March 2025 quote:  ““A society that puts equality — in the sense of equality of outcome — ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom. The use of force to achieve equality will destroy freedom, and the force, introduced for good purposes, will end up in the hands of people who use it to promote their own interests.

On the other hand, a society that puts freedom first will, as a happy by-product, end up with both greater freedom and greater equality.  Though a by-product of freedom, greater equality is not an accident.  A free society releases the energies and abilities of people to pursue their own objectives.

It prevents some people from arbitrarily suppressing others.  It does not prevent some people from achieving positions of privilege, but so long as freedom is maintained, it prevents those positions of privilege from becoming institutionalized; they are subject to continued attack from other able, ambitious people.  Freedom means diversity but also mobility.  It preserves the opportunity for today’s disadvantaged to become tomorrow’s privileged and, in the process, enables almost everyone, from top to bottom, to enjoy a fuller and richer life.”   – Milton Friedman

The Leviticus 25 Plan is the only economically viable, politically feasible plan on the table anywhere in the world — to clean up paralyzing debt burdens and revitalize real, non-debt driven, economic growth.

…………………………………………….

WSJ: DOGE Won’t Be Enough to Get the Federal Budget Under Control

Discretionary spending represents only 16% of the federal budget. We can’t avoid entitlement reform.

By James A. Baker III and John W. Diamond

The Wall Street Journal | Feb. 24, 2025 – Excerpts:

Government debt has exceeded $36 trillion and continues mounting, with no end in sight. This is unsustainable absent dramatic changes in how we allocate our tax dollars.

Budget hawks have been rare in Washington since 2010, when the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles commission put forth a comprehensive plan to reduce spending and increase revenue, only to see it sink. Today, the problem is dire. Our ratio of federal debt held by the public to gross domestic product has grown from 61% in 2010 to 100% this fiscal year. Left uncorrected for another four years, we will surpass the historic high of 106% that America hit at the end of World War II.

It’s little wonder that more Republicans and Democrats are voicing concerns that American global power—backed by economic strength—is threatened by growing budget deficits. It’s time lawmakers seek solutions rather than argue about who’s to blame.

Several factors drive deficit spending, including an aging population and rapidly rising medical costs. But the major reason is reckless spending.

President Trump deserves credit for trying to make the federal bureaucracy more efficient to reduce deficits. His decision to create the Department of Government Efficiency put a much-needed brake on wasteful government spending.…

…[T]here are many steps the administration and lawmakers can take. The nondefense discretionary spending that DOGE has focused on is only 16% of the federal budget. If DOGE reaches its goal of reducing spending by $500 billion, the budget deficit for the year will be reduced by about 26%. That’s a good start. But our leaders must also develop plans to control spending on entitlement programs, because those will be the primary source for our deficits in the coming decades.

America can’t achieve a sustainable budget without reforming Social Security, Medicare and other healthcare benefits. Together, these accounted for 49% of federal spending last year, and the share is growing over time.

Meanwhile, these programs are hurdling toward insolvency. Social Security is projected to be insolvent by 2034. Unless Congress and the White House enact reforms by then, there will be a 23% reduction in benefits. Similarly, Medicare Part A is projected to exhaust its trust fund by 2036, requiring an 11% cut in benefits.…

….We’re about two presidential terms away from the Social Security and Medicare trust fund exhaustion dates. Fortunately, that’s plenty of time to identify solutions that can attract bipartisan support. Republicans and Democrats must work together to form bipartisan commissions to begin studying solutions.

Given the current political climate in Washington, it would be wise for such commissions to keep their thoughts as confidential as possible until the time comes to release a final set of recommendations. The reasoning for doing so is straightforward: Political foes are quick to use any mention of a potential solution as an immediate campaign slogan.

If America fails to act, debts will grow as deficits add up and interest payments balloon to unprecedented levels. Inflation will surge again. Such an outcome will reduce the nation’s economic vitality, impose a hardship on the least-affluent Americans most affected by inflation, and strip the U.S. of the flexibility needed to respond to economic crises and existential foreign policy challenges.

Mr. Baker served as White House chief of staff (1981-85 and 1992-93) Treasury secretary (1985-88) and secretary of state (1989-92). Mr. Diamond is senior director of the Center for Tax and Budget Policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

______________________________

The Leviticus 25 Plan will eliminate enormous sums of Household Debt for millions of American families, at the same time, helping to lift millions of Americans up and out of poverty.

