18 Point Economic Recovery Programme

[Gerrard Winstanley]

18 Point Economic Recovery Programme

Draft Economic Recovery
18 Point Program To Stop
The Bush Depression


Draft Economic Recovery Program To Stop The Bush Depression
By Webster Tarpley
22Jan08

1. Stop all foreclosures immediately for at least five years and for
the duration of the depression by means of a compulsory federal law
carrying criminal penalties. No foreclosures on homes, family farms,
factories, public utilities, hospitals, transportation and other
infrastructure. Outlaw adjustable rate mortgages.

2. Raise the federal minimum wage immediately to a living wage of at
least $15 per hour, with the short-term goal of attaining a federal
minimum wage of at least $20 per hour.

3. Immediate enactment of a securities transfer tax (STT) or Tobin tax
of 1% to be imposed on all financial turnover in all financial markets
to include the New York Stock Exchange, the NASDAQ, the Amex, the
Chicago Board of Trade, the Chicago Board Options Exchange, the
Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the market in federal securities, the
foreign exchange market, the New York Mercantile Exchange, and all
other financial markets. This tax will be paid by the seller. This tax
will be extended to the notional value of all derivatives, including
over-the-counter derivatives, exchange traded derivatives, structured
notes, designer derivatives and all other financial paper. Derivatives
will become reportable under penalty of law. It is conservatively
estimated that the securities transfer tax will yield approximately $5
trillion of new revenue in its first year of application. This new
revenue will permit a stabilization and consolidation of Social
Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and will permit the expansion of
Head Start, the Food Stamps program, WIC, the Veterans Administration
hospitals, while extending unemployment insurance up to an initial
total of at least 52 weeks, to be prolonged as needed. Provide revenue
sharing to deal with the looming deficits of states, counties, and
municipalities.
 
4. Using the new revenue obtained from the securities transfer tax on
Wall Street financiers, provide comprehensive tax relief for all small
businesses, thus permitting them to pay the new living wage. Small
business will also be aided by the provision of national single-payer
health care, as described below.
 
5. Implement Medicare for all in the form of a single payer, universal
coverage, publicly administered system to provide healthcare for all.
No rationing of care will be permitted under any circumstances.
Cost-cutting will be achieved through eliminating exorbitant corporate
profits, through administrative reform, and above all through a
federally-funded crash program, on the scale of the Manhattan Project,
of biomedical research designed to discover new and more effective
treatments and cures for the principal diseases currently afflicting
humanity.
 
6. Simultaneously, enact comprehensive income tax relief for working
families, raising the standard deduction for married filing jointly
and the personal exemption to at least $25,000 each. This would mean
that a family of four would pay no federal income tax on their first
$125,000 of income. Expand the earned income tax credit (EITC) to
approximately 4 times its current level, with at least $150 billion
paid out. Increase EITC payments to persons living alone as well as to
families with children. Make all college tuition and fees expenses
deductible, and remove the limits on the Hope and Lifetime Learning
tax credits. Return to the FDR-Ike-JFK 90% top marginal rate for
unearned income ­ capital gains, interest, dividends, royalties, etc.,
not wages or self-employment -- of taxpayers with federal adjusted
gross income over $25 million. Roll back the scandalous Bush tax cuts
for the rich. Favor progressive taxation over proportional and
regressive taxation at every level. Phase out the most regressive
taxes, like the poll tax and the sales tax.
 
7. Nationalize the Federal Reserve System and establish it as a bureau
of the United States Treasury. The current privatized status of the
Federal Reserve System constitutes a violation of the United States
Constitution. The size of the money supply and interest rates will
henceforward be decided not by cliques of private bankers meeting in
secret, but rather by public laws passed by the House and Senate, and
signed by the president. Use this authority to immediately issue an
initial tranche of $1 trillion of new federal credits at 1% yearly
interest rates and maturities up to 30 years, to be repeated as
needed. Consider credit as a public utility. Make this initial credit
issue available on a priority basis to states, counties and local
governments for the purpose of infrastructure modernization.
Distribute credit to the private sector for high-technology
re-industrialization in plant, equipment and jobs, manufacturing,
mining, farming, construction, and other production of tangible
physical wealth and commodities only. Aim at the creation of 5 to 7
million new productive jobs at union pay scales per year to achieve
full employment for the first time in decades.
 
8. Federally-sponsored infrastructure projects will include a new
nationwide network of magnetic levitation railways, as well as light
rail systems to facilitate commuting in all urban centers. These
economical and attractive light rail systems will allow a large
portion of the vehicle miles by private automobile using internal
combustion engines to be phased out of use in daily commuting. Launch
a public works program of highway and bridge reconstruction, water
management systems, electrical grids, hospitals, schools, cultural
facilities, and public libraries.
 
