The Council on Foreign Relations, founded in 1921, is a non-profit American organization, populated with senior government figures and politicians, bankers, lawyers, intelligence officers, and other from the elite class.  With offices in New York and Washington, D.C., it is viewed as the nation’s “most influential foreign-policy think tank.”

They were certainly headed in the right direction with this 2014 proposition…

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Seeking Alpha / Sep 2, 2014  5:55 AM ET – Excerpts

When an article appears in Foreign Affairs, the mouthpiece of the policy-setting Council on Foreign Relations, recommending that the Federal Reserve do a money drop directly on the 99%, you know the central bank must be down to its last bullet.

The September/October issue of Foreign Affairs features an article by Mark Blyth and Eric Lonergan titled “Print Less But Transfer More: Why Central Banks Should Give Money Directly To The People.” It’s the sort of thing normally heard only from money reformers and Social Credit enthusiasts far from the mainstream. What’s going on?

The Fed, it seems, has finally run out of other ammo. It has to taper its quantitative easing program, which is eating up the Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities needed as collateral for the repo market that is the engine of the bankers’ shell game. The Fed’s Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP) has also done serious collateral damage. The banks that get the money just put it in interest-bearing Federal Reserve accounts or buy foreign debt or speculate with it; and the profits go back to the 1%, who park it offshore to avoid taxes. Worse, any increase in the money supply from increased borrowing increases the overall debt burden and compounding finance costs, which are already a major constraint on economic growth.

Meanwhile, the economy continues to teeter on the edge of collapse….

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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is generally on the right track. Their proposal, however does nothing to effect massive debt elimination, re-balance government budget deficits, or restore economic liberty in America. It does nothing to free people from the heavy hand of government, controlling and restricting them in the management of their daily affairs.

The Leviticus 25 Plan does restore economic liberty in America, and it frees people from oppressive government programs that actually keep them in poverty and servitude.

The Leviticus 25 Plan would effect wide-scale debt elimination at the family level, thereby helping to insulate millions of Americans from potentially devastating effects of another severe economic contraction.

The Plan would eliminate massive government restrictions and control over healthcare, and replace it with individual control  and consumer choice in healthcare access.

The Leviticus 25 Plan would balance the federal budget – immediately in Year One.

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 2022 (3852 downloads)

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

It is time for a new qualitatively new economic model: The Leviticus 25 Plan

WSJ Letters: Who You Gonna Believe on Monetary Policy?

Judy Shelton on the Fed, inflation and fiscal policy.

June 24, 2021

Who’s in charge of inflation these days? Or perhaps better stated: Who’s to blame? When Congress engages in deficit spending, it must issue debt to cover the difference between federal budget revenues and expenditures. When the Federal Reserve purchases that Treasury debt, it creates new money to pay for it—and the Fed created trillions in new money during Covid by crediting depository accounts of banks.

Now that Covid seems to be receding as an economic threat, what happens to all that potential purchasing power? Who is overseeing monetary policy to ensure that inflation doesn’t undermine economic recovery? Joseph C. Sternberg poses the question: “Is There a Central Banker in the House?” (Political Economics, June 18) and wonders why, with inflation exceeding the Fed’s predictions, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell plays down the risk in his public comments. Delivering price stability is part of the U.S. central bank’s mandate from Congress, after all, yet the Fed remains in “accommodative” monetary mode.

It’s time to confront both the fiscal and monetary aspects of inflation: Government policies that cause prices to rise without expanding productive economic output amount to an expropriation of wealth—one that hurts the poor the most.

The latest “forward guidance” from Mr. Powell may assuage the fears of market investors who don’t want to see any reduction in the Fed’s monthly bond purchases. But it’s a different story for those struggling to pay rising bills—for groceries, gas, furniture and rent. “Who you gonna believe,” goes the famous line from the Marx Brothers’ “Duck Soup,” “me or your own eyes?”

Judy Shelton

Fredericksburg, Va.

Ms. Shelton, a senior fellow at the Independent Institute, was nominated to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in 2020.

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The Leviticus 25 Plan is a perfect counter-plan to “expand productive economic output” without expropriating wealth.

It will revitalize productivity and economic growth, restore financial health to millions of American families, stabilize the U.S. Dollar for long-term strength and viability, generate $383 billion federal budget surpluses and price stability in the U.S. economic system.

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 2022 (3832 downloads)

Global Central Banks are all ‘mushrooming’ their balance sheets up to unheard of levels to try to keep their respective economies from sinking deeper into the global ‘debt bog.’

And they are losing the battle. Global Debt is exploding, and economies are stagnating.

