OUR NEXT BRAINSTORM: WHAT ACTIONS CAN WE TAKE TO BAIL OUT OF WALL STREET?
The time has come to purge these people from our lives. How do we do it? Since our readers had such great ideas on the bumper stickers brainstorm, we thought we would invite ideas on what to do now that Congress has given Wall Street another trillion dollars and a get out of jail free card.
By Catherine Austin Fitts and Carolyn Betts, Esq.
Here are ten ideas that we wrote up to get us started. Sound off with actions you think we can take!
(1) Vote with your feet and our money in your personal banking affairs. Take all the money you control out of big money-center, banks and financial institutions and put it in local credit unions, thrift institutions, savings banks and state chartered banks.
(2) Take control over your retirement savings. Look for more ways to use your investments to increase self-sufficiency for you, your family and your community. Look into the requirements for self-directed IRAs, which will allow you to invest in such things as precious metals, commodities, real estate, local small businesses and offshore investments that are not publicly traded or otherwise on the usual lists available to small investors. If you are limited in your investment options because your retirement funds are in your employer’s 401K, research the list of permitted investments and purge your portfolio as much as possible of the large banks and companies that you know to be doing harm. While you’re at it, talk to the investment folks at your company and urge them to adopt more responsible investment strategies.
(3) Support state legislative efforts to amend state securities and tax laws to facilitate investing in loans and equity in community businesses by middle-class investors. Remember that safeguards to protect investors from unscrupulous snake-oil, penny stock and chinchilla salesmen are good, but in the name of protecting “unsophisticated” investors without substantial holdings ($200K annual income and $1MM net worth excluding residence), federal and state securities laws have effectively forced the “little guys” to invest in Wall Street. Why is it easy for people of moderate means to lose money in the lottery, but almost impossible to invest in each other’s businesses? (The answer is Wall Street does not want us to be able to invest in each other – they want us to go through them.)
(4) Use your influence to urge institutions and governments you deal with to vote with their feet and the money they control. Urge others to do the same. Make a list of these institutions and governmental and quasi-governmental units and write letters, go to meetings and otherwise get involved in the processes by which they make decisions about where they deposit and invest their cash. Here’s a list to get your creativity flowing:
a. Everyone who asks you to contribute money: charities, college and private school endowments and churches
b. State, local and union pension funds
c. City and county governments and government-related entities (e.g., water company, school board, county general fund, bond reserves)
For more ideas on pools of capital in your community, see this..
Another thing to keep in mind is that big pools of money like huge charities or charitable pools (e.g., United Way, Red Cross, etc.) and college endowments (e.g., Harvard, with its $30 billion endowment) are usually controlled by members of the tapeworm. This money generally is deposited and invested in the tapeworm. Boards of directors of these institutions are loaded with the good ole boys who may be put in their places to bolster the prestige of their employers and garner social acceptance for institutions whose activities you and I might not approve of (e.g., consider the motives of large agriculture companies in sponsoring public television shows). Reconsider your options so that you invest in causes where you know your contributions are not used this way.
(4) Spend money locally and reduce dependence on big box stores. Make a list of family expenditures over the last year and categorize them in terms of whether they are local or corporate oriented and whether they are discretionary or non-discretionary. Look at the discretionary category and the money you spent at corporate restaurants, big box stores, chain stores and similar outfits. Then identify a local or entreprenurial alternative for each one, keeping in mind that some big names are franchises owned by local small businesspeople who need our support. If you don’t know, go to your local stores and ask who owns them. Also remember that while local grocery stores may be preferable to chains, even at chains you may have the option to choose locally-grown and organic foodstuffs, which both support local and regional farmers and contribute to your family’s health and well-being.
When you make out your Christmas list or school shopping list, see how many items you can identify that can be purchased through more decentralized sources. Of course, while you’re at it, remember that you’ll get a “two-fer” in heaven, or more bang for your buck, if your spending decisions favor goods that are produced (a) in this country or at least a country that supports fair labor standards, (b) using green technologies or packaged in recyclable materials, (c) by companies whose employment policies, community contributions, garbage, trash and toxic waste disposition policies, business dealings, production methods and other policies are “net energy plus” and have a positive return on investment to the community.
