The GDP Number Was Great… There Is Just One Huge Problem

ZeroHedge, Jan 25, 2024

It now takes $1.55 in budget deficit to generate $1 of growth… and it takes over $2.50 in new debt to generate $1 of GDP growth! 

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The Great Growth Hoax – ZeroHedge, Jan 28, 2024

Excerpts / Insights – Q4 GDP Report:

Peter St Onge writes it up and it is a doozy: “Fresh GDP numbers came in and it was a blowout. The kind of blowout that only a $2.7 trillion government deficit can buy while the private economy crumbles around it. Another couple blowout GDP reports like this and Americans will be living under an overpass.”

The essential ruse comes down to unfathomable amounts of government spending that is being recorded as productivity and output, and interpreted by media as growth. “In the past 12 months the federal deficit increased by $1.3 trillion. Yet we only got half that in GDP—about $600 billion. In other words, everything else shrank. It’s even worse for that brave and stunning Q4—there we got just $300 billion in extra GDP for—wait for it—$834 billion of new federal debt.”

To put a fine point on it: “Essentially, [GDP is measuring] the pace at which we’re going Soviet, replacing private wealth with government waste.” In his interpretation of the data, we are destroying wealth at the fastest rate since 2008.

An analysis by ZeroHedge echoes the same thought.

“While Q4 GDP rose by $329 billion to $27.939 trillion, a respectable if made up number, what is much more disturbing is that over the same time period, the US budget deficit rose by more than 50 percent, or $510 billion. And the cherry on top: the increase in public US debt in the same three month period was a stunning $834 billion, or 154 percent more than the increase in GDP. In other words, it now takes $1.55 in budget deficit to generate $1 of growth… and it takes over $2.50 in new debt to generate $1 of GDP growth!”

To further the analysis, and doing the math: “[E]very dollar in GDP growth cost $1.69 in new debt, and also means that every new job cost future generations of Americans $957,100.48.”

To say this is unsustainable is more than obvious. It is a disaster and this is dragging American prosperity into the pits, if by prosperity you mean quality of life. No matter how many gizmos to which you have access, the resources for living a good life are depleting very fast. The idea of a one-income family is nearly extinct, whereas it was the norm three-quarters of a century ago…

The United States has been the world center of technological innovation during these years, and the historical home for free enterprise and entrepreneurship. We should have had the greatest boom times in our history! Instead, government stole all that energy for itself. It’s a tragedy…

On the good side, we are seeing the evaporation of trust in media, medicine, academia, and government. Large media organizations are laying off workers in droves just to survive, and the woke agenda generally seems on the ropes.

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Again: “To say this is unsustainable is more than obvious. It is a disaster and this is dragging American prosperity into the pits, if by prosperity you mean quality of life. No matter how many gizmos to which you have access, the resources for living a good life are depleting very fast. The idea of a one-income family is nearly extinct, whereas it was the norm three-quarters of a century ago.”

Washington Democrats are feeding America’s debt-binged economic decline.

Washington Republicans have no credible counter-plan to get America’s mushrooming debt cycle back under control and get the U.S. economy back on track. This is one of the most shameful episodes in the history of the GOP.

Main Street America Republicans do have a plan…

The Leviticus 25 Plan will generate average annual budget surpluses of $112.6 billion in each of its first five years of activation (2025-2029) vs current CBO-projected average annual deficits of $1.795 trillion for the same period.

This represents an astounding $1.9 trillion positive budget gain annually (2025-2029) for the U.S. federal budget.

Summary Details:

·  The Leviticus 25 Plan 2025 Generates $112.6 Billion Federal Budget Surpluses Annually (2025-2029). Part 1: Overview, Deficit Projection

·  The Leviticus 25 Plan Generates $112.6 Billion Federal Budget Surpluses Annually (2025-2029). Part 2: Federal Income Tax Recapture; Economic Security / Means-Tested Welfare Recapture.

·  The Leviticus 25 Plan Generates $112.6 Billion Federal Budget Surpluses Annually (2025-2029). Part 3: Medicaid, Medicare, VA, TRICARE, FEHB, SSDI Recapture

·  The Leviticus 25 Plan Generates $112.6 Billion Federal Budget Surpluses Annually (2025-2029). Part 4: Interest Expense Recapture, Totals Summary

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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

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2025 (11474 downloads )

America is on track for debt-fueled economic chaos in the years ahead – with an endgame conversion to a Central Bank Digital Currency system.

