The Housing & Economic Recovery Act of 2008

43 Comments

1. I’ve read,what you’ve said,and am sorry to say,things seem to be designed to destroy “constitutional representaive government of for and by all of the people” in favor of a solviet sort of dictatorship. Pride goeth before a fall,and what a fall it has been and con-tinues to be given the scope of con-spiracy involved. Hopefully we can,rise again,like the pheonix.I’m not holding my breath though.We may need multiple oxygen tanks,to wait out a metamorphasase of our wormlike catapillar of economic promise,into a beauitiful butterfly,and hopefully not a “Monarch”,but like a Pheonix,firery,and bright,like the sun!

2. Not bad… Not bad.

3. joke england clean house

4. Always a pleasure to read the works of a true patriot.

   SAR

5. When the economy was down before, there was the pitiful economic stimulous package. The higher earner received more than the lower earner. The low income earner spent the entire 300.00. The high earner gave the money to wall street.
   Why would it not be a good use of resources to put the money in the hands of the SPENDING PUBLIC. 300 million citizens, those over the age of 21, receive $1,000,000.00. That doesn’t even come close to the 700 billion.
   Those behind in mortgage payments could make the payments, catch up and improve life for many others. Citizens would purchase everything they have been unable to. The economy would boom.
   The money would be where it belongs. The tax revenue alone from the $1,000,000.00 stimulus would be significant. Why isn’t congress and the senate telling Czar Henry Paulson, just send the money to the people.

6. Hi Cathrine,

   Banks bit off more than they could chew in the housing sector.
   So where did all that lended money go?
   Oil contracts possibly?
   So where did all that money go?

   Right out of the country?

   We got a trail going on and it seems everyone is dumb to the whole idea
   until the smoke clears and then we see the trail.

   Do you think this could be a national security issue?
   I think its criminal, what do you think?

   Maybe the solution would be a great depression and a lesson that wall street is nothing more
   than a public advertisement to the world on where it stands financially, that’s kind of scary don’t you think?

   I mean there’s a war going on and the battle could be at wall street.

7. How about the De Fazio plan???? any thoughts on that??? this is the article :

   The DeFazio plan would incorporate several measures suggested last week by William Isaac, the former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. under President Ronald Reagan. Those measures, DeFazio said, would get at the root of the bank liquidity problem.

   DeFazio was joined at a Washington press conference to announce the plan by seven other Democrats, six of whom had also voted against the administration bailout plan. The Senate is expected to vote tonight on a bailout plan, while the House reconvenes tomorrow to address the financial crisis.

   The proposal would raise the limit from $100,000 to $250,000 on bank savings insured by the FDIC. That idea has been floated the last couple of days in several circles as a way to improve confidence in banks and urge customers from withdrawing their money.

   It would also restore a program used during the savings and loan crisis during the 1980s to help banks and thrifts short on capital to obtain assistance. The institutions would receive certificates called net work certificates that could be carried on their books and provide short-term capital with no actual exchange of cash.

   From 1982 to 1993, banks with a total of $40 billion in assets participated in the program, DeFazio said. Three-quarters were able to improve their financial situation with no further assistance, he said.

   Participating banks would be subject to strict oversight by the FDIC, including scrutiny of pay for top executives and action against poor management. Financial records and business plans would also be subject to review.

   The program would enable the federal Security & Exchange Commission to allow banks to list the value of mortgages they hold at a future value. Under the current system in place, because there is no meaningful market for mortgage-based securities, banks must value assets at “fire-sale” prices, DeFazio said.

   That, in turn, creates a capital shortfall on paper, he said.

   The plan would also place restrictions on two short-selling techniques. Under DeFazio’s proposal, the SEC would be required to implement a rule banning naked selling, selling a stock at a loss without first borrowing the shares or ensuring the shares can be borrowed.

   Such practices can harm the companies represented in the sales and hurt their efforts to raise capital, DeFazio said.

   “There is no economic value produced by naked short sales, but significant negative effects,” he said.

   The plan would also block short sales without an uptick in the market. It extends a temporary SEC rule implemented Sept. 19 to protect the integrity of the securities market and strengthen investor confidence.

   The rule prevents market crashes brought on by irrational short-term market behavior, DeFazio said.

   Among those who joined DeFazio at the press conference were Democratic Reps. Elijah Cummings and Donna Edwards of Maryland, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Lloyd Doggett of Texas and Bobby Scott of Virginia. They signed on as co-sponsors and said the nation would be better served by taking the time to put together a carefully considered bill than to rush through with an expensive bailout plan under increasing criticism from economists.

   The Service Employees International Union, which represents two million workers nationwide, endorsed the DeFazio proposal.

   “We finally have a plan that will restore confidence in the financial markets without writing a blank check to the same Wall Street banks and CEOs who got us into this mess,” SEIU President Andy Stern said in a written statement. “This is an important, short-term solution that protects taxpayers and their savings accounts. To revive the economy over the long-term, we must address rising unemployment, stagnant wages, the health care crisis, and a tax system that is tilted in favor of the wealthy.”

8. A friend sent me a link to an article in Newsweek by Daniel Gross titled Hedge Fund Nation. which I found to be mainstream pap! While there’s a tiny legitimizing thread of irony in it, articles like these have got to be getting written and placed throughout the MSM by an Orwellian “Ministry of Truth”. The article ignores several thousand good examples of lard to deride two of the most sensible riders on a real piece of poop – an increase in the FDIC ceiling to 250K (100k just ain’t what it used to be) and removing a few barbs from the Alternative Minimum Tax. These at least are helpful to real people.

   The bailout is “something of a coup,” all-right… It’s pure chutzpuh to suggest that taxpayers are somehow investors in this socialist gambit, and the provision to “invest” in “any other financial instrument that the Secretary, after consultation with the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System” deem necessary (what the hell does “consultation” mean?) sounds like a guarantee that there will be a measured series financial emergencies indefinitely into the future! Maximum transparency… right!

   The very best case scenario is that they actually try to make a profit and use the gains to get off the backs of the people. If they keep it going, there’s no limit to how much blood they can suck. They’re all probably slapping themselves in the forehead because they didn’t do this sooner.

   The bill is the best argument for the elimination the income tax since 1913! With some competent management they ought to be able to eclipse income tax revenues in no time and get the hell out of the private business of sovereign American citizens for the first time in 75 years. Being forced to rely on the new “investment” income will give them an honest incentive to make it work to everybody’s advantage.

   I’m not holding my breath.

   Kevin Anderson

9. Catherine Austin Fitts

   Re: The Housing and Economic Recovery Act [Fiasco] of 2008

   Briefly stated as an introduction, I was the owner of a computer and business consulting business for many years wherein I changed course and became the founder and ceo of the Small Business Development Corporation in San Francisco (defenestrated 1997), where, among many other activities, I both defended and promoted the “Small Business” and “Middle Class Community” at thousands of public hearings at the local, state and federal level regarding hundreds of issues. At one point I became the official “no committee” regarding a key initiative ballot issue and simultaneously ran against Willie Brown for Mayor. It soon got to the point where he would not debate me; the audience could tell I was telling the truth, and Willie wasn’t. Many people, including my opposition said I changed the course of history during my tenure, but liittle was reported in San Francisco’s liberal media; to do so wasn’t politically correct. I lost the mayorial election, but I did win the ballot initiative though I had spent only the price of the filing fee and costs associated with reproducing and hand distributing my “position paper” at the neighborhood debates, while my opposition had spent in excess of $1 million on a full-blown campaign effort.