(4) Prepare for more power outages, cash shortfalls and other emergency situations. More central controls leads to more unstable systems. We need to protect ourselves from the risk of relying on unstable systems. Since inflation in the costs of real goods are here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future, and who knows what kind of shortages we may be subject to for whatever reason (market manipulations, weather-related catastrophes, break-downs in neglected infrastructure, etc.), investment in the following makes both economic and strategic sense:
(a) household systems that contribute to lower energy costs and better health (geothermal, solar and wind systems, water storage tanks and wells, electronic air and water cleaners and filters),
(b) staples like toilet paper, non-perishable ingredients and foodstuffs,
(c) canned goods and bottled water,
(c) propane generators and other back-up systems,
(d) community or personal vegetable and herb gardens or local CSAs
(e) locally-slaughtered and packed sides of beef, port and lamb (preferably combine with back-up generating capacity, although homeowners’ policy riders for food spoilage are available for as little as $10/year).
(5) Find or Establish a Local Barter Network. Maybe you can’t get the credit you need to operate your small business, or take out an equity line of credit to make improvements to your home. But remember, you aren’t in this alone. Your neighbors are in the same position. Maybe your local home improvement contractor or lumber yard owner or small business supplier would like to find a way to afford piano lessons or math tutoring for his child, a professionally drafted contract or will or a new website that you could provide. Take a stand in proving that Wall Street cannot bring down our local economy and local businesses if we do not channel our money through Wall Street and the Fed and if we support each other. Used in conjunction with the local currency (see below), this is a powerful way to (a) reduce your exposure to losses from the falling dollar and the forces of inflation, (b) get new customers for your small business, (c) earn extra value in addition to your stagnating salary to help make ends meet and (d) support the local economy so that your customers and neighbors can pay their mortgages and other bills.
(6) Consider a Local Currency. Local currencies aren’t subject to devaluation when the Fed makes bad monetary decisions or Treasury invests taxpayer dollars in useless derivatives, and you don’t have to worry about FDIC insurance coverage. One way to start is to use precious metals within trusted networks. To help you get started, see our silver and gold exchange calculator, www.silverandgoldaremoney.com.
(7) Start a Solari Circle for group education, action and investing in local small businesses. Get together with friends and family to decide on what the actions are that can best serve you and take them together. Turn off your TVs, simplify, start a food purchasing club, study options for sustainability and help each other with money management and savings. Many established and stable local businesses are having trouble maintaining their working capital lines of credit to keep their operations going. At the same time, there are many local people who want to take their money out of the control of Wall Street, but don’t know where to put it. Look for local leaders who are knowledgeable at angel, venture and local investment. Perhaps there is a way for you to participate with them.
(8) Let your congressperson know you won’t take this any more. Find out how your congressman/senators voted on the bail-out legislation. If they voted “no,” thank them and send a campaign contribution. For those who voted ”yes,” check out the opponent and let them know why you are doing that (see 10 Reasons Not to Bail Out Wall Street).
(9) Educate yourself and your children about what you really need to know in the future. Urge local public and private schools, community colleges, technical schools and sources of adult education (e.g., community centers, churches and retirement homes and centers) to adopt curricula to teach both children and adults about:
(a) Community self sufficiency and community organizing.
(b) Economics and how the money REALLY works,
(c) What the US Constitution stands for and civic values,
(d) How to fix things: cars, washing machines, plumbing systems, etc. and
(e) The history of our currency (the Federal Reserve, fiat currency, abandoning the gold standard, etc.), NAFTA, the Great Depression and American stock market crashes, financial scandals and crises and what were the causes and solutions.
(10) Start a local solar energy panel franchise, geothermal drilling company or other business that can create more energy resiliency around you. Retire from your corporate job or take the opportunity after a job loss or cut-back to get into more entreprenurial activities. Do business with people you know you can trust. Contribute to a positive return on investment in your community.
bumper sticker:
NOT ALONE DO WE CONQUER
NOT ALONE DO WE FALL
LONGFELLOW
For short term, my suggestion is that we all file tax extentions this year.
Cook County Sheriff: “I Will Stop Enforcing Evictions.” (http://www.truthout.org/100908T) Police are there to serve their citizens. It is now clearly up to citizens to see that the police work for the people, not for Wall Street or the Drug Lord Aristocracy (apparently mainly the same groups at this point).
Naomi Wolf’s video on the heels of Congressman Sherman’s video is a bit alarming. Catherine, do you have any comments to make? Would you?
Daniel,
What is your proof of this 8/17/08 meeting? I am not disbelieving you, but do you have proof? This would be very helpful. Thank you.
