Zero Hedge – Headlines:

California’s New Governor Proposes Taxing Drinking Water

The new budget, titled ‘California for All’, declares drinking water a “fundamental right”… yet proposes to tax that “right”…  Jan 14, 2019

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Mayor de Blasio Says New York’s Wealth Is “In The Wrong Hands” And Should Be Redistributed

“Here’s the truth, brothers and sisters, there’s plenty of money in the world. Plenty of money in this city. It’s just in the wrong hands!”  Jan 12, 2019  

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America does not need to yield to such schemes of utter nonsense. It does, however, need a powerful, new economic acceleration plan – one that restores financial security for American families, revitalizes economic growth, scales back dependence on government and generates massive new tax revenue flows – and restores economic liberty for all Americans.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$75,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2018 (3051 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.

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 2018 (3040 downloads)

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

The Morgan Stanley report went on to conclude, “In short, it is impossible for governments to grow their way back to solvency.”  All they can do is shuffle debt around, ostensibly for the benefit of powerful, politically connected  constituencies.

The U.S. Government and Federal Reserve fire-hosed trillions of dollars in liquidity transfers (TARP, emergency lending, stimulus programs, bailouts) to major global financial  institutions and politically-connected constituency groups during the great financial crisis (2007-2010).

In addition, the Federal Reserve purchased European debt – of all things.  They have provided trillions of dollars in credit extensions to many of the very domestic and foreign banks that triggered the banking crisis in the Fall of 2008.

One of the more ‘visible’ bailouts came courtesy of the  U.S. Government  on behalf of Goldman Sachs. Goldman had purchased credit default swaps (CDS) from AIG, but diid not perform due diligence to verify that AIG had adequate reserves to cover a potentially massive CDS payout.

They did not, and when the default wave tsunami hit, AIG turned their pockets inside out (no money).  The U.S. Government (that is to say, ‘taxpayers’) then stepped in to ‘cover’ the monumental Goldman bet that went sour:

“…according to the terms of the bailout deal struck when AIG was taken over by the state in September 2008,Goldman was paid 100 cents on the dollar on an additional $12.9 billion it was owed by AIG”

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/wall-streets-bailout-hustle-20100217#ixzz21kDwPRyY

And on to the Federal Reserve ‘rescue’ initiatives…

Federal Reserve – credit extensions – allowing two major investment banks(Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley) to quickly receive commercial bank charters,allowing them to qualify for near-zero interest rate loans, with which to purchase Treasuries – and earn ‘free money.’  Lots of it.

Federal Reserve – Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF) allowing major banks to pledge sub-investment grade collateral to qualify for additional near-zero interest rate loans – with which to purchase Treasuries and earn more‘free money.’

Federal Reserve – Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program (TLGP) for the big money center banks… ‘worth trillions.’

Federal Reserve – Public Private Investment Program (PPIP) – allowing banks to ‘off-load’ worthless assets onto the Fed balance sheet.

Government-based ‘Central Planning’ did nothing to restore long-term economic viability for America and financial security for U.S. citizens and their families.

It is time now for a new initiative.

The Leviticus 25 Plan provides the comprehensive mechanism for American families to be granted the same direct access to liquidity that the Federal Reserve so generously provided to Wall Street’s financial sector during 2007-2010.

The Leviticus 25 Plan will pay for itself over a 10-15 year period through ‘recapture provisions’ and economic growth.  And the ‘ripple out’ effect will yield efficient benefits for government tax revenues, small business revenues, the labor market,housing… and even banks – in the long run.

No other plan will deliver such benefits and set America back on course for financial stability and economic liberty for American families.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America                             $75,000 per U.S. citizen  –   Leviticus 25 Plan 2018 (3022 downloads)

The system is ’tilted’ – with the Fed’s ongoing free money flow access by major banks.

Banks get ‘free money’… and U.S. citizens get to remain their bond servants with heavy debt burdens and debt service obligations.  The U.S. economy remains stagnant. Government debt continues to pile higher. Economic liberty and dynamic free market initiatives remain on the sidelines.

It is now time to ‘level’ that playing field.

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More Free Money For Banks: St Louis Fed Discloses ‘A Carry Trade In Liquidity’

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk,

ZeroHedge, Oct 16, 2018 – Excerpts:

Not only do banks earn free money on excess reserves, they can borrow money and make guaranteed free money on that.

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis discusses the Carry Trade in Liquidity.

