Rogoff Says Biden, Trump Favor ‘Blowing Up’ US Debt – Bloomberg

Christopher Anstey | Mar 13, 2024 – Excerpts:

(Bloomberg) — Harvard University economics professor Kenneth Rogoff said both President Joe Biden and his predecessor and challenger Donald Trump risk sending US debt levels into dangerous territory as Washington fails to grasp that the era of ultra-low interest rates won’t come back.

“Washington in general has a very relaxed attitude towards debt that I think they’re going to be sorry about,” Rogoff said on Bloomberg Television’s Wall Street Week with David Westin. “It’s just not the free lunch that Congress and perhaps the two presidential candidates have gotten used to.”

While an exact “upper limit” for the federal debt cannot be known — it’s estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to climb to 116% of US gross domestic product by 2034 from 99% today — Rogoff warned that there will be challenges as the level increases.

The former International Monetary Fund chief economist said the escalating borrowing load will create volatility in inflation and interest rates, and encourage political pressures on the Federal Reserve. Current CBO projections also leave “a lot of room for accidents” that drive debt even higher.

“You’re taking bigger and bigger risks,” Rogoff said. “We will feel that.”

Both candidates may favor policies that will drive borrowing higher, he said. “Biden’s speech suggested blowing up the debt,” he said — even after the president in his State of the Union address last week proposed tax hikes to help to pay for spending priorities.

“We have really no idea what Donald Trump will do, but that’s what he did last time he was president — good guess he will do it again,” Rogoff said, referring to widening fiscal deficits when Trump was president 2017-21.

In the post-global financial crisis era, ultra-low interest rates helped to limit the impact of US deficits. But the post-pandemic period is different, Rogoff said. The real benchmark interest rate is more likely to be 1.5% to 2% rather than 0%, he said. Fed policymakers’ most recent projections imply a real, or inflation-adjusted, policy rate of 0.5%.

______________________________________

The Leviticus 25 Plan has the raw power to eliminate America’s projected gargantuan $1.7-$2.0 trillion federal budget deficits and generate $112.6 billion annual budget surpluses.

If Mr. Trump or Mr. Biden have a better plan, or if Washington Republicans have a better plan, America is eager to see it…

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2025 (12188 downloads )

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

Important to note: “House Republicans opened the earmark door with a secret caucus vote three years ago. Now, it’s nearly a ‘free’ for all…”

…………………………

“The Squad” Earmarked $224 Million Since 2023 – Led By AOC, It’s Pork Barrel Spending By The Democratic Socialists

ZeroHedge, Mar 26, 2024 – Authored by Adam Andrzejewski via OpenTheBooks substack, Excerpts:

“The Squad’ is a group of ultra-left wing Congressional socialists which has been the toast of so-called “progressives” for the last several years.

Its members might promise a worker’s paradise, in which government “withers away,” in the words of Vladimir Lenin, but for now they are only too happy to direct government largesse to the folks back home.

In fact, The Squad members have earmarked $224 million and many absurd pet projects since 2023. 

Download the full database of The Squad’s 2023 and 2024 earmarks here.

Our figures include the earmarks in the most recent $1.2 trillion spending bill from last week.

It’s a stunning display of logrolling – deep inside the status quo – they say they hate as a tool of capitalist oppression.

The Squad maxed out their pork in 2023 and 2024. Their 215 earmarked projects cost the rest of us (overwhelmingly non-socialist) U.S. taxpayers $224.1 million. Every dime was borrowed against our national debt.

New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), AKA, “AOC,” who last week did not know that “RICO” names a crime, is The Squad’s most prominent voice. She is celebrated as a “socialist superstar” by the Democratic Socialists of America.

Representative Ocasio-Cortez earmarked $1.2 million for a new building for the International Muslim Women’s Empowerment Project. Its founder teaches a “hijab grab” self-defense move involving a “kick to the groin.”

And then there’s the $500,000 for the Billion Oyster project in her district. Rich people eat oysters. However, the law prohibits anyone from either fishing or eating oysters in the Hudson River. So, this is only an engineering project for eco-marginalized people in Queens.