   Simply stated, I can assure your readers that the socio-economic sequence of events since about 1986 have been orchestrated in a manner much like the classic “shell game” where it is impossible to keep an eye on the pea becaise the hand — and politicians — are quicker than the eye. Clearly, the escalation in the price of gasoline, food and other commodities this past year and the bursting of the “housing bubble” in recent months are important elements in the plan to destroy the American Middle Class once and for all, forever.

   In important part, my ongoing research activities produced a surprise last Friday in the form of Chairman Bernanke’s March 30, 2007 report titled, “The Community Reinvestment Act: Its Evolution and New Challenges,” which provides substantial detail regarding both the history and the laws and policies enacted since the CRA Act was adopted in 1977.

   http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/Bernanke20070330a.htm

   Before one downloads and reads subject Chairman Bernanke’s report using the above URL, I ask that you first review the following key points and background information that was sadly lacking in both Chairman Bernanke’s report and recent news coverage thus making it possible for people under the age of 40 to understand the “text and tone” of the report. This in turn makes it possible to understand the fact that the recent “housing collapse,” the proposed “bailout” bill, and The Federal Reserve’s “takeover” of the US financial markets are the product of what I know to be a well funded, intentional plan to “Finally Destroy the American Middle Class” such that America becomes but another Third World Country consisting of only two “classes,” Rich and Poor, utterly controlled socio-economically by certain ancient families, governmental officials and organizations in a manner replicating that of Mexico, which is essentially controlled by 10 families.

   I make no attempt to convey all the pertinent key points here, but the following points should serve to inform your readers to a degree adequate to understand that which is “really going on” so that they can convey to their Congressional Representatives “no way, no how” and “I’m not going to take it any more,” such that the facts of the matter become front page news and the details of the whole mess “blows up” in the faces of both the guilty proponents and the culpable innocents who can and will recover and get on with their lives — as Americans. I acknowledge that the “displaced” sub-prime “victims” who tried to acquire a house on a marginal income may have to move back into an apartment for two or three years, but if they save the same amount as the mortgage, they will be able to buy another house costing half of what it was originally via a substantial cash down payment.

   Key Points and Background Information

   I – The What and How of the Political Environment

   First, the rampant fraud and theft that has gone on beneath the radar of most Americans between 1986 and the present were implemented, funded, and protected on a colossal scale by both Congress and certain Administration departments for self-serving political purposes.

   The proof of rampant fraud and theft resides in my archives and in the archives of the innercitypress.com website, who daily fought like junk yard dogs for many years before numerous Congressional and Administrative oversite committees, to no avail — because “the fix was in.”

   Second, the mantra and political movement declared as “a right of access to housing” was both the mechanism and the process used to BUY votes and GAIN political power while making banks, sub-prime lenders and non-profit, 501(c)(3) corporations (dubbed “Poverty Pimps” by a friend and I) very wealthy at taxpayer expense totaling many billions, possibly trillions of dollars in the form of millions of housing units being constructed or otherwise controlled under the nom de plume of “low cost, affordable, housing.”

   But most of the rents in low income housing projects are not “low” because local elected officials enacted laws and policies that purposefully escalated the cost of living yearly, if not weekly, while incomes remained the same or declined because of the illegal labor force, and because the high-density units are small and both the rental income/debt service payments and the absent property tax effectively makes the units “tax free” to the owners of the non-profit, 501(c)(3) corporations.

   This accruing, hidden “expense” regarding subsidized housing has been unknowingly absorbed by local and national taxpayers for more than a decade that includes the bridging loans, construction costs and “tax free” accrued wealth that will at least DOUBLE the drain on local and national economies if the Democratic and Republican leadership have their way with the “Bailout” Bill.

   Third, under federal, state and local law, any jurisdiction may “declare” any area as “blighted,” even in Upclass or Middle Class Neighborhoods (the latter being the prefered target area because few residents have the cash, time or the expertise to go to court), thus the very-low-interest federal and state “off budget” loans and grants are made available almost solely to the politically-connected plethera of Non Profit (“Poverty Pimp”) Housing Corporations.

   Take note that during subject years, the key Democrat States/Cities bought lots of votes with this program! And these units also house ILLEGALS – often with 2 to 5 families living in a single house while code enforcement officials turn a blind eye.

   Fourth, as stated in Chairman Bernanke’s report, “by the late 1980s, however, the issues surrounding access to credit were attracting renewed interest. In response to this interest, the Congress included in the Financial Institution Reform and Recovery Act of 1989 (FIRREA) an amendment to the CRA statute to require public disclosure of [banking] institutions’ ratings and performance evaluations.”

   Thereafter, elected officials, bureaucrats, the Poverty Pimp Organizations, and the publishers of Liberal Newspapers rethorically used the required “evaluation data” to force via “mob rule,” and “wink, wink, nod, nod” tactics before Planning Commissions the construction of (or conversion of existing properties to) low and medium income housing projects, often multi-units projects rising as high in the sky as the Planning Commissions dared allow, and nearly always with 100% lot coverage — with total impunity, i.e, if a land owner argued in court, he lost, according to Law and Practice before a friendly judge.

   Fifth, the above policies and practices eventually ruined the quality of life in an increasing number of historic neighborhoods much akin to a creeping pandemic disease, wherein the residents would move to a “safer” neighborhood, and the Poverty Pimp Corporations would buy the property “for a song” because no other buyer would even make a bid on the property, or the listing wasn’t made public.

   And after a certain number of years, or due to certain conditions, and changes in law, natural disasters, etc., the units would become “Market Rate” housing, but the ownership of the units didn’t change, or the ownship was transferred to another non-profit entity, controlled by the same original people. And the well-oiled political machine continued on as it has for decades.

   The Why of the Political Environment

   In all jurisdictions there exists multiple political machines. Most are benign because of a degree of balance among the groups of players because the flow of dollars during the year does not justify the time and effort it takes to build and operate a predatory political machine. However, San Francisco and all urban political centers have a flow of dollars that include a public and private economy measured in billions of dollars that provides encentives in terms of the financial and political rewards that justify the endless days of planning, collusion and intentional compartmentalizaton required to obfuscate what is going on behind the scene from being visible to the ordinary taxpayer. But once a predatory political machine gains a toe hold, the environment changes, often very quickly.

   A key indicator of this change is the growth rate of the bureaucracy via creating layers of people with pseudo authority and as many staff personnel as possible between the conspirators and the public.

   These changes also reduce the risk of discovery of wrongdoing to near zero because everyone involved derives their day to day income from the taxpayer and discovery could result in prison and mass layoffs. Thus, there exists a cardinal rule that nothing is ever accomplished in the interests of the residents, everything is done in the interests of the bureaucracy and bureaucrats’ “projects.” Everything otherwise discussed or promised to residents are illusionary — a “dog and pony show” — in a manner not unlike a movie or any other theatrical performance. This is one reason why the entertainment industry receives such wide coverage in the media: the antics of actors serves to obfuscate the line between fantasy entertainment and corrupt reality. The movie, “The Godfather” is a good example. The plot provides the audience with snapshots on both sides of the illusionary line — the “good” and the “bad” in “everyone.” And after a lifetime of watching similar movies, the line between fantisy and reality is intentionally blurred in that both the good and bad characters go home to a normal life, like you and me. But the actors of corrupt reality never go home; they are creating reality according to their whims and degree of greed. In real life a bad actor as king, dictator or president may create a benign kingdom, another bad actor, such as Hitler may create a murderous regime, other bad actors may create a chronically corrupt regime that lasts for generatons.

