Bank of America – the story behind the story (Source:  Bailout Nation)

June 2005:  Bank of America takes a 9 percent stake in China Construction Bank for #3 billion; China’s market tops out in 2007 and then plummets 72 percent.

January 2006:  Bank of America acquires MBNA for $35 billion.  The world’s largest issuer of credit cards [MBNA] is taken over right before the world’s largest credit crunch occurs and (whoops) just before the worst postwar recession begins.

August 2007:  Bank of America invests $2 billion in Countrywide Financial, the nation’s biggest mortgage lender and loan servicer.  It is a jumbo loser, dropping 57 percent in a few month’s time

January 2008:  Bank of America doubles down and announces a $4.1 billion acquisition of Countrywide.  The timing is flawless, and the purchase is announced as the worst housing collapse in modern history is accelerating.

September 2008:  Bank of America pays $50 billion for Merrill Lynch, including Merrill’s portfolio of toxic assets (along with some previously unannounced trading desk errors).

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Note – following the above cited BofA follies, the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve stepped up to the plate and kindly dished out billions of dollars (at U.S. citizen taxpayer expense) to Bank of America to keep the big dog afloat.

To recap (Source: Bloomberg Nov 28, 2011 ):                                                                Morgan Stanley was the #1 recipient of Fed secret loans at $107 billion (peak loan amount – 9/29/2008).                                                                                                

Citigroup was the #2 recipient of the Fed’s secret lifelines $99.5 billion (peak loan amount – 1/20/2009).                                                                                                  

Bank of America was the #3 recipient with $91.4 billion (peak loan amount –  2/26/2009).

Bloomberg Nov 28, 2011:  “Bank of America Corp., which got two rounds of U.S. Treasury Department capital injections totaling $45 billion to stay afloat during the credit crisis, borrowed twice that amount in secret from the Federal Reserve. On Feb. 26, 2009, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank held $78 billion of loans from the Fed’s Term Auction Facility, $8.65 billion from the Primary Dealer Credit Facility, $4.75 billion from the Term Securities Lending Facility. The financing helped bolster the largest U.S. bank by assets as investors worried its 2008 acquisitions of Merrill Lynch & Co. and Countrywide Financial Corp. might lead to nationalization.”

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A final question: Is there anyone who still believes that it is OK for major Wall Street banking and financial services institutions to receive massive liquidity injections (at taxpayer expense) when their financial viability evaporates … due to their own failed risk management strategies and reckless, yield-driven investment decision-making….

But it is not OK for U.S. citizens to be accorded the same access to direct liquidity extensions?

It is time now to level the playing field… and activate a Federal Reserve / U.S. Treasury pipeline via a U.S. Citizens Credit Facility.

The Leviticus 25 Plan will generate $37.303 billion federal budget surpluses (2027-2031) and pay for itself entirely over the succeeding 10-15 years.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$95,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2027 (54362 downloads )

Citigroup – Following the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1998, Citigroup dove headlong into the derivatives market.  “By 2007 Citi was the largest issuer of CDOs [Credit Default Obligations] … $49 billion worth when the world’s total production was $442 billion.” (Source: Bailout Nation)

Citi later took advantage Structured Investment Vehicles (SIVs) to move high-risk investments off their balance sheets – into “Enron-like side pockets.”

When the housing market began staggering badly in 2007 under the weight of increasing loan delinquencies and foreclosures, “Citigroup’s SIVs were festooned with $87 billion of toxic assets, mortgage-related CDOs, and other long-term paper…. ”

Short-term financing dried up, and the SIVs worked their way back “in-house.”  And “by December 2007, Citi assumed $58 billion of debt to ‘rescue’ $49 billion in Assets.” (Bailout Nation)

The Federal Reserve then cranked open the “Secret Loan” fire hose to flood Citi (and scores of others) with massive liquidity injections (or, in the common parlance, ‘free money’).

