which is, like USD, truly a cum-oddity. For as we splurge with it, we splooge upon it. Therefore, only qualified alchemists may do monetary theory.

     Fortunately, there's a little more thinking going on about this subject on the Left.

     Labor leader Big Bill Heywood said, “The mine owners did not find the gold, they did not mine the gold, they did not mill the gold, but by some weird alchemy all the gold belonged to them!” Heywood alone spies the alchymical marriage which is necessary to spawn a healthy new monetary system.

     While Heywood understands the importance of alchemy in establishing a monetary system the best out of all those considered herein, Karl Marx comes close, and certainly bests Friedman. That's because Marx said, “The less you eat, drink, and buy books; the less you go to the theatre, the dance hall, the public house; the less you think, love theorise, sing, paint, fence, etc., the more you save – the greater becomes the treasure which neither moths nor rust will devour – your capital.”

     Just as Lenin echoed the Christian settlers at Jamestown and the Christian St. Paul, Marx echoed Christ's exhortation in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:19). And we pretend that there is any purpose for the left-vs.-right divide on religious matters, let alone the economic and the monetary! Why divide people according to their values, when you can divide your currency into equally valuable Moon-units!? Only when moonetary matters are settled, may Jamestown, Russia, or the Kingdom of God - or the tab, for that matter - be settled.

     If you read your Bible, you'll know that God always speaks in capital letters. He calls Himself YHWH, and I AM, like a pissed-off internet troll. Why does He do this? To show people the Meaning of His Word, which is the source of all value in the universe.

     Speaking in tongues wouldn't even have occurred to us if not for God! He's the 0ne who taught us to ritualistically induce ecstatic trance, so that we generate new words! Think of how many more words you could capitalize on, if you also trademarked the CAPITALIZED versions of the divine but apparently meaningless utterances that you generate during trance states! Think of the prophets you'll rake in!

     Marx knew this just as well; for his advice shows that he understood the importance of not only capital and myth in creating value, but also of capitalizing on what you say, so that you don't have to capitalize what you say.

     For the Earth, too, shall crack like an egg. But that shouldn't mean that your money has to as well.

     Roll those nickels, God wants to play another round.

Written on April 15^th and 16^th, 2018
Edited on May 2nd, 4th, and 11th, 2018

Originally Published on April 16^th, 2018

Crafting and Charging Your Sigil-Currency: How to Put Your Money to Work for You

     As Eisenhower chided (chode?), “The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.” General Patton, too, remarked that “A pint of sweat will save a gallon of blood.” In Biblical times, a talent (or kikkār) was a measurement of a particularly-sized disk-shaped loaf, made of gold or silver; the monetary equivalent of twenty years' wages.

     These facts ought to show that the use of talent, genius, hopes, and dreams as a way of backing currency, are already widely accepted. This, and the existence of an e-currency called SweatCoin, ought to show that sweat is accepted just as widely, if not more. Additionally, the U.S. Federal Reserve has set the standard; a currency with no human fluids on it will not survive in today's fast-paced currency seller's market. That is why we must forge a currency of sweat.

     However, a document covered in sweat can serve as a fine substitute. There's no way to perfectly imitate that head-swelling, confidence-instilling feeling - like the feeling of some cleansing flu coming on - of that most coveted and elusive of currencies; Man. But what better way to counterfeit the witchy of the itchy and the sticky of the icky of the way humons feel, than by smearing your moneys with human transmission fluid?

     Get high off of your money. If you can't get V.D. from your money, then You're Not Doing It Right^TM. If you've no blood nor sweat to spare, then as the saying goes: You'd better get busy crying, or get busy scrying.

     If the value of a money comes from its shine, then where doth its value lay? Hark!, where, when the paternal, miserly Sun hides from mere mortals for fear of his mistress Luna, as if She were some attention-starved solar-powered vehicle (just as fair Gaia)? We may only know by using the very Sun as our astrolabe – and probably as our ass too, if you ask Georges Bataille – that is, by using the Sun itself as our sundial and timepiece.

     Would that I could but snatch the Sun and Moon out the very Heavens for thee, and gift them to you as currencies, untaxable by the gods. But the best I can do is write these Letters. For the Sun and Moon are round yet flat; just like the Earth, coins, and our callous hearts. Amun RaShi'Amun Rocks.