   The American Middle Class – The Cornerstone Of American Freedom

   After many years of domestic and international travel, working with people from all walks of life, developing systems or solutions for many industies and reading and understanding history, I concluded one day that:

   The growing of the American “Middle Class” occurred because America began with no entrenched form of government controlling the whole of the land mass where the individual or group either prospered or died from starvation or freezing to death, as free individuals, who made their own way, provided for themselves, their wife, their family, their friends, their neighbors and their nation, who then created and defended the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights.

   Returning to a Middle Class America

   Thus, the only way America can survive today’s perils is for Americans to declare and assert that the American Middle Class, regardless of race or color, natural born or naturalized, shall within five years again own and control at least 51 percent of the land, assets, and the economy as the only practical, non violent, means to remove bad actors from the political scene before thay can act to collapse the economy due to benign neglect, the murder of millions of people, or an entrenched, corrupt regime as suffered by other countries who either failed to develop a Middle Class or acted to destroy their Middle Class.

   What Happened to America This Past 60 Years?

   I am familiar with the machinations of New York City’s Tammany Hall and made it my business to understand the plans and projects being implemented by San Francisco Bay’s cast of bad characters, a situation that I concluded must be challanged. Thus I became involved in the above-referenced election of a new Mayor and the ballot issue that upon adoption would set the scene to instantly created a Tammany Hall “West,”

   I lost the battle for Mayor, but won the important battle, the ballot initiative, which precluded city officials and their “partners” from doing what they wanted, to whom they wanted, when they wanted, with goals to transform San Francisco to that of high-density housing and commercial high rises, offering only retail, commercial and tourism venues, and thus a limited diversity in the types of jobs available — along with the forced displacement of the “Small Business Community” throughout the length of San Francisco’s Waterfront, from the Golden Gate Bridge to the San Mateo County Line.

   San Francisco had become my adopted city of 20 years, and I could not let this happen, and to achieve my main goal to prevent this outcome, I had to force the registrar of voters to lock the absentee ballots in a safe under seal until I was satifisfied that they were counted as correctly as I could achieve, winning by a margin of only 550 votes. I subsequently proved that the election of office holders was “cooked,” but state and national election officials and the media mearly ignored my evidence.

   After the election dust settled, Willie Brown and his Private Partners set the tone of San Francisco’s future. Proponents of Socialism, Communism, Nazism, etc., soon emerged. The California Legislature was also a “partner.” Due process was gone, Justice was replaced with Law and Policy that changed every week. Elections became Democracy by Subsidized Mob Vote (“Vote Early, Vote Often”). In a matter of years the quality of life deteriorated as did the quality of succeeding Mayors. Multi-national corporations were Willie Brown’s Partners, not the residents of San Francisco. Historic Small Business Areas were ripped out, replaced by Corporate Giants — Enron, the Dot Com World, Environmentalism — all of them driven by hype, incompence and arrogance. They all crashed. Willie Brown & Company cheered and promoted their projects, but vehicle traffic became a constant 3 miles per hour, and San Franciscans moved away, replaced by illegals and tourists. San Francisco wasn’t fun any more. Most people had to work two jobs just to pay rent and eat. I predicted what would happen and when and why. My testimony at a thousand hearings slowed things down by about 10 years, but subsequent media stories reported that I was proven to be right in my predictions, leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

   In essence it was the import of Neo-Communists that is the base of the decline — people who insisted on helping everyone — if one was a member of a designated group — but really acting to control the economy, the ownership and use of land, and peoples’ lives with an iron fist, all of it funded by billions of federal and corporate dollars, with more on the way to hide the failures and boonedoggles of the past. I find it provocative to note there is little difference between Machine Democrats and Machine Republicans:

   Machine Politicians, as discussed above in the What and How Section, derive their power and authority by Socialist means in that they impose taxes on a victim during the course of one’s life’s work, effort, failures and achievements, and then displace them with a new group of victims creating a politically defined “pecking order” that changed with the passage of time. The first “Social Justice” was the funding of American Indians which was replaced by funding Oriental Yellows, who were replaced by funding African Blacks, who were replaced by funding Brown Hispanics and Latins, all of whom were replaced by funding Women Of Any Color.

   Today, the last un-funded “group” remaining are White Men Of Any Nationaity, unless he is married, thus leaving only Single White Men Of Any Nationality. And now, the Machine Democrats are acting to bring Anybody From Anywhere, who posses few skills and even fewer scruples — to America — as long as they are Not White Men — to displace Americans of Any Color. But what this chain of declared Privilaged Groups don’t know or understand is that the billions in cash that flowed through their hands for housing, social services, jobs programs, etc., ended up in the pockets of the Democratic Power Broker’s as Untaxed Poverty Pimp, 501(c)(3) Cash Flow Dollars.

   Clearly, the Democratic Leadership dances privately in glee knowing that they live well on Un-taxed Dollars, while the people they gathered and compromised with promises and freebies live an almost totally dependent life, at or about a level of income just slightly more than the outgo, a trap the Democratic Leadership knows from which they will never escape on their own. In short, American Democrats have gone from shackling Black Slaves forced to live on Plantations to where Red and Yellow and Black and Brown Peoples and Women are financially shackled to where they can afford (allowed) to live and where it has been decided (tested) as to where and what work they do. Clearly, there is no distinction between these two periods of physical than political enslavement in American History separated by about a 100 years.

   And it is important to note that the American Middle Class had nothing to do whatsoever with the enslavement of anyone, domestically or internationally.

   In sum, this is the status of the true situation today. What will it be tomorrow? If this information is presented in the newspapers and the Six O’clock news, there will not be an “economic crash” or a “depression” and the cost of living will soon decline to True (intrinsic) Market Value again, and maybe Rock and Roll music and dancing will crank up again and everybody will have a little fun like we used to in the 1960’s and 1970’s!

   As Americans, lets individually act to support and restore the American Middle Class.

   Historically, it has been the existance of a Middle Class that has successfully served to preclude the loss of one’s country and culture. And don’t forget, America is today just about the only viable Middle Class remaining in the World. And the countries that had a growing and viable Middle Class (Mexico, France) were destroyed by their own politicians.

   It’s up to you. Tell a friend.

   *** End of Document ***

   Dehnert Queen

   American

   Lucerne Valley, CA

   760-248-7651 Land Line

   214-500-6544 Cell

   chr@sisp2.net

10. Catherine Austin Fitts

    Re: The Housing and Economic Recovery Act Fiasco of 2008

    I was founder and ceo of the Small Business Development Corporation in San Francisco for many years (defenestrated 1997), where, among many other activities, I both defended and promoted the “Small Business” and “Middle Class Community” at thousands of public hearings at the local, state and federal level regarding hundreds of issues. At one point I became the official “no committee” regarding a key initiative ballot issue and simultaneously ran against Willie Brown for Mayor. It soon got to the point where he would not debate me; the audience could tell I was telling the truth, and Willie wasn’t. Many people, including my opposition said I changed the course of history during my tenure, but liittle was reported in San Francisco’s liberal media; to do so wasn’t politically correct.

