Answer:  $23.7 trillion

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A look back…

Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General of the Troubled Asset Relief Program filed an official SIG TARP report in July 2009 projecting the government’s “Total Potential Support Related to Crisis” at an astounding $23.7 trillion.

Barofsky’s report was immediately criticized as being misleading in its characterizations, prompting him to respond on May 12, 2014 to one of the chief critics, Tim Geithner, who was Secretary of the Treasury during the crisis years.

The SIG TARP report did not say that the government might “lose” $23.7 trillion, as critics claimed.

Barofsky: “What the report actually ascribes to that number (at page 138) is the “Total Potential Support Related To Crisis” (and not potential losses) of the myriad pledges of support to the financial system from an alphabet soup of agencies and programs. The numbers underlying that estimate, of course, were provided to us by Treasury and other governmental agencies, the report was vetted with Treasury before it was issued, and the report makes clear in a series of caveats that it was not an estimate of actual potential losses.

Again, the U.S. government’s “Total Potential Support Related to the Crisis” weighed in at an astounding $23.7 trillion.

The effects of that “support” for main street America were marginal, with the best of it short-lived.
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The Leviticus 25 Plan features a Citizens Credit Facility – to serve as the conduit, from the Fed through the U.S. Department of the Treasury, for direct liquidity access by U.S. citizens – the same direct of access that was granted to Wall Street financial heavyweights during the crisis.

The Leviticus 25 Plan will provide for massive ‘ground level’ debt elimination and restore financial health for millions of American families. Money would still flow into the banking system – after first passing through the hands of U.S. citizens and the millions of small businesses in main street America.

The Leviticus 25 Plan would re-ignite powerful, long-term economic growth and put America on track for substantial budget surpluses. It would drastically scale back government control over the daily affairs of citizens. It would restore basic social freedoms and economic liberty for all.

Question:  What would be the U.S. government’s “Total Potential Support Related to The Leviticus 25 Plan?”

Answer: $21.6 trillion – all of which would get ‘repaid’ to the government 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.

It is time for an economic recovery plan that grants access to liquidity for all Americans, not just Wall Street and the wealthy ‘elite.’

Loaded up and ready to launch: The Leviticus 25 Plan 2025.

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Global Banks 2008: “We need a transfusion.” And $23.7 trillion later, the Fed said: “Tell Us When to Stop.”

And transfuse they did.

The U.S. Treasury turned the spigot into the ‘flow’ position with the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

And the Fed followed up by turning the spigot into the ‘gusher’ position with their emergency lending, discount window lending, and their QE-based purchases of cesspool-grade MBS and agency debt from various global lending institutions.

……………………………………………………………

Notes on the liquidity transfusions:
1. SIGTARP, the oversight agency of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), in its July 2009 report, vetted by Treasury, noted that the U.S. Government’s “Total Potential Support Related to Crisis” (page 138) amounted to $23.7 trillion. While this figure represents a backstop commitment, not a measure of total potential loss, it is nonetheless an astounding degree of support, in the form of liquidity infusions, credit extensions and guarantees, various other forms of assistance for financial institutions and other business entities affected by the financial crisis.

One example of the mechanics of these backstop commitments involved two of the major investment-banks which were at the forefront of the U.S. financial crisis, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan who, through their high-risk exposure to subprime debt and derivatives, received enormous financial assistance at the expense of U.S. taxpayers.

Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan received these direct liquidity infusions during the financial crisis via Fed disbursements through the Primary Dealer Credit Facility and numerous other credit facilities. The two (according to ZeroHedge 4-1-11) “had the temerity to pledge bonds that had defaulted (i.e. had a rating of D)… as in bankrupt, and pretty much worthless. . . that have no value whatsoever. . .” Goldman Sachs received $24.7 million and JP Morgan $1.4 million on the worthless collateral (September 15, 2008). Goldman Sachs pledged D-rated securities again September 29, 2008 and received $82.7 million (Citigroup received $102.8 million; Merrill Lynch – $217.8 million; Morgan Stanley – $261.0 million; UBS – $202.2 million).

In addition, the same two investment banking giants, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, earned free interest (again at taxpayer expense) through their access to credit extensions at the Federal Reserve discount window. Within two years, Goldman Sachs was paying out $111.3 million in “delayed bonuses” for the years 2007 and 2009 (NY Times 12-15-10).

_________________________________

U.S. citizens deserve nothing less than to be grated the same direct access to credit extensions for resolving liquidity issues of their own at the family level, than those that were so graciously provided by the Fed to major domestic and foreign financial institutions.