     Through replacing the money in our pockets with miniature sundials, our currency will stay current, and we will be all paid-up on our phone bill to G-d. We can even dial-up the Messiah, to hear The Message, and the ephemeral Operator will inform us of the True Cosmic Time. Then we can finally find out whether Jesus was trying to tell us it was 2:45, 3:45, 8:15, or 9:15. I mean, Christ on a clock!

     Yea, for a Solstice has come to pass! To watch the seasons, and Sun and Moon, is to gently rock the cradle of civilization, to push the perambulator of progress, to tend the Garden of the stationary Church-house-wife. It is the cosanguine Nile of the suburbs. That is why we may no Know-Religion until we know No-Religion. And only through the No-Religion may we practice the All-Religion, the Night-Religion, and the Day-Religion of Duty, and deliver our End of the Covenant.

     So it was that those who had come to bask in the warmth of the Son had also come to call it their god, and rely on it. Just as it was hours later, when their god deserted them; mocking them, laying them bare, cool and dry, vulnerable to the stare of the (K)night-King.

     But Lo!, for a second light – a lesser Light - did govern the Sky, during fearsome Night! The people rejoiced, gave thanks for this grace, and took heart. They trusted their Moon-Goddess; she governed the Heavens so as to make the very trains run on time! Truly She were a goddess to whom mortals could set their watches, and even their calendars!

     But this mild, innocuous Lunacy grew feverish, bringing Discord. And what Luna see, Luna do. They feared the Son would never return. Some began to believe they didn't need Him. Moon-tanning boomed as an industry. The vampires' unions went too far and then got complacent. Bad times were had by all.

     But the Morn broke nevertheless, and the Lord of Light scalded dry the winter-parched faces of the Draculistic Moonites with the sight of the unforgiving day. This was the same chasmed flesh which had once worn dry as caked desert mud from haloed Luna-C's glowering glow; halo-lujah.

     Fuckin' way she goes; same shit, different millennium. For to God, every day is like a thousand fears. ...Here's to another 365 of those shits.

     But after but after but; this is the nature of the koan. Forsooth, I like big buts, and I cannot lie; to lie is to call the Eternal But anything but samsara. It is to make it the but of the joke. For Our Lord Kurt Cobain, of the Holy Trinity of Nirvana, freed us from the cycle of what the Buddha termed the Cycle of Buts. This is what is truly meant by “Get thee behind me, Satan!”. No amount of Time, nor The Waiting, can free us from the Eternal But. If it can, then it is not the Eternal But.

     But that is the Nature of Time; we don't have Time to talk about Time. Time may be money, but as Tha Boi warned us, “Time won't give me time, and time makes lovers feel like they've got something real”. And if time won't give you time, then it's no better than a money that doesn't make you more money while you're sleeping.

     The Black Hole Son can only redeem us (for value) insofar as He can symbolically store our value. If Time is at all fleeting - and it is - then time and permanence cannot be rightfully described as countrymen, thus serving as a store of value in any real sense proves difficult. But through conquering the Word - and defeating the demonic, time-stealing scoundrel Hypnos - this dissonant disconnect between Time and Value can be bridged, transcended, and overcome.

     This Letter is about making a sigil. A sigil for your vigil.

     That I may lead you, the reading novice magick practitioner, out of the sweat-shop and into the Light, so that you may pick the Golden Rays from the very Air.

     This is about how to create your sigil, and how to craft it into a sigil-based currency. Moreover, how to charge it; the same way you charge a credit card, or charge an innocent god with a crime He didn't commit. Only then may we conduct this Alchymical Wedding between Spirit and Flesh (the same way you would conduct lightning to yourself, or an orchestra. Or conduct an orchestra).

     The task before us is to transmute mercury into gold; to get blood from stone. And remember, blood is mostly water, so if Moses got water from a stone, then blood isn't a far Leap away. If Moe can do it, yo can do it. It's right there in his name: “Moe's us!”

     That's right, all your months of hard work are about to pay off! Collecting these instructions, ritualistically inducing trance states so as to emit ecstatic glossolalia, generating letter after word after symbol after emoji after cryptogram after codex after sigil after seal after amulet after talisman after primordial language after ancient number that nobody's ever heard of, while a bunch of clothespins hang off of your dangly bits.