Here in the U.S., the Federal government is on a colossal spending spree, adding hundreds of billions of dollars to already-bursting entitlement programs (rent relief benefits, 25% food stamp enhancement, covering for student loans in default, expanding medicaid, broadening eligibility for Medicare benefits, billions of dollars for ‘free’ Covid immunizations), and things like….

The White House Budget (newly released details):

Your Tax Dollars At Work

Aug 5, 2021:  A few quotes about taxpayer money spent on useless climate studies from a fascinating site called Open The Book

Quote The Third—White House Pluted Bloatocrats

Today, on July 1st, the Biden administration released the annual Report to Congress on White House Office Personnel. President Biden hired czars, expensive “fellows,” “assistants,” and spent on a much larger First Lady (FLOTUS) staff.

The payroll report included the name, status, salary and position title of all 567 White House employees costing taxpayers $49.6 million. (Search Biden’s White House payroll and Trump’s four years posted at OpenTheBooks.com.)

Since January, the Biden administration has quickly staffed up. Here are some key findings from our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com:

• There are 190 more employees on White House staff under Biden than under Trump (377) and 80 more than under Obama (487) at this point in their respective presidencies.

• $9.6 million increase in payroll spending vs. the Trump FY2017 payroll. In 2017, the Trump White House spent $40 million for 377 employees, while the Biden payroll amounts to $49.6 million for 567 employees. All spending amounts are inflation adjusted.

• Hires include 320 female staffers ($28.9 million salaries) vs. 240 male staffers ($20.8 million salaries). In terms of top staffers — Special Assistants — there are 52 female ($6.3 million salaries) vs. 10 males ($1.2 million).

• Currently, there are 12 staffers dedicated – at least in part – to Dr. Jill Biden vs. five staffers who served Melania Trump in her first year (FY2017).

• Counts of the “Assistants to the President” – the most trusted advisors to the president – are the same (22) in for the Biden administration and the Trump and Obama administrations. This year, these advisors make $180,000. 

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Meanwhile, over at the Fed…

The Federal Reserve Holds More Treasury Notes and Bonds than Ever Before

Peter G. Peterson Foundation –  July 28, 2021: https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2021/07/the-federal-reserve-holds-more-treasury-notes-and-bonds-than-ever-before

The U.S. Federal Reserve has significantly ramped up its holdings of Treasury securities as part of a broader effort to counteract the economic impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Currently, the Federal Reserve holds more Treasury notes and bonds than ever before.

As of July 14, 2021, the Federal Reserve has a portfolio totaling $8.3 trillion in assets, an increase of about $3.6 trillion since March 18, 2020. Longer-term Treasury notes and bonds (excluding inflation-indexed securities) comprise nearly two-thirds of that expansion, with holdings of those two types of securities doubling from $2.2 trillion on March 18, 2020, to $4.5 trillion on July 14, 2021.

By comparison, the Federal Reserve only increased its holdings of Treasury notes and bonds by $116 billion, or roughly 25 percent, between December 5, 2007 and June 24, 2009 (a period known as the Great Recession). Over that same period, the Federal Reserve expanded its total portfolio from $920 billion in December 2007 to $2.1 trillion in June 2009, a total increase of $1.2 trillion. Much of that increase stemmed from the purchase of mortgage-backed securities and the implementation of new programs to address the economic slowdown.

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There is a dynamic economic acceleration plan, loaded up and ready to go, with the raw power to rescue America and restore economic liberty for U.S. citizens.

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 2022 (3823 downloads)

August 2021 quote:  “We must make the building of a free society once more an intellectual adventure, a deed of courage…. Unless we can make the philosophic foundations of a free society once more a living intellectual issue, and its implementation a task which challenges the ingenuity and imagination of our liveliest minds, the prospects of freedom are indeed dark. But if we can regain that belief in the power of ideas which was the mark of liberalism at its best, the battle is not lost.”  ― Friedrich August von Hayek

Fed ‘lathered the banks up’ with trillions of dollars in free money, credit guarantees, ‘toxic paper’ transfers onto the Fed’s balance sheet. And they are still at it, 13 years later…

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We Have The First Trillion Dollar Reverse Repo

ZeroHedge / Jul 30, 2021 – Excerpts:

It’s official: at exactly 1:15pm today, the NY Fed reported that for the first time ever, 86 counterparties parked over $1 trillion in reserves at the Fed’s Reverse Repo Facility for overnight ‘safekeeping’ and collecting a nice, fat yield of 0.05% – representing hundreds of millions in absolutely free money as these are reserves that the Fed has previously handed out to banks – for free – who then turned around and handed it right back to the Fed where it collected a small but nominal interest.

Of course, it is month-end (if not quarter-end) so we do get some window-dressing but even without it, it’s only  matter of time before we got consistent $1 trillion prints… which then become $2 trillion and so on.