Other Squad members are Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), Cori Bush (D-MO), Greg Casar (D-TX), Summer Lee (D-PA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).

The Squad Practices Race-based Earmarking – Squad members shoveled some pretty stinky stuff into spending bills. It appears race-based legislating is OK if a progressive does it:

• $850,000 to create jobs for the Black community near George Floyd Square, whose death in 2020 “added to the stress faced by the community and increased the need for support and stability in housing and commerce.” Patron: Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
• $1.7 million to help the Environmental Leaders of Color build a “green tech park.” The group’s goal is to “assist marginalized communities in preparing for climate change’s adverse effects … so that they can thrive like healthy plants in their natural ecosystem.” Patron: Congressman Jamaal Bowman.
• $1 million for the Immigrant Opportunity Center expansion. It’s run by CAPI USA, a nonprofit that “guides refugees and immigrants in their journey toward self-determination and social equality.” Patron: Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
• $1.35 million to New Immigrant Community Empowerment, a nonprofit that advocates for citizenship for all illegal immigrants. Patron: Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez ($500,000). The group received another $850,000 this year from Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY).
• $1.5 million to build special grocery stores and education facilities for Black farmers in the community of St. Louis. Patron: Congresswoman Cori Bush.
• $1 million for the San Antonio College Empowerment Center, which runs an Undocumented Student Support Program to help immigrants enroll in the school. Patron: Congressman Greg Casar.

The Squad’s Green Earmarks

Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez introduced her Green New Deal, in 2019. It’s the focus of 21 earmarks to build green infrastructure, move away from fossil fuels, and involve minority communities in climate policy. She and her colleagues find ways to get us to pay for their policy preference, such as:

• $1 million to build “a network of intergenerational, trauma-informed waterfront green spaces.” The project already received $792,000 in 2022 earmark funding. Patron: Congresswoman Ayanna Presley
• $466,000 to improve the energy efficiency of a St. Louis homeless shelter. Patron: Congresswoman Cori Bush.
• $4 million to build an “industrial green beltway” in Dearborn, Michigan. Patron: Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib.
• $500,000 from Ocasio-Cortez will build an oyster reef to “address longstanding environmental justice inequities facing underrepresented communities in Queens.” Oyster habitats in New York have been damaged by pollution and harvesting them for food is illegal.
• $850,000 to repair a bridge that “connects minority environmental justice communities” in Pennsylvania. Patron: Congresswoman Summer Lee.
• $2 million for Everett, Mass. to build a park for “low-income BIPOC residents” to “stay cool during increasingly hot summers.” (“BIPOC” is an acronym for “Black, indigenous and other people of color.”) Patron: Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley.

Stopping Insane Earmarks. Or Not.

In 2024, when it got too insane, Republican members of the House finally got serious and cut a few of the whacky earmarks.

For example, Rep. Pressley’s earmark to build affordable housing for LGBTQ seniors did not make it into the final House bill.

However, in the second minibus bill, Pressley was able to add back $850,000 for LGBTQ “The Pryde” senior housing by moving the earmark to the U.S. Senate. Pressley called Republicans homophobic for attempting toeliminate her LGBTQ earmarks.

Background

From time immemorial, politicians of every stripe have used their positions to benefit those who sent them to D.C., while sticking taxpayers with the tab.

Congresspeople all play together in the sandbox, promising not to rat each other out for some strikingly goofy – or downright weird – local spending. Things got so out of hand 15 years ago, that a bi-partisan coalition led by former U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and President Barack Obama actually banned earmarking for ten years.

It didn’t last.

Regardless of what you may have heard about GOP hate for former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), three years ago, the House Republican caucus, in a secret vote, joined Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats to reinstate earmarks.

That moment of fiscal fealty was replaced by the naked need for pork, and in the instance, a new alliance with the Speaker.

And so, we have more tabs to face than a diet soda aisle at a big Costco.

In 2024, the so-called “minibus measures” contained 8,051 earmarks totaling $15.7 BILLION TAXPAYER DOLLARS. In 2023, the year-end omnibus was stuffed with 7,510 earmarks worth just over $16 BILLION TAXPAYER DOLLARS.

