Summer, 2011: A look back in history…

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) disbursed $780 million in a bailout package to Greece in July 2011. They funded a second large bailout package of $36.7 billion in March 2012 (Reuters, 3-15-12).

IMF receives somewhere between 17.07% to 21% of its budget courtesy of the U.S. government.  Make that “U.S. taxpayers.”

A new report, hot off the presses, sheds additional light on exactly where a healthy share of that money went (ZeroHedge 03/04/2015):                                                          

IMF Director Admits: Greek Bailout Was “To Save German & French Banks”
The IMF has admitted that the various Greek bailouts were not for The Greeks at all…

“They gave money to save German and French banks, not Greece,” Paolo Batista, one of the Executive Directors of International Monetary Fund told Greek private Alpha TV on Tuesday.   Source: Keep Talking Greece

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If the U.S. Government can transfuse the IMF with U.S. taxpayer dollars to bailout German and French banks for their Greek debt gambling binge… then the U.S. Government can direct the Federal Reserve, right now, to activate a U.S. citizens credit facility to grant U.S. citizens the same direct access to liquidity that major foreign and domestic banks received during the Great Financial Crisis.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

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Bloomberg excerpts:

“As an insurer, American International Group Inc. didn’t qualify for the Federal Reserve’s crisis-lending programs for banks. So when trading partners squeezed AIG for liquidity in 2008, the Fed gave the New York-based company two credit lines all its own, with a combined borrowing capacity of $122.8 billion.

AIG’s balance under the credit lines reached about $90 billion in October 2008, data show. By then, the U.S. Treasury Department had taken over AIG, making about $70 billion of separate capital injections during the crisis.

In January 2009, the company borrowed $16.2 billion from the Fed’s Commercial Paper Funding Facility. Bloomberg didn’t include the credit lines in its Fed-loan ranking because they weren’t available to a range of institutions and the borrower was never kept secret.

Peak amount of debt on 1/27/2009: $16.2B
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AIG FP (AIG Financial Products) raked in billions of dollars selling credit default swaps (CDS) during the housing boom. Their risk management strategies during this ‘boom’ period were not given the priority status they deserved. And they failed to set aside adequate “reserves” to cover the potential of a hard down-turn in the market.

That hard down turn arrived when the housing bubble popped in 2007. And when thqt default wave hit, AIG FP was sitting on $450 billion in CDS contracts. They could not ‘cover’ their counterparty obligations to major fiduciary institutions like Goldman Sachs, Societe Generale, and many others.  And those counterparties did not adequately verify that AIG had the unwalled reserves necessary to cover their massive exposure.

And so the Fed stepped in and covered those obligations – 100 cents on the dollar.
Note: The Fed “gave the New York-based company [AIG] two credit lines all its own, with a combined borrowing capacity of $122.8 billion.”

The Fed literally bailed out a ‘high-roller’ gambling operation. At the same time, suffered enormous economic consequences as the credit crisis snowballed – losing income and jobs. Over 12 million American families lost their homes.

If the Fed can fire-hose AIG with billions of dollars in instant liquidity, then Fed can also grant U.S. citizens equal access to direct liquidity transfers.

It is now time for the Fed to activate one more new credit facility, a U.S. Citizens Credit Facility, to restore financial health for American families and revitalize economic growth in this great country..

The Leviticus 25 Plan is a dynamic economic initiative providing direct liquidity benefits for American families, while at the same time scaling back the role of government in managing and controlling the affairs of citizens.  It is a comprehensive plan with long-term economic and social benefits for citizens and government.

The inspiration for this plan is based upon Biblical principles set forth in the Book of Leviticus, principles tendering direct economic liberties to the people.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

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BNP Paribas is the largest bank in the Eurozone and 10th largest bank worldwide. The French bank is headquartered in Paris, with global headquarters in London.  It owns subsidiaries all over the world, including BankWest in the U.S..

BNP was a major recipient of U.S taxpayer funds courtesy of the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department during the financial crisis years – to help restore them to ‘financial health.’ BNP has been involved in some distinctly ‘shady’ (and blatantly illegal) schemes in the past. They have recently ‘rolled the dice’ on an $80 million derivatives trade – and came up empty…

ZeroHedge (Feb 6, 2019): BNP lost $80 million in S&P500-linked derivative trades around Christmas; the massive trading loss emerged after Antoine Lours, BNP’s head of US index trading, put on positions on the S&P 500 which then quickly started losing money.