     Did you forget to do that? Oh. Well, I did mention to get a job as part of all this? No? ...Actually, that's perfect, you have nothing to work with. Just as Socrates was a genius because he admitted he knew nothing, so too must the fabrication of a Faberge egg begin with its negation; through piercing. This ain't the Seven Dolours of Mary here, it's just like getting your hand pierced. And as it may as well have said in 1 Timothy 2:9: “You can't be beautiful until somebody pokes a hole in you.”

     Look away, and think on this: Piercing the one creates a zero within it. How many zeroes? One. As zero is defined self-antithetically as the absence of value or number, it is both a number and not a number. How many numbers is it? One. But how many numbers isn't it? All of them. This is the nature of non-Euclidean hyper-numeric out-forming.

     This principle is best symbolized by Sisyphus (1) pushing Ouroboros (0) up a hill. The self-completion of Nothingness gives rise to the One, to raise it. All positive and negative value comes from within or without the 0. This is what the Kingdom of God is like.

     Yes, that's right; act now, for the Black Hole Son is the demiurgic furnace of Creation; that supercollider of supercolliders, the Lord's personal microwave, from which the All-Yet-What-It-Is-Ness and the Not-But-What-It-Do-Ness spewluminate and spewmerge from the Hotness of the Notness. This is why the knowledge that A does not equal A, is the fountain pen of all Objective^TM Human No-Ledge. For there is (k)No(w)Ledge Beyond the Edge.

     That's why lack of a ledge to stand on is a desirable quality to possess. For even if the sigils you manifested were too hardcore to translate into English – much less millions in domain names profits – then the only real portfolio you need is within your own mind; it is your Memories. While the First Rule of Sigil Money is that You've^TM Got^TM a^TM Portfolio^TM to^TM Maintain^TM, there is dispute over whether “There is No Second Rule of Sigil Money” in fact constitutes a second rule. But this should not come as unexpected, for in the very same way that 2 emerges from 1, so does 1 emerge from 0, and vice-versa. It's kind of like removing a square peg from a round slot.

     This is to say that you can't get into Heaven unless you can fit through Jesus's ribcage wound to get inside of it. And that hole wouldn't be whole if some asshole centurion hadn't gone and done a damn thing, and Doubting Thomas hadn't stopped by to open-up old zounds. Above all, it's harder to thread the Hole to Heaven if you have a plank in your own eye that prevents you from pointing our the camel in the eye of the needle. Basically, the more valuable and precious the memories you've stored in your mind, the more Value® you can sneak into Heaven.

     Though ye may lack possessions, ye still have some number of sword and cup. I mean, whether getting rid of all your possessions will get you into Heaven or not, then if you are getting in, then whatever is inside you is also getting in. Eh? Eh? So why not swallow a couple'a cigarette packs? Where there's clouds, there's cigarettes. Why not turn yourself into a drug mule while you're at it? What, do you think there's nobody in Heaven who likes drugs!? This is how you can raise your Value® without weighing yourself down spiritually. Make yourself use-full!

     As you'll recall from earlier, the hole in the donut signifies the debt which is built into the dollar. Money is weighted with debt - so as to anchor it to Gaia, lest it dash adventurously off to reach the lofty Spheres – and in order to inculcate into the bill an imperative to spend. In this manner shall we rein spending Power into our own sigils, like St. Nicholas herding reindeer with his Lightning Command of the Word. As money now commands us to spend it, so shall we soon command it to spend itself; through seduction.

      The value of Money (that is, money as we know it) cannot be acquired without spending; this discharges the debt, allowing the spender to redeem the interest (that is, the cost of using money which he incurred in choosing that currency in particular). Basically, money is only useful once you Get Rid of It^TM. Just like a god.

