A new progressive runs against Debbie Wasserman Shultz in Florida's 23rd District.

::::::::

Economist, Professor, activist Timothy Canova is running for Congress in Florida's 23 District, looking to unseat controversial career-politician Debbie Wasserman Shultz. Shultz, a long-time Hilary Clinton supporter, who has come under fire recently for scheduling few debates as chair of the Democratic National Committee (since 2011), and even those during off-peak viewing times, including opposite the male-favored Superbowl, has been the subject of recall petitions looking to oust her from the head of the DNC as well.

Furthermore, though a loyal Democrat to the wishes of her party's head, President Obama, in supporting the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, in practice this effectively means she is siding with the Republican side of the aisle, not the Democratic side, and certainly not with progressives or even many Tea Party types who are tired of seeing so-called Free Trade agreements that really mean more corporate power, fewer worker rights and protections for the environment, and fewer main street American jobs.

Into this bleak political picture comes a progressive breath of fresh air. From Canova's new website's About Me page:

Tim Canova has been challenging Wall Street banks and political corruption for most of his adult life.

As an activist, attorney, educator, and frequent commentator on the rigged economic and political systems that put Wall Street and multinational corporations first while leaving ordinary Americans behind, Tim is uniquely positioned to shake up Congress.

Canova has a long history of progressive activism backed with solid academic scholarship.

As a legislative aide to the late U.S. Senator Paul Tsongas (Democrat, Massachusetts), Tim worked on a range of regulatory and human rights issues. While working on Capitol Hill, Tim began warning about the rise of Wall Street special interests and the assault on working families. In the early 1980s, he wrote critically about the deregulation of interest rates and lending standards and the rise of subprime and predatory lending. These practices would eventually have a devastating effect on the people of Florida when real estate markets crashed in 2008. To this day, Florida still has the highest rate of foreclosure in the country, with over 300,000 open foreclosure cases in state courts.

With respect to Florida's horrendous land boom and bust cycle, I wrote Canova (full disclosure: we are both part of the invitation-only Global Monetary Forum and have shared articles etc. there, and the "tip" about his candidacy came to me from another member of the GMF, Public Banking Institute Founder, Ellen Brown). I asked him about whether he would support a Georgist Land Value Tax as a way to curb the land boom-bust cycle and also to provide more middle class housing where needed. His response:

It's been years since I read Progress and Poverty and studied George's single tax proposal. I would really need to study back up on the issue, but I hope you know well enough to understand that I am open to all kinds of progressive reforms.

At least Canova has read of one of the leading theorist's major reform (Progress and Poverty was written in 1879). It may be up to Georgist activists, however, to help provide him with the more recent facts and successes of Land Value Taxation, however. I did provide him with a link to the Center for the Study of Economics, which specializes in practical implementation of Land Value Taxation.

Indeed, Canova is open to outside-the-box thinking that is both sound and progressive. In a long article in Dissent Magazine published last summer, in which he properly dissected and skewered Federal Reserve policy and the corrupt banking and financial system of which it is a central part, he concluded in part:

It would also be worthwhile to break the monopoly of central banks in the issuance of currency by funding some government operations with money created and issued by treasuries and finance ministries--money that would not add a penny to public debt. This is what President Abraham Lincoln did by issuing more than $400 million in U.S. notes, the so-called Greenback, to pay the huge costs of the American Civil War and national economic development programs. A century earlier, colonial Pennsylvania enjoyed fifty-two years of non-inflationary growth by issuing and lending its own currency into circulation, thereby financing major development of infrastructure without incurring debt or high tax burdens. Adam Smith, in his classic work Wealth of Nations (1776), praised Pennsylvania's success with government-issued money. Such proposals have been introduced in Congress over the years, but Wall Street lobbying has prevented such legislation from passing.

I asked him in my response to this whether he would introduce legislation to support "Greenbacking" aka debt-free money. He responded:

I would reintroduce the 1999 LaHood bill, H.R. 1452, the State and Local Government Empowerment Act, which I believe would have had the Treasury make $360 billion (over 5 years) in interest free loans to state and local governments for capital investments. These funds would have been credits in United States Notes. Beyond that, I would be open to studying the Kucinich bill (it's been a long time since I read up on it).