The initial credit extension outlay with The Leviticus 25 Plan ($21.6 trillion – assuming an 80% participation rate by U.S. citizens) would hardly be prohibitive, in light of the trillions of dollars in Federal Reserve and Treasury outlays over the past 5 years to major U.S. banking and financial institutions (Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Bank of America, State Street Corp, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan Chase, Wachovia, Lehman Brothers, Wells Fargo, Bear Stearns) and major foreign financial institutions (Royal Bank of Scotland, UGS AG, Deutsche Bank AG, Barclays, Credit Suisse. Dexia, BNP Paribas).

The Federal Reserve’s various credit facilities, discount window transactions, emergency loans, Foreign Exchange swap lines, Interest on Excess Reserves (IOER) for foreign banks, and Treasury’s TARP and stimulus programs have done little to improve the financial status for the majority of American families. These government programs have also done nothing to change the dominance and risk profile of “too big to fail banks,” and they have done little to lessen the counterparty default risk in the global derivatives markets.

The time is now to rebalance the financial dynamics of America – and grant U.S. citizens the same direct access to liquidity that was provided to Wall Street’s financial sector.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2025 (22182 downloads )

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Leviticus, chapter 25 outlines a divinely inspired plan which “the Lord spake unto Moses” in proclaiming a unique period of Jubile. “And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof” (verse 10).

Debtors – bondmen and bondmaids – were granted liberty from their indebtedness. Property was returned to the rightful owners, and distinct benefits were accorded “the poor, who now were acquitted from all their debts, and restored to their possessions” (Wesley). Leviticus 25:17 sets forth the solemn reminder, “Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the Lord your God.”

Jubile “set bounds both to the insatiable avarice of some, and the foolish prodigality of others, that the former might not wholly and finally swallow up the inheritances of their brethren, and the latter might not be able to undo themselves and their posterity forever, which was a singular privilege of this law and people.” (Wesley)

Jubile provided a fresh start with economic liberties and a societal rebalancing to counter permanent class structures.

America is ready now for a plan that is modeled upon these divine precepts – an economic recovery plan that directly benefits American citizens in a timely manner.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2025 (21752 downloads )

“The Risks Are Building To The Downside”: IMF Cuts Global Growth Forecast After Warning Global Debt To Hit $100 Trillion

ZeroHedge, Oct 22, 2024 – Excerpts:

The International Monetary Fund lowered its global growth forecast for next year and warned of accelerating risks from surging debt, to global wars to trade protectionism, even as it credited central banks for taming inflation without sending nations into recession.

In its World Economic Outlook report published on Tuesday morning, the IMF forecast global output will expand 3.2%, 0.1 percentage point slower than a July estimate It left the projection for this year unchanged at 3.2%.

In terms of next year’s outlook, the IMF forecast for the euro area was downgraded to 1.2%, 0.3% lower than in July, due to persistent weakness in manufacturing in Germany and Italy. On the other end, the US forecast for 2024 and 2025 was upgraded to 2.8% and 2.2%, up by 0.2% and 0.3% respectively, due to stronger consumption, but really because of the endless Biden-admin stimulus in the form of a wartime-level budget deficit which is now at 6% of GDP, and which has led to an exponential surge in US debt issuance.

The projection for Mexico was cut for this year by the most among major economies, as well as for next year, based on the impact of monetary policy tightening. China’s growth outlook for this year was cut to 4.8% from 5% previously on weakness in the real estate sector and low consumer confidence, with the 2025 forecast maintained at 4.5%….

“The risks are building up to the downside, and there is a growing uncertainty in the global economy,” Chief Economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas said in a briefing. “There is geopolitical risk, with the potential for escalation of regional conflicts,” that could affect commodity markets, he said. “There is a rise of protectionism, protectionist policies, disruptions in trade that could also affect global activity.”

Bloomberg also notes that while the IMF forecast doesn’t explicitly mention the US election, the November 5 main event looms over annual meetings that will see finance ministers and central bankers from almost 200 nations gather at the IMF and World Bank headquarters in Washington, just three blocks from the White House. Bloomberg recently found that Donald Trump’s vow to impose 60% tariffs on imports from China and 10% duties on those from the rest of the world would likely spur inflation and pressure the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates. The analysis also completely ignored that Trump may simply be using the threat of tariffs as a negotiating tactic meant to spark more beneficial terms of trade.

The global growth forecast comes one week after the IMF flagged its mounting concern about global public debt, which is expects to reach $100 trillion, or 93% of world gross domestic product, by the end of this year. The surge is driven by the US and China, of course….

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The United States has a perfect opportunity to lead the world out of this debt-driven black hole…

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 (21752 downloads )

Leviticus 25 Plan – what is the justification for allowing U.S. citizens access to Federal Reserve liquidity extensions (or, via liquidity extensions that flow from the Fed to the U.S. Treasury Department, and then directly on to qualifying U.S. citizens) ? 