Dear Catherine,
I enjoy your presentations on Coast to Coast A.M.!!!
Were you aware of the secret Congressional meeting 8/17/08?
Congress Secret Meeting! Mar 17/08
SPECIAL “CLOSED SESSION” OF U.S. HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES DISCUSSED A LOT MORE THAN
THE PENDING SECURITY SURVEILLANCE PROVISIONS!
This was only the fourth time in 176 years that Congress
has closed its doors to the public. What was it that they
were discussing that they do NOT want us to know about?
Word has begun leaking from last nights special, closed-door
session of the United States House of Representatives.
Not only did members discuss new surveillance provisions as
was the publicly stated reason for the closed door session, they
also discussed:
1. the imminent collapse of the U.S. economy to occur by
September 2008,
2. the imminent collapse of US federal government finances
by February 2009,
3. the possibility of Civil War inside the USA as a result of
the collapse,
4. advance round-ups of “insurgent U.S. citizens” likely to
move against the government,
5. the detention of those rounded-up at “REX 84” camps
constructed throughout the USA,
6. the possibility of retaliation against members of Congress
for the collapses,
7. the location of “safe facilities” for members of Congress
and their families to reside during expected massive civil
unrest,
8. the necessary and unavoidable merger of the United States
with Canada (for its natural resources) and with Mexico (for its
cheap labor pool),
9. the issuance of a new currency – THE AMERO – for all three
nations as the proposed solution to the coming economic
http://www.galacticfriends.com – Galactic Friends Powered by Mambo Generated: 5 October, 2008, 10:45
armageddon.
Members of Congress were FORBIDDEN to reveal what was discussed.
Several are so furious and concerned about the future of the country, they
have begun leaking info. More details coming later today and over the
weekend. SPREAD THE WORD!!!
“All TRUTH passes through 3 stages:
1st – it is ridiculed
2nd – it is violently opposed
3rd – it is accepted as SELF EVIDENT”
– Arthur Schopenhauer
“In a time of universal deceit, telling the TRUTH is a revolutionary act.” –
George Orwell
“Kindness should become the natural way of life, not the exception.” – Buddha
http://www.galacticfriends.com – Galactic Friends Powered by Mambo Generated: 5 October, 2008, 10:45
Bail out of Wall Street,
Buy into Your Street.
Oops! You’re not looking for another bumper sticker 😛
I like the idea of a local currency based on bills issued to and for specific individuals. John Doe would go to a little issuance office. He’d show that he lives in the community or in a nearby community that doesn’t have it’s own currency yet. He’d be issued a small amount of currency backed by his promise to pay on each note in terms of a service or product. For example, three bills for One hour snow shovelling each by John Doe. Each Bill would be unique and registered at the issuance office.
John can then trade his currency for other people’s currency at the farmer’s market or town hall or anywhere really. People might get in the habit of spontaneously asking to see eachother’s bills for a possible friendly trade. It could be a social thing, like giving a stranger a cigarette.
When called upon to honour his currency, John does the work and the customer gives John his bill back and rates his service at the issuance office, online or in person. In time John gets a rating that will affect his ability to have more currency issued in his name, and the worth of his currency versus those of others. People who attempt to leech off the system will soon find they cannot issue more currency. People who are honorable will find that, up to a reasonable limit, they can issue ample currency to participate meaningfully in the local economy.
I think once established it could work well. It would be self-balancing, with people trading for dollars they don’t hope to spend but are confident they’ll be able to trade for bills they want for goods and services they want. The person who calls John wanting their sidewalk cleared of snow, could say “Can I pay you with a Debbie Smith hair cut bill?” and he could decide yay or nay, and so once relationships were established, the currency wouldn’t always have to match the services rendered, and bills that didn’t circulate much, I believe, wouldn’t mess up the system. (Not sure about that part)
One of the reasons I like this idea is because it humanizes money. Money is no longer arbitrary under a system like this. It is my neighbour Sarah Jones three houses west of me who teaches piano buying bread from Mrs Keely the nice elderly lady who likes to bake. It would encourage people to hold themselves to a higher standard, see how their work and spending affects the community, and treat people with more empathy. People would get to know eachother and communities would thus strengthen. And people would develop less dependancy on a job with some becoming independant of the traditional job entirely, because they’d have ample contract work within their community. This would dramatically reduce stress in people’s lives. If John does good yard work, snow removal, and so on, he will have ample currency issued under his name that is distributed throughout the community, and he will get plenty of calls to do work. And he will in turn be able to exchange his currency for those of others, providing him with much of what he needs from food to firewood to haircuts. Fear of losing or not getting jobs and falling off the debt treadmill, is part of how people are squeezed into living or working incompatibly with their values and beliefs.
