Wall Street socialism – round 2…

Corporate Socialism: The Government Is Bailing Out Investors & Managers, Not You

ZeroHedge, Mar 26, 2020 – Excerpts:

Authored by Nassim Nicholas Taleb and Mark Spitznagel via Medium.com,

The U.S. government is enacting measures to save the airlines, Boeing, and similarly affected corporations. While we clearly insist that these companies must be saved, there may be ethical, economic, and structural problems associated with the details of the execution.

As a matter of fact, if you study the history of bailouts, there will be.

The bailouts of 2008–9 saved the banks (but mostly the bankers), thanks to the execution by then-treasury secretary Timothy Geithner who fought for bank executives against both Congress and some other members of the Obama administration. Bankers who lost more money than ever earned in the history of banking, received the largest bonus pool in the history of banking less than two years later, in 2010.

And, suspiciously, only a few years later, Geithner received a highly paid position in the finance industry.

That was a blatant case of corporate socialism and a reward to an industry whose managers are stopped out by the taxpayer. The asymmetry (moral hazard) and what we call optionality for the bankers can be expressed as follows: heads and the bankers win, tails and the taxpayer loses. Furthermore, this does not count the policy of quantitative easing that went to inflate asset values and increased inequality by benefiting the super rich. Remember that bailouts come with printed money, which effectively deflate the wages of the middle class in relation to asset values such as ultra-luxury apartments in New York City.

Second, these corporations are lobbying for bailouts, which they will eventually get thanks to the pressure they can exert on the government via lobby units. But how about the small corner restaurant ? The independent tour guide ? The personal trainer? The massage professional? The barber? The hotdog vendor living from tourists near the Met Museum ? These groups cannot afford lobbyists and will be ignored.

Third, as we have been warning since 2006, companies need buffers to face uncertainty –not debt (an inverse buffer), but buffers. …. We do not need to predict specific adverse events to know that a buffer is a must. Which brings us to the buyback problem. Why should we spend taxpayer money to bailout companies who spent their cash (and often even borrowed to generate that cash) to buy their own stock (so the CEO gets optionality), instead of building a rainy day buffer?

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There is a very simple way to level this playing field…

Grant U.S. citizens the same direct access to liquidity that has been, and is now again being provided to major U.S. and foreign financial institutions – by the Fed and U.S. Treasury.

U.S citizens deserve nothing less than the same treatment that the Fed has so generously lathered on the likes of: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Barclays, RBS, BNP Paribas, and others.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$75,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2021 (3628 downloads)

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April 2020:  “No society can surely be flourishing and happy of which by far the greater part of the numbers are poor and miserable.”  – Adam Smith

March 30, 2020

Dear Ms. Strassel –

I am a WSJ subscriber, and I appreciate the sharply focused insights and perspectives you provide in your columns.

I would like to add in a supporting perspective, and offer a new economic model for America, in response to your column of Mar 27, 2020.

In “Big-Government Contagion,” you highlighted many of the pitfalls and longer-term dangers involved with governmental entities appropriating large sums of money, either as a matter of ongoing operations or in response to crises, on behalf of citizens – rather than allowing citizens to allocate funds directly, in ways that best meet their individual needs and interests.

Your news service, The Wall Street Journal, proposed a type of blue print for a citizen-driven model (in health care) three years ago:

Give Medicaid Dollars Directly to Patients – WSJ www.wsj.com › Opinion › Commentary  –  Apr 12, 2017 – Excerpt:

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.

I began to do some economic modeling over eight years ago to develop a ‘citizen-centered’ economic plan and health care prototype which would breathe new efficiencies into our U.S. health care system, and revive free market dynamics and economic liberty for individual citizens and their families.

U.S. citizens are the foundation of our Republic, and we must have a healthy and financially sound foundation to set America on course for a bright and promising future.