First, a review of key precipitating events’ leading into the 2007 financial crisis… 

During the peak of the housing boom, mortgage brokers were pumping the red-hot housing market for all it was worth. Major financial institutions entered the game, purchasing massive amounts of mortgage ‘paper,’ which they repackaged into tranches which were then securitized as Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS)  –  and peddled as high-grade income-producing investment vehicles.

Financial heavyweights like Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and many others jumped into the game. They purchased ‘insurance’ to hedge their risks in the event that the underlying value of their warehoused mortgage paper suddenly evaporated… and to maintain ‘capital adequacy’ requirements.

The ‘insurance,’ in the form of Credit Default Swaps (CDS), was purchased primarily from triple-A rated AIG. And, thanks to some nifty deregulation orchestrated by Treasury Chief Robert Rubin, AIG was not required to carry any meaningful level of reserves to back their Credit Default Swap business – to pay their counterparties if the Mortgage Backed Securities market… ‘went south.’

It did just that, and the rest is history.  Housing tanked. MBS’ tanked. And AIG had no reserves with which to pay Goldman and others.  Had normal bankruptcy proceedings prevailed, Goldman Sachs would likely have received just pennies on the dollar in settlement – for placing a huge ‘blind bet’ on an investment that had no reserves backing it up.

But – the U.S. Government stepped in and arbitrated a settlement of 100 cents on the dollar, amounting to a direct cash transfusion of a cool $12.9 trillion – from the U.S. taxpayer – to Goldman Sachs.

And then the real ‘fun’ began.  The investment banking heavyweights, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan, were ‘fast-tracked’ for “federal bank charters.’  Their newly acquired status as commercial banks allowed them to joined in with “Bank of America, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase and other banking titans who could go to the Fed and borrow massive amounts of money” at near-zero percent interest.

“The ability to go to the Fed and borrow big at next to no interest was what saved Goldman, Morgan Stanley and other banks from death in the fall of 2008.  “They had no other way to raise capital at that moment, meaning they were on the brink of insolvency,” says Nomi Prins, a former managing director at Goldman Sachs.

“The Fed was the only shot.”

“In fact, the Fed became not just a source of emergency borrowing that enabled Goldman and Morgan Stanley to stave off disaster — it became a source of long-term guaranteed income. Borrowing at zero percent interest, banks like Goldman now had virtually infinite ways to make money. In one of the most common maneuvers, they simply took the money they borrowed from the government at zero percent and lent it back to the government by buying Treasury bills that paid interest of three or four percent. It was basically a license to print money — no different than attaching an ATM to the side of the Federal Reserve.”

“You’re borrowing at zero, putting it out there at two or three percent, with hundreds of billions of dollars — man, you can make a lot of money that way,” says the manager of one prominent hedge fund. “It’s free money.”  (Source:  Wall Street’s Bail out Hustle – Matt Taibbi,  2-17-10).

And therein lies the primary justification for the Leviticus 25 Plan.  If the Federal Reserve can bail out the very financial entities that precipitated the financial crisis with their leveraged speculation gambling binge, then they can help restore financial health to American families, also.

U.S. citizens deserve nothing less than to be granted the same direct access to the Federal Reserve / U.S. Treasury liquidity extensions that was previously provided, on the most generous of terms, to the likes of Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, State Street, Merrill Lynch, Lehman, AIG, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Barclays, RBS, BNP Paribas… and numerous others. 

__________________________________

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 (21510 downloads )

U.S. citizens deserve nothing less than to be granted the same direct access to the Federal Reserve liquidity extensions that was provided to the likes of Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Citigroup, Bank of America, State Street, Merrill Lynch, Lehman, AIG, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, UBS, RBS, BNP Paribas…and many others. 

If not directly from the Federal Reserve, then the liquidity extensions could flow through the U.S. Treasury Department, and then directly on to U.S. citizens.

Justification:
1. SIGTARP, the oversight agency of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), in its July 2009 report, vetted by Treasury, noted that the U.S. Government’s “Total Potential Support Related to Crisis” (page 138) amounted to $23.7 trillion. While this figure represents a backstop commitment, not a measure of total potential loss, it is nonetheless an astounding degree of support, in the form of liquidity infusions, credit extensions and guarantees, various other forms of assistance for financial institutions and other business entities affected by the financial crisis.

One example of the mechanics of these backstop commitments involved two of the major investment-banks which were at the forefront of the U.S. financial crisis, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan who, through their high-risk exposure to subprime debt and derivatives, received enormous financial assistance at the expense of U.S. taxpayers.

Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan received these direct liquidity infusions during the financial crisis via Fed disbursements through the Primary Dealer Credit Facility and numerous other credit facilities. The two (according to ZeroHedge 4-1-11) “had the temerity to pledge bonds that had defaulted (i.e. had a rating of D)… as in bankrupt, and pretty much worthless. . . that have no value whatsoever. . .” Goldman Sachs received $24.7 million and JP Morgan $1.4 million on the worthless collateral (September 15, 2008).