    Simply stated, I can assure your readers that the socio-economic events since about 1986 have been orchestrated in a manner much like the classic “shell game” where it is impossible to keep an eye on the pea — the hand, and politicians — are quicker than the eye. Clearly, the escalation in the price of gasoline, food and other commodities this past year and the bursting of the “housing bubble” in recent months are important elements in the plan to destroy the American Middle Class once and for all, forever.

    In important part, my ongoing research activities produced a surprise last Friday in the form of Chairman Bernanke’s March 30, 2007 report titled, “The Community Reinvestment Act: Its Evolution and New Challenges,” which provides substantial detail regarding both the history and the laws and policies enacted since the CRA Act was adopted in 1977. [http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/Bernanke20070330a.htm]

    Before one reads subject Chairman Bernanke’s report, review the following key points and background information that was sadly lacking in both the report and recent news coverage thus making it possible for people under the age of 40 to understand the “text and tone” of the report. This in turn makes it possible to understand the fact that the recent “housing collapse,” the proposed “bailout” bill, and The Federal Reserve’s “takeover” of the US financial markets are the product of what I know to be a well funded, intentional plan to “Finally Destroy the American Middle Class” such that America becomes but another Third World Country consisting of only two “classes,” Rich and Poor, utterly controlled socio-economically by certain ancient families and governmental officials and organizations in a manner replicating that of Mexico. which is essentially controlled by 10 families.

    I make no attempt to convey all the key points here, but the following points should serve to inform your readers to a degree adequate to understand that which is “really going on” so that they can convey to their Congressional Representatives “no way, no how” and “I’m not going to take it any more,” such that the facts of the matter become front page news and the details of the whole mess “blows up” in the faces of both the guilty and the culpable innocents who can and will recover and get on with their lives — as Americans. I acknowledge that the “displaced” sub-prime “victims” who tried to acquire a house on a marginal income may have to move back into an apartment for two or three years, but if they save the same amount as the mortgage, they will be able to buy another house costing half of what it was originally via a substantial cash down payment.

    Key Points and Background Information

    First, the rampant fraud and theft that has gone on beneath the radar of most Americans between 1986 and the present were implemented, funded, and protected on a colossal scale by both Congress and certain Administration departments for self-serving political purposes.
    The proof of rampant fraud and theft resides in my archives and in the archives of the innercitypress.com website, who daily fought like junk yard dogs for many years before numerous Congressional and Administrative oversite committees, to no avail — because “the fix was in.”
    Second, the mantra and political movement declared as “a right of access to housing” was both the mechanism and the process used to BUY votes and GAIN political power while making banks, sub-prime lenders and non-profit, 501(c)(3) corporations (a friend and I dubbed “Poverty Pimps”) very wealthy at taxpayer expense totaling many billions, possibly trillions of dollars in the form of millions of housing units being constructed or otherwise controlled under the nom de plume of “low cost, affordable, housing.”
    But most of the rents are not low because local elected officials enacted laws and policies that purposefully escalated the cost of living yearly, if not weekly, while incomes remained the same or declined because of the illegal labor force, and because the high-density units are small and both the rental income/debt service payments and the absent property tax effectively makes the units “tax free” to the owners of the non-profit, 501(c)(3) corporations.
    This accruing, hidden “expense” unknowingly absorbed by local and national taxpayers for more than a decade includes the bridging loans, construction costs and “tax free” accrued wealth that will at least DOUBLE the drain on local and national economies if the Democratic and Republican leadership have their way with the “Bailout” Bill.
    Third, under federal, state and local law, any jurisdiction may “declare” any area as “blighted,” even in Upclass or Middle Class Neighborhoods (the latter geing the prefered target area because few residents have the cash or the expertise to go to court), thus the very-low-interest federal and state “off budget” loans and grants made available almost solely to the plethera of Non Profit (“Poverty Pimp”) Housing Corporations.
    Take note that during subject years, the key Democrat States/Cities bought lots of votes with this program! And these units also house ILLEGALS – often with 2 to 5 families living in a single house while code enforcement officials turn a blind eye.
    Fourth, as stated in subject report, “by the late 1980s, however, the issues surrounding access to credit were attracting renewed interest. In response to this interest, the Congress included in the Financial Institution Reform and Recovery Act of 1989 (FIRREA) an amendment to the CRA statute to require public disclosure of [banking] institutions’ ratings and performance evaluations.”

    Thereafter, elected officials, bureaucrats, the Poverty Pimp Organizations, and the publishers of Liberal Newspapers rethorically used the required “evaluation data” to force via “mob rule,” and “wink, wink, nod, nod” tactics the construction of (or conversion of existing properties) to low and medium income housing projects, often multi-units projects rising as high in the sky as the Planning Commissions dared allow, and nearly always with 100% lot coverage — with total impunity, i.e, if a land owner argued in court, he lost, according to Law and Practice before a friendly judge.

    Fifth, the above policies and practices eventually ruined the quality of life in an increasing number of historic neighborhoods much akin to a creeping pandemic disease, wherein the residents would move to a “safer” neighborhood, and the Poverty Pimp Corporations would buy the property “for a song” because no other buyer would even make a bid on the property, or the listing wasn’t made public.

    And after a certain number of years, or due to certain conditions, and changes in law, the units would become “Market Rate” housing, but the ownership of the units didn’t change, or the ownship was transferred to another non-profit entity, controlled by the same original people.

    In sum, this is the status of the true situation today. What will it be tomorrow? If this information is presented in the newspapers and the Six O’clock news, there will not be an “economic crash” or a “depression” and the cost of living will soon decline to True (intrinsic) Market Value again. Maybe Rock and Roll music and dancing will crank up again and everybody will have a little fun like we used to in the 1960’s and 1970’s! It’s up to you. Tell a friend.

    *** End of Document ***

    Dehnert Queen
    American

    Lucerne Valley, CA
    760-248-7651 Land Line
    214-500-6544 Cell
    chr@sisp2.net

11. Catherine,

    You have my deepest respect in what you are doing. Your courage and stamina is something to wish for.

    Now I’m not a US citizen, I’m living in Sweden. What I can clearly see is that my government and central bank is participating in this charade, by selling gold etc. but I don’t really know how to assess our situation here. Almost all media is in favor of the bailout and at the same time they say that the situation in our country i under control and that our banking system is well capitalized…

    Do you know what steps to take to assess another country’s situation with regards to “tape worm economics” and the ongoing and escalating crisis?

12. Censorship

    A year ago when you were on Coast-to-Coast AM, you started discussing Halliburton/KBR and the Bush deceits. When 740 AM came back from their newsbreak they were no longer airing that nights program but switched to an archived back up without you. It was only AM740 in Houston, home of Halliburton and the elder Bush, that cut you off because I switched to 560 AM in Beaumont and you were still on the air. I wrote about it at the time.

    http://elemming2.blogspot.com/2007/08/censorship-and-uncivil-airwaves-on.html

13. Sebastian:

    It is not to late to start alternative currencies. Indeed, now is a good time. At the end of the great depression there were app. 3200 community currencies in America. Barter is something to look into as well.

    Glen:

    Yup. How do we stop the “corruption tax”? It is a cancer that is driving the healthy out. We need a spiritual and cultural revolution in which millions decide they will not go along with it anymore.