The resulting plan is a comprehensive economic acceleration plan that yields massive ‘ground level’ debt elimination, citizen-centered health care, fundamentally sound economic growth trends, and extraordinary budget benefits for Federal, State, and Local governments – with $332 billion Federal budget surpluses in each of the first five years of activation:

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

Leviticus 25 Plan 2021 (3592 downloads)

Thank you for your time, Ms. Strassel.  I hope you will review this dynamic, new plan for America.

Sincerely, Bernie Hendricks – Brookings, South Dakota

The Federal Reserve activated a number of monetary channels during the 2008 financial crisis to funnel massive liquidity flows onto the balance sheets of major domestic and foreign banks and insurers – the very institutions which had ‘precipitated’ the crisis with their high-octane leveraged speculation strategies and moth-balled risk management departments.

Trillions of dollars gushed into the pipes and out through the Federal Reserve Discount Window and through numerous funding facilities ‘created’ by the Federal reserve, including the Term Auction Facility (TAF), Commercial Paper Funding Facility (CPFF), Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF), the Term Securities Lending Facility (TSLF), Single-Tranche Open Market Operations (ST OMO), the Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Money Market Mutual Funding Liquidity Facility (AMLF) and several other credit facilities.

The Wall Street financial sector won big. Main Street America received enough scraps and crumbs to trudge on, loaded with debt. It was a complete, unbalanced travesty.

It is unbelievable to be watching this all play out again...

The Fed Reopens Its Landfill For Distressed Assets

Authored by Mike Whitney via The Unz Review,

ZeroHedge, 3/20/2020 – Excerpts:

The Fed is reopening its most controversial and despised crisis-era bailout facility, the Primary Dealer Credit Facility. The Wall Street Journal describes the PDCF as “an overnight loan facility for primary dealers (that) provides round-the-clock backup source of funding to banks.”

The WSJ’s description grossly understates the facility’s real purpose which is to transfer the toxic bonds and securities from failing financial institutions and corporations (through an intermediary) onto the Fed’s balance sheet.

The objective of this sleight of hand is to recapitalize big investors who, through their own bad bets, are now either underwater or in deep trouble. Just like 2008, the Fed is now doing everything in its power to save its friends and mop up the ocean of red ink that was generated during the 10-year orgy of speculation that has ended in crashing markets and a wave of deflation. Check out this excerpt from an article at Wall Street on Parade. Here’s an excerpt:

“Veterans on Wall Street think of the PDCF as the cash-for-trash facility, where Wall Street’s toxic waste from a decade of irresponsible trading and lending, will be purged from the balance sheets of the Wall Street firms and handed over to the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve – just as it was during the last financial crisis on Wall Street.” – (“Fed Announces Program for Wall Street Banks to Pledge Plunging Stocks to Get Trillions in Loans at ¼ Percent Interest” Wall Street on Parade)

In other words, the PDCF is a landfill for distressed assets that have lost much of their value and for which there is little or no demand. And, as bad as that sounds, the details about the resuscitated PDCF are much worse.

First, the Fed is going to provide the 24 Primary Dealers (The Fed’s exclusive trading partners) with unlimited zero-rate loans. (0.25 percent)

Second, the loans will be issued for a period of up to 90 days after which they will be rolled over for as long as needed. (which basically transforms a collateralized loan into a permanent cash transfer.)

Third, (and this is from the text of the Fed’s March 17 announcement): “Collateral eligible for pledge under the PDCF includes all collateral eligible for pledge in open market operations (OMO); plus investment grade corporate debt securities, international agency securities, commercial paper, municipal securities, mortgage-backed securities, and asset-backed securities; plus equity securities.

“Equity securities”? You mean the Fed is going to buy stocks???

Indeed, that is precisely what it means. The Fed is going to load up on stocks during the biggest crash of the decade. That’s what you call a “bailout”, a multi-trillion dollar welfare check gifted to the crooked Wall Street banks in exchange for their dodgy toxic assets. It’s infuriating.