Goldman Sachs pledged D-rated securities again September 29, 2008 and received $82.7 million (Citigroup received $102.8 million; Merrill Lynch – $217.8 million; Morgan Stanley – $261.0 million; UBS – $202.2 million).

U.S. citizens deserve nothing less than the same access to credit extensions for resolving liquidity issues of their own at the family level, that have been extended to major domestic and foreign financial institutions.

In addition, the same two investment banking giants, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, earned free interest (again at taxpayer expense) through their access to credit extensions at the Federal Reserve discount window. Within two years, Goldman Sachs was paying out $111.3 million in “delayed bonuses” for the years 2007 and 2009 (NY Times 12-15-10).

2. The initial credit extension outlay with The Leviticus 25 Plan ($18.0 trillion – assuming an 80% participation rate by U.S. citizens) would hardly be prohibitive, in light of the trillions of dollars in Federal Reserve and Treasury outlays over the past 5 years to major U.S. banking and financial institutions (Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Bank of America, State Street Corp, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan Chase, Wachovia, Lehman Brothers, Wells Fargo, Bear Stearns) and major foreign financial institutions (Royal Bank of Scotland, UGS AG, Deutsche Bank AG, Barclays, Credit Suisse. Dexia, BNP Paribas).

The Federal Reserve’s various credit facilities, Discount Window transactions, emergency loans, Foreign Exchange swap lines, Interest on Excess Reserves (IOER) for foreign banks, and Treasury’s TARP and stimulus programs have done little to improve the financial status for the majority of American families. These government programs have also done nothing to change the dominance and risk profile of “too big to fail banks,” and they have done little to lessen the counterparty default risk in the global derivatives markets.

3. U.S. taxpayer dollars have been used to support the IMF bail-out of Greece. The U.S. funded at least $780 million (17.09%) of the July $4.6 billion IMF transfer to Greece (purportedly funding interest payments to hedge funds which had speculated in purchasing the high-risk Greek debt).

U.S. taxpayers also funded approximately $2.9 trillion of a massive 2014 IMF loan to Ukraine to help Kiev pay off creditors including Western banks, Gazprom (the big Russian oil company), and previous IMF loan payment obligations).

The U.S. Treasury Department followed that up by guaranteeing a $1 billion Ukrainian bond issuance.

If U.S. taxpayer funds are being used to bail out the citizens of bankrupt foreign nations, then U.S. citizens deserve equal access to their own money to resolve liquidity issues at the family level.

4. The U.S. government will be piling on trillions of dollars of additional debt over the next eight years – which will compound financial stress issues for American families for decades to come.

The U.S. Government budget deficit for FY2020 came in at $3.311 trillion, according to the CBO’s Budget and Economic Outlook: 2019-2030. Their Baseline Budget Projection forecasts that the U.S. will add a series of deficits totaling approximately $12.987 trillion for the period 2021-2030.  The CBO uses what is termed a ‘rosy scenario’ forecast, so that total is likely to be considerably higher.

This growing national debt burden will prove to be a significant drag on economic growth, and it will not generate meaningful, broad-based liquidity benefits for American families. The U.S. Government will be forced into monetary and fiscal policies which will continue the gradual, and eventually fatal, erosion in the purchasing power of the U.S. Dollar.

U.S. citizens must be provided with direct liquidity access through a Citizens Credit Facility, in order to reduce/eliminate debt at the family level and off-set the potentially devastating consequences of a future major fiat currency ‘reset.’

The Leviticus 25 Plan’s one-time credit extension of approximately $21.6 trillion to U.S. citizens’ Family Accounts and Medical Savings Accounts would set America on a new course. It would provide immediate and substantial liquidity benefits to American families. It would strengthen small businesses and reignite true economic growth in the U.S. economy.

The Plan would also stabilize the U.S. Dollar and strengthen the nation’s banking system.

5. There is a Biblical precedent for The Leviticus 25 Plan.
The Leviticus 25 Plan is justified upon the basis of its profound historical correlations with the Biblical year of the “Jubile” (The Book of Leviticus, Chapter 25). This Year was established by God to free Israelites from economic indebtedness and oppression. It provided individuals and families a fresh start, with economic liberties and a societal rebalancing to counter permanent and restrictive class structures.

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The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2025 (21510 downloads

______________________________________

 August Friedrich von Hayek, Nobel Memorial Prize, Economic Sciences (1974)

Quotes:

“There is all the difference in the world between treating people equally and attempting to make them equal.” 