    As millions shun the dirty players and focus our time and attention on rebuilding, magical things are happening,

    Mlyn:

    Great idea! Thanks! I agree, many people really want to know what is going on. Helping them is indeed an opportunity for all of us,

    Catherine

14. The U.S. FIRE industry is in danger of imploding (Finance-Insurance-Real Estate). While Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke are prostrating before Congress for $700 billion dollars, we should do all we can to disseminate Catherine’s message to the hoards of active investors. As a class, they want transparency and accountability in order to make investment decisions. They seek out information from many perspectives: political; economical; international. It is a global paradigm because of the danger of the U.S. dollar, the international reserve currency, falling. More and more people want to know “how it worked ” (unregulated so that anything goes) to “how it should be” (regulated so that it’s a level playing field).

    If Catherine’s message is shut out of the media, liberal or otherwise, we need to disseminate it in as many ways as possible–through blogging on investment blogs (SeekingAlpha.com is one), blogging on MSNBC, Fox News, or Yahoo Finance or Google Finance. Go to websites you never would visit before and promote Catherine’s message. This financial crisis is an opportunity, but Catherine cannot do it alone. We soldiers have to help her. There are many, many people who want to understand what’s currently happening.

15. Words really pale when addressing these facts. Tonight, one of my kids asked me that if Rumsfeld knew what was about to happen on 9-11, why would he talk about missing money the day before? I told him that it might have just been a slip of the tongue, and that the truth is like a geyser..you can’t hold it down forever. In Romans, Paul talks about how evil people constantly work at concealing the truth in unrighteousness, but…the truth will out. And, I love the part that says, “..where sin abounds, grace super-abounds”. Hopefully, we’ll live to see a better day for this country and the world. Maybe this is the darkness before the dawn.

16. Is it too late or pointless to start alternative currencies? As they did in Austria in 1932?Just wondering your opinion
    thanks

17. Dear Ms. Fitts,

    When I first started reading the web site, World Reports.org, by Christopher Story, I thought of you. If our government had listened to your advice, we certainly would not be bailing out Fannie & Freddie now. And, you, would be a much better presidential candidate than any of the ones in the final run.

    Sincerely,
    Bob Johnston

18. The article contained this sentence:

    “If the currency and monetary systems had been run in the manner envisioned by the founding fathers rather than by private bankers, we would not have any debt.”

    The Founding Fathers did not “establish a manner”. What is wrong with the “running of the currency and monetary system” is two-fold.

    1. The “profit interest” is siphoned off into the “pockets of the private owners” of the Federal Reserve instead of continuing to circulate in a closed system.

    2. The profligate-spending federal government has been allowed (by Congress) to incur debt unsecured (unlike the private sector).

    The Solution? A little bit of reading will expose one to it at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/whoru/

    The result: Elimination of ALL taxation and the funding of all four levels of government with the interest generated by the voluntary private sector borrowing.

    “Government” would still have the funding it needs to function.

    The cascade of beneficial changes would be make for Abundance and Prosperity.

    “Taxation” is a euphemism for armed robbery.

19. Why isn’t this crisis being used as an opportunity for the government to embark on much needed banking reform? I see this as just more of the same, Federal Reserve creating money from thin air, giving it to the Treasury in return for Treasury Bonds to buy the garbage stewing at Fan and Fred in return for Preferred Stock and Warrents of Fran and Fred. Sticking the citizens of the US with the Treasury debt owned by the Fed. If Dodd as Senate Banking Chairman or Frank as Senate Finance Committee Chairman had any fresh ideas and a little bit of spinal column, they would be requesting that congress creates the financing directly and the Federal Reserve Bank be thrown under the bus along with the repeal of the Glass Stegall Act. The Federal Reserve Bank should be giving congress bonds for dollars created by congress when the banking system needs injections of capital. Bank issued bonds owned by Treasury as an asset of the people in exchange for congress created dollars. What we have now are dollars created by a private central bank borrowed by congress in exchange for Treasury Bonds as a liability of the people. This is debt slavery and not the freedom that we all believe in, fight for and stand for. What’s the matter with our leaders, don’t they get it?

20. Catherine

    Visiting your web site and reading your commentary has opened my eyes to the corruption that exists in our government and this nation’s financial institutions and the damage that has resulted from their collusion and manipulation. Your advocacy for a return to community based banking makes sense to me.

    During the time that I have become an avid follower of your web site and articles, I am increasingly concerned about what has been happening to our economy, which I now fear is on the verge of collapse after hearing another expert observer say that an “Economic 9/11” is about to hit this country.

    Just as I first learned of you by listening to you being interviewed by Ian Plunkett on the Coast to Coast radio program, I learned of Trends Research Institute (www.trendsresearch.com) founder and director Gerald Celente, who was recently interviewed on the program by George Koury.

    Mr. Celente, a self described political atheist who authorded the books Trend Tracking and Trends 2000 and has been the “go to guy” for network and cable news programs when their programs call for an informed credible take on emerging trends, has for the past 29 years analyzed current events to accurately forecast emerging social, economic and political trends in The Trends Journal – the quarterly newsletter he edits and publishes from Rhinebeck, New York. From predicting the boom in gourmet coffee in 1988 to the economic collapse of the Soviet Union two years prior to the event to the Dot.com bust to the stock market crash of 87 to the run up in the price of gold (2002) to the turmoil of 08, Mr. Celente has a long list of predictions based on current events that have proven to be accurate.

    Do you know of Mr. Celente and his Trends Research Institute? If so, what do you think of his prediction that between now and 2012, the global financial system will melt down? In The Trends Journal’s Winter 08 issue it’s written, “Just as the Twin Towers collapsed from the top down so too will the US economy from an Economic 9/11…when the high stakes speculators, banks, brokerages and buyout firms that leveraged billioms with millions get hit…everything beneath them will turn to rubble. When the giant firms fall, they’ll crush the man on the street.”

    I would appreciate hearing your response.

    Thank you for all that you do. I hope to hear you speak one day in person.

    Best Regards
    GP3

21. Sioux Rose:

    I recorded this to provide an overview:

    http://markinthepark.net/store/audio-seminars/positioning_your_assets/

    Each situation is unique, so it would be inappropriate for me to try recommend specifics to you,

    Catherine

22. The state and local rules are fairly restrictive. Seems to me that there are options even within them but it will involve some creativity and municipalities organizing together. Oddly enough, the best credit for many right now would be to team up with local banks and use some of the reserves to keep liquidity going locally. Without local liquidity, there will be no tax flow….

23. Catherine:
    I have sent several to your site, as the material is powerful and quite a lot to take in. If someone had a small amount of $ and already paid off their mortgage, owns their car outright, and has minimal debt, what is the safest place to put that $? Euros? Buy land? Trust the family stock broker? Bonds? Hide it under the bed in a safe? Other? Every “authority” has a different view, and since real estate is losing value, and the U.S. dollar is losing value, and the magnitude of the nation’s debt may eviscerate other holdings, what does one do in such times? I am a freelance writer who’s lived on about $12,000 a year, raised my children, kept a good credit rating, and just came into a small nest egg as a result of the loss of both parents (within a 2 year time frame). If this is too personal to warrant an answer, I understand. Best wishes, and thank you for having the courage to tell it like it is in an area that is so complex for most of us to grasp.
    Best wishes, Sioux Rose

24. Catherine –

    I was chatting with my brother-in-law at a party last night about the Ginnie, Freddie debacle. He is an assistant fiance director for an affluent city here in North Texas. He said that this housing bill does not really increase the national debt by $5 trillion which I countered with, “the increase in debt is implicit.” The conversation moved to him telling me that he is getting his city completely out of Ginnie and Freddie as those bonds come due. And he said that most other cities are doing the same thing. I suppose this is bound to place incredible pressure on these two institutions. What was really insightful was seeing the fear in his eyes when I suggested that those institutions, along with all the others (Bear Sterns, etc.) should fail without intervention. He responded, predictably, with “They are too big to fail.”