“BNP Paribas escaped the 2007–09 credit crisis relatively unscathed reporting a €3 billion net profit for the year of 2008, and €5.8 billion for 2009.” (Source: Wikipedia)

Thanks in no small part to U.S. taxpayers…

Background – Exhibit A:

Zero Hedge  Feb 13, 2014:  US Taxpayer “Bailed Out” BNP Paribas Probed By DoJ & Fed

“TARP Recipient BNP Paribas got $4.9bn of bailouts from the U.S. Taxpayer – Today, as the WSJ reports we learn BNP Paribas has been funding transactions in Iran, Syria and other countries subject to U.S. Sanctions since 2002. The bank set aside $1.1 billion to settle investigations by the Department of Justice and the Federal Reserve but as the NY Times reports, investigations are playing out on multiple fronts – centering on whether the firm did “a significant amount” of business in “blacklisted” countires (and routed the deals through the US financial system).”

Via WSJ,  –  “…an internal probe conducted over the past few years “a significant volume of transactions” between 2002 and 2009 that could be “considered impermissible under U.S. laws and regulations...” “involving entities that were doing business in U.S.-sanctioned countries, such as Iran, Cuba, Sudan and Libya during the 2002 to 2009 period.

“BNP Paribas SA on Thursday became the latest bank to disclose the extent of its litigation problems in the U.S., saying it has set aside $1.1 billion against potential penalties related to transactions in countries under sanctions...

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Background – Exhibit B:                    

BNP Paribas Sued by US Over Banker’s Alleged Role in Fraud 

Oct. 19, 2011 (Bloomberg) — “BNP Paribas SA was sued by the U.S. over allegations the Paris-based bank aided a grain export fraud scheme involving commodity payment guarantees provided by the Department of Agriculture.

A corporate banker in BNP’s Houston office allegedly helped a scheme that defrauded the Agriculture Department of at least $78 million through deals he made with four U.S. grain exporters, according to a complaint filed yesterday in federal court in Houston.”

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Bloomberg  Nov 28, 2011  –  #18 recipient of Fed’s “secret liquidity lifelines”“The credit crisis accelerated after BNP Paribas SA, France’s biggest bank, announced in August 2007 that it would halt withdrawals from three funds because mortgage-market turmoil “made it impossible” to value certain assets. BNP began taking Federal Reserve loans in December 2007 when the Term Auction Facility opened. By April 2008, its Fed debt reached $29.3 billion. In 2009, BNP became the euro region’s largest bank by deposits, purchasing Brussels-based Fortis’s units in Belgium and Luxembourg for 10.4 billion euros ($15.2 billion). It issued 5.1 billion euros of preference shares to the French government in March 2009, and reimbursed the state by October. In December 2010, when the Fed disclosed the loans, BNP said it used the TAF “to assist in recycling and facilitating liquidity.”

Peak Amount of Debt on 4/18/2008:  $29.3B

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BNP Paribas received $4.9 billion in TARP funds from the U.S., and they went on to rake in a tidy $29.3 billion credit extension from the Fed via the Term Auction Facility… “to assist in recycling and facilitating liquidity.”

They were meanwhile funding significant transactions (Bloomberg) “involving entities that were doing business in U.S.-sanctioned countries, such as Iran, Cuba, Sudan and Libya during the 2002 to 2009 period.”  And they ran a “grain export fraud scheme” which ‘cooked’ the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a cool $78 million.

The $64,000 question:  If BNP Paribas is deserving of direct liquidity infusions from the U.S. government and the Fed, then would it not be perfectly reasonable for U.S. citizens to also qualify for their own direct liquidity extensions “to assist in recycling and facilitating liquidity” at the family level.

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The Leviticus 25 Plan is the most powerful and dynamic economic acceleration plan in the world – delivering citizen-driven economic growth and citizen-centered healthcare.

The inspiration for this plan is based upon Biblical principles set forth in the Book of Leviticus, principles tendering direct economic liberties to the people.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$75.000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2018 (3074 downloads)