And the Fed plans to load up on other discarded offal too, such as “corporate debt securities… commercial paper… mortgage-backed securities”.

Of course there’s no market for any of this effluvia currently, but that’s not going to stop the Fed. Oh no. The Fed is generously offering infinite-duration loans at whatever amount is requested to preserve the illusion that these corporate and financial zombies are still solvent, which they certainly are not.

It’s worth noting, that the corporate debt market has been frozen for nearly two weeks which means there are no buyers and no new issuance. The market is a ghost-town devoid of anything but the chirping of birds, and yet, the Fed wants to buy debt in this wasteland, trading boatloads of cash for B-rated corporate sludge that may be worth just pennies on the dollar. The Fed has no idea of how it will get rid of these bonds since the market is not likely to rebound in the near future, but, even so, it is willing to accept the loss, even if it undermines its own credibility, even if it adds trillions more to its already-bloated balance sheet, and even if it assumes the credit risk these sketchy securities pose, after all, many of these poorly-managed corporations are likely to go bust in the very near future leaving the Fed with a pile of dreck it will never be able to unload. None of this seems to bother to the Fed who is determined to buy anything that isn’t bolted to the floor. It’s madness.

The Fed has known for more than 3 years that the corporations have been ripping off investors by selling them garbage bonds from which the proceeds would be used –not to develop new products or train workers or build factories or increase productivity— but to boost executive compensation via stock buybacks. That was the whole deal in a nutshell, more loot for greedy CEOs. It was a swindle from the get go. The Fed knew that, because everyone knew that. Now the Fed wants to make these hucksters ‘whole again’ because their bunco scheme blew up in their faces and they can’t tap into the credit markets like they did before. Too freaking bad.

[snip]

Why doesn’t the Fed try to find out which corporations are just struggling (due to the coronavirus) and which ones are actually insolvent? ….

And why didn’t the Fed use its regulatory powers to stop the debt-market chicanery before the whole thing went pear-shaped?…

The Fed is not going to answer any of these questions, and no one in Congress is even going to ask. Instead, the Fed will simply issue a press release in the media, rev up the printing presses, and flood the system with another 4 or 5 trillion dollars. That’s what they did in ’08 and that’s what they’re going to do now. Here’s more from Wall Street on Parade:

“We learned from the GAO audit that the Primary Dealer Credit Facility was the largest Wall Street bailout program during the financial crisis. It issued 1,376 loans that cumulatively totaled $8.95 trillion. Just as is happening this time around, the Fed spun the story that the program would help American workers and businesses. It did no such thing. It went to bail out the trading and derivative operations of sinking ships on Wall Street as those same firms paid out millions of dollars in bonuses to their derelict executives and traders….
(“Fed Announces Program for Wall Street Banks to Pledge Plunging Stocks to Get Trillions in Loans at ¼ Percent Interest” Wall Street on Parade)

Let’s summarize:

The Primary Dealer Credit Facility is not “an overnight loan facility…that provides a… backup source of funding to banks”, as the Wall Street Journal says. That’s baloney. The PDCF “was the largest Wall Street bailout program during the financial crisis” which issued roughly $9 trillion to underwater banks for their low-grade-dogsh** collateral. The facility was used to bail out the banks casino operations (“trading and derivatives”) while providing lavish multi-million dollar bonuses to voracious, thieving executives.

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Meanwhile, millions of American families are getting financially ‘whip-lashed’ once again. Fed policies during the 2008 financial crisis rewarded major banks and insurers (and their corporate officers, directors, and major shareholders) with trillions in bailout cash and credit guarantees.

Their policies now prove that they did absolutely nothing to prevent the build-up of another colossal round of leveraged speculation by the Wall Street financial sector.

The Fed did absolutely nothing to balance out their policies to strengthen the long-term financial health and viability of U.S. citizens and main street America. Their policies did nothing to help eliminate debt at the family level, improve financial reserves – and thereby help insulate them from another market crash and shocking economic downturn.