I’m not sure this could work. Obviously there would be big challenges with it and I’m probably over-looking some things. I’m guessing it couldn’t be much worse than our current system of indifference and unaccountability between strangers. I preffer this to a different idea I’ve encountered where people are expected to exchange time equally. People naturally seek advantage and differ in ability. Their worth is the same, but their abilities are not. And so I think the system of trading one hour for one hour is doomed to failure. With a currency that represents actual goods and services, people can better assess it’s value and that would facilitate it’s free trade which is essential.
Start a educational video game business that teaches various Solari-type skills. For example, one large game is called “Making Your Neighborhood Self-Sufficient”. Here you have to organize your neighbors, grow food, negotiate responsibilities, etc. If one does poorly, people start suffering from malnutrition, and so on. A subgame can be “Influencing Your Local and Regional Representatives”, i.e., subgames could include some of the points mentioned above.
Another subgame could be “Organizing Your Neighborhood For Self-Protection”. If you do badly at this one, you wind up in “Guantanamero” or taken over by “Madd Maximus”. (Obviously, this one could be more adventurous, with parts such as “Paul Revere” and “Ambush”.)
Of course, handbooks would be needed for serious “real world players” that would be based on the “real deal”, much like Sim City. Parts of “Solari” could easily operate something like the fantasy adventure games where players play realistic characters.
How about a national campaign to encourgaging a “Modern Bosten Tea Party” by setting ones w-4 allocations to the max creating a cash flow issue for the elite.
On the economic bail out instead of taxpayers bailing out Wall Street why not put a .50cent surcharge on every transaction Wall Street on has every purchase and sales of any stock. actually any WALL STREET TRANSACTION
Catherine,
Do you know if we are now under Martial Law? Rep. Sherman has said the Speaker of the House said we were? You can here this on youtube.
??
Through a link in one of the comments here I found Lyndon LaRouse’s webcast on youtube. It was very educational and there were many congresspeople who sent in questions for him with great concerns. The webcast was on 10/1/08. Probably one of the scariest things I have heard is the idea that the American people will start killing people, that is more or less what LaRouse said i.e. a revolution. As justified as those people would be, that doesn’t seem to me to be the answer. I have seen some folks, including one man that I knew a long time ago in Tampa, calling for a revolution.
#1 I wonder if there could be a cap on speculative risk, as in commodities. But, I’m working through their argument that speculators are a vital market function. I understand how we can make them a vital function, but not how they are, per se, vital.
If you cap their risk, won’t that speculative money seek it somewhere else. Since money isn’t bound by product, but by the risk model (e.g. move of hedge funds into commodities if big banks stop lending to them) wouldn’t speculators find their fix somewhere not at the expense of market stability?
#2 how far down the chain could they go to reinforce the value of assets and associated cash flows. if, in this case, it stopped at ninja, why couldn’t the requirement be to document those all the way to the nth yukky derivative?
Please be aware that it is illegal(Patriot Act) to hold anything but documents in a safety deposit box. Any and all such contraband is subject to confiscation.Besides when the banks go “holiday” your property is in the closed bank. Uncle knows people are keeping their pm
there.Educate yourselves, friends,and family…..
Majic
It seems to me that most people do not realize inflation steals their savings. A bumper sticker “Inflation steals your savings” would be educational.
Bail out of the whole corrupt central bank system. Get it through your heads people this “crisis” was engineered to happen just like 1929 was. The Federal Reserve is NOT federal, it is a private bank controlled by european bankers in collusion with some American bankers to steal EVERYTHING from us! See “Zeitgeist Addendum” available online to watch free for a real solution. The present system can only create one thing ….DEBT. The Fed actually loans us our own money at interest which is why we can never free ourselves of debt. To pay back the debt we have to take more of OUR MONEY at interest from the fed which creates…..drum roll please….more debt! Look it up folks, don’t take my word for it. Congress is supposed to print our money (interest free) not a central bank like the Federal reserve.
Watch online free:
Aaron Russo’s America Freedom to Fascism
Zeitgeist the Movie
Zeitgeist Addendum
Learn quickly folks time is short.