     Also, conveniently, just like a sigil. If you want to truly keep something, then you must spiritually possess it, by preparing to let it go. If it comes back to you, then it was meant to be. Only then may you buy your future back through the flames. As has been said, “You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone”; just like the manna in which golf is scored, the value of possessing a sigil-currency lies in its non-possession. One year you won't want to be caught without money, the next you won't want to be caught with it. You won't know until it's All-Too-Not-Just-Late-Enough.^TM

     The less you have, the closer to Zero you are, the more you appreciate what you do have. This is what it means to live by God's grace, to live in God's hands. To do this is to manifest financial appreciation through acts of intellectual and emotional appreciation. As each of ye bead a precious jewel with innumerable facets, different yet equal in the unparallelable uniqueness which knows no degree but only absolute. Thus, uniqueness – your Unique, at that - may never be diminished nor demeaned.

     Verily I say unto thee: by the time this is over, you will see the Kingdom of God with your own eyes. More importantly, you will have learned to not trap, but catch your intentions, uponto your sigil, without nailing it down and accidentally killing it. This will allow you to practice what we shall call the Entomology of the Word, so that you may treat the flowers as Osho besought.

     Even if you can only do it as part of a simulation, living near Zero - at the edge of nothingness and annihilation - is the only way to gain the perspective necessary to understand that mankind must create a currency whose value is inversely proportionate to the level of human suffering which caused it.
     To paraphrase Matthew 5:3-6, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and getting hurt is a sure way to get people to pay attention to you. To do this is to “make yourself scarce”; so rare that you nearly fade-away into Nothing^TM, and your value's wave-function collapses into a shit-line. But fear not; if you strike yourself down, you shall become more valuable than you can possibly imagine.

     Just as you can claim a flower - without picking it, nor killing it – by uprooting it, so too can you obtain the humour of your choice, and transfer it onto the document that will wield your sigil. (Note: humours are herein referred to as both Flesh and Spiritus, not to be confused with Spirit.) However, you will not be trapping spiritual powers, nor intentions, nor fluids; but catching them, as you would a dream with a dream-catcher.

     This document you use may be of paper, papyrus, vellum, parchment, buck-skin, Charlie Manskin, or a grimoire made of human flesh. Use whatever's handy. Even literally; use your own hand if nothing else is available. After all, as Mr. Wright noted, it's easier to read someone's palms if there's something already written on them.

     Your goal will be to keep record of significance, and a souvenir of your illusory physical body (ectoplasm), with - and on - this codex. This will allow you to delicately “capture” the spiritual union of Spirit with Flesh, but not in the same way that every time you nail something into the ground, you're driving a nail through the Body of Christ, and preventing both Jubilee and the Second Coming. This way is less painful (depending on who you ask).

     Additionally, you must lay a trap for Fire; so that it may act as your Servant, rather than your Serpent. Fire, as students of Richard Feynman will attest, is a kind of spiritual lightning, which mortals refer to as “electricity”. Once you have trapped your fluids with your sigil, the fluids (spirits) become your prisoners, and begin to go to work inside your money, to make more money for you. The walls of this numismatic prison insulate the economy against all designs of electric and economic shock; from Nixon Shock, to China Shock, to the risk of e-Weapondollar Shock (posed by mounting speculation in 3-D-printed-handgun-backed currencies).

     That's why lighting your humour-moistened sigil-currency with Holy Fire - “charging your sigil” - results in a sticky electrical discharge that's nearly as delicious and refreshing as what Natasha spells backwards. Lick your sigil while you're at it, there's no sense in wasting good saliva. More saliva donations to the Fire is more saliva donations to Commodity Fetish Records.

     Licking the sigil, just as well, serves to Mark it as yours; this is termed “Homesteading by the Tongue”. You may recall this property-claiming process from your youth. If you lick it, it becomes not just yours, but a part of you, because it's covered in your Flesh.

     To set your Spiritus-meshed Mooney ablaze with Light, is to literally electrocute the Money-Moon-Men inside of it, by the Thunder of Zeus! Again, just like a credit card. Once it's your property, you can do anything you want with it; trade it away, burn it, eat it in order to gain its power, even destroy it by selling it to the Fire.

     These rituals - exposed to the open Air, and uniting Handwater with Meat, Will, and Fury - alone ensure the Union of the four classical elements Fire, Earth, Air, and Water. A voodoo monetary theory which does not accept this Union as essential to the creation of value, does not comprehend the true natural law of moonetary exchange. The Union of Flesh with Spirit and Word, and Faith with Works, and Time with Money and Moon, the same.