In fact, the question of how big the Fed’s reverse repo facility – which as explained previously is just how the Fed recycles all its massive reserves which it keeps injecting into the financial system (if not economy) at a pace of $120 billion per month – is one we discussed yesterday, and highlighted a calculation by Curvature’s repo guru Scott Skyrm who made the following observations:

During the month of April, RRP volume increased by $49 billion. $296 billion during the month of May, $362 billion in June, and $124 billion in July. If RRP volume continues around the same pace, say $200 billion a month, RRP volume will reach $2 trillion by the end of the year.

Looking at the trendline, it puts RRP volume at $2.5 trillion by the end of the year. However, the RRP volume at the end of the year will be a far larger number due to year-end window dressing, meaning it will likely approach if not surpass $3 trillion on Dec 31, 2021.

A few rhetorical questions from Skyrm to conclude: what will be the impact of $2 trillion going into the RRP each day? How will this affect the markets? Will the Fed need to adjust the RRP rate again?

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The Leviticus 25 Plan, on the other hand, re-targets the Fed’s liquidity flows, so that these types of ‘bank funding infusions’ pass first through the hands of U.S. citizens, via a Citizens Credit Facility, on their way to the banks – in the form of debt elimination (mortgage debt, credit card and household debt, student loans, car loans).

And… then everybody wins – even the Fed, as the Leviticus 25 Plan pays for itself entirely over a period of 10-15 years.

The most powerful economic acceleration plan in the universe.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2022 (3807 downloads)

The Leviticus 25 Plan grants the same access to liquidity extensions that were provided to the likes of Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Citigroup, UBS AG, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, BNP Paribas, Wells Fargo, along with brokerages and insurers like Merrill Lynch and AIG during the financial crisis, to bail them out of their subprime misadventures and restore them to ‘financial health.’

The Leviticus 25 Plan’s primary goal is to, in like manner, restore ‘financial health’ for American families, through a massive debt pay-down and a revitalization of economic liberty and free market dynamics.

The Plan will materially reduce the gross levels of U.S. citizens’ dependence on government subsistence programs, and thereby relieve citizens from the stifling, freedom-robbing effects of government influence and control over their daily affairs.

The Plan will re-energize vigorous, sustainable economic growth, and it will recapture massive amounts of tax refund and social welfare payouts, with a net result at the federal level of $383 billion budget surpluses over each of the first five years following launch.

The $383 billion federal budget surplus is based solely upon The Plan’s recapture benefits. It does not include the new tax revenues that would be generated from the substantial gains in economic growth.

The $383 billion estimate therefore understates the true growth in tax revenues that would accrue.

The power and agility of The Leviticus 25 Plan                                                  Imagine the dynamic growth benefits of an economic plan granting liquidity benefits sufficient to pay off 60% of the mortgage debt in the U.S..

The chart below from Y-Charts shows a current mortgage debt load in the U.S. of $10.167 trillion. A 60% pay-down in that debt would eliminate $6 trillion in mortgage debt.

That $6 trillion would, in effect, pay off 30 million mortgages, each with a balance of $200,000.  Assuming a 3.5% rate of interest and a period of 20 years to maturity, the “total cost of mortgage” on each of the mortgages would amount to $323,000. The net debt reduction benefit from the elimination of 6 million $200,000 mortgages over a 20 year period would be $9.69 trillion.

On a monthly basis, a $200,000 mortgage with a 3.5% rate of interest and 20 years to maturity would require principle and interest payment of approximately $898 in monthly debt service.

Eliminating that $898 monthly debt service payment for 30 million families would result in ~$900 of newfound discretionary liquidity for each family each and every month for the next 20 years. And that would amount to $27 billion in new money for main street America each month for the next 20 years.

This $27 billion in new liquidity flows for main street America would strengthen small business, increase growth in quality jobs, increase tax revenue and payroll tax growth.

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The Leviticus 25 Plan is a powerful economic growth engine like no other plan in existence.  It is a powerful defender of individual freedom and liberty like no other.

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 2022 (3803 downloads)

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

How Central Banks Murdered the Markets – Michael Pento, Pento Portfolio Strategies

June 28^th 2021

The Japanese Government Bond market is nearly $10 trillion in size. It is the 2nd biggest bond market in the world. However, it comes as a shock that this humongous market barely trades any longer.

The government of Japan has systematically supplanted and killed the entire private market for its bonds. Meaning, there are almost no private investors who will touch it any more. The Bank of Japan has bought so much debt that it forced interest rates below zero percent back in 2016; and the result is the free market has subsequently died.

Investors are now refusing to buy JGBs, which are guaranteed to lose principal in nominal terms—and deeply negative results after adjusting for inflation. But at the same time, are not in any hurry to sell their existing holdings because they understand the government will be propping up bond prices.