The Leviticus 25 Plan will dramatically reduce federal (and state) government outlays and generate budget surpluses:

 Federal Income Tax recapture during each year of the initial 5-year activation period (2026-2030): $274.8 billion

Means-tested Welfare entitlement spending recapture during the 5-year target period (2026-2030): $3.153 trillion.

Total Medicaid/CHIP recapture (2026-2030): $2.026 trillion.
 
Total Medicare spending recapture (2026-2030):  $1.906 trillion.

VA Healthcare total recapture (2026-2030):  $239.472 billion

TRICARE recapture (2026-2030):  $228.0 billion.

Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) recapture (2026-2030): $633.072 billion.

Total Interest Expense eliminated due to projected operating surpluses (2026-2030): $114.839 billion.

Federal Budget – projected average annual surplus (2026-2030): $36.568 billion per year.

The most powerful economic acceleration plan in the world – loaded up and ready to launch.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2026 (25722 downloads )

The Degenerative Disaster Of Medicare

ZeroHedge, Jul 07, 2024 | Via SchiffGold.com, – Excerpts:

In 2023, the U.S. spent 1.04 trillion dollars on Medicare, which is over $3,000 per citizen. For an inefficient, problem-ridden program, that number is difficult for Americans to stomach.

Medicare is a health insurance program for seniors and specific disabled individuals. It has provided coverage for millions since it originated in 1965. However, the benefits it offers are far outweighed by its inefficiency and inadequacy, which cost trillions.

Medicare spending has grown exponentially since its creation under Lyndon B. Johnson. As of 2023, Medicare expenditures comprised 17% of the federal budget. The Congressional Budget Office projects Medicare’s spending will rise to $1.6 trillion by 2032. The Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, which finances a large percentage of Medicare, is set to be depleted by 2028. This threat of insolvency has the potential to leave millions of seniors without adequate coverage.

The causes of these burgeoning costs have a common thread: government inefficiency. Medicare’s fee-for-service model incentivizes quantity over quality—the program awards medical professionals for unnecessary procedures and artificially inflated costs. The American Medical Association approximates that 25% of Medicare spending, about $250 billion annually, is wasted on overtreatment, care administration inefficiencies, and excessive managerial costs.

Much of these administrative costs are due to the difficulty of complying with Medicare. A 2016 study showed that physicians spend an average of 785 hours per physician per year on Medicare regulatory compliance, costing an annual total of $15.4 billion.

These administrative complexities are due to the program’s intricate rules and regulations which often need to be clarified for both beneficiaries and healthcare providers. This often results in significant delays in care and excessive unnecessary costs. Medicare’s bureaucracy creates numerous obstacles for both physicians and patients which prevent seniors from getting the adequate care that they need.

This inefficiency is also passed on to seniors in the form of taxes and fees. Despite the common belief that Medicare is “free,” it comes with numerous hidden costs. The 2021 standard monthly premium for Medicare Part B was $148.50, with recipients with higher incomes paying up to $504.90 every month. Since 2000, these premiums have increased by 226%, far outpacing inflation. Additionally, the Medicare payroll tax is set at 2.9%, with those earning over $200,000 facing an additional 0.9% tax.

The aging of the U.S. population is putting unprecedented strain on Medicare. As the baby boomer generation continues to reach retirement age, the number of Medicare beneficiaries is growing faster than the working-age population that supports the program through payroll taxes. In 2022, there were 65.0 million Medicare beneficiaries, with 57.1 million aged 65 and older. This number is projected to increase substantially in the coming years.

The Medicare Trustees Report projects that Medicare spending will grow from 3.8% of GDP in 2023 to approximately 6% by 2047. This rate of increase is unsustainable, and the increasing ratio of beneficiaries to workers means that either taxes must increase significantly, benefits must be cut, or both.

In addition, Medicare’s current structure limits beneficiary choice and stifles innovation in healthcare delivery. Telemedicine has shown promise in reducing healthcare costs, especially chronic disease management. However, Medicare hasn’t embraced these innovations due to stifling regulatory constraints. A market-based approach would allow for greater experimentation and adoption of cost-effective healthcare solutions, driving innovation and improving care quality for seniors.

The current trajectory of Medicare spending is unsustainable and threatens the fiscal stability of the United States. With projected expenditures reaching $1.04 trillion in 2023, the system requires bold action from Americans and politicians who want to preserve the country’s future.

Healthcare systems will continue to fail as long as the government continues to heavily interfere. A reformed system should prioritize consumer choice, encourage provider competition, and reward innovation in healthcare delivery. This approach would utilize market forces to drive down costs and improve quality while ensuring seniors have access to comprehensive health coverage.