     The good people at Commodity Fetish Records believe in your True Value, that it would be impossible to calculate your value; that you are invaluable. That's why we're proud to offer a generous commensurate sum of a whopping Zero® Economic Units for your donations! (Disclaimer: We will be testing your emissions for drugs. Just like your Boss, Cool Guy Satan^TM takes only the purest, least adulterated samples.)

     Once you've chosen which fluid or fluids you will apply to your sigil – be it spit, sweat, urine, ass-milk, or handwater (that's “blood” to the layman) – you will be prepared to transmute the humours of your tumours from-within-out-onto the parchment.

     But prior to applying Spiritus, you must make your sigil manifest. Draw a simple design – this could be anything; an assortment of lines and curves, a doodle, a flag, a crest or coat of arms, an established magickal amulet or talisman, really anything – and think of it as a symbol or logo. Next, assign it a meaning, and telekinetically imbue it with your intentions. Stop just short of inflicting your Will upon it; save that for human beings.

     With your mind's eye, give the symbol a meaning that represents what you wish to manifest; this could be a simple task with which you need spiritual assistance, or as high-minded as your wildest hopes and dreams. Visualize yourself surrendering what you lack, in order to lose something negative, in order to make gains (say it with me... Chris Gaines). Simply put, let go of what is holding you back, so sayeth the Emperor. This is how you make trades while staying out of both the red and the black; praise Eleggua, fuck Vegas.

     Meditate upon the symbol, and upon the meaning you have projected onto it. As best you can, memorize the shape of what you have drawn. Release your physical attachment to the document (now made Spirit-Flesh), while simultaneously pretending to, and pretending not to, release spiritual attachment. Having prepared to let go of the sigil-currency – and, with it, physical and symbolic parts of yourself – you may now feed your Spirit-Flesh to the Fire (yourself or the document, there's really no wrong choice here).

     What do I do for a living? It doesn't matter. What's important is that I make money. Whatever my job looks like it is, my real job is, ultimately, to make money. But all that aside, what did I buy a shit-ton of when I got my first paycheck? Beads. Why beads? “Why beads?”!? You know how many beads the island of Manhattan would be worth today, if you accounted for bead inflation? Quadrillions!

     So fuck with a sigil. Draw a simple and make it symbol. Blow it up, and charge it with spiritual fire, then push credit or debit, and you're approved! Put a bead on it. Draw a bead on your sigil. Draw a bead of sweat onto your sigil. 'ell, draw a bead of cum, no less. Cum On A Sigil, so sayeth Sri J.C. Meyers, may Her Name Echo into Eternity. I mean, everybody's doin' it!

     Though ye may say, “Well then, if everybody jumped off a cliff, would you?” Hell yes I would, there'd be nobody to hang out with! Am I to waste away and wait for withered Thanatos to portend his mulish, desiccating jowls thither and thence across my visage? Forshook!

     Though cum be, too, fleeting - just like Time and Life (nay, yet also Glamour, and National Geographic) – what is money without a little bit of cum on it? The transitory, vagabond-like nature of cum, is – like the Black Hole Son – a furnace of creation, albeit housed in the River Nile, while the other is housed in the Ceiling (cielo). Thus is the nature of the fiscal cliff, of God, and of currency.

     And, yes, ass-beads ought to work just fine, as long as they're not cleaned beforehand.

     As the usurpers must be killed with kindness, so shall all blood, sweat, and tears (BST) be repaid in kind; whether to boss, landlord, or humanoid cloud of pumice-colored plasmic cinder. Those who work us, must work for us; especially if our lazy money refuses to. Just as every man shall be a king, and each house his castle, so shall each person be a central banker.

     Literally make it your job to make money. When it comes to counterfeiting operations, you've gotta spend money to make money. The only difference in legitimacy is whose money you spend to get things started.

     If this doesn't make sense, don't worry; it doesn't have to. What matters is that you employ some sort of logical loop in your defense of your currency of your choice. That you take the cum-glossed ghosts made of spiritual electrical-fire which dance inside of your money, and put them inside of a hamster wheel, that is shaped like that very same logical loop, which is alone the source of value, it being also shaped like a coin, and the impostor “number” zero.