“Through the inevitable mismanagement of resources and goods at the disposal of the state, all forms of collectivism lead eventually to tyranny.”

“Social justice rests on the hate towards those that enjoy a comfortable position, namely, upon envy.”

“Few are ready to recognize that the rise of fascism and Nazism was not a reaction against the socialist trends of the preceding period but a necessary outcome of those tendencies.”

F.A Hayek, The Road to Serfdom — The End of Truth: 

“…even the striving for equality by means of a directed economy can result only in an officially enforced inequality—an authoritarian determination of the status of each individual in the new hierarchical order—and that most of the humanitarian elements of our morals, the respect for human life, for the weak, and for the individual generally, will disappear….

The moral consequences of totalitarian propaganda which we must now consider are, however, of an even more profound kind. They are destructive of all morals because they undermine one of the foundations of all morals: the sense of and the respect for truth.”

Federal Fiscal Burden Consumes 93% Of America’s Wealth

ZeroHedge, Aug 12, 2024 – Authored by James D. Agresti via The Epoch Times

Excerpts

Based on data from a U.S. Treasury report, the federal government has amassed $142 trillion in debts, liabilities, and unfunded obligations. This staggering figure equals 93 percent of all the wealth Americans have accumulated since the nation’s founding, estimated by the Federal Reserve to be $152 trillion.

Unlike other measures of federal red ink that cover an arbitrary period, extend into the infinite future, or ignore government resources, the figure of $142 trillion applies strictly to Americans who are alive right now and includes the government’s commercial assets. Thus, it quantifies the financial burden that today’s Americans are leaving to their children and future generations.

Complete Versus Incomplete Accounting

Federal law requires the U.S. Treasury to publish an annual report that details the government’s “overall financial position.” In addition to the national debt, the “Financial Report of the United States Government” also includes the government’s explicit and implicit financial commitments, such as:

• federal employee pensions and other retirement benefits like healthcare.

• environmental liabilities like contaminated nuclear sites.

• unfunded obligations for social insurance programs like Medicare.

Such “fiscal exposures,” as explained by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), “represent significant commitments that ultimately have to be addressed.” Thus, GAO stresses that ignoring them can “make it difficult for policymakers and the public to adequately understand the government’s overall performance and true financial condition.”

Yet, that is precisely what the media does. Although the Treasury published the report in February, Google News indicates that no major media outlet has mentioned it. Meanwhile, the same outlets have frequently reported on the national debt and federal budget, which are incomplete measures of the federal government’s fiscal situation.

The commonly cited national debt and federal budget are mainly based on cash accounting, which is the simplistic process of counting money as it flows in or out. Thus, liabilities like pension benefits for federal workers aren’t measured until they are actually paid, which is often decades after they are promised.

In contrast, the Treasury report mainly uses accrual accounting, which measures financial commitments as they are made. This is how the federal government requires large corporations to report their finances. In the words of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, which is tasked by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to create private-sector accounting rules, accrual accounting is the “most relevant and reliable” way to measure the financial health of pension plans.

The same applies to other retirement benefits like healthcare. The accounting rule that governs such benefits explains that “a failure to accrue” implies “that no obligation exists prior to the payment of benefits.” Since an obligation does exist, failing to account for it “impairs the usefulness and integrity” of financial statements.

The Grand Total

A methodical tally of accrual accounting data in the Treasury report shows that the federal government has amassed $142 trillion in debts, liabilities, and unfunded obligations beyond the value of its commercial assets. This reflects the government’s finances at the close of its 2023 fiscal year on Sept. 30, 2023.

The primary components of this burden, which are unpacked below, include:

• $26.3 trillion in publicly held national debt.

• $16.6 trillion in liabilities that are not accounted for in the publicly held debt.

• $104.2 trillion in unfunded social insurance obligations.

These figures tally to $147.1 trillion in debts, liabilities, and unfunded obligations. Offsetting this is $5.4 trillion in commercial assets owned by the federal government, leaving a grand total shortfall of $141.7 trillion.

Numbers in the trillions are hard to conceive, so it’s revealing to place them in context. The figure of $142 trillion amounts to 93 percent of the net wealth Americans have accumulated since the nation’s founding, estimated by the Federal Reserve to be $152 trillion. This includes all of their assets in savings, real estate, corporate stocks, private businesses, and consumer durable goods like automobiles and furniture.

The government’s $142 trillion shortfall also amounts to:

• $430,252 for every person living in the United States.

• $1,098,087 for every household in the United States.

• 2 times annual U.S. economic output (GDP).

• 30 times annual federal revenues.

Publicly Held Debt

The simplest major item quantified by the Treasury report is the publicly held debt, which is $26.3 trillion. This is the money the federal government owes to non-federal entities like individuals, corporations, state governments, and foreign governments.