The IOER [interest on excess reserves] has been the effective ceiling of other short-term interest rates. The figure above compares the IOER with overnight rates on deposits and repos.

As we can see, the IOER has mostly remained above these two rates, implying that (at least some) banks have been able to borrow funds overnight, deposit them at the Fed and earn a spread, in essence engaging in carry trade in liquidity markets.

Interest Rate on Excess Reserves

How Much Free Money?

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The Leviticus 25 Plan provides the same liquidity access for U.S. citizens that the Fed provided, during the financial crisis, and continues to provide to major U.S. and foreign banks.

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 2018 (3000 downloads)

Populist solutions for serious, mainstream issues of an era are known to take root and blossom when public policies have shifted dramatically in favor of government control over people’s lives, and unabashedly favor wealthy, politically-connected individuals and groups.

Populist fervor thrives when public policies have so distorted the economic and social landscapes that trust in government is lost.

William A. Galston (WSJ – Dec 16, 2014) offered this summarization of the hallmarks of grassroots populist wave:
Populist movements flourish when established leaders and parties fail to solve their countries’ most urgent problems. Throughout the market democracies, one problem dominates all others: the economic squeeze on working- and middle-class families. Neither the center-left nor the center-right has responded in ways that make sense to rank-and-file citizens. So they are looking elsewhere.

Populism offers many satisfactions. Its narrative is clear and easy to understand. It identifies villains—corrupt officials, unresponsive bureaucracies, arrogant elites, large corporations, giant banks…

It legitimizes outrage, the expression of which is one of the greatest human pleasures. It flatters the people, whose virtue and common sense, it claims, could set the country right if only rich and powerful forces didn’t stand in their way. “The humblest citizen in all the land,” declaimed William Jennings Bryan more than a century ago, “when clad in the armor of a righteous cause, is stronger than all the whole hosts of error that they”—the elites—“can bring.”

Populism is the politics of nostalgia. It appeals to a better time in the past….
The ills against which populists inveigh are rarely illusory. On the contrary: Populism typically gives voice to genuine grievances, and in so doing gains credibility and energy.

At the heart of the American dream is the promise of opportunity. But in the ABC/Washington Post survey conducted days before the 2014 midterm elections, 71% of Americans said the U.S. economic system generally favors the wealthy. Only 24% disagreed. The favors-the-wealthy supermajority included 54% of Republicans, 59% of conservatives, 64% of college graduates—and even 57% of those making more than $100,000 per year.
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Government leaders in America today have failed to properly diagnose and respond to our nation’s most urgent problems,” both social and economic. The same can be said for the governments of many other nations around the world.

Governments have not “responded in ways that make sense to rank-and-file citizens.”

The Leviticus 25 Plan appeals to “virtue and common sense….its narrative is clear and easy to understand. It identifies villains – corrupt officials, unresponsive bureaucracies, arrogant elites, large corporations, giant banks…”

The Leviticus 25 Plan levels the playing field.  It grants individual citizens the same access to liquidity that was awarded to the likes of Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, UBS, Bank of America, State Street, Barclays, GE Capital, Deutsche Bank, and many, many others during the financial crisis years of 2007-2010..

The Leviticus 25 Plan provides for massive debt relief and economic liberty at the family level. It unleashes the power of free-market dynamics and counters price and supply distortions that have emerged with government control over markets.

It generates massive new waves of government tax revenues – federal, state, and local – without raising taxes.

The Leviticus 25 Plan generates a trillion dollar surplus over each of the first five years – and pays for itself entirely over a 10-15 year period.

This is the only plan, anywhere, that restores order and cleans things up.

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 2018 (2990 downloads)

November 2018 quote:  “Society will develop a new kind of servitude which covers the surface of society with a network of complicated rules, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate. It does not tyrannise, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.”  ― Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) – author, Democracy in America

“PROCLAIM LIBERTY THROUGHOUT ALL THE LAND

 UNTO ALL THE INHABITANTS THEREOF”

 Leviticus 25:10

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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, entrenched class structures.

America now has a dynamic economic acceleration plan that is modeled upon these divine concepts – an economic acceleration plan that largely frees Americans from massive debt burdens, restores economic liberty, and sets America back on course for balanced budgets and long-term financial stability.