    I’m wondering what I might offer to him to retool his view this and other related financial issues. He has also told me that, by law, his city is not allowed to invest in commodities, or any investment that is not AAA bond related or similar instruments.

    James

25. Michael:

    Yes, it can indeed seem a bit overwhelming at times. One of my favorite stories is the story of Gideon in the old testament. Gideon throws the Midianites out of Israel. It seems the Midianites were so without a higher intelligence and so deeply evil and distrustful that they killed themselves.

    Time to invoke the magic that comes in dangerous times…

    Optimistic,

    Catherine

26. I cannot fathom Catherine’s ability to stay level headed in spite of the ugly, gloomy truth. It’s a very lonely place for me. The only thing more offensive than the level of deceit and corruption within our most powerful institutions is the potential for it to get much, much worse.

    When you realize that the events of 9/11 were conveniently & synchronistically stacked in favor of those (no names) who would benefit, you begin to see a picture of the real terrorists we are facing. These cannibals who seemingly self devour were really never one of us to begin with. Their mantra has never been one of compassion… they are blind to the concept.

    The problem is that commercial jets and anthrax are ploys. These folks have real infectious weapons that will silence us all before a shot is fired. They hold the golden tickets to move “downstairs” and can then claim whatever they want once it’s nice and quite. The brilliant part?… no one will be here to contest who the “terrorists” was that silenced America.

    The only true hope I still hold is that the “times and half times are at an end” and that higher forces will intervene (whatever that means). It will take a new, more mysterious power of synchronicity to fold these folks before they are through with us.

    ~Hopeless

27. What an informative series of related articles; and so helpful in providing a basis for grasping what has been underway. On a personal level, I never had much interest in economics or finance until a small inheritance just came my way. Accustomed to living on about $11,000 a year as a freelance writer (who managed to keep a good credit rating while raising two dynamic daughters as a single Mom) the ways and wherefores of managing money now “knock.” And what a time to be entrusted with a modest nest egg I’d like to be able to leave for my children and grandchildren at some point.

    I’ve spoken to the family broker, my daughter’s boyfriend who makes a living as a financial advisor, a friend who owns over twenty refurbished properties, and others and NO ONE agrees on a wisdom-based strategy because as everyone seems to notice, all of the old rules to the game have broken down. It’s a new paradigm. What once was considered a “solid” investment in real estate, can now not be counted on, since housing prices in most regions are falling. Indeed, the percentage rate of artificially boosted home values over the l980’s & l990’s played a role in this bubble bursting, as do all the factors carefully mentioned by Ms. Fitts. (This is a topic worthy of having a FITT over!) Some bet on gold, but its price is so high; others say to diversify and use mutual funds, while some see the dollar in such a precarious state as to merit the next Great Depression. Some say to hide money under the mattress, or transfer funds to the Euro. I feel like Alice sliding down the rabbit hole, in this case, one dug by bankers and the fed with the help of unscrupulous folks across the housing hub.

    Is there any practical advice for retaining one’s assets in the now? I knew there was corruption, and I was not one to let it idly pass that so many billions disappeared in Iraq… meanwhile the Fox news crowd is taught to hate illegal aliens and/or welfare recipients, as if these disadvantaged thousands make anywhere near the dent in the US (virtually raped) treasury as the forces using all the devious measures Ms. Fitts aptly explains, to expunge our net treasure of all virtual and actual Worth. If it’s just fiat money, like a game of monopoly, I guess all consent to continue playing or be played, till the roll of the dice is no longer made possible.

28. Jeff:

    Excellent comment and question. I was referring to the model expressed in the bill. I did not mean for that to predict what would happen.

    You are correct, the push for nationalization is growing. I am hoping to comment on that in the next week,

    Catherine

29. Nando, yes, indeed! What a wonderful comment. Thanks so much.

30. Please, someone, take the opportunity to edify a poor stiff trying to make sense of the Freddie and Fannie situation. This Fitts article on the housing bill and the evil tapeworm cabal behind it would lead someone to believe that the investors in Freddie and Fannie would do fabulously well. You wrote,

    “The housing bill has put forward the most explicit description yet of the true corporate model prevailing in America—congressionally legislated businesses with central-bank-determined stock prices.”

    Yet the stock is near dead and even Warren Buffett is not interested. Bailouts that I can sense are poised to wipe out any common share holders. This inconsistency seems huge to me. Please show me how I do not understand. If the tapeworm economy is so stransparent and “out of the closet” and fully engorged, why are Fannie and Freddie dying? Please respond. The credibility of your brilliantly written lengthy article on the housing bill demands it. Thanks in advance.

31. As an American living in Switzerland, I can only say that this is the clearest indication yet that America is not a democracy in the true sense of the word. If the people of America had the ultimate authority within their government and Ms. Austin Fitts could bring forward a referendum that would oppose this bill, Congress and indeed the American president would be in a completely different position. Tapeworm corporations would have a much more difficult time feeding off the American taxpayer.

    I have seen people in Switzerland utterly surprised to learn that Americans don’t have the basic democratic right of referendum at the federal level. True democracy can be a pain in the neck sometimes. Decisions to invade other countries for instance may have to wait until the referendum process has a chance to play itself out. Each individual voter has an opportunity to weigh for themselves whether they wish to pay for a military conflict with their money and perhaps the lives of their children, or their own. And there’s also the problem of education. Only an educated populace with a free press based on informative reporting can create a true democracy.

    I often wonder what effect injecting the right of referendum would have on the American government and people. It would be a challenge to implement, but from my personal experience here, where the influence of direct democracy is evident everywhere in society, I can only imagine it would be very healthy indeed.

32. Just started reading Ms.Fitts and will be back for more.

    However for more than a decade my one political position has been Burn Washington To The Ground And Start Over.

    Unfortunately it is true that most of the public, althought they sense something fundamentally wrong, are unwilling to admit the reality or too uninformed to understand that we have a government approved system of criminal capitalism, not free enterprize.

    You will not be able to reform it or vote it out. Barring accidently electing miracle leaders who will rennounce every deal they made to get into and stay in office, nationalize the airwaves and educate the public you will have to wait for the final collapse. Or throw your own revolution.

    Then you can start over. Until then all the plans, reforms, suggestions, good ideas are just fingers in the dike.

33. Catherine, great work! It was clear to all of us who have read Griffin’s writings and seen Money Master’s, read Tragedy and Hope and “Hope of the Wicked” that this whole housing bubble was engineered to expand to the point when it could easily be collapsed. We see now that one consequence is that the US gov’t (and its puupeteers) will soon become the bigesst landlord(s) in the western world. We know the banker’s have engineered this as an asset-grab, and that the stock markets are being collapsed (and going much lower before it’s all over) just like in other episodes where it has been done to confiscate wealth; but what other implications are there for the financial markets and for US society? What do you think are the goals of the bankers for this episode? BTW did you see the Lindsay Williams interview with Jonathan May (on youtube.com in 7 parts now)? Facsinating. If the 1987 market crash was engineered to confiscate Saudi billions then what do you think is the goal here?