Congress must disclose earmarks online. However, it posts them in hard-to-review PDF files. (Our team at OpenTheBooks.com converts those files into Excel spreadsheets to more effectively parse what they are hiding.)

When Congress knows what it is doing is wrong, it always makes it a bit harder to find.

In all too many ways, earmarks – from both Democrats and Republicans — are no exception.

Next week – “The Freedom Caucus Decides It Is Free to Earmark”

_________________________________

It is critical now for America to get back on track.

Step 1: Eliminate Earmarks – eliminate budget blowouts from special interest politics.

Step 2: The Leviticus 25 Plan – Leviticus 25 Plan 2025 (12185 downloads )

Step 3: Less government, more freedom.

Washington Democrats love to grow government and broaden dependency on government programs. And run massive budget deficits, which will eventually sink the U.S. Dollar and bring on a forced transition into a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) system.

Washington Republicans, meanwhile, love to give lip service to controlling spending and getting the massive federal deficits back under control – but, shamefully, have no politically feasible, economically viable plan to present to the voting public.

Main Street America Republicans do have a plan…

……………………………………………………………………

Biden’s Free Lunch for Rich Kids – WSJ

The USDA prepares to feed more schoolchildren year-round, even if their parents make six figures.

By Sam Adolphsen and Paige Terryberry | March 26, 2024 4:06 pm ETn

There’s no such thing as a free lunch, but the Biden administration insists otherwise. The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to provide free lunches to children—including many whose parents earn six-figure incomes—year-round. New research from our organization finds that up to 72% of America’s some 49 million public-school students could soon be on the taxpayer dole.

As usual, this story begins with a supposedly temporary program. As schools closed in 2020, Congress allowed states to send extra payments to families whose children qualified for free and reduced-price school lunches. The following year, it added summer payments to the package, depositing money directly onto families’ electronic benefit transfer, or EBT, cards, which are used for food stamps. Finally, in December 2022, Congress made this “Summer EBT” program permanent—beginning in mid-2024. The USDA would automatically enroll millions of families and create a separate, means-tested application process for others.

The White House is now exceeding what Congress intended. In September 2023, the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service finalized a rule that expands the number of students who qualify for reduced lunches during the school year. If a mere 25% of a public school’s students meet the requirements, 100% of its students will be eligible to receive the benefit. The rule imposes no income limits, meaning middle- and upper-class children will get subsidized meals.

The Biden administration also is preparing to add the summer months to the expansion. On Dec. 29, 2023, the Food and Nutrition Service quietly solicited feedback on the difficulty of administering Summer EBT applications—likely hinting that it intends to abandon the applications and return to the pandemic-era policy of depositing taxpayer funds into EBT accounts, regardless of need.

According to our research, as many as 50% more public-school students will be eligible for taxpayer help during the school year. If the administration abandons Summer EBT applications and income standards, these students will automatically receive summer payments, too. If their families have EBT cards, they’ll likely receive monthly direct deposits; if not, they’ll presumably receive a card in the mail.

The administration is selling the expansion as a way to fight child hunger, especially in low-income communities. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack declared in January that “no child in this country should go hungry” or “lose access to nutritious school meals during the summer months.” But the federal government already runs multiple programs for low-income students, including the Summer Food Service Program and Seamless Summer Option.

In classic Washington fashion, the more-tailored summer food programs will continue to exist. The feds, meanwhile, will throw more taxpayer money at the same population while sweeping a larger share of Americans onto the government dole. The exact cost of Summer EBT isn’t yet known but will almost certainly run into the billions. The cost of expanded school lunches for middle- and upper-class children will add billions more.

Short of a new administration, court intervention or act of Congress, there’s no way to roll back the school-year welfare expansion. But states can refuse to participate in Summer EBT, and so far 13 haven’t opted in for this summer. The Biden administration—backed by an army of activists and a gullible media—is trying to browbeat them into submission. Nebraska reversed course last month, joining the program after previously steering clear.