Publicly held debt is a partial measure of the national debt that excludes $6.9 trillion the federal government owes to federal programs like Social Security and Medicare. The Treasury report also details these intergovernmental debts and consolidates them with the items below.

Liabilities

Pension and other retirement benefits are a large part of compensation packages for government employees. With these generous benefits included, civilian non-postal federal employees receive an average of 17 percent more total compensation than private-sector workers with comparable education and work experience. Postal workers receive even greater premiums ranging from 25 percent to 43 percent.

In 2022, federal, state, and local governments spent $2.3 trillion on employee compensation, costing each household in the nation an average of $17,299.

The Treasury report shows that the federal government currently owes $14.3 trillion in pensions and other benefits to federal employees and veterans that are not accounted for in the publicly held national debt. To pay the present value of these benefits will require an average of $109,005 from every household in the United States.

The Treasury reports other liabilities of the federal government, such as:

• $124 billion in accounts payable.

• $645 billion in environmental and disposal liabilities.

• $99 billion in insurance and guarantee program liabilities.

Altogether, the Treasury records $16.6 trillion in liabilities that are not accounted for in the publicly held debt.

Social Security & Medicare

A similar but far more expensive situation exists with social insurance programs like Social Security and Medicare. This is because—contrary to popular belief—these programs don’t save workers’ taxes for their retirements. Instead, they immediately spend the vast majority of those taxes to pay benefits to current recipients. Thus, they are called “pay-as-you-go” programs.

In stark contrast, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis explains that “federal law requires private pension plans to operate as funded plans, not as pay-as-you-go plans.” The reasons for this, as explained by the American Academy of Actuaries, are to increase “benefit security” and ensure “intergenerational equity.”

Social Security and Medicare, on the other hand, have levied dramatically increased tax burdens on succeeding generations of Americans, thus creating severe generational inequality. And unless retirement ages are raised or benefits are reduced in some other way, taxes will need to be increased again to keep the programs solvent.

Federal actuaries measure the unfunded obligations of Social Security and Medicare in several different ways, but only one of them approximates accrual accounting. This is called the “closed-group” unfunded obligation, which is the money needed to cover the shortfalls for all current taxpayers and beneficiaries in these programs.

In the words of Harvard Law School professor and federal budget specialist Howell E. Jackson, the closed-group measure “reflects the financial burden or liability being passed on to future generations.” These burdens are $49.8 trillion for Social Security and $53.9 trillion for Medicare. Placing these figures in context:

• Social Security’s unfunded obligations amount to an additional $272,237 from every person who currently pays Social Security payroll taxes.

• Medicare’s unfunded obligations amount to an additional $201,932 from every U.S. resident aged 16 or older.

Those shortfalls are what remain after the federal government has paid back with interest all of the money it has borrowed from Social Security and Medicare.

Social Security and Medicare differ from true pensions because taxpayers don’t have a contractual right to receive these benefits. Nevertheless, paying these benefits is an implied commitment of the federal government, and federal law requires that these programs be included in the Treasury report.

The Treasury report estimates that the combined closed group unfunded obligations of Social Security, Medicare, and some smaller social insurance programs are $104.2 trillion. This figure doesn’t include intergovernmental debt, which is consolidated with other data in the report.

Federal Assets

The Treasury also records the federal government’s commercial assets, such as:

• $922 billion in cash and other monetary assets.

• $1.2 trillion in property, plants, and equipment.

• $1.7 trillion in receivable loans, mainly comprised of student loans.

However, the report doesn’t account for federal stewardship land and heritage assets, such as national parks and the original copy of the Declaration of Independence. While these items have tangible value, the report explains that they “are intended to be preserved as national treasures,” not sold to the highest bidder to cover debts.

In total, the government owned $5.4 trillion in commercial assets at the close of its 2023 fiscal year.

Adding up the federal government’s debts, liabilities, and unfunded obligations and then subtracting the value of its commercial assets yields a fiscal shortfall of $142 trillion.

Root Causes

The first critical step in solving a problem is to understand its root causes. However, scientific surveys show that many voters are misinformed about the root causes of government debt.

A scientific, nationally representative survey commissioned in 2020 by Just Facts found that 25 percent of voters believe the main driver of the rising national debt is military spending. This accords with the reporting of media outlets that frequently blame the debt on military spending.

In reality, military spending has plummeted from 53 percent of all federal expenses in 1960 to 17 percent in 2022:

The same survey found that another 25 percent of voters believe tax cuts were the main driver of debt, in accord with news stories that blame the debt on tax cuts.

In reality, federal revenues have stayed at a roughly level portion of the U.S. economy for the past 80 years:

As shown in the charts above, the primary driver of the national debt is increased spending, particularly on social programs. These programs—which provide healthcare, income security, education, nutrition, housing, and cultural services—have grown from 21 percent of all federal spending in 1960 to 64 percent in 2022.