Main Street America is now paying a severe price for that critical lack of protective insulation.

It is not too late to activate the most powerful economic acceleration plan 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

$75,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2021 (3580 downloads)

The Federal Reserve and U.S.Treasury Department ‘flushed’ hundreds of billions of dollars out through their big-big-bank-connected umbilical cord credit extension system during the height of the Great Financial Crisis.

The ‘biggest of the big’ made out well – and their insiders did even better.

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“Secrets and Lies of the Bailout” –  RollingStone, Jan 4, 2013 

Goldman Sachs, which had made such a big show of being reluctant about accepting $10 billion in TARP money, was quick to cash in on the secret loans being offered by the Fed. By the end of 2008, Goldman had snarfed up $34 billion in federal loans – and it was paying an interest rate of as low as just 0.01 percent for the huge cash infusion. Yet that funding was never disclosed to shareholders or taxpayers, a fact Goldman confirms. “We did not disclose the amount of our participation in the two programs you identify,” says Goldman spokesman Michael Duvally.

Goldman CEO Blankfein later dismissed the importance of the loans, telling the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission that the bank wasn’t “relying on those mechanisms.” But in his book, Bailout, Barofsky says that Paulson told him that he believed Morgan Stanley was “just days” from collapse before government intervention, while Bernanke later admitted that Goldman would have been the next to fall.

Meanwhile, at the same moment that leading banks were taking trillions in secret loans from the Fed, top officials at those firms were buying up stock in their companies, privy to insider info that was not available to the public at large. Stephen Friedman, a Goldman director who was also chairman of the New York Fed, bought more than $4 million of Goldman stock over a five-week period in December 2008 and January 2009 – years before the extent of the firm’s lifeline from the Fed was made public. Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit bought nearly $7 million in Citi stock in November 2008, just as his firm was secretly taking out $99.5 billion in Fed loans. Jamie Dimon bought more than $11 million in Chase stock in early 2009, at a time when his firm was receiving as much as $60 billion in secret Fed loans. When asked by Rolling Stone, Chase could not point to any disclosure of the bank’s borrowing from the Fed until more than a year later, when Dimon wrote about it in a letter to shareholders in March 2010.

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It is now time for ‘Part 2’ – granting the same direct liquidity access for U.S. citizens that was provided to major banks and insurers during 2007 – 2010.

What is good for Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan, and Citi … is also good for U.S. citizens.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$75,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2021 (3565 downloads)

General Electric Co., teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, has been laying off thousands of workers over the past year and shuttering manufacturing plants in the U.S. – this, despite the Fed’s $16.1 billion rescue package in the fall of 2008.

GE also has some interesting operational skeletons in its corporate closet…

GE Capital, along with several other very large, well-heeled fiduciary entities was charged and convicted in a major municipal bond bid-rigging scandal in 2012. GE Capital had been shaking down municipalities across America, and screwing the pants off hard-working U.S. citizens. On a large scale.

More from the trial… by Matt Taibbi, June 21, 2012                                                                 The Scam Wall Street Learned From the Mafia | Rolling…                                               

“The state’s first witness, confusingly, was a CDR broker named Doug Goldberg… Right off the bat, in fact, Doug Goldberg explained that while at CDR, he had routinely helped the cream of Wall Street rig bids on municipal bonds by letting them take a peek at other bids:
Q: Who were some of the providers you gave last looks to?
A: There was a whole host of them, but GE Capital, FSA, J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, Société Générale, Lehman Brothers, Bear. There were others.
[snip]                                                                                                                           Goldberg went on to testify that he repeatedly rigged auctions with the three defendants. Sometimes he gave them “last looks” so they could shave basis points off their winning bids; other times he asked them to intentionally submit losing offers – called cover bids – to allow other firms to win.                                                                                                  …… The broker went on to detail how he had worked with the GE executives to manipulate a number of auctions.
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And several short years earlier, U.S. taxpayers were helping bail GE Capital out of a financial hole, courtesy of generous Federal Reserve emergency lending initiatives.