Citigroup – #2 recipient of Fed Secret Loans (2008-10)                                                 Bloomberg – Nov 28, 2011

“Citigroup Inc., the third-largest U.S. bank by assets, received a $45 billion capital injection in 2008 from the U.S. Treasury. The New York-based lender got a bigger bailout from the Federal Reserve: $99.5 billion of emergency loans, about the cost of paying, clothing, housing, arming and transporting the U.S. Army for fiscal 2011. On Jan. 20, 2009, as the bank’s shares fell to $2.80, down almost 90 percent in a year, its Fed loans included $34.1 billion from the Term Securities Lending Facility, $25.1 billion from the Commercial Paper Funding Facility, $25 billion from the Term Auction Facility, $14 billion from the Primary Dealer Credit Facility and $1 billion from single-tranche open market operations.”

Citigroup peak loan amount (1/20/2009): $99.5 billion      

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U.S. citizens deserve nothing less than the same direct access to credit extensions that was provided to Morgan Stanley, Citi, and the dozens of other financial enterprises whose high risk investment profiles led to financial calamity and rescue action by the Federal Reserve.

It is time now for the Fed to extend credit to American families via a “U.S. Citizens Credit Facility.”

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

$95,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2027 (54359 downloads )

A look back…

As the banking crisis intensified in the Fall of 2008, with major banking institutions assuming, or on the verge of assuming, the classical ‘snorkel’ position (aka ‘underwater’ status), the Federal Reserve ran quickly to the rescue with secret liquidity lifelines” (Bloomberg 8-22-11).

The Fed substantially eased some important collateral rules for banks, “meaning that banks that could once borrow only against sound collateral, like Treasury bills or AAA-rated corporate bonds, could now borrow against pretty much anything – including some of the mortgage-backed sewage that got us into this mess in the first place….  ‘All of a sudden, banks were allowed to post absolute [expletive deleted] to the Fed’s balance sheet,’ [according to] the manager of the prominent hedge fund.” (Source: Bailout Hustle, Matt Taibbi).

The Federal Reserve ‘created’ various “facilities” to fire-hose liquidity out to major domestic and foreign banks, insurers, and brokerage firms, to include: Primary Dealers’ Credit Facility, Term Securities Lending Facility, Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program, Commercial Paper Funding,Term Auction Facility, Public Private Investment Program

And, here we go – from the top (Bloomberg  Nov 28, 2011) :

“Morgan Stanley, facing a crisis of confidence after the fall of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., got a $9 billion injection from Japanese bank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and agreed to take a $10 billion bailout from the U.S. Treasury to shore up capital. As hedge-fund customers pulled funds out of the New York-based firm, it plugged the hole with $107.3 billion of secret loans from the Federal Reserve’s Primary Dealer Credit Facility and Term Securities Lending Facility, set up earlier in the year to supply brokerage firms with emergency financing.”

Peak amount of Debt on 9/29/2008:  $107B
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The Leviticus 25 Plan does not seek to ‘interrupt’ or reverse any of the special relationships that have developed in the Fed’s financial sphere.  It only seeks to level the playing field by providing U.S. citizens the same access to direct liquidity flows that the big banks enjoyed ‘in their time of need.’

The Leviticus 25 Plan proposes one additional upgrade to the Fed’s liquidity lines: A U.S. Citizens Credit Facility.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$95,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2027 (54252 downloads )

“It’s Main Street’s Turn To Restore The American Dream” – US Treasury Secretary Warns Wall Street

ZeroHedge, Apr 09, 2025 | Via American Greatness, – Excerpts:

U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent laid out President Trump’s financial policy priorities for the American Bankers Association (ABA) on Wednesday, saying that Main Street America will now take priority.

Bessent speaking at the ABA’s Washington Summit, said, “For too long, financial policy has served large financial institutions at the expense of smaller ones— no more.”

The Treasury Secretary stated that, “It’s Main Street’s turn to hire workers, it’s Main Street’s turn to drive investment and it’s Main Street’s turn to restore the American dream.”

Bessent announced the Trump administration’s shift to focusing on helping Main Street businesses and consumers thrive by giving all institutions a chance to succeed, adding, “For the last four decades, basically since I began my career in Wall Street, Wall Street has grown wealthier than ever before, and it can continue to grow and do well.”

Addressing fears of a looming recession, Bessent defended Trump’s agenda of tax cuts, deregulation and trade rebalancing and noting that, 

“We want to de-leverage the government sector, re-leverage the private sector …. we can’t do it all at once, or that will cause a recession.”