Republican leaders fear being tarred as heartless monsters who want poor children to starve, but this handout would flow to the well-off. The real stakes are stopping welfare that taxpayers can’t afford and families don’t need.

Mr. Adolphsen is policy director and Ms. Terryberry a senior research fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability.

___________________________________

The Main Street America Republicans’ plan:

1. Lifts families up out of the mire of ‘government-dependency’ programs, eliminates debt, and restores financial security for millions of America’s hard-working, tax-paying U.S. citizens who wish to be free to manage their own lives;

2. Generates massive $112.6 billion federal budget surpluses each of the first five years of activation – and pays for itself entirely over the succeeding 10-15 year period – thereby protecting the integrity of the U.S. Dollar, slowing inflation to a trickle, and cancelling the forced transition into a CBDC system;

3. Re-ignites free market dynamics, economic liberty, and a powerful new long-term economic growth cycle.

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 (12185 downloads )

Business as usual in Washington…

The good news: Republican are not going to be ‘tarred and feathered’ for shutting down the government as the campaign season heats up.

The bad news: 1) Deficit spending – unchecked; 2) Border security – weak; 3) Bewildering ‘pork’ funding measures – inserted, and worst of all; 4) Washington Republicans have no alternative master plan to re-instill spending discipline and reduce/eliminate federal budget deficits, restore financial security for millions of American families, and win over the hearts (and votes) of millions of hard-working, tax-paying U.S. citizens – to get America back on track.

See how your U.S. House Representative voted here.

Bewildering ‘Pork’ insertions:

– $850k for a gay senior home
– $15 million to pay for Egyptian’s college tuitions
– $400k for a gay activist group to teach elementary kids about being trans
– $500k for a DEI zoo
– $400k for a group to gives clothes to teens to help them hide their gender [that includes giving 13-year-old children chest binders, tuck equipment, and “counseling” without parental consent].

Additionally, it would fund facilities providing routine abortion services, including late-term abortions.

…………………………………………

House Passes Pork-Filled Bill To Fully Fund Government

ZeroHedge, Friday, Mar 22, 2024 – Excerpts:

Update (1150ET):  With just hours to go before a shutdown, the House has passed the $1.2 trillion minibus bill, which will now head to the Senate.

The vote was 286-134, with 112 Republicans and 22 Dems against.

All 100 Senators will need to agree to a vote to pass the bill before midnight. If this fails to happen, the government would be forced into a partial shutdown on Saturday morning.

President Biden has urged Congress to pass it quickly so he can sign…

The bill funds the departments of Homeland Security, State, Labor, Defense, Health and Human Services, among other things. Combined with the $459 billion bill passed earlier this month, the latest funding packages fully fund the federal government to the tune of $1.659 trillion through September, NBC reports.

House Freedom Caucus member Chip Roy (R-TX) railed against the fact that members only had around 24 hours to review the bill – and attacked his fellow Republicans for failing to secure immigration wins.

Rep. Chip Roy: “All you social conservative groups, where the hell are you? Crickets. Silence. Because you care about political power more than the very thing you say you’re for. You know who you are. Where are the social conservative groups? Cowering in the corner.”…

In short, Democrats bailed out Johnson once again – the same move which resulted in the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

There are numerous House Republicans concerned with the package’s lack of strict border security provisions, the huge price tag, the secretive negotiating process and even the lack of a pay hike for members of Congress. The unrest is especially acute among conservatives…

The package accounts for approximately 70% of discretionary government spending – and consists of six out of twelve total bills that Congress must pass each fiscal year to fund the government. The six others, around $460 billion in spending, were passed earlier this month…

“This is not the bill that my subcommittee produced and supported. The Senate has taken liberties with their Congressionally Directed Spending requests that would never stand in the House,” said Rep. Robert Aderholt, (R-AL), chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on Labor and Health & Human Services (HHS).

“The House did not include these partisan funding projects in its Labor-HHS legislation. Based on these principles, the Senate shouldn’t either,” Aderholt continued. “I have multiple concerns, among them are the many new social services that this bill would create for the millions of illegal immigrants streaming across our border. Additionally, it would fund facilities providing routine abortion services, including late-term abortions. The Senate must respect the work of the House. In good conscience, I cannot and will not vote for these projects or this bill.”