Excerpts from Bloomberg report: Bloomberg  Nov 28, 2011 :
General Electric Co.’s GE Capital finance unit was the biggest U.S. issuer of commercial paper in 2008. GE, the world’s largest maker of jet engines and locomotives, turned to the Federal Reserve for emergency liquidity after the market for commercial paper — bonds with maturities of less than 270 days — froze in late 2008.

GE Capital, which had $91.8 billion of CP outstanding at the end of September 2008, borrowed from the Fed’s Commercial Paper Funding Facility from October 2008 through February 2009, with a balance as high as $16.1 billion, data show. Initially, a GE spokesman said the company borrowed from the program “to demonstrate our support for what the Fed is doing.” In December, GE Treasurer Kathryn Cassidy said the company was using the CPFF “primarily as a liquidity backstop.” 

Peak amount of debt on 11/21/2008:  $16.1B

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If the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve can firehose liquidity out to criminal municipal ‘bid-riggers’ like General Electric Co, in its time of need….

…then shouldn’t honest, hard-working U.S. citizens also be granted the same direct access to liquidity to restore financial health, across the board, at ‘ground level’ in America?

Answer: Yes they should.

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

$75,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2021 (3558 downloads)

According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the International Monetary Fund’s Total Resources amount to” $661 billion in quota; $693 billion of additional pledged or committed resources.” The U.S. Financial Commitment to that quota amounts to $115 billion, and $39 billion to supplemental funds.

In other words, U.S. taxpayers are funding about 17.46% of the IMF’s loans to their “Largest Borrowers:Argentina, Ukraine, Greece, and Egypt.”

U.S. taxpayers therefore funded about $9.8 billion of the IMF’s $56 billion loan to economic basket case Argentina in 2018. That money is now, as they say, “down the drain.”

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Two Years After Handing It The Biggest Ever Bailout Loan, IMF Finds Argentina Debt Levels Are “Unsustainable”

ZeroHedge, Feb 19, 2020 – Excerpts:

Back in the summer of 2018, when the IMF handed Argentina an unprecedented $56 billion bailout loan, the largest in IMF history, some warned that this is a case of deja vu similar to the 2001/2002 precedent when Argentina eventually defaulted on its foreign creditors, while humiliating the IMF which had signed off on Argentina’s economic policies that ended up in bankruptcy court. The IMF, however, was confident that this time would be different, and rushed – under now-ECB head Christine Lagarde – to hand to Argentina the greatest amount of money the IMF had ever disbursed to a struggling nation.

It turned out that this time wasn’t different, and after completing a week of meetings in Argentine, the IMF – which so generously handed out other people’s money to prop up the crumbling, corrupt Latin American nation less than two years aqo – finally threw in the towel and admitted that Argentina’s debt load is unsustainable, paving the way for the government to ask private bondholders to take on losses as it prepares to renegotiate its obligations.

The last time IMF officials commented on Argentina’s debt was in the fourth review of the credit line in July 2019, when they called it “sustainable, but not with a high probability.”

[snip]

South America’s second-largest nation owes over $38.7 billion to bondholders just this year, and payments peak in May. There is no way it can make those payments without magic.

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If the U.S. government can see fit to flush billions of dollars out through the IMF money pipes to the likes of Argentina, Ukraine, Greece, Egypt, and others….

Then U.S. citizens deserve nothing less than that same direct access to liquidity provided by the most powerful economic acceleration plan 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

$75,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2020 (3552 downloads)

A number of current political candidates have promised a big government solution to ‘forgive’ or ‘cancel’ student loan debt – which means that those loans would then get ‘dumped’ on tax-paying Americans. And, those thousands upon thousands of American families that worked hard and saved to pay off (or pay down) student loans would NOT get reimbursed.