Yet, only 39 percent of voters correctly identify social spending as the primary cause of rising debt.

Moreover, the vast bulk of the government’s unfunded obligations are due to Social Security and Medicare. Thus, the Congressional Budget Office projects that the main drivers of future debt will be Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, Obamacare, and interest on the national debt. Under the weight of these, the publicly held debt is due to soar to unprecedented levels over coming decades….

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There is one, and only one, economically viable, politically feasible recovery plan to clean up this exploding debt crisis — and get America back on track.

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 (21357 downloads )

A Record $1.2 Trillion Interest Payments Are Blowing Up The Federal Budget

By Diccon Hyatt | Investopedia | Published September 13, 2024

Excerpts:

Key Takeaways

• The U.S. government will spend a record $1.2 trillion on interest payments in 2024, the highest amount ever recorded.
• Interest payments are driven by a combination of deficit spending, especially during the pandemic, and the Federal Reserve’s campaign of anti-inflation interest rate hikes.
• The trajectory of the deficit could be influenced by the election.
• While both Democrats and Republicans propose new tax cuts and spending that could push up the deficit, Vice President Kamala Harris has proposed tax increases on the wealthy and corporations, to offset them.

The U.S. government is on track to spend more than $1 trillion on interest payments this year, surpassing military spending for the first time in history.

Interest payments on the national debt (held by the public in the form of Treasury securities) will cost the government $1.2 trillion in the government’s fiscal year ending in October, the Treasury Department said in a monthly report on the budget.1 Net interest outlays are the third costliest item in the budget behind Social Security and Medicare benefits.

Economists have grown increasingly concerned about the potential impact of those payments on the U.S. economy. Interest payments took up 2.4% of the entire U.S. gross domestic product in 2023, and The Congressional Budget Office estimates that could swell to 3.9% over the next 10 years.

Why Is The Government Paying So Much Interest? Two major factors have driven those payments skyward. First, the government spent trillions to support households and the economy during the pandemic, paying for it by borrowing rather than raising taxes. Second, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates starting in 2022 to fight inflation, which pushed up how much the government owes for that debt.

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America’s billowing federal debt is a dire national security threat.

There is only one plan on the table with the power to reign in America’s ever-expanding debt and generate annual federal budget surpluses.

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 (21326 downloads )

‘Teacher pay’ is a critically important goal for attracting and retaining dedicated, top-notch teachers and providing the best resources for high achievement by America’s school children.

At the same time, rejuvenating financial health for all working American families is a vital cause, all across America.

All working Americans – military, law enforcement, medical / healthcare, maintenance workers, construction, fire and rescue, service workers – are deserving of an opportunity, a comprehensive initiative, to strengthen their families’ financial status and relieve the burden of government interference in their daily lives.

Let’s do some math, and make a comparison between two significant economic initiatives.

Plan 1: The Leviticus 25 Plan – $90,000 per U.S. citizen. $60,000 per U.S. citizen is
electronically deposited into a Family Account and $30,000 per citizen is electronically deposited into a Medical Savings Account.

Who benefits?
Answer: All participating U.S. citizens and their families.

Who pays?
Answer: The Federal Reserve creates a funding facility, a Citizens Credit Facility, to channel liquidity to American families, in the same way that they set up various credit facilities to fire-hose liquidity out to Wall Street’s financial sector during the great economic crises years (2008-2010). Many of these U.S. and foreign banks and insurers were the very institutions that had precipitated the financial crisis with their financial innovation schemes and leveraged speculation – which ‘bled out’ in the form of gaping balance sheet ‘capital holes’ when the big mortgage default wave hit.

How does the Federal Reserve then get the money back, in order to reduce its balance sheet back down to ‘normal dimensions,’ over time?
Answer: Through a series of simple recapture provisions.

#1. Participating families would be required to give up their tax refunds each year for a period of five years.

#2. Participating families would also be required give up means-tested welfare benefits, income security program benefits, unemployment insurance, workman’s comp, SSI, SSDI, and various other social welfare benefits.

#3. For participating families, there would be a $6,000 deductible for five years ($30,000 total) for those enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid, VA, TRICARE, FEHB.

The Plan pays for itself over a 10-15 year period.

How much would The Leviticus 25 Plan benefit a typical teacher’s family?
Case 1: Family of four. Mother teaches – salary $50,000 / year.
Father also works. Two school-age children.
$165,000 balance on 30-year fixed mortgage – maturing in 20 years.
Two modest car loans.
Monthly health care premiums – fairly substantial.

Through the Citizens Credit Facility, $240,000 would be electronically deposited into their Family Account, and $120,000 would be electronically deposited into their Medical Savings Account.