Pork City – As usual, Democrats slipped in as much pork as possible, including:

– $850k for a gay senior home
– $15 million to pay for Egyptian’s college tuitions
– $400k for a gay activist group to teach elementary kids about being trans
– $500k for a DEI zoo
– $400k for a group [Briarpatch YS] to gives clothes to teens to help them hide their gender

… About that $400k for clothes – that includes giving 13-year-old children chest binders, tuck equipment, and “counseling” without parental consent.

Briarpatch YS gives 13-year-old kids chest binders, tuck equipment, “counseling” all… pic.twitter.com/CmMxmFivPU — End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 21, 2024

___________________________________

Main Street America Republicans have a master plan – to win elections and clean this mess up…

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2025 (12119 downloads )

“However human, envy is certainly not one of the sources of discontent that a free society can eliminate. It is probably one of the essential conditions for the preservation of such a society that we do not countenance envy, not sanction its demands by camouflaging it as social justice, but treat it, in the words of John Stuart Mill, as ‘the most anti-social and evil of all passions.’”  –  Friedrich von Hayek, 1974 Nobel Prize, Economic Sciences ___________________________________

America’s dynamic new plan to dispense with envy………

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America 2024

State Street Corp, a Boston-based financial services holding company, is one of the oldest financial institutions in the U.S..  This multi-national corporation became the largest security services firm in the world in 2003 – even larger than JP Morgan and The Bank of New York Mellon.

State Street Corp was one of the top recipients of the Fed’s targeted liquidity ‘fire-hosing’ operations during 2008-2010.

Bloomberg  Nov 28, 2011 – Excerpts:

“Unlike banks that drew liquidity from the Federal Reserve in 2008 out of desperation, Boston-based State Street Corp. initially did so for profit. State Street, the third-largest U.S. custody bank, collected $75.6 million as a middleman for the Fed’s Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility, or AMLF. Under the program, it borrowed from the Fed to buy securities from money-market funds, helping them meet customer redemptions while being indemnified against losses on the securities. By October 2008, State Street had joined peers in tapping the Term Auction Facility and Commercial Paper Funding Facility, emergency-liquidity programs. On March 31, 2009, its total borrowings from the TAF and CPFF reached $18.5 billion, about the amount its excess liquidity fell that year.”                                                                                          

Peak amount of debt on 10/1/2008 :   $77.8 billion

________________________________________ 

The Federal Reserve’s massive balance sheet expansion during the Great Financial Crisis did nothing to solve America’s snowballing debt extravaganza, nothing to improve the long-term prospects for financial security for American families, nothing to stimulate long-term economic growth, and nothing to allay the ongoing erosion of the U.S. Dollar.

The Leviticus 25 Plan is a dynamic, ‘ground level’ solution with the raw power to eliminate vast tracts of public and private debt, and redirect trillions of dollars in debt service flows back into the economy.

The Leviticus 25 Plan reduces ‘dependence on government’ for millions of Americans, re-establishes a market-based,economy, a citizen-centered health care system.

The Leviticus 25 Plan produces massive new tax revenue flows for federal, state, and local governmental entities. It produces $112.6 billion federal government surpluses during each of its first five years of activation and pays for itself entirely over the first 10-15 years.

It is time to create a bright new future for America.

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 (12113 downloads )

Bloomberg Nov 28, 2011:                                                                                                       “Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, whose 45.5 billion-pound ($74 billion) emergency capital injection from U.K. taxpayers was the world’s biggest announced bank bailout, also got more secret loans from the U.S. Federal Reserve than any other foreign bank. On Oct. 10, 2008, as the bank’s stock price plunged 21 percent in a single day, the Edinburgh-based RBS was borrowing $62.5 billion from the Fed through its U.S. broker-dealer, $11.5 billion through its New York branch, $10 billion through its RBS Citizens NA bank and $500 million through Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania. The Fed aid exceeded even the 36.6 billion pounds of emergency liquidity the Bank of England supplied in secret to RBS in October 2008. The BOE disclosed the aid package in November 2009, more than a year before the Fed aid was revealed.”