There is a much better way to deal with this...

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U.S. Average Student Loan Debt Statistics [January 2020]

www.credible.com › blog › Nov 18, 2019 – Excerpts:

U.S. Student Loan Debt Statistics

Matt Carter Updated November 18, 2019

Statistics about average student loan debt in the U.S. make for frightening headlines, and it’s no wonder — there are some pretty big numbers being thrown around in 2019:

• Average student loan debt → $33,654
• Average monthly student loan payment → $393
• Total student loan debt → $1.598 trillion
• Number student loan borrowers → 43 million
• Number of borrowers who owe $100,000 or more → 2.8 million

Average student loan debt

According to Credible’s analysis of statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Education, as of Dec. 31, 2018:

• Average student loan debt → $33,654
• Total student loan debt → $1.45 trillion
• Number of student loan borrowers → 43 million

Analysis: Note that these statistics are for all student loan borrowers, not just recent graduates. They are for federal student loans only, and exclude borrowing from private lenders. But private loans account for less than 10% of outstanding student loan debt, and most private borrowers also hold federal student loan debt.

Private student loan debt

According to data collected by MeasureOne, a consortium of lenders, as of Sept. 30, 2018:

• Private student loan debt → $119.3 billion
• Private loans as a share of total student loan debt → 7.6%
• Share of all private student loans made to undergraduates → 88.5%
• Share of all private student loans made to graduate students → 11.5%

Analysis: MeasureOne’s data shows that 92.4% of private student loans made to undergraduates for the 2018-2019 academic year were cosigned, compared to 63.4% of grad school loans. Click here for statistics on average interest rates for private and federal student loans.

Average student loan debt for recent graduates

According to an annual survey of thousands of colleges by the College Board, two-thirds of students who earned a four-year degree in 2017 borrowed for college. Among those who borrowed to get a bachelor’s degree:

• Average student loan debt, recent graduates → $28,500

Department of Education statistics show that graduate students have considerably more debt at graduation:

• Average student loan debt, graduate school → $84,300
• Average debt for recent law or medical school graduates → $186,600

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Student loan debt cancellation: Where 2020 Democrats stand – Washington Post We asked, “Should the government cancel existing student debt, and if so, for everyone or based on income?”

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The average student loan debt for undergraduates is currently in the range of $28,500 to $33,564.

The Leviticus 25 Plan is America’s #1 economic acceleration plan – whose primary focus is debt reduction / elimination.

The Plan provides for each participating U.S. citizens to receive a direct credit extension of $50,000 into that person’s family account (FA) and $25,000 into that person’s Medical Savings Account (MSA).

Every college graduate would have sufficient funds to either pay student loans off completely or maintain ‘currency’ in their payment schedules.

Every college graduate would also have $25,000 in an MSA, to assist with health insurance premiums and month-to-month primary health care needs. The Plan would make it possible for participants to secure a higher-deductible health insurance plan with lower premiums.

The Leviticus 25 Plan treats all U.S. citizens equally, and it doesn’t take the debt burdens from some and load them onto the backs of others.

The Leviticus 25 Plan, with its massive debt-elimination effects all across America, will re-ignite a powerful, sustainable economic growth phase – which will also generate a continuing flow of millions of new job opportunities for all Americans in the decades to come.

“He who will not apply new remedies must expect new evils.” – Sir Francis Bacon

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

$75,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2020 (3523 downloads)

Give Mr. Williams credit for his willingness to offer an honest assessment….

You Can’t Make This Up: NY Fed President Slams Bankers For Risk-Taking Behavior

ZeroHedge, Jan 14, 2020 – Excerpts:

NY Fed president John Williams, who spoke earlier today to students at the London School of Economic (excerpt from his speech):

When we talk about company culture in the context of financial services, the first thing that comes to mind is the risky, unethical, and sometimes criminal behavior in the banking industry, particularly during the financial crisis. And 10 years on from the crisis, this behavior persists. Instances of fraud, money laundering, and scandals related to foreign exchange and LIBOR continue to make the headlines.