The time for incremental changes has passed. Medicare has cost tens of trillions and is not adequately serving seniors’ needs. Only through bold, market-oriented reforms can we hope to achieve an efficient healthcare solution that benefits both seniors and the rest of the American people.

________________________________________

The Leviticus 25 Plan provides for a $30,000 direct deposit into the Medical Savings Accounts of all qualifying or provisionally qualifying U.S. citizens – to be used for primary health care services and insurance.

This liquidity extension will flow through a Federal Reserve / U.S. Treasury Department Citizens Credit Facility directly to qualifying and provisionally qualifying U.S. citizens electing to participate.

Each participating citizen also enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid, VA Health Care, FEHB and TRICARE will then have a $6,000 annual deductible for primary care services related to those programs for five years.

This will allow participating citizens to allocate health care resources directly and efficiently, eliminating “administrative complexities” related to “intricate rules and regulations.” It will eliminate massive administrative costs for health care facilities and providers.

For Medicare patients, as well as Medicaid, VA, FEHB, TRICARE, the $30,000 deposit will be “tax free.”

The Leviticus 25 Plan will also be a ‘bail-out’ colossus for the Medicare Trust Fund, in that citizens will be paying directly, with cash, for primary health care services – for which there will be no ‘billing and claims filing’ by middle-men.

Imagine the impact if 80% of Medicare Part D’s 1.4 billion prescription events per year were to be paid for in cash.

The Leviticus 25 Plan will clean up Medicare, Medicaid, VA Health Care, FEHB and TRICARE.

And it will bail out Medicare the right way – through the hands of millions of U.S. citizens.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2026 (25669 downloads )

• to

WSJ: Give Medicaid Dollars Directly to Patients

Each beneficiary could get $7,000 a year in a health savings account.

By Justin Haskins and Michael Hamilton | April 12, 2017

As Republicans take another crack at devising a plan to replace ObamaCare, here’s an idea they should consider: Give each Medicaid patient a health savings account—and put $7,000 in it every year.

Under ObamaCare, Medicaid has become the only option for millions of Americans. But that doesn’t mean much if the doctors in their communities don’t accept new patients through the program—and 30% of physicians don’t.

The GOP’s recently benched health-care bill would have substantially reformed Medicaid by giving the states block grants, along with more flexibility on how to spend the money. But there’s a better model. Republicans should empower Medicaid patients by providing funds to them directly, which would allow them to build a personal safety net that could last a lifetime.

Washington and state governments spent $545 billion in 2015 on 73 million Americans covered by Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Instead lawmakers could take $511 billion of that total, divide it equally among enrollees, and give each one a health savings account with $7,000 a year. This would be real money for the poor, stored in real private accounts.

Recipients could use the deposit to buy health insurance and cover the cost of prescriptions, copays, deductibles and other related expenses. Unspent money would carry over to the following year. Enrollees could share that $7,000 with a sick spouse, sibling, parent or child.

Most recipients would probably use the funds to buy private health insurance, many for the first time. The average annual premium last year for an (overpriced) bronze plan on the ObamaCare exchanges was about $3,100 for a 30-year-old, $3,500 for a 40-year-old, $4,900 for a 50-year-old, and $7,400 for a 60-year-old. After that, at age 65, Americans qualify for Medicare.

Those figures mean that even after paying the premiums, all but the oldest Medicaid recipients would have money left over each year to save or spend on additional health-care costs. Enrollees who are relatively young and healthy soon would build personal safety nets worth tens of thousands of dollars. This would not only be good for them, it would stabilize Medicaid, which has become an enormous and unpredictable burden on state budgets.

Because bronze-plan deductibles are high—a 2017 average of about $6,100 for an individual and $12,400 for a family—some patients, especially those over 59 or with serious health problems, will need more help. Lawmakers could allocate the remaining $34 billion in the Medicaid budget line to assist them.

Under this plan, ObamaCare’s ban on pre-existing conditions should be kept in place for a set period with a firm sunset date. That would give Medicaid recipients time to buy in without penalty. Increasing the number of people enrolled in private insurance would then help spread risk and lower costs.

This plan would be a major improvement on both ObamaCare and the Republican proposal, creating personal safety nets and giving tens of millions access to high-quality health insurance. It might just be popular too.

Mr. Haskins is executive editor and Mr. Hamilton a research fellow at the Heartland Institute.