    Keep up the good work.

34. I am a new-comer to your blogs and website–wow! Potent, provocative, a little hair-raising. I’m not sure I’m totally on board yet, but am very interested in many of your arguments, especially your main thesis of tapeworm economics. But a question: if the tapeworm is in high gear and out in the open, you’d expect Fannie and Freddie to not only survive, but thrive, since they are allegedly extensions of the tapeworm model. Why are they teetering near insolvency and bankrupcy? Wouldn’t bailouts just wipe out investors, the very people and organizations that the tapeworm supposedly supports? Please explain.

35. Elaine:

    From 1997 on, I have worked entirely with independent journalist and on line media that are serious about the truth and have integrity.

    Yes, KPFA has censored. However, a lot of good stuff still gets out on KPFA. I appear to reach more and more people every day, so now the time has come to build my own channel.

    The censorship is our opportunity. More and more people are realizing the censorship and are looking for alternatives.

    Thanks for your opportunity for an interview. I would welcome it once we have our first subscription bridge call launched,

    Catherine

36. Dear Catherine,

    I noticed with some alarm that you are now being censored even in the ‘liberal’ media like public radio. I want to welcome you to the growing community of people who are totally locked out of the entire US media complex. I, too, am censored the exact same way. Sometimes, even as I walked into a TV studio to appear on national TV, I would be told, ‘Go away and don’t come back.’

    Then, they never answer calls or letters and that is it! Bush Jr sent Haley Barbour to the NYT, for example, to demand they never publish me again. And they didn’t ever publish me again. I learned about this from another publisher who broke the story. But the story didn’t ‘take off’ because all the other media refused to talk about it.

    Starting in 1989, when this really began, I was annoyed and bemused. I found all sorts of ways around this. For example, when the internet took off, I would run my own ‘forums’ inside of the NYT, CNN, ABC and other forums they had from 1996-2000. But one by one, these were shut down. In all the cases, first, I was removed and ‘banned.’ Then the entire operation was shut down because I would write stuff elsewhere on the web and people at these forums would link to them.

    So it is with you! You are now talking about the innermost workings of the system. The closer you get to talking about the connection of war, money making, the CIA [I grew up inside the CIA, by the way] etc. leads to censorship. The media doesn’t mind goofy conspiracy theorists. They are frightened of real people who served in the government or in my case, worked with CIA parents, who know the inside of the inside.

    This is why your censorship will now grow until you become ‘That woman’. It amuses me to see stories about the past whereby I am referred to as ‘she’ or ‘her’. Once, George Magazine, after the Kennedy kid died, decided to do a hit piece on me. Each time they wrote my name, they wrote it wrong. My own readers made fun of this at the magazine’s online site. Then suddenly, the magazine and all this hoo-ha vanished forever!

    Another example: on 11/12/2000, I went throughout the Senate to get Senators to endorse my ‘Uniform Voting Machine Act’ bill. I learned from one Senator, he was going to flip from Republican to Democratic. I went to Trent Lott to tell him he was doomed. He refused to sigh onto this proposal I had but the DNC leaders said they loved it and would endorse it.

    As I left DC, I heard on the radio nothing but praise for this bill. Then, one of the Senators mentioned my name on air. The NPR story vanished! Never heard again! Not one Senator would admit to meeting me that day! The bill died, of course. It was not curious to me that this happened. I expected it. I was amused about breaking the wall of silence but now, it is ten times thicker and higher.

    By the way, I would LOVE to do an interview with you! If you have time in your extremely busy schedule, I would love to talk.

37. Once again, we witness Ms Fitts taking a confounding subject and making quick work of it, giving an understandable analysis of the politics behind the business and economic world.

38. Dear Ms Fitts: You once again hit the nail on the head, and so I ask:–WHO IS LISTENING–???
    I have been investigating teh global financial fiasco through reading numerous websites and incorporating these well reasoned arguments with my own experiences now headed to the 6th decade. The financial and political demise of the “late great USA” has been a long drawn out meticulous process. My sincere respect to you, as one who has removed herself from the clutches of the inner federal beaurocracy and high rankings of Wall Street and the investment banking community. I too “dropped out” after the Nixon Administration after my many attempts at opposing the Viet Nam War; then raising a family apart from the mainstream ( a nearly impossible task ) ; then in an attempt to “retake the land”- a Jeffersonian Constitutionistic stance in the 1980’s joined the Home Grown marijuana movement ( was it a movement? ) in Humboldt County, CA. Then a series of low level manual labor logging and construction jobs and becoming a certified aviation sheetmetal repairman; Then after a layoff, a bout with the federal penal system in 2000 for marijuana distribution ( it was an intermediary step to acquire a HEMP FARM )!!! Yet all along the Cheney’s Law followers and PNAC composers; and Bush’s War cabal were syphoning the wealth of America the country I love from our vaults as an accounting manipulation!!!! covert economic warfare is not a new concept and one wonders who of great stature will stand and announce the “emperor has no clothes”???? The numbers are so vast that Mr. Walker and friends are announcing that the $53 trillion in what is commonly known as “entitlements” is due….BUT I am certain they completely neglect to include the nearly or is it multiple QUADRILLION DOLLARS in unfunded and non-collateralized dereivatives that are also due… ACCOUNTING— yes they will continue to hide the facts and the truth while they go through yet another billion dollar presidential/congressional election cycle…I once was awarded a belt buckle for growing the largest zuchini at the Harvest Home Festival near Rapid City, SD in 1981- It had an inscription: MORE ZUKES NO NUKES!!! Best of all to you from So Florida, Richard

39. Greg,
    lol
    Sorry. No insult intended. I am actually from gen-x. I would suppose that the circle of people you work with are quite different from the ones I work with. My generation and the subsequent one have fresh ideas, good with abstract thoughts, and are quite creative. However, they/we tend to lack focus and attention to detail and, sometimes, even sensitivity to others. Of course, please understand that these are merely stereotypes and not descriptive of everyone within that generation. You are correct in that we are all responsible.

    With regards to my comments on extensive gov’t corruption, I am currently rethinking this.

40. YIKES!
    James, as a Gen-Yer I am a bit concerned with where you are going with your comment…
    I could just as easily blame all the worlds problems on the ethical and moral laziness of the thick headed Boomers and WWII Generations who unquestioningly banged their heads against mother earth and created the globalized trash heap we call western civilization…
    well done
    and how
    But instead I will say, why don’t we open up the discussion as to what skills and knowledge does my generation have that yours does not? and Vice Versa…because we are not going to get out of this by pointing fingers…
    I am grateful for the hard work of my father, my father’s father and my father’s father’s father.

    I am grateful for the fortitude and work of all my mother’s.

    I am grateful (in a funny kind of way) for the big mess that’s been left for my generation to clean up…I am grateful for the internet that allows this inter generational dialog to take place…
    But my gratitude does not stop the fire in my belly from expressing itself as a strong work ethic and an entrepreneurial spirit…
    But i refuse to be goaded into taking some half assed corporate job to full fill the older generations idea of “work”. In fact that would be an act of selling out to the Tapeworm.

    Instead I am fighting through the tangled web of ethical ambiguity to try and create a path towards regeneration of our culture and world. I call this path ecosocial regeneration, and it is the intersection of many disciplines of knowledge and craft.