Canova, who has corresponded frequently with Ellen Brown as well, says unequivocally:

Yes, I support a Public Bank for Florida.

(Full disclosure: I referred Canova to a long-standing e-petition I had created to support a Public Bank for Florida for dark horse candidate Farid Khavari)

Canova, who in 2011 worked for "U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders serv(ing) on an advisory committee on Federal Reserve reform along with such leading economists as James Galbraith, Robert Reich, Jeffrey Sachs, and Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz," also supports expanding Social Security.

I wrote an article last Spring "How to Pay for Social Security is Asking the Wrong Question" which also appears in my book, America is Not Broke! in which I proposed using Sovereign Money to pay for Social Security since every dollar spent produces up to two dollars in national income, according to two studies I cited. I reminded Canova of that article and asked him if he would consider a similar idea. He responded:

I recall your argument about using debt-free money to pay for Social Security. I'm not opposed in theory, but first would suggest let's see where Social Security is in a genuinely full-employment economy, with another 25 million people (and those discouraged and part-time workers) finally working again and paying into the system.

"25 million" unemployed people is an interesting figure since it is completely at odds with the latest official figure of just 7.9 million unemployed, but note that Canova is including "discouraged and part-time workers" as well. Shodowstats.com supports this higher figure and puts the unemployment rate at over 22% when including the largest category, discouraged workers (many of whom subsist only on increasingly scarce public assistance). Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has been known to cite this higher figure as well, which as Shadowstats notes, was "defined out of existence in 1994."

Wasserman is often touted as a friend of Israel, and while that is probably true, Canova is half-Jewish (and half-Catholic) and has spent a lot of time in Israel, including on a Kibbutz, which he has "returned to many times" and in Israel he also "participat(ed) in workshops on citizenship, war, and counter-terrorism at Tel Aviv University."

A vigorous athlete, Canova:

became known (in South Beach, Florida) as "The Hurdler" for hurdling every garbage can -- 572 in all -- on the 8 mile Raven Run, and earned Run of the Year award two years in a row.

This sounds like the kind of stamina Florida's 23^rd, as well as the country, will need to solve the major problems confronting us.

Authors Website: http://newthinking.blogspot.com/

Authors Bio:

Scott Baker is a Managing Editor & The Economics Editor at Opednews, and a former blogger for Huffington Post, Daily Kos, and Global Economic Intersection.

His anthology of updated Opednews articles "America is Not Broke" was published by Tayen Lane Publishing (March, 2015) and may be found here:

http://www.americaisnotbroke.net/

Scott is a former and current President of Common Ground-NY (http://commongroundnyc.org/), a Geoist/Georgist activist group. He has written dozens of articles for Common Ground's national publication, GroundSwell, and has advocated for the Georgist Land Value Tax to public and political audiences.

A complete list of his publications can be found here:

Click Here

He is also New York State Coordinator and Senior Advisor for the Public Banking Institute

Click Here, which seeks to promote Public Banking. The PBI is chaired by another OEN blogger, Ellen Brown.
Scott has appeared on TV/Radio and in in-person Presentations to explain the principles of Georgism, Greenbacking, and State Banking. These may also be found on his personal blog: http://newthinking.blogspot.com/

Scott has a dozen progressive petitions on Change.org which may be found here:

http://chn.ge/10nUAmJ

Scott was an I.T. Manager for a major New York university for over two decades where he earned a Certificate for Frontline Leadership.

He had a video game published in Compute! Magazine: Click Here

Scott is a graduate and adjunct faculty of the Henry George School of Social Science in New York City.

Scott is a modern-day Renaissance Man with interests in economics, science and all future-forward topics.

He has been called an "adept syncretist" by Kirkus Discoveries for his novel, NeitherWorld - a two-volume opus blending Native American myth, archaeological detail, government conspiracy, with a sci-fi flair http://amzn.to/10nUoDV

Scott grew up in New York City and Pennsylvania. He graduated with honors and a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Pennsylvania State University and was a member of the Psychology honor society PSI CHI.

Today he is an avid bicyclist and ride co-leader in a prominent bike advocacy organization.

Technorati code: a72h4zxgud