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The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$75,000 per U.S. citizen  –  Leviticus 25 Plan 2018 (2942 downloads)

The Leviticus 25 Plan is a predominate economic acceleration plan with the power to unleash full-scale economic vitality and the supremacy of free market dynamics – by granting U.S. citizens the same direct access to liquidity that was provided to major global financial institutions during the great financial crisis.

The Leviticus 25 Plan grants each U.S. citizen wishing to participate $50,000 in a Family Account (FA) and $25,000 in a Medical Savings Account (MSA). The terms of access are further subject to credit history, job history, credit-influencing events.

Eligible participants agree to give up their tax refunds for a period of five years. They also agree to give up all means-tested welfare, income security benefits, unemployment insurance benefits, workman’s comp benefits and other specified social payments for a period of five years.

The Leviticus 25 Plan restores financial health to American families, re-incentivizes work and industriousness, generates massive tax revenue growth at all levels of government – federal, state, local.

It pays for itself over a period of 15 years.  It generates $1.057 trillion government budget surpluses annually, each of the initial five years following activation.

And it restores economic freedom for all Americans.

The U.S. Health Care Freedom Plan is an integral part of The Leviticus 25 Plan.  It puts U.S. citizens back in control of allocating resources for their month-to-month primary health care needs.  It eliminates burdensome layers of bureaucracy and billions of dollars in administrative red tape and market-dulling inefficiencies.

Every U.S. citizen wishing to participate will receive $25,000 in their Medical Savings Account (MSA) – to be used exclusively for approved medical expenditures (similar to current HSA requirements).

Citizens enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid, VA, TRICARE, and FEHB programs would all have a $5,000 deductible annually for five years.  Others enrolled in private insurance plans would have the opportunity to select high-deductible options, with significantly lower premium benefits.

The U.S. Health Care Freedom Plan is also a ‘stand-alone’ health care plan – with the power to eliminate vast quantities of wasteful spending.  It restores the natural efficiencies of a ‘citizen-centered’ health care system.

The time is now – to restore ‘citizen-centered’ health care in America.

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Recent health care headlines:

Employer-Provided Health Insurance Approaches $20,000 a Year – WSJ

Oct 3, 2018 – The average cost of health coverage offered by employers rose to nearly $20000 for a family plan this year, capping years of increases that …

Behind Your Rising Health-Care Bills: Secret … – Wall Street Journal

Sep 18, 2018 – Source: John Hargraves and Julie Reiff of the Health Care Cost Institute … year since, according to Irving Levin Associates, a research firm that tracks health–care transactions.

Employers Shift Larger Share Of Medical Costs To Workers, As Annual …

Oct 4, 2018 – More companies are making workers pay an annual deductible or increasing the … The Wall Street Journal: Employer-Provided Health Insurance …

HHS Made Nearly $90B in Improper Payments to Medicaid, Medicare

Jun 4, 2018 – HHS paid nearly $90 billion in improper payments to Medicare and Medicaid as … for $14.2 billion and Medicare Part D received $1.2 billion in improper payments. … GAO recommended that OMB should develop guidance and a risk-based … Providers Caught in Medicare Fraud Schemes Topping $200M …

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

_____________________________

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.

___________________________________

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

The Leviticus 25 Plan is the world’s one and only 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 2018 (2916 downloads)

This analysis sums up the global Central Bank financial model dynamics that led the world into the Great Financial Crisis of 2007-2012.

Financial Blogger, Matt Taibbi (TAIBBLOG – May 8, 2012):

1. Let banks inflate massive asset bubbles with the aid of cheap or even free government cash, and tons of leverage;
2. Before it all explodes, carve out gigantic sums for bonuses and compensation for the companies that inflated those bubbles;
3. After it explodes, get the various governments to bail those companies out;
4. Pay for it all by slashing services to what’s left of the middle class.

This is the model we used in America. We had a monster asset bubble based on phony mortgages, which Wall Street was allowed to inflate to spectacular dimensions with minimal reserve capital, huge amounts of leverage, and tons of fraud for good measure. When that bubble exploded, we first rescued the banks who inflated the thing in the first place…

Source: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/austerity-cant-be-a-one-way-street-20120508#ixzz1uZKHj700

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America needs to rebalance the financial system with a powerful new economic acceleration dynamic – one that regenerated economic vitality at ground level.

America needs an economic plan that replaces growing government debts with massive government surpluses, reignites powerful and sustainable economic growth, and restores financial health to main street 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 2018 (2898 downloads)