In this same vein, the 5-year greek yield recently turned negative. This is prima facie evidence that centrals banks have committed murder-one when it comes to markets. Back in February of 2012, at the height of the European debt crisis, the Greek 5-year Bond Yield skyrocketed to 63%. The free-market deemed the nation to be insolvent and that it could never pay back its debt without returning to the Drachma; and then turning it into confetti. Hence, bond yields surged—makes perfect sense, correct? Also in 2012, the Greek National debt to GDP ratio was 160%. Today, that ratio has soared to an all-time record high of 210%; and yet, these bonds display a negative cash flow going out 5 years in duration. Only one thing has changed: central banks deemed it mandatory to step in and replace the entire demand for government debt in order to force interest rates towards zero percent. It is the only way these countries would have any semblance of solvency.

Sadly, the U.S. is headed in this exact same direction as Greece and Japan. And, that is why we can be certain central banks’ monetary tightening cycles can’t last for very long and will end in disaster–as per usual. In fact, Mr. Powell will probably torpedo markets before he is able to end his current historic and massive QE program.

If you want to know how fragile markets really are, just look at the 2.5% selloff during the week surrounding Powell’s June FOMC press conference. The fed hasn’t started to end QE yet. In fact, it hasn’t even set a date to start the taper. All the fed’s money printers have done is admit that they have begun to discuss when to think about a time for the start of tapering $120b per month in asset purchases.

[snip]

The simple truth is, asset values and debt levels have grown to become such enormous monstrosities that they prohibit the tightening of monetary policy much at all before the entire fragile and artificial edifice collapses.

[snip]

Wall Street’s favorite mantra post the Financial Crisis was: either the economy improves enough to boost earnings and the market, or the Fed will keep printing money in order to support stocks and engender a perpetual bull market. Now, as a result of the Fed’s “success” with creating runaway inflation, the exact opposite calculation is now true: either the economy soon slows down significantly enough on its own, which will depress EPS & inflation, or the Fed will tighten monetary policy until inflation is tamed, which will cause asset bubbles to collapse.

Central banks have destroyed price discovery across the board. As these maniac money printers begin to exit their market manipulations, the free market will demand much lower asset prices. The challenge for investors is to actively manage your portfolio in order to maintain—or perhaps even increase–your standard of living, in spite of the carnage that is set to occur on Wall Street and Main Street.

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The key for this financial dilemma for the U.S. is to engage a massive debt elimination plan, which will effectively ‘pay off’ trillions of dollars of ‘ground level’ debt (mortgage, household, consumer, student loans, back rent, credit cards, auto loans), while at the same time reducing government costs (federal, state, local) through income tax refunding, reduced social welfare outlays, reduced Medicare, Medicaid, VA, TRICARE, FEHB claims payments, reduced SSDI, SSI, and reduced interest costs on government debt.

And THEN, the Fed can begin to initiate a gradual ‘price discovery’ process into the credit markets.

It all starts here – with the most powerful, citizen-centered economic acceleration plan in the world:

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2022 (3787 downloads)

Five short years ago, U.S. citizens got ‘hooked’ by the IMF for a $3 billion transfer to help make Valdimir Putin ‘financially healthy.’

U.S. citizens received… ‘zilch’ for their financial needs.

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Ukraine owes Vladimir Putin $3 billion, and Putin is demanding payment.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch maintains that the IMF will be stepping in to provide Ukraine with the requisite funds to make Vladimir Putin ‘whole,’ and to de-stress the situation:

The $3bn Russian bond is included in debt restructuring, but Russia will not participate in debt restructuring and will either be paid $3bn from reserves in December or there will be a political decision to agree on an extension, likely without haircuts. We believe the $3bn bond is likely to be classified as sovereign debt and the IMF would likely be forced to pay it (as a holdout) in order to continue the program in December.   Source:  ZeroHedge 8-28-15  Putin To Get $3 Billion From US Taxpayers After Ukraine Bond Debacle

And so, here we have the U.S. government, funneling U.S. taxpayer dollars through the IMF fire-hose to Russia’s Vladimir Putin … to help make Putin ‘financially healthy.’

It is now time to grant U.S. citizens the same access (to their own money) that was so graciously provided to Vladimir Putin – to allow U.S. citizens to also become ‘financially healthy.’

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2022 (3776 downloads)

The Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department ‘flushed’ billions of dollars (courtesy of tax-paying U.S. citizens) out through their 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 to ‘level the playing field’ – and grant U.S. citizens the same direct liquidity access that was provided to major banks and insurers during 2007 – 2010.

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 2022 (3771 downloads)