The difference between the SERFS of the Middle Ages and the Consumer/Employee/Self-Employed Business Owner/Middle Class/Working Poor of today is that in the Middle Ages, the Serf had FOOD, CLOTHING, and SHELTER almost all the time short of natural causes. Today’s modern “Serf” has no guarantee of any of that. We no longer grow our own food, make our own clothes, or provide our own shelter on our own land. We have no more “Social Contract” with our Lords and Masters. At least the Serfs had that. They had a SOCIAL CONTRACT. The basic incidentals of HUMAN RIGHTS were provided in exchange for a lifetime of work and service.

Today, we are without that. We have to work harder and harder to earn less and less. And those BASIC INCIDENTALS – Food, Shelter, Clothing – are becoming more and more expensive. Not to mention the new basic incidentals of our time: Transportation and Health Care.

Cross-posted at River Twice Research.

So bipartisanship isn’t dead. By a vote of 348-79, Democrats and Republicans alike put aside their acrimonious differences and agreed, at least for a moment, to stop blaming each other for the sad state of American economic life. Instead, they agreed to blame China.

The bill authorizes the president of the United States to impose tariffs on Chinese goods in response to what it considers an illegal subsidy of Chinese exports in the form of an undervalued currency. It helps that the supporters in the House know that this bill has precious little chance of becoming law; it will not pass the Senate and it is unlikely that it would be signed into law by Obama if it ever came to that. As a result, the bill is the perfect campaign gesture, bombastic, angry, self-righteous, and without much real-world consequence.

At the very end of the Seminal/FireDogLake discussion of my last post, “How Are You Going To Pay For It”, two commenters, ironymeter and konst, offered some comments about the idea in Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) that fiat currency is, to a great extent, accepted, because the Government mandates its status as sole legal tender which can be used for paying taxes imposed by the Government. Let’s begin with a reply to ironymeter

Despite Treasury’s decision to postpone a report that could have branded China a currency manipulator, the economic damage being done by the Chinese government is not ending anytime soon. When we talk about China currency manipulation, we often talk about the role it has played  in the loss of 2.4 million manufacturing jobs since 2000 to China. We talk about how Chinese currency manipulation makes Chinese goods 20-40% cheaper than they would be if China priced its currency like everyone else in the world.

However, what Chinese currency manipulation is really about is freedom. It’s about freedom from the power of elite to negatively affect both Chinese and Americans workers in order to fuel their own greed.

During last month’s State of the Union, President Obama unveiled a bold new push to double exports. The plan is indeed bold and could create up to 2 million jobs if implemented in the right circumstances. It’s estimated that it could double export sales pushing them over $3 trillion annually.

However the plan has run into a big barrier – the economy. As the Washington Post points out:

It looks like we’re approaching an inflection point of great danger in working through problems in creating Economic Recovery. The inflection point is coming because there has been little economic recovery both internationally and domestically, with some nations continuing to run large deficits, and a growing chorus from many, calling for austerity and Governmental budget balancing even though it’s well known that the consequences of these policies will be economic contraction and further hardship for all of us but the rich. The big question is: which way will nations that have debts held in their own sovereign currency like the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Australia go? Will they listen to the domestic and international deficit hawks (e.g. the ratings agencies, the IMF, the European Commission (EC), and various currency traders and hedge fund managers) and cause further contraction and hardship for their citizens, or will they tell the deficit hawks to “take a hike,” create demand from the public sector, where private sector demand is falling short, full employment, and healthy economies?

I can’t answer this question, but what they ought to do is stated quite clearly in a recent blog post by L. Randall Wray and Yeva Nersisyan. Here’s an extensive sampling of their views along with some comments.

Monday a bipartisan group of 130 members of Congress, ranging from Dennis Kucinich on the left to Joe Wilson on the right, wrote to President Obama asking him to stop Chinese currency manipulation. The Congressmen wrote:

Kucinich calls for a focus on the economy, though, this author says, job creation is not enough. The entire monetary system needs to be returned to the rule of law, law that was put in place to protect freedom. Law that has been changed in such a way as to have laid the way from Freedom to Fascism.

Follow Danielle and Bernard as they travel around sub-Saharan Africa. Crossposted from www.BorderJumpers.org.

Pictures from our travels in Tanzania. Visit www.BorderJumpers.org to follow Danielle and Bernard on their trip through Africa.