______________________________

The WSJ $7,000 plan is a small step in the right direction.

The Leviticus 25 Plan’s U.S. Health Care Freedom Plan, however, would be a major, far more powerful, step in the right direction.

1) It would help lift hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens up and out of poverty, and reduce, by tens of thousands, the number of people even qualifying for Medicare enrollment (due to asset limitations); 2) It would clean up the health care system and restore citizen-centered, market-based health care that would be far more cost-effective, clean, and effective for everyone involved; 3) It would generate federal and state budget surpluses each of its first five years of activation (2026-2030), and pay for itself entirely over a 10-15 year period.

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 2026 (25667 downloads )

US Budget Deficit Hits A Record $840 Billion In First 4 Months Of 2025; Interest On Debt Hits Record $1.2 Trillion

ZeroHedge, Feb 12, 2025 – Excerpts:

First the good news: Elon Musk’s DOGE is going through government spending with a fine-toothed comb, slashing a million here, a billion there.

The bad news: at the rate it is going, DOGE will need a few hundred years to make a tangible impact, because as the Treasury reported earlier today, in January the US government spent a near-record $642 billion, a 29% increase from the $500 billion in January…

… while it collected just $513.3 billion in tax revenues, a far more modest 7.5% increase YoY…

… which resulted in a $129 billion budget deficit for the month…

… the second highest January deficit on record (only the post-covid shock of 2021 was great)…

… and $840 billion so far in fiscal 2025.

This is a problem because as shown in the next chart, the cumulative budget deficit for the first 4 months of fiscal 2025 is the highest on record, surpassing even the fiscal shock from the depths of the post-covid response.

And the punchline is that no matter what Musk does, the USS Titanic is now more or less on autopilot because while a few billions in discretionary spending can be cut, interest on the debt can not be – without a default (it can however be inflated away… and it will be) – and in January, gross interest on the Federal debt hit a record $1.167 trillion in the past twelve months thanks to another $83.6 billion in interest spending.

Another way of looking at it: in the first four months of the fiscal year, the US has spent $392 billion on interest alone, the highest 4 month total ever.

_____________________________________________

There is only one plan in the all the world with the power to clean up this paralyzing debt burden once and for all — a plan with a Biblical precedent.

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 2026 (25334 downloads )

Student Loan Debt is a massive problem for 42.7 million borrowers, totaling $1.773 trillion and compounding at an annual rate of 6.87%.

The Leviticus 25 Plan offers a powerful and fair solution to all of this – the only viable solution on the table anywhere in the U.S.. It is a solution that cleans up massive amounts of debt across the board, in both the public and private sectors.

……………………………………

Student Loan Interest Rates: Federal, Private, Refinancing

NerdWallet

Dec 16, 2024 — The average student loan interest rate is 6.87% among all households with student debt, according to the Education Data Initiative, an organization that collects statistics on the U.S. education system. That includes both federal and private student loans — 94.81% of all student debt is federal.

With a 6.87% interest rate on $30,000 of student loans, a borrower would pay about $11,500 in interest over 10 years….

The federal student loan interest rate for undergraduates is 6.53% for new loans taken out for the 2024-25 school year, effective from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025. Federal rates for graduate student loans and PLUS loans are higher — 8.08% and 9.08%, respectively. These rates are the highest they’ve been in at least 16 years.

…………………………………………….

Student Loan Debt Statistics – Education Data Initiative

By Melanie Hanson | Last Updated: January 15, 2025 – Excerpts:

Report Highlights. Student loan debt in the United States totals $1.773 trillion; annual growth resumed in 2024 following year-over-year (YoY) declines that began in 2023.

• The outstanding federal student loan balance is $1.693 trillion; 42.7 million student borrowers have federal loan debt.
• Federal student loan debt represents 92.4% of all student loan debt; 7.57% of student loan debt is private, including $29.3 billion in refinance loans.
• The average federal student loan debt balance is $38,375, while the total average balance (including private loan debt) may be as high as $41,520.
• 4.86% of federal student loans dollars were in default as of 2024’s fourth financial quarter (2024 Q4); 1.61% of private student loans were in default as of 2024 Q1.
• The average public university student borrows $31,960 to attain a bachelor’s degree.

__________________________________

The Leviticus 25 Plan grants qualifying U.S. citizens direct liquidity extensions via a Fed / U.S. Treasury Citizens Credit Facility.

Each qualifying U.S. citizen who wishes to participate will receive $60,000 deposited directly into a Family Account and $30,000 deposited into a Medical Savings Account.