I agree with Ed,I’ll design the slips…Being a designer and having free time it would give me great pleasure… I actually saw on member of congress, weep over his having to vote for this
bill today, he said, I pray to my God everyday, but this morning, I had to pray for forgiveness
for the vote I am about to make. He welled up and chocked up as well. What kind of threats were made to these representative and senators to bring them to such a place, in public. Catherine’s round table with George Nooray was great, and I would like to help. And something has to be a bumper sticker signs or ads to keep the truth of what they just did to us, as Catherine suggested, Perhaps simply a question..T.A.R.P aka Bank Bail out – a TARP cover up the Treason? There has to be away, to be taken seriously. As that college radio station that blew open the scandal in Ohio today where “non partisan” people were helping people by taking them to register
However, the interviewee, stated over and over she was advising voting for OBAMA. So much for
Ohio’s week called “How to steal an election week”. Going strong… Where were the big new groups? Kudos for the college radio scoop. Thanks Catherine for all you are doing.
An inexpensive way to protect your investment in frozen meat and other tasty and healthy local foods is a marine battery and an inverter. Most home freezers can be operated by a 750 watt inverter with a 1300-1500 watt surge capacity. (The inverter takes DC battery power and turns it into AC power that your freezer can use.) A large marine battery will keep a freezer cold for a couple of days, maybe longer (depending on the exterior temperatures — longer in winter (cooler rooms), shorter in summer (warmer rooms = more work). In a pinch, the battery could be recharged with battery cables from your car or truck. Even if you buy a generator, you will probably want to use it to charge batteries and then operate the freezer off the battery, so the generator doesn’t run so much (they are terribly noisy and inefficient fuel consumers).
A second backup is a pressure canner and lots of canning jars. If the outage is going to be long-lasting, we may be ahead by pressure canning meats and vegetables.
These ten suggestions are all very good and deserve wide circulation. I have banked at a credit union for years. They do not sell their loans, but instead collect the interest and put that to work in the local economy. I have been writing on this at my politics blog, http://www.bobwaldrop.net .
Over the last few weeks, I have done the following:
* Moved several thousand in greenbacks from BoA into safety deposit box, with a G in petty cash at home for emergency use.
* Moved 10% of my net worth into PM, again, in safety deposit box at locally owned bank. This is not an “investment.” I have already “lost money.” I consider it insurance.
* Purchased a large CD at a locally owned bank, using a check drawn on BoA.
* Start stockpiling bottled water.
* Filled my freezer with home cooked meals.
* Slowly stocking up on “base metals.” (lead and brass 😉
* Joined the NRA. For what it’s worth, my mother joined as well about the same time, quite independently of me. How curious.
I don’t feel like allowing entities such as BoA to gamble with my money any more. I don’t really care what the consequences to their operations are as I reduce their ability to acquire leverage from my decreasing account balances.
What’s left to do:
* Propane, I want a couple of those 20 lb tanks.
* More water.
* More staples, rice, beans, etc. I actually cook quite a lot of this stuff at home anyway, so I will use it eventually in any case.
Since I live in an apartment in a fairly dense area, there is only so far I can take this.
I was completely out of the market in October 2007, all cash since then. Feels good. Too bad all my friends thought I was a wingnut back then.
We should mail a literal PINK SLIP to EVERY member of Congress, Democrat, Republican and Independent, Senator and Representative, who voted for the bailout, promising we will NOT vote for them in November and we will encourage as many of our fellow citizens as possible to do the same.
James:
Good point. I have changed to state chartered. However, I do not want to exclude some of the good local and regional banks if they are nationally chartered.
Thanks,
Catherine
Catherine,
I’m a bit confused.
I thought you said that only local and regional banks
were the way to go and not state and national wide?
James
Thanks for the post. Have been a big reader/downloader of your web/blog for awhile. I have switched my account to a local community credit union since the start of this mess. Will address my IRAs and soon. Next season will start gardening for certain staples. (god forbid I use copyrighted seeds!) All of the suggestions are great. Thanks for being out there and providing your expertise.
Fight the power!
THANK YOU SO MUCH CATHERINE!!!
I am deeply appreciate of this posting,
you have helped to ease my soul. This
information, along with MCRs Map from
Crossing the Rubicon and FTW will
serve as a guiding light during these
very dark times.
Thank You.
UNDERDARK
THEREALUNDERDARK@GMAIL.COM