Bessent added, 

“What will keep us from having a recession is making sure that the tax bill doesn’t expire, adding back 100% depreciation and then adding some of President Trump’s agenda — no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime.”

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There is one more step that America needs to take to “re-leverage” the debt-logged private sector and activate the powerful reset that millions of American families and small businesses need – Main Street America needs liquidity.

The Leviticus 25 Plan provides that in full measure with its massive, public and private sector debt elimination dynamic.

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

$95,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2027 (54252 downloads )

The Leviticus 25 Plan puts hard-working, tax-paying U.S. citizens front and center in a dynamic reset plan for the U.S. economy.

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QTR’s Fringe Finance, May 25, 2026 – Excerpt:

Republicans want less spending, Democrats want higher taxes…but both parties want the Fed to keep printing dollars.

Since the early 2000s, and especially after 2008 and the COVID era, America has effectively entered a permanent regime of monetary intervention. Quantitative easing, near-zero interest rates, endless debt monetization, emergency lending facilities, and the mainstream acceptance of Modern Monetary Theory-adjacent thinking have fundamentally altered the structure of markets beyond recognition.

When Ben Bernanke first rolled out quantitative easing during the 2008 financial crisis, Americans were repeatedly assured it was a temporary emergency measure. Bernanke described the programs as targeted interventions designed to stabilize markets and support recovery, not permanently redefine the financial system.

QE1 was supposed to calm panic. Then came QE2. Then Operation Twist. Then QE3 became effectively open-ended, with the Fed purchasing tens of billions in bonds every month indefinitely. What began as a supposedly temporary crisis tool metastasized into a permanent feature of the modern economy. And every subsequent crisis only justified bigger interventions: larger balance sheets, lower rates, more liquidity, more market dependence on central bank support.

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The Leviticus 25 Plan will achieve extraordinary gains within the U.S. economy that all of Fed’s “Quantitative easing, near-zero interest rates, endless debt monetization, emergency lending facilities” over the past two decades have failed entirely to produce.

The Leviticus 25 Plan will retarget Fed / U.S. Treasury liquidity extensions through a Citizens Credit Facility directly to qualifying U.S. citizens who wish to participate – to generate four unprecedented gains:

1. The Plan will generate average annual budget surpluses of $37.303 billion vs current CBO-projected average annual deficits of $1.982 trillion – over each of the first five years of activation (2027-2031);
2. Massive debt elimination and restored financial security for millions of hard-working, tax-paying American families;
3. Robust, long-term economic growth – not financed by debt;
4. Fundamental gains in U.S. and global credit market stability, U.S. Dollar strength and integrity.

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

$95,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2027 (53959 downloads )

WSJ: The Stock Market Has Never Been So Good When People Have Felt So Bad

Excerpt:

Americans are in a decidedly bad mood. The stock market is decidedly not.

This isn’t how it usually works. Instead, high stock prices have historically been associated with happy consumers, and vice versa. Here’s a look at what’s going on.

Just How Bad is Sentiment?

American attitudes just hit a milestone of sorts. On Friday, the University of Michigan reported that its index of consumer sentiment fell to the lowest level ever recorded in 70-odd years of surveys.

Sentiment was already low at the start of this year, but it fell sharply after the Iran war began at the end of February and sent gas prices sharply higher.

Until this year, the previous lowest level was in June 2022, when inflation was running at the highest level in decades. Friday’s sentiment reading was 10% below even that number. 

“Prices remain extremely high, labor markets have unambiguously weakened in the last four years, and now we’re in the middle of a war,” said Joanne Hsu, director of consumer surveys for the University of Michigan. “I don’t think the fact that we’re lower than June 2022 should come as a surprise to anyone.”

Full article: https://www.wsj.com/economy/consumers/stock-market-consumer-sentiment-af088e87

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The vast majority of U.S. households fall beneath 90th percentile of the income and wealth distribution. This massive demographic, the “bottom 90%, captures a wide spectrum of Americans, from working-class individuals to middle-class professionals.

America’s record low consumer sentiment is primarily focused within this wide-ranging demographic, while at the same time, Wall Street has been feasting on record gains.