RBS’ secret liquidity line from the Fed served up a “peak amount of debt” totaling $84.5 billion on 10/10/2008.

RBS also happened to be one of a suspected dozen or so major banking interests involved in the big LIBOR ‘interest rate fixing” scandal – which bilked “U.S. states, counties, and local governments” to the tune of “at least $6 billion in fraudulent interest payments, above [and beyond the] $4 billion that state and local governments have already had to spend to unwind their positions exposed to rate manipulation,” according to Bloomberg (10 Oct 2012).

ZeroHedge 02/06/2013:  RBS Busted On Libor Manipulation: “its just amazing how libor fixing can make you that much money”

_________________________________

All of this leads, as a matter of course, to a very simple question: How can the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury justify the transfusion of massive liquidity streams into the veins of major banks like Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Bank of America, and subsidiaries of major foreign banks like RBS (note: RBS blatantly manipulated LIBOR rates, to the detriment of states, counties and local governments)…

… While denying access to those same direct liquidity extensions to American families – who have not broken any laws…?

It’s time to FIX these blatant imbalances.

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 (12112 downloads )

Bank of America – the story behind the story (Source:  Bailout Nation)

June 2005:  Bank of America takes a 9 percent stake in China Construction Bank for #3 billion; China’s market tops out in 2007 and then plummets 72 percent.

January 2006:  Bank of America acquires MBNA for $35 billion.  The world’s largest issuer of credit cards [MBNA] is taken over right before the world’s largest credit crunch occurs and (whoops) just before the worst postwar recession begins.

August 2007:  Bank of America invests $2 billion in Countrywide Financial, the nation’s biggest mortgage lender and loan servicer.  It is a jumbo loser, dropping 57 percent in a few month’s time

January 2008:  Bank of America doubles down and announces a $4.1 billion acquisition of Countrywide.  The timing is flawless, and the purchase is announced as the worst housing collapse in modern history is accelerating.

September 2008:  Bank of America pays $50 billion for Merrill Lynch, including Merrill’s portfolio of toxic assets (along with some previously unannounced trading desk errors).

……………………………………

Note – following the above cited BofA follies, the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve stepped up to the plate and kindly dished out billions of dollars (at U.S. citizen taxpayer expense) to Bank of America to keep the big dog afloat.

To recap (Source: Bloomberg Nov 28, 2011 ):                                                                Morgan Stanley was the #1 recipient of Fed secret loans at $107 billion (peak loan amount – 9/29/2008).                                                                                                

Citigroup was the #2 recipient of the Fed’s secret lifelines $99.5 billion (peak loan amount – 1/20/2009).                                                                                                  

Bank of America was the #3 recipient with $91.4 billion (peak loan amount –  2/26/2009).

Bloomberg Nov 28, 2011:  “Bank of America Corp., which got two rounds of U.S. Treasury Department capital injections totaling $45 billion to stay afloat during the credit crisis, borrowed twice that amount in secret from the Federal Reserve. On Feb. 26, 2009, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank held $78 billion of loans from the Fed’s Term Auction Facility, $8.65 billion from the Primary Dealer Credit Facility, $4.75 billion from the Term Securities Lending Facility. The financing helped bolster the largest U.S. bank by assets as investors worried its 2008 acquisitions of Merrill Lynch & Co. and Countrywide Financial Corp. might lead to nationalization.”

………………………………………….

A final question: Is there anyone who still believes that it is OK for major Wall Street banking and financial services institutions to receive massive liquidity injections (at taxpayer expense) when their financial viability evaporates … due to their own failed risk management strategies and reckless, yield-driven investment decision-making.

But it is not OK for U.S. citizens to be accorded the same access to credit extensions?

It is time now to level the playing field…

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2025 (12105 downloads )

Citigroup – Following the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1998, Citigroup dove headlong into the derivatives market.  “By 2007 Citi was the largest issuer of CDOs [Credit Default Obligations] … $49 billion worth when the world’s total production was $442 billion.” (Source: Bailout Nation)

Citi later took advantage Structured Investment Vehicles (SIVs) to move high-risk investments off their balance sheets – into “Enron-like side pockets.”