9. Comprehensive re-regulation of the entire financial and banking
system. Regulate the current non-bank banks. Bring all the hedge funds
under the oversight of the Securities and Exchange Commission, thus
effectively ending their special outlaw status as hedge funds. Begin
aggressive enforcement of all applicable antitrust and securities
fraud laws, as well as all existing labor legislation, including child
labor, wages and hours, etc. Repeal the Taft-Hartley law with its
anti-union "right to work" provisions, re-affirm the inalienable right
to collective bargaining, and revive the National Labor Relations
Board as an effective ally of working people. Full Davis-Bacon Act
enforcement for all federal contracts, without exception. Tax
leveraged buyouts and private capital deals, including all profits
deriving from them, in whatever form. End corporate welfare, and
establish consumer protection. Revive Glass-Steagall to prevent
nationwide banking oligopolies combining commercial banking with
investment banking.
 
10.  Free college for all qualified students. Any student earning a
high school diploma will be entitled to free tuition and fees at a
community college or state university. High quality remedial courses
to give high-school dropouts a second chance, no matter what their
age. Without investment in the human capital of a highly trained work
force, there can be no economic survival in the 21st century. Federal
aid to raise teacher salaries through revenue sharing.
 
11.  Announce the intention of the United States to abrogate NAFTA,
WTO, and all other international free trade agreements which have
destroyed employment in this country, while increasing the poverty
levels of the third world. Introduce a low protective tariff, starting
at 10% ad valorem on manufactured commodities to prevent reckless dumping.
 
12.  Investment tax credit for purchase modern technology in the form
of new physical tangible capital goods. Tax breaks for the creation of
new jobs in physical commodity production. Severe tax penalties for
the export of jobs to third world sweatshops.
 
13.  Immediately impeach and remove from office both Bush and Cheney,
since otherwise all effective measures to deal with the Bush economic
depression will be crippled by presidential vetoes. Prepare the
impeachment of the RATS (Roberts-Alito-Thomas-Scalia) cabal of the
Supreme Court, if they should attempt to sabotage this emergency
economic recovery program under the color of judicial review.
 
14.  Protect the family farm by a program of debt moratorium for
farmers, no foreclosures, 1% long-term federal credit for spring
planting needs and capital improvements, Restore parity prices at 125%
of parity. Rebuild farm surpluses and food stockpiles. Food for Peace
for famine relief abroad.
 
15. Keep open the options of capital controls and exchange controls if
required by further deterioration of the crisis. Prepare to freeze
most categories of financial debt (debt moratorium) for the duration
of the crisis. Revive Defense Production Act powers to mandate
production of needed commodities by private sector, as needed.
 
16.  Call an international economic conference of sovereign states to
deal with this unprecedented world economic depression. The United
States should take the lead in proposing a new world monetary system
based on the alienable right of all nations and peoples to modern
economic development and to the enjoyment of the fullest fruits of
science, technology, industry, progress, and rising standards of
living. The new monetary system should be based on fixed parities with
narrow bands of fluctuation among the euro, the dollar, the yen, the
ruble, and other world currencies, including emerging Latin American
and Middle East regional currencies, with periodic settlement of
balance of payments discrepancies in gold among national authorities.
The goal of the new system is to promote world economic recovery
through large-scale export of the most modern high-technology capital
goods from the US, EU, and Japan to the developing countries. Create a
Multilateral Development Bank with an initial capital of 1 trillion
euros from US, UK, Japan, and other exporters to finance investment in
the poorest countries with 1%, revolving loans with maturities up to
thirty years. Immediate, permanent, and unconditional cancellation of
all international financial debts of the poorest countries.
 
17. Revive international humanitarian, scientific and technological
cooperation for the benefit of all nations. Roll back epidemic,
tropical, and endemic diseases with an international program of
biomedical research. Join with all interested nations in a joint
international effort to develop new energy resources in the field of
high-energy physics. Fund and expand an international cooperative
commitment to the exploration, permanent colonization, and economic
development of the moon and nearby planets. The spin-offs from these
three science drivers will provide the new technologies for the next
wave of economic modernization.
 
18.  Revive the Franklin D. Roosevelt "freedom from want" provision of
the Atlantic Charter as elaborated in the Economic Bill of Rights from
 the State of the Union Address of January 1944 and incorporate these
economic rights of all persons as amendments to the US Constitution:
"The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops
or farms or mines of the nation; the right to earn enough to provide
adequate food and clothing and recreation; the right of every farmer
to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his
family a decent living; the right of every businessman, large and
small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition
and domination by monopolies at home or abroad; the right of every
family to a decent home; the right to adequate medical care and the
opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health; the right to adequate
protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and
unemployment; the right to a good education."
 
Webster G. Tarpley
 
21 January 2008
Washington DC, USA..........

http://www.rense.com/general80/draft.htm