Democrat socialists in America are pushing hard for massive wealth redistribution, setting up ever greater levels of gloom and the eventual destruction of the U.S. economic system.

Main Street America Republicans have a plan that will eliminate massive amounts of debt, reignite economic growth and restore financial security for the millions of families counted among America’s “bottom 90%.”

This plan levels out the America’s economic playing field by granting hard-working, tax-paying U.S. citizens the same direct access to liquidity extensions that were so generously provided by the Federal Reserve (2008-2010 and 2021-2022) to the likes of: Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, State Street, AIG, Merrill Lynch, Wells Fargo… Barclays, UBS AG, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, BNP Paribas, Dexia, and numerous others.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$95,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2027 (53622 downloads )

It is time for America’s brilliant economic masterminds to start thinking ‘outside the box’…

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Main Street / Wall Street glaring disconnect

The Market Ear
Saturday, May 16, 2026
The S&P 500 is at an all-time high while Consumer Sentiment is at an all-time low.
We’ve never seen a gap this wide between Wall Street and Main Street.

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Federal debt held by the public – onward and upward
The U.S. Federal debt held by the public currently exceeds ($31) trillion. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) classifies this trajectory as unsustainable, projecting it will grow twice as fast as the economy and potentially reach (200\%) of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) within the next few decades.

The GAO highlights several core facts and drivers regarding the debt:Drivers of Debt: The debt is rising because the federal government continues to spend more than it collects in revenue. The annual budget deficit was ($1.8) trillion in fiscal year 2024, marking five consecutive years of trillion-dollar deficits.Surging Interest Costs: Interest payments on the debt have grown significantly, nearly doubling over the last three years to about ($1.0) trillion.

America’s billowing debt curve is jeopardizing the entire monetary system and driving the U.S. economy into an unavoidable collision course with destiny.

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There is one dynamic outside-the-box plan with the raw power to positively revitalize Main Street America’s economic health, reign in America’s federal debt growth, and generate $37.303 billion annual budget surpluses during the first five years of activation (2027-2031).

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

$95,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2027 (53496 downloads )

“It is true that the virtues which are less esteemed and practiced now – independence, self-reliance, and the willingness to bear risks, the readiness to back one’s own conviction against a majority, and the willingness to voluntary cooperation with one’s neighbors – are essentially those on which the of an individualist society rests. Collectivism has nothing to put in their place, and in so far as it already has destroyed then it has left a void filled by nothing but the demand for obedience and the compulsion of the individual to what is collectively decided to be good.”   – Friedrich Hayek, The Road to Serfdom

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The Leviticus 25 Plan re-establishes family and societal virtues which have been eroded through unending government encroachment and socialist-driven central planning across America – and elsewhere around the world.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – grants direct liquidity access to American families – the very same access to liquidity which was provided to the likes of Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Bank of America Corp, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Wells Fargo, Deutsche Bank, UBS AG, Royal Bank of Scotland, Plc, State Street, Barclays, BNP Paribas, and dozens of others.

The two primary goals of The Plan: 1) Resolving America’s fiscal crisis; 2) Eliminating Household Debt and restoring financial health and economic liberty for millions of American families.

• Imagine the U.S. Department of the Treasury running $37.303 billion budget surpluses 2027-2031 – instead of the CBO-projected $2 trillion annual deficits.

• Imagine a family of four paying off their mortgage, car loans, credit card debt – and having additional Medical Savings Account (MSA) liquidity for direct allocation toward primary care medical expenses and health care insurance premiums.

The financial security benefits of all qualifying American families would be incalculable:

• Financial stress relief – massive private debt elimination / extraordinary reductions in monthly debt service obligations, affordability crisis resolved;
• Quality of life improvements – general living conditions, nutrition security;
• Financial self-reliance at family level – freedom from dependence on social welfare and charity programs;
• Working mothers desiring to spend more time with their children would be able scale back outside employment hours or become full-time stay-at-home mothers; reduced dependence on daycare, reduced time-management stress;
• Re-establishment of normal, positive incentives for work, enterprise, innovation, achievements;
• Improved credit status for working Americans;
• Improved access to primary health care;
• Improved employment opportunities;
• Significant potential for crime reduction.