Students with loan debt wishing to participate would have their existing student loan balance subtracted from their $60,000 direct deposit, leaving the average student not only ‘debt free,’ but also with an average of $20,000 in excess reserve, plus $30,000 in reserve for primary care medical needs.

This plan is far superior to any ‘student loan forgiveness’ plan, in that it properly rewards $60,000 / $30,000) the millions of college and technical school graduates who worked hard and paid back their loans. The same direct credit extensions would be granted to qualifying U.S. citizen children into a family custody account, setting them up for a college education or other life career path when they graduate from high school.

And it properly and fairly rewards ($60,000 / $30,000) each and every other qualifying hard-working, tax-paying (including now-retired) U.S. citizens across all sectors of society (military, law enforcement, construction, service-sector, industry, small business…).

The Leviticus 25 Plan will generate $36.568 billion federal budget surpluses during each of its first five years of activation (2026-2030). And it will restore financial security for millions of American families.

The most powerful debt-busting economic acceleration plan anywhere in the world.

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 2026 (25332 downloads )

Tapped-out consumers resorted to credit card liquidity to make ends meet in December.

America needs a rescue plan…

…………………………………….

Consumer Credit Unexpectedly Surges By Most On Record Despite All-Time High APRs

ZeroHedge, Feb 07, 2025 – Excerpts:

…. US consumers exited 2024 with a bang after Consumer credit soared by a record $40.8 billion in December, a complete reversal of the $5.4 billion November drop, and a month that sticks out like a sore thumb in the history of consumer credit as shown below.

The December print is all the more remarkable when considering that Wall Street consensus was for a $14.6BN consumer credit print. This means that the actual number was a 4 sigma beat to expectations, the biggest on record for this particular data series……..

Taking a closer look at the number, while non-revolving debt (i.e. student and auto loans) rose modestly as it always does rising by $18 billion, it was revolving, or credit card debt, that cratered soared by a whopping $22.3 billion, a remarkable reversal to the $14 billion drop in November which was the biggest drop since the covid crash shut down the economy, and the biggest monthly increase on record.

And while last month’s unexpected drop could at least have been explained with the fact that credit card APRs were at all time highs (currently 23% up almost 10% from a decade again), the fact that APRs remained there just under a record high certainly does not explain why US consumers scrambled to max out their credit cards at the end of 2024, just as their savings accounts hit the lowest level in years.

While the surge in credit card usage may explain the burst in spending to end the year, there is only so far that an economy can be pushed with maxed out credit cards.

___________________________________

According to the latest report, Household Deb has reached $17.94 trillion.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York – Q3 2024

There is only one plan in the world right now with the power to get this debt tsunami back under control – and set America back on track for societal contentment and economic prosperity.

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 2026 (25034 downloads )

The Leviticus 25 Plan offers a perfect complement to a coming “regulatory change” in the Supplemental Leverage Ratio (SLR) for banks.

The massive private sector debt reduction generated under The Leviticus 25 Plan would lead to enormous cash inflows for banks. Regulatory change in the SLR would then allow banks greater access to the Treasury market. This dynamic would increase demand for Treasury’s, thereby stabilizing the Treasury market and the U.S. Dollar, and significantly pull down interest rates.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – the most powerful decentralizing economic acceleration plan in the world. There is no other competing plan anywhere in sight.

…………………………………………

Treasury’s Reliance on Short-Term Debt Exploded in Recent Years

The Bear Traps Report, Dec 20, 2024 – Excerpts:

….We are witnessing a Covid era like spending in 2024 without a pandemic. The Treasury Department has come to rely on short-term bills to fund the government. But with $36Tr of debt, the Treasury has to issue bills almost every day to keep funding the government and to refund maturing debt.

• *CBO data, Bloomberg. The average weighted coupon on the U.S. debt load is about 2.7% vs. over 4.5% for 10-year U.S. Treasuries. As bonds mature, they get refinanced at much higher yields.

$10Tr of Debt Refinancing Next Year – In 2024 Treasury faced around $10Tr of maturing debt. To refinance this debt, it issued a whopping $26Tr of bills and bonds. More than 84% of that paper was short-term bills with a maturity of 6 months or less. Treasury keeps re-issuing bills with a maturity of 4 to 8 weeks or 3,4 to 6 months, which are the most popular maturities in a continuing, ever-increasing roll down of the debt, day after day, month after month.