When the housing market began staggering badly in 2007 under the weight of increasing loan delinquencies and foreclosures, “Citigroup’s SIVs were festooned with $87 billion of toxic assets, mortgage-related CDOs, and other long-term paper…. ”

Short-term financing dried up, and the SIVs worked their way back “in-house.”  And “by December 2007, Citi assumed $58 billion of debt to ‘rescue’ $49 billion in Assets.” (Bailout Nation)

The Federal Reserve then cranked open the “Secret Loan” fire hose to flood Citi (and scores of others) with massive liquidity injections (or, in the common parlance, ‘free money’).

Citigroup – #2 recipient of Fed Secret Loans (2008-10)                                                 Bloomberg – Nov 28, 2011

“Citigroup Inc., the third-largest U.S. bank by assets, received a $45 billion capital injection in 2008 from the U.S. Treasury. The New York-based lender got a bigger bailout from the Federal Reserve: $99.5 billion of emergency loans, about the cost of paying, clothing, housing, arming and transporting the U.S. Army for fiscal 2011. On Jan. 20, 2009, as the bank’s shares fell to $2.80, down almost 90 percent in a year, its Fed loans included $34.1 billion from the Term Securities Lending Facility, $25.1 billion from the Commercial Paper Funding Facility, $25 billion from the Term Auction Facility, $14 billion from the Primary Dealer Credit Facility and $1 billion from single-tranche open market operations.”

Citigroup peak loan amount (1/20/2009): $99.5 billion      

_______________________

U.S. citizens deserve nothing less than the same direct access to credit extensions that was provided to Morgan Stanley, Citi, and the dozens of other financial enterprises whose high risk investment profiles led to financial calamity and rescue action by the Federal Reserve.

It is time now for the Fed to extend credit to American families via a “U.S. Citizens Credit Facility.”

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 (12102 downloads )

As the banking crisis intensified in the Fall of 2008, with major banking institutions assuming, or on the verge of assuming, the classical ‘snorkel’ position (aka ‘underwater’ status), the Federal Reserve ran quickly to the rescue with secret liquidity lifelines” (Bloomberg 8-22-11).

The Fed substantially eased some important collateral rules for banks, “meaning that banks that could once borrow only against sound collateral, like Treasury bills or AAA-rated corporate bonds, could now borrow against pretty much anything – including some of the mortgage-backed sewage that got us into this mess in the first place….  ‘All of a sudden, banks were allowed to post absolute [expletive deleted] to the Fed’s balance sheet,’ [according to] the manager of the prominent hedge fund.” (Source: Bailout Hustle, Matt Taibbi).

The Federal Reserve ‘created’ various “facilities” to fire-hose liquidity out to major domestic and foreign banks, insurers, and brokerage firms, to include: Primary Dealers’ Credit Facility, Term Securities Lending Facility, Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program, Commercial Paper Funding,Term Auction Facility, Public Private Investment Program

And, here we go – from the top (Bloomberg  Nov 28, 2011) :

“Morgan Stanley, facing a crisis of confidence after the fall of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., got a $9 billion injection from Japanese bank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and agreed to take a $10 billion bailout from the U.S. Treasury to shore up capital. As hedge-fund customers pulled funds out of the New York-based firm, it plugged the hole with $107.3 billion of secret loans from the Federal Reserve’s Primary Dealer Credit Facility and Term Securities Lending Facility, set up earlier in the year to supply brokerage firms with emergency financing.”

Peak amount of Debt on 9/29/2008:  $107B
………………………………………………………………

The Leviticus 25 Plan does not seek to ‘interrupt’ or reverse any of the special relationships that have developed in the Fed’s financial sphere.  It only seeks to level the playing field by providing U.S. citizens the same access to direct liquidity flows that the big banks enjoyed ‘in their time of need.’

The Leviticus 25 Plan proposes one additional upgrade to the Fed’s liquidity lines: A U.S. Citizens Credit Facility.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2025 (11996 downloads )