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There is no government-directed economic strategy that can provide so much as a fraction of these types of benefits, direct to America’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

$95,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2027 (52955 downloads )

Glenn Hubbard, dean of the Columbia Business School and former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during the George W. Bush presidency,. recently urged that financial crisis interventions should not be limited to banks.

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*Bailouts Shouldn’t Be Only for Banks – WSJ

Wall Street Journal, 9-14-18 – Excerpts:

“To be sure, recapitalizing financial institutions was an important element of the policy response. The depletion of capital buffers before the crisis reduced loan supply and exacerbated fire sales of distressed assets once the market collapsed. Cash infusions by the Treasury under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, in concert with the Fed’s bold lender-of-last-resort interventions, blunted the impact of the crisis.

That said, the perceived lack of attention to “Main Street” fed public suspicion of the bailouts. The government appeared to be more interested in addressing the decline in bank capital than the decline in home values. Millions of homeowners who were current in their mortgage payments were unable to refinance at lower interest rates because they were underwater. Yet many of these mortgages were already guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , meaning taxpayers held the credit risk. Banks and investors holding the mortgages would never receive less than par.

The government should have directed a mass refinancing of mortgages for primary homes in which the borrower was current in payments. This would have led to an increase in disposable income and in home prices totaling more than $100 billion, according to a proposal Christopher Mayer and I offered at the time. The Treasury instead offered a tepid version of this with the Home Affordable Modification Program and the Home Affordable Refinance Program. These initiatives lacked the boldness of the bank bailouts, and Americans noticed…”

Hubbard concluded, “Ten years on, the U.S. still lacks a detailed plan for postcrisis intervention…”

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What America really needs, to restore financial health to working families and ‘power up’ economic vitality throughout Main Street America – is a detailed plan for ‘pre-crisis’ intervention.

America needs a comprehensive economic plan that will insulate Main Street America’s hard-working, tax-paying U.S. citizens from the next financial crisis, shrink government’s massive footprint in controlling the lives of free Americans, and generate massive new tax revenue flows with a powerful, sustainable reduction in government deficits.

America’s new economic plan is currently loaded up and ready to launch…

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$95,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2027 (52432 downloads )

Washington-based Democrats and Republicans have a long-standing record of growing government, creating greater dependence on government among the citizenry, dreaming up new spending programs riddled with inefficiencies, waste and outright fraud. 

Washington political policy initiatives over the past two decades have impoverished millions of Americans, created record Household Debt burdens, stymied economic growth, and generated soaring, nightmarish federal budget deficits, massive enough to now constitute a national security issue.

Now imagine a future America where millions of U.S. citizens were to be granted equal access to direct liquidity extensions to those which were so generously provided to major Wall Street financial institutions during the great financial crisis (2007-2010) and the Covid economic crisis (2020-2022), including: Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Bank of America, State Street Corp, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan Chase, Wachovia, Lehman Brothers, Wells Fargo, Bear Stearns) and major foreign financial institutions (Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS AG, Deutsche Bank AG, Barclays, Credit Suisse. Dexia, BNP Paribas).

Imagine a future America where millions of hard-working, tax-paying U.S. citizens have eliminated massive sums of mortgage debt, paid off auto loans and installment debt, paid off student loans (or were fully reimbursed for previously paid off student loans), and are able to improve their current quality of life and save considerable sums of money toward future plans and dreams. 

Imagine a future America where millions of ‘below-the-poverty-line’ families did not need ongoing government support to cover life’s basic necessities (food, housing, and primary health care expenditures). 

Imagine a future where families did not need two incomes, or additional government assistance to barely cover family-specific expenses like child-care, private education, and federal, state, and local tax burdens.

And now visualize a future America where government spending has dropped precipitously, tax revenues have risen dramatically (without raising taxes), federal (and state) budget surpluses have become an ongoing reality. 

America’s economy – surging into a new, long-term, revitalized, free market growth cycle.

And citizen-centered healthcare largely replacing the current big government / big corporation market-dominating partnerships.

That future is here.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – loaded up and ready to launch.

…………………..

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

$95,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2027 (52104 downloads )