ALERT – By issuing nearly a colossal load of extremely short-term bills, Janet Yellen succeeded in suppressing bond volatility in an election year and, in our view, strategically placing that bond market volatility into 2025 after the election. You can “why” see above, she wanted LESS long-term paper in circulation markets in the election year.

Now, in 2025 – this paper has to be rolled over and termed out into longer-dated bonds. The USA is behaving like a financially trapped emerging market country. Living on the “front-end” of the yield curve is a VERY dangerous game.  

…..

Never, ever forget that 6% today is equivalent to the destructive capacity of 10% twenty years ago. Interest rates up, mean bond prices down. A 1% move in interest rates higher today is an entirely different, far more lethal equation.

Incoming Stress Points – In 2025 the U.S. Treasury faces $9.6Tr of maturities in their so-called publicly held debt. In Q1 alone — the government faces $5.58Tr of maturities (bonds coming due, redemption), but 86% of those are short-term bills that the Treasury department rolls over into new 4-week, 8-week, 3,4, or 6-month bills, among others. 

As a result, almost daily bill auctions are coming to a theater near you, as the Treasury Department mindlessly keeps pushing new paper into the market to pay back the colossal amount of maturing debt.

…..

One big bullish catalyst for treasuries would be a regulatory change to exempt treasuries from the Supplemental Leverage Ratio (SLR). It is unclear if and when this would be implemented, although Bessent was hinting at regulatory relief for banks to boost banks’ treasury holdings. Exempting treasuries allows banks to hold more Treasuries on their balance sheets without needing to hold additional capital against them, freeing up the capacity for banks to participate more actively in the Treasury market. Its unclear how much treasury demand that would create, but in 2021, when the temporary SLR exemption was reinstated after COVID, prime dealers reduced their Treasury holdings from $250bl to $125bl in 2 months. A change in the SLR ratio may come but is going to take months before the rules are changed. A phase-out of QT for treasuries would be a more immediate, albeit more modest, relief for the bond market. According to this timeline, the Fed will end up buying $100bl of treasuries in 2025, a big change from the $500bl of treasury sales in 2024.

_______________________________________

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2026 (24703 downloads )

BNP Paribas is the largest bank in the Eurozone and 10th largest bank worldwide. This French financial behemoth 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...

…………………………………

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.”

………………………….

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

_______________________________________

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.

Begging the 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.

………………………………………….

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

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2026 (24699 downloads )

The Leviticus 25 Plan vs the Fed’s 2008-2010 secret emergency lending programs – A critical perspective, in planning for America’s future.

The Federal Reserve’s ‘secret liquidity lifelines’ for major banks:

Bloomberg LP filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit on Nov 7, 2008 to gain access to information regarding special emergency lending programs that the U.S. Federal Reserve had been running to help borrower banks deal with cash shortages and collateral deficiencies. The Fed fought the lawsuit, but ultimately lost.

Bloomberg gained access to more than 29,000 pages of previously secret loan documents and Fed spreadsheets, and published the highlights of those programs in late 2011.

According to Bloomberg, the top 15 recipients of Fed’s ‘secret liquidity lifelines’ were: Morgan Stanley ($107 billion), Citigroup Inc. ($99.5 billion), Bank of America Corp ($91.4 billion), Royal Bank of Scotland Plc ($84.5 billion), State Street Corp ($77.8 billion), UBS AG ($77.2 billion), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. ($69 billion), JP Morgan Chase & Co ($68.6 billion), Deutsche Bank AG ($66 billion), Barclays Plc ($64.9 billion), Merrill Lynch & Co Inc. ($62.1 billion), Credit Suisse Group AG ($60.8 billion), Dexia SA ($58.5 billion), Wachovia ($50 billion).

………………………………………………………………………..

The Fed ‘flooded’ the financial coffers of these major U.S. and foreign banks (with U.S subsidiaries) with trillions of dollars in direct cash transfers, credit guarantees, and balance sheet transfers of (often ‘sewage grade’) agency debt and MBS – and the principles of those institutions ended up making out very well. None of the principles involved took a serious haircut.

Meanwhile, Main Street America did not fare well…

There were severe financial dislocations. 8.7 million Americans lost their jobs during the financial crisis years. 4.1 million American families lost their homes through completed foreclosures from September 2008 through December 2012, according to CoreLogic.

_________________________________

It is now time for a Round 2 “emergency lending program,” one that would restore financial security for millions of American families – via direct liquidity extensions channeled through a Federal Reserve / U.S. Treasury Citizens Credit Facility.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2026 (24670 downloads )