These liquidity grants are tax-free. The net benefit of these grants would be reduced slightly over the course of time through the loss of income tax refunds for five years (estimate: $5,000 per year for five years: $25,000).

Mortgage payoff example: Family pays off $165,000 balance remaining on a 30-year fixed $200,000 mortgage at 5.5% interest rate / 20 years remaining to maturity with principle and interest payments of $1,136 per month.

Total savings: $165,000 principle and $101,351 interest. Total: $266,351.

Approximate annual savings: $13,600.

This savings amount dwarfs the anticipated $5,000 loss per year from income tax refunds.

Family retains $75,000 in Family Account for additional installment debt reduction, discretionary purchases and savings.

With $120,000 in Medical Savings Account, family chooses to purchase a high-deductible policy with reduced premium costs.

Total impact on family financial health: significant. Benefits: powerful

And even more importantly, all families in America would benefit in similar ways.

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Plan 2: Raise teachers’ pay by a healthy 15% – via tax increases.

Who benefits?
Answer: Teachers and their families.

Who pays?
Answer: Everyone whose taxes were raised to cover the additional outlay on behalf of teachers. And that would include teachers themselves, whose taxes would also go up – and would therefore slightly reduce the net benefit of a 15% pay raise.

How much would a 15% pay hike actually benefit a typical teacher’s family?
Case 1: Family of four. Mother teaches – salary $50,000 / year.
Father also works. Two school-age children.
$165,000 balance on 30-year fixed mortgage at 5.5% interest – maturing in 20 years.
Two modest car loans.
Monthly health care premiums – fairly substantial.

A 15% pay raise for the teacher in the family would generate additional gross income of $7,500 per year, or $37,500 over a five-year period – before taxes.

This increased income would provide additional resources for some possible modest reductions in mortgage and installment debt, certain discretionary spending, and it might allow for additional modest savings for their children’s future college education.

Teachers and their families alone would benefit financially. Others would not. Mortgage debt reduction: modest.
Health plan premium reduction: none.
Net cash benefit over five years: $37,500.
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America needs a comprehensive economic acceleration plan that benefits all Americans – through massive debt reduction and the restoration of economic liberty..

The choice is clear.

The Leviticus 25 Plan will also generate $112.6 billion budget surpluses at the federal level during each of its first five years of activation (2025-2029 – compared to trillion dollar deficits each year into the foreseeable future.

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 (20778 downloads )

F.A. Hayek is regarded by many as the greatest economist in the history of the Western world.  In his famous work, “The Road to Serfdom,” Hayek warned about the dangers of national centralization.

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F.A. Hayek On “The Great Utopia” | Zero Hedge – Excerpts:

The Great Utopia

There can be no doubt that most of those in the democracies who demand a central direction of all economic activity still believe that socialism and individual freedom can be combined. Yet socialism was early recognized by many thinkers as the gravest threat to freedom.

It is rarely remembered now that socialism in its beginnings was frankly authoritarian. It began quite openly as a reaction against the liberalism of the French Revolution. The French writers who laid its foundation had no doubt that their ideas could be put into practice only by a strong dictatorial government. The first of modern planners, Saint-Simon, predicted that those who did not obey his proposed planning boards would be “treated as cattle.”

Nobody saw more clearly than the great political thinker de Tocqueville that democracy stands in an irreconcilable conflict with socialism: “Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom,” he said. “Democracy attaches all possible value to each man,” he said in 1848, “while socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.”

To allay these suspicions and to harness to its cart the strongest of all political motives—the craving for freedom — socialists began increasingly to make use of the promise of a “new freedom.” Socialism was to bring “economic freedom,” without which political freedom was “not worth having.”

[snip]

Individual freedom cannot be reconciled with the supremacy of one single purpose to which the whole of society is permanently subordinated. To a limited extent we ourselves experience this fact in wartime, when subordination of almost everything to the immediate and pressing need is the price at which we preserve our freedom in the long run. The fashionable phrases about doing for the purposes of peace what we have learned.to do for the purposes of war are completely misleading, for it is sensible temporarily to sacrifice freedom in order to make it more secure in the future, but it is quite a different thing to sacrifice liberty permanently in the interests of a planned economy.

To those who have watched the transition from socialism to fascism at close quarters, the connection between the two systems is obvious. The realization of the socialist program means the destruction of freedom. Democratic socialism, the great utopia of the last few generations, is simply not achievable.

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There is one economic plan with the raw power to counter the false utopian promises of security and equality.

The Leviticus 25 Plan is the one and only economic dynamic in today’s world with the power to advance the cause of financial security for U.S. citizens and economic liberty for the whole of America.

The Leviticus 25 Plan provides direct liquidity access for participating 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 (20778 downloads )