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Catherine’s interview of John Patrick Shanley
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1. Introduction – 0:00 – Spoke on KPFA’s Guns & Butter radio show, listen to the audio in the blog post; speaking from San Francisco; on 10.27.11, spoke in Mill Valley, on “Investment Strategies for Changing Times”; look for streaming video of that next week
2.Theme – 02:42 — I Am the 100% – I can not relate to the frame of 99 vs 1% — the frame is human vs inhuman, those who would push the red button vs those who would not, those who make money doing something that hurts someone else, vs those who make money from helping others; 99% vs 1% is another round of divide and conquer; if we are going to switch out of the central banking warfare model we need a picture that is inclusive and encourages all of us to shift our households and business and investments towards that new picture – we attract both the 1% and the 99% into a win/win model that builds new wealth. Each one of us who will switch our behavior and our model should be welcome. …
3. Money & Markets – 04:17 — The wild negotiations around Greece and the decision making process and leadership in Greece had the markets attention this week. Commentary in the WSJ today points out that the financial system is much stronger. Equity markets much higher – if you adjust for real inflation they are not – comparison of PM prices against equity indices shows that this is a phantom increase. Banks have much more cash – BUT that is because they are in the government box. They are being required to hold cash positions, invest in government bonds and thus channel capital to financing government. Yes, they have cash, but that cash is being squeezed out of the economy and committed to financing the governmental mechanisms. “We all know what has to be done; what we don’t know is how to get re-elected once we done it.” Jean-Claude Juncker, prime minister of Luxembourg, commenting on the sovereign debt situation. Probably the most interesting story this week is the blow up and bankruptcy of MF Global. Jon Corzine was the Chairman of Goldman Sachs from 1994-1999 before being replaced by Hank Paulson in 1999. That means that Corzine was leading Goldman during the period that Robert Rubin was running Treasury. Corzine was at Goldman for the rape of Russia and the initial engineering of the strong dollar policy, the suppression of the Gold prices and the bubbling of the global mortgage markets including significant mortgage fraud. When he left with a considerable fortune, he became Senator from NJ and then Governor of NJ. We need a model where doing dirty is unprofitable. – integrated. Protect the farmers and protest the food safety rules. Use common law right of offsets to capture back the $4 trillion missing – against debt. Build tax escrows locally to enforce the constitutions. Asking Wall Street reaffirms Wall Street’s power, asking is a dependency model. Real power comes from taking actions that decentralizes ownership and control in a way that builds equity. Shifting the bank money is a good start. Blog post….99% Bulls**T – trying to build a grassroots movement for Constitutional amendments and/or convention – worst thing that could happen. Looking for what will resonate – essentially what will get them the price – organic, trial and error – various debt jubilees will be offered. Creditors looking for politicians who will do their bidding to reengineer governments through the debt. Politicians are squeezed in the middle, so quite an ongoing debt. …
4. Ask Catherine – 18:00 — What about the hacker group Anonymous? I think this is a professional op — CIA etc or private intelligence agencies. It was designed out ahead of the V Movie being launched. The movie was part of the op. My impression is that the hackers who have been most effective stay quiet and invisible. / What are a couple of key characteristics or skills we can nurture to prosper as we live in this dichotomy of controlled economy / culture versus what we do and be for meaning and expression? Keep learning – do more for yourself, practical skills, more well rounded and self sufficient the better. Skills that make you useful. Keep networking – build networks of people with practical skills. / Learn to let go; check out Chautauqua (defined in Wikipedia)
5. Solari Hero – 23:18 — Rene Copeland – Artistic Director of Tennessee Repertory Theater
6. Interview: John Patrick Shanley – 24:26 – Interviewed last week from New York, about his new play Sleeping Demons; part of his trilogy which included the film Doubt with Meryl Streep; the first scene of Sleeping Demons opens with a man trying to persuade a banker not to foreclose on his wife’s home in New York City. The plot moves us through the woes of one foreclosure as it becomes embroiled in the political trials of the local borough president and the spiritual and financial crisis of a store front church run by a preacher who left New Orleans and is still trying to recover from what he saw during Katrina. Shanley weaves a story of redemption inside the intimate emotional and cultural madness of our current situation. STREET LEVEL – the issue that we are all facing is are we going to do something that hurts or helps others – this was not just Wall Street – this was everyone. Everyone was doing this.
7. Movies – 56:36 — Margin Call – New movie , staring Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore, Jeremy Irons and Zachrary Quinto. Quinto’s production company produced the film as an independent – it is in theaters and available at the iTunes store. The film takes place over a 24-hour period at a large investment bank (loosely modeled on Lehman Brothers) and focuses on the financial crisis of 2007–2008.The film follows the actions taken by a group of employees during the financial collapse. Outstanding acting; just like it is on a real trading floor – I have been in several make or break situations like this and they capture the stress and the tension in amazing way. Lehman or Morgan Stanley? Engineers turned investment bankers – being paid a lot more to engineer the paper float than build a bridge or do real things. Divides between the Folks who can see and care about the human impact of what is happening and others who don’t. JUICE IS GONE. This is a machine, not a power base. …
8. Up Next & Closing – 1:01:00 — … Nov 13-Precious Metals Market Report along with Edwin Vieira, author of Pieces of Eight; Foster Gamble on the new film THRIVE; William Tiller from Stanford University on Scientific Support for the Power of Intention. …
By Catherine Austin Fitts
This Thursday evening on The Solari Report (6pm PT/9pm ET) I will be speaking with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright John Patrick Shanley about his new play Sleeping Demons, the third play in his trilogy Church and State, which includes the award-winning Doubt.
The first scene of Sleeping Demons opens with a man trying to persuade a banker not to foreclose on his wife’s home in New York City. The plot moves us through the woes of one foreclosure as it becomes embroiled in the political trials of the local borough president and the spiritual and financial crisis of a store front church run by a preacher who left New Orleans and is still trying to recover from what he saw during Katrina.
Shanley weaves a story of redemption inside the intimate emotional and cultural madness of our current situation.
In Let’s Go to the Movies, we leave Shanley’s streets of New York City and head midtown to the skyscrapers in Margin Call to spend 24 hours with the investment bankers who have engineered the housing bubble as they engineer its burst with the sell off of a major position at the beginning of the 2008 financial crisis.
Like Sleeping Demons, Margin Call is a masterpiece that looks into the heart of darkness of the financial tsunami washing over us and describes the price of both playing ball and not playing ball.
I will start with Money & Markets and Ask Catherine.
If you have comments, thoughts or questions that you would like me to address, please post by Thursday.
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