    …Some of the characteristics you call lazy in my generation are nothing but the necessary response to an ambiguous world of lies and backroom deals…

    Why go charging ahead when you cant see whats beyond…
    this is the time for thoughtful and careful interventions, not cowboy George Bush-Loan Ranger Antics…
    This time calls for teamwork…and my generation is equipped with the skills, knowledge and ethics to serve as leaders in a new movement…You can only move as fast as your slowest member, and the assertiveness and “workethic” of prior generations needs to be softened by acknowledgment of the whole, our membership of a family of cultures and species that we need to survive and thrive.

    Unlike the past, real leaders do not simply command…instead they walk the tightrope of empowerment and accountability, creating the opportunities for people to thrive and work together.

    Many of us are busy trying to come up with shoestring budgets to save the world while the corporate world barrels towards a cliff like a juggernaut dragging the rest of us with it. The majority of our olders (not elders, for that would imply wisdom) look at us scurrying around hither and yon as if we are nothing but confused children who ought to “get a real job”

    If you hear little bitterness in my words it is because I have been struggling my whole life to overcome some insane expectation of my generation to work harder and faster and be stronger…
    all the while we point out the real issue at hand…SLOW DOWN…WALK SOFTLY…WORK TOGETHER…

    So, who is complacent?
    Is it the Gen Xers with thier college debt? who tried to do what their parents wanted?
    Is it Gen Y with its wanderlust? trying to walk away form the problem and realizing that if you go straight long enough you end up where you started?
    Or is the the boomers and WWIIers who are sitting around griping about the state of things…a system they HELPED SHAPE!

    I think we are all going to take some of the blame…smile…WE ARE ALL RESPONSIBLE

    …its time to get back to work, the world needs us, our children, and their children’s children’s children need us, and they need us together, able to work as a team.
    The real work is connection…the system wants to alienate us from one another, pointing to abstractions and “character flaws” and saying in triumph…THAT IS THE PROBLEM!

    well, i for one refuse to get sucked into that viscous cycle.
    Its time to open the dialog and start dealing more intimately with finance, politics and community.

    The New Housing and Economic Recovery act is a sharp reminder that we need to take matters into our own hands and start empowering ourselves. The first step in that process is finding venues to come together that can support the kind of conversations we need to have.

    If that’s lazy than I am a rapscallion and a vagabond.

    http://www.gaiapoiesis.blogspot.com

41. Stephanie,

    What I learned from Mrs. Fitts from my short time perusing this site is the depth of corruption which pervades the government. It seems that it occured on a grand scale in the 1980’s. To oversimplify in a nutshell, good people will do good things and bad people will do bad things. No laws, due process, policy and procedures will deter such people to circumvent the system. The problem seems largely spiritual.

    If I could also comment on people in general, I have noticed the x-gen and y-gen seem to be much more complacent and have much poorer work ethic than the generations prior. To me the epitome of work ethic and assertiveness was possessed by the WWII generation. Not surprisingly they are also the ones who also survived the Great Depression. The rise of modern conveniences and easy and abundant wealth/materialism has resulted in dissolution of American character. I fear that future generations will not have to fortitude to step forward to address these formidable challenges.

    Given the depth of monetary obligations, economic collapse appears to be a mathematical certainty.

42. Could this be the model that incorporates traditional American values?
    Permaculture Community Investment Bank

    The following is an idea for setting up a local Investment Bank that would finance small business start-ups under a Brand such as “Permaculture Enterprise Network.” This Bank would provide training and mentoring for its borrowers, as well as an ethical basis for its businesses: “Earth care, people care, fair share,” from Bill Mollison’s “Permaculture, A Designer’s Manual”(1988). Permaculture is a way of designing place-based ecological economies. It is capable of providing sustainable water, soil, food, fuel, and shelter while generating community along the way. Permaculture is intelligence-dense and capital-light. It is a whole systems approach to designing environmentally regenerative support structures for human nurturance.
    Under the Bank’s auspices, business plans would be written by prospective owners for specialties such as rainwater harvesting, edible landscaping, firesafing, alternative energy, fertility and energy crops from marginal lands, water sequestration using earthworks for ponds, swales and keylining, aquaculture, natural building, sustainable forestry, constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment, small scale dairies, food processing and preservation, among other things. These are basic capacities that make a place prosperous –capacities that add up to real productivity and local security.
    There are many proven techniques, not difficult to master, that young people willing to work, could pick up and get good at. The Bank would sponsor the basic permaculture design certification course, an established 72-hour curriculum with a hands-on design project pass-fail requirement, which would be a prerequisite for a basic business management course in which students would learn to write, with expert coaching, the well-thought-out, customized-to-place business plan most appropriate to their abilities. The Bank would retain majority ownership and provide ongoing mentoring for enterprises selected for support until the business passed a financial assessment proving viability, whereupon, with ample cash flow, the owner could realistically buy out and become fully independent. Maintenance contracts for installed systems, since many of the techniques are new, would be a common feature offered, providing ongoing employment and developing experience until systems maintenance for these new approaches has become as familiar and mainstream as maintenance of private autos, septic systems, lawns, homes, and major appliances are today.
    The Bank, in its function as small business incubator, would provide bookkeeping and marketing services for its start-ups. These are the tasks business-owners starting out have the hardest time with. The Bank would provide training, loans for equipment (each start-up not very capital-intensive), mentoring, legal services, accounting, as well as customers for each new business. The moral support supplied by such an arrangement would be a powerful insulator against the high failure rate common to small business starts in the mainstream economy.
    The Bank, in its function as promoter of permaculture solutions, would lobby local government to remove regulatory obstacles. It would set up specially permitted model projects to demonstrate quality standards. It would obtain economies of scale in purchasing materials and equipment. It would coordinate flows, one enterprise’s waste becoming fuel for another’s production. It would also help with allocating labor between enterprises seasonally as needed. The different specialties once launched, might form their own associations, interact with experts in their fields, sponsor research, and nurture ongoing innovation in their area of expertise. Competencies would be developed and best practices established.
    The Bank would be a conduit for philanthropy as well as a source of information about available subsidies and tax credits. In its function as an investment vehicle, The Bank would provide a secure home for local investors to place their money into shares of locally productive, visible hard assets generating income streams. In its function as holder of an ethical mission, The Bank would assure the customers of its protégés monitored, high quality services. As a part of its ethical mission, The Bank would demonstrate financial transparency, for the purpose of building trust.
    An apprenticeship program would develop ongoing expertise. It would provide a sense of belonging to a challenging and meaningful mission as well as a structure to stimulate inventiveness among the young. People care services could be integrated with these activities, such as child care, allowing adults in their most productive years maximum convenience and peace of mind as they work.
    In the current economy people are losing their jobs, just as a great deal of work needs to be done to get alternative support systems in place. The time for this is ripe. Due to the hole made in the mainstream economy by a falling house of cards, state and local governments, pension funds, financial institutions, even the federal government, are rapidly becoming insolvent and are already being forced to cut services. It looks like communities are going to be left on their own. Investment vehicles that only a year or two ago were fine, now seem uncertain: stocks and bonds, real estate, even bank accounts no longer seem as secure as they once were. Investment in real-world productivity, building local skills and basic self-reliance using the best knowledge available, would leverage investors’ assets into practical systems for maximum community-based long term security.
    The organization described here could start with where we are today, doing those projects which are legal, productive, and financially viable now, while remaining observant, adaptable, and open to evolutions as conditions change. It could safeguard an ethical basis for ecological human nurturance. Permaculture