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Note again: “And 10 years on from the crisis, this behavior persists. Instances of fraud, money laundering, and scandals related to foreign exchange and LIBOR continue to make the headlines.”

This revelation provides the United States with a fully justifiable economic strategy shift.

It is time shift away from fire-hosing the banking industry, inbred with “risky, unethical, and sometimes criminal behavior,” with liquidity infusions…

Which have done nothing to wean major banks from the Fed’s umbilical cord and nurse them ‘back to health’ for long-term financial viability…

Which have done nothing to reign in public and private debt growth in the U.S… and thereby have done nothing to lighten the burden of debt service obligations and reduce the choke-hold that high debt loads place on economic growth…

And have done nothing to reduce dependence on government…

And have done nothing to set America on course for long term economic growth and security…

It is time now shift course, granting U.S. citizens the same access to direct liquidity extensions that were granted to the likes of Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, AIG, State Street, Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, RBS, UBS AG… and numerous others during the financial crisis.

It is time now to begin at ‘ground level’ and strengthen the economic foundation in 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

$75,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2020 (3513 downloads)

JCB Capital Performance – Newsletter – Supplement 2008 / 2009

CAPITAL MARKET LOSES Global Markets fall from $62.6 trillion [10/31/07] to $25.5 trillion [Mar 9 ’09] losing $37.1 trillion or 59.2%:

DJIA falls 54.6% from 14,279 to 6,469.95 [10/11/07 – Mar 6 ’09]
S&P 500 falls 57.7% from 1,576 to 666.79 [10/11/07 – Mar 6 ’09]
NASDAQ falls 55.7% from 2,861 to 1,265.52 [10/31/07 – Mar 9 ’09].

MSCI Europe Index falls 61.8% from 1,388 to 529 [7/13/07 – Mar 9 ’09]
MSCI Pacific Index falls 59.5% from 173.1 to 70.13 [11/1/07 – Mar 10 ’09]
S&P Latin America 40 falls 68.2% from 5,862 to 1,862.84 [5/20/08 – Nov 20, 2008]
S&P Emerging Middle East & Africa falls 52% from 307.73 to 146.30 [11/7/07 – Mar 9, 2009]
S&P BRIC falls 71% from 466.90 to 135.25 [10/31/07 – Oct 27, 2008]

Japan’s NIKKEI Index falls from 18,297 [6/20/07] to 6,994.90 Oct 28, 2008 – a 61.7% fall.
Germany’s DAX Index falls from 8,131 [6/20/07] to 3,588.89 Mar 9 ’09 – a 55.8% fall.
Britain’s FTSE Index falls from 6,754 [7/13/07] to 3,460.71 Mar 9 ’09 – a 48.7% fall.
France’s CAC Index falls from 6,168 [6/1/07] to 2,465.46 Mar 9 ’09 – a 60.0% fall. Canada’s TSX Index falls from 15,154 [6/6/08] to 7,479.96 Mar 6 ’09 – a 50.6% fall.

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The effects of the 2007-2010 Financial Crisis were devastating for millions of Americans.

“Nearly 9 million American workers lost their jobs during the Great Recession. Unemployment in the U.S. peaked at 10 percent in late 2009.” -MarketPlace.org, 12-19-19

“Nearly 10 million homeowners lost their homes to foreclosure sales in the U.S. between 2006 and 2014. The effects of the subprime mortgage crisis are not only still being felt today, they have indelibly changed the way Americans view homeownership and the way we live.” -MarketPlace.org 12-17-18.

Question: Does the government have any formal, structurally competent plan in place to prevent another round of these types of devastating effects from the next economic storm?

Answer: No.