     This is like Sesame Street, except the Count never leaves the screen.

     And this is what The Count hath taught us; for, just as money comes from blood, blood comes from water, and water comes from the moon, if Moon-Goddess is the source of all, then She is the source of Mooney, Blood-Money, and Handwater alike. She alone May quell the perturbed tempest of Draculistic Moonies wreaking havoc upon our quiet little town.

     For blood – not blockchain – is the real Keeper of Record of transactions; that Ancient Historian, Holder of Value, the RNA to the RZA to the GZA. The Declaration of Independence might as well have been written and signed in blood, considering how well-aware the revolutionaries were that they were pledging their very lives and lifeblood to one-another, in defense of each other's property. Then how hard would it have been for Nicolas Cage to read?

     Look at it this way: No blood money, no blood oaths. No blood oaths, no blood vigils. No blood vigils, no blood moons, no blood supermoons... But all this can be aided and betted with even the smallest donation. After all, blood's value is high, stable, and robust; owing to the need of it, and demand for it; for transfusions, research, etc..

     Also, blood can be easily transported. Shit, your body does it for you. Moreover, God knows how easily blood spreads. In fact, it's the only currency that's accepted everywhere! What do you think when you see blood? Exactly!; “Damn, the violence in the world is something that I need to accept.”! Blood: It's everywhere you want to be!

     Blood is, also, 100% proof positive of eating. That he who does not eat, neither shall he maketh bludd. And what to blood cells look like? Little donuts! “What does it mean?” Fuckin' you tell me!

     Most importantly, as anarchist Bach Dorein attests, blood is “a bodily fluid that carries all of your genetic material”, which enables both parties to be identified if need be.

     Furthermore, each drop of blood, bead of sweat, or cummie (CUM), serves as an easily divisible unit-share of the currency-stock BST, which is basically a basket of similar human-resource-backed currencies, grouped together so as to pool risk if one of them goes under. These drops (or beads) are valued inversely in proportion to the debt of the unique individual human being from which it came (and which it “represents”, heh-heh-heh).

     It's like a blind trust, except what's being traded is being treated like a currency more than like a stock, and it runs almost like a cooperative model. What this means is that each investor can easily own – upon request of delivery, with postage paid by the recipient – Pieces of You. This enables each investor (remember, that includes you, at least potentially) to have a 100% bona-fide record of the genetic material of all parties to your contract.

     This “currency” (more accurately, a whole mode of exchange unto itself) will allow a creditor to clone his debtor, from his blood, and work the clone until the debt has been paid back in full! At which point the creditor is free to dispose of the clone at will, having created it in the first place. You cannot truly own what you do not create. This is the mode of money management which is most in-keeping with the lessons in the Lord's Prayer. Don't like it? Clone yourself! Jesus did. Remember? He made that sheep? I think he called it Salvador Dolly.

     According to Dorein, when “Loss of property, loss of bodily parts, loss of life are all consequences”, in addition to loss of blood, the “Mutual threat of extreme violence” will “maintain peace”, and the “Mutual threat of death will keep everybody in line”, in much the same manner in which the threat of mutually-assured destruction seemed to help stave-off a nuclear exchange during the Cold War.

     That blood money be our currency, and blood oaths be our Constitution. May blood Serve as a check and a cheque; a contract on which its users declare their independence from the trappings of mortality and the tyranny of monocurrency.

     Perhaps blood's use as a sort of primordial blockchain could even be augmented through genetic engineering! Wouldn't you like to fill your pockets each morning with G.M.O. chimera-borg babies, whose parents are everybody who has ever used blood money!?

     And don't get me started on the possibility of trading blood derivatives!

     This is the logos you must embrace if your will is to make the world safe for Chaos, with Chaos. For Chaos, like Zero, clears room for itself, and thus makes all else (including the One) possible.

     Just as 1 comes from nothingness, so too do the magick and the Muse only visit the shaman in full force of fury as a novice. To experience this is to know true passive magick; to be used as a mere vessel for the Word.

     So, as Timothy Leary famously said, "Induce trance states, patent yourself as a crypto-numerological random number generator, and cash in."

Written Between January 13th and 16th, 2018

Edited on January 17th and March 14th, 2018