Thankfully, there is a pathway out of this tangled, intractable fiscal quandary….

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US Budget Deficit Soars By 50% In December As Fiscal Collapse Under Biden Accelerates – ZeroHedge, Jan 12, 2024 – Excerpt:

As for the final, and most shocking, data point, the December budget deficit of $129.4 billion was more than $40BN higher than the $87.5BN median estimate, and was more than 50% higher compared to the $85BN December deficit in fiscal 2022.

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US National Debt:  $34.058 T

US Federal Debt to GDP Ratio: 122.29%

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U.S. Household Debt – record high: $17.29 T

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Credit Card Debt Surged To Fresh Record High in November

By Diccon Hyatt | Investopedia | Published January 08, 2024

Key Takeaways

• Consumer debt surged $23.8 billion in November, most of that due to a $19.1 billion increase in revolving debt, mainly credit cards.
• The debt is increasingly burdensome for households, with interest rates on credit card debt averaging more than 21%, the highest in decades.
• Some households are under increasing financial pressure and falling behind on their bills, with delinquencies for credit cards and car loans having recently surpassed pre-pandemic levels

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Washington Democrats’ Plan: Expand federal and state government-based social programs, expand federal bureaucracy. No plans of record to constrain spending, bring budget deficits back under control.

Washington Republicans’ Plan: No credible, politically feasible economic strategy to constrain spending enough to have any material effect on budget deficits. No plan to protect the purchasing power of the U.S. Dollar and maintain its status as the world’s reserve currency. No plan to address America’s long-term public and private debt leverage issues.

Washington Republicans have the opportunity of a lifetime to present a master plan to dig America out of its cavernous debt hole and restore the American dream – and they have nothing.

Main Street America Republicans do have a plan – an economic acceleration masterpiece that will: 1) Generate massive new tax revenue flows, cost savings, and multi-billion dollar budget surpluses each of the first five years of activation; 2) Set the U.S. Dollar back on track for long-term strength and stability; 3) Eliminate trillions of dollars in Household Debt and restore financial security for millions of American families; 4) Revitalize economic growth, strengthen the U.S. banking system; and 4) Restore economic liberty and free market economics in the United States.

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

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2023 (11268 downloads)

America needs a new plan – one that offers a helping hand ‘up out of poverty,’ rather than the perpetuating the current system that “severely punish work effort,” promote continual dependence on government, and stifle the human spirit.

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Welfare Benefits and the ‘Disincentive Desert’ – WSJ

How Americans become ensnared in the system.

WSJ Letters – Dec. 11, 2023 – Excerpts:

Phil Gramm and John Early’s “Another Wrong Way to Measure Poverty” (op-ed, Dec. 6) is notable for revealing how poverty rates are artificially inflated by the Census Bureau by excluding most social-welfare benefits. When all the benefits are counted, the authors contend, “the percentage of Americans living in poverty falls to only 2.5%.”

…. While Americans may be more comfortable than census numbers suggest, the authors miss the poverty of opportunity that occurs once people become ensnared in the social-welfare system.

Consider a 2022 study by economist Ed Dolan. He gives the case of a hypothetical Boston family with one adult, two young children and an income of $22,000, which is at that group’s official poverty level. The family qualifies for around $66,000 in social-welfare benefits, which certainly brings it out of poverty.

But here’s the rub: Even if the family’s income doubles to $44,000, the social-welfare benefits collectively roll back $1.03 for every marginal dollar earned over this range, leaving the family worse off in total wages and benefits. Our research calls this phenomenon a “disincentive desert,” (as opposed to the much-studied “benefits cliff”), since this is equivalent to an extremely high and persistent tax on work effort, ranging from 90% to 110%, across long spans of income.

As a result, many low-income Americans are left comfortably numb in a social-welfare state that severely punishes work effort and stifles the imagination for what life might be. I contend that rather than focusing on living standards at a point in time, we should see that life without hope of economic progress is the ultimate definition of poverty. Policies that address this issue are the key to reviving downward trends in labor-force participation. –Prof. Craig J. Richardson, Winston-Salem State University

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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

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2023 (11262 downloads)