Question: Is there a comprehensive plan that would insulate American families from another round of these devastating effects? And provide for massive debt de-leveraging across all sectors of the U.S. economy? And strengthen the U.S. banking system?

Answer: Yes, there is one such plan.

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

$75,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2020 (3504 downloads)

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Buckminser Fuller: “You never change things by fighting against the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete.”

World Bank Warns “Wave Of Debt” Could Unleash Historic Crisis, Crush The Global Economy

ZeroHedge, 12-22-10 – Excerpts:

In a report titled “Global Waves of Debt”, the world bank looked at the four major episodes of debt increases that have occurred in more than 100 countries since 1970 — the Latin American debt crisis of the 1980s, the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s and the global financial crisis from 2007 to 2009.

While not finding anything the IIF didn’t already point out last month, the bank said during the fourth wave, from 2010 to 2018, the debt to GDP ratio of developing countries has risen by more than half to 168%: that was a faster increase on an annual basis than during the Latin American debt crisis.

And, as the IIF found previously, the rise in debt has been across both private companies and governments across the world, amplifying the risks if there is another global financial crisis. As a reminder, this is what global debt looked like 20 years ago….

… and what it looks like today:

Something else the World Bank found that we already know: debt growth in the past decade was mostly concentrated in China which accounted for the bulk of the increase, with its debt-to-GDP ratio rising by nearly three-quarters to 255% since 2010, now totaling more than $20 trillion.

Of course, it’s not just China, as most emerging economies saw their debt rise over the eight years, and especially in the past 12 months.

With common knowledge out of the way, the World Bank report said the latest wave of debt was more challenging than the previous three waves because of the build up of both private and public debt, new types of creditors including foreign investors and the big rise in borrowing, which was global and not limited to one or two regions. Poorer countries have also increasingly borrowed from non-traditional lenders such as China, which offer less favorable loan conditions, including higher interest rates and requiring stakes in projects as collateral, according to ABC .

[snip]

“The size, speed, and breadth of the latest debt wave should concern us all”, the report noted.

The irony, is that even in its warning, the World Bank failed to isolate the root of the problem: the report said low interest rates globally reduced the risk of a crisis for the time being, which is true; it is also the main factor enabling governments around the world to issue another wave of debt layering even more debt upon debt, and prompting Bloomberg articles explaining how only more debt can “solve a debt crisis.“

World Bank’s vice president for equitable growth, finance and institutions Ceyla Pazarbasioglu said the dangers were building up.

“History shows that large debt surges often coincide with financial crises in developing countries, at great cost to the population,” she said.

The report focused on total developed nation debt, which remained near the record levels reached in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, at around 265% of GDP in 2018, or $US130 trillion: “While government debt has risen, to a high of 104 per cent of GDP ($US50 trillion), private sector debt has fallen slightly amid deleveraging in some sectors. Total debt has fallen since 2010 in two-fifths of advanced economies,” the report said.

Of course, none of this is new: the World Bank and the IMF – which on one hand have been enabling the world’s rush into more debt – have paradoxically also been warning for some years about the build up of global debt since the GFC.

Amusingly, according to some analysts, the World Bank report “has upped the pressure on governments to prevent another debt crisis” as it found that of 519 cases of debt surges in 100 emerging and developing countries since 1970 roughly half ended in financial crises.

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The Federal Reserve, along with other major Central Banks, have been forced into ‘ratcheting down’ interest rates to prevent a global economic implosion (from snowballing interest expense burdens). And they have been pumping liquidity into the banking system, and through various mechanisms (Interest on Excess Reserves and Primary Dealer “Repo” transaction fees), flushing high profile banks with billions of of ‘free money.’

The results have been abysmal. Global debt is surging. Global economies are fragile. Long-term prospects for financial security and economic liberty are being squandered away.

It is time to activate the world’s most powerful economic acceleration plan.

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

$75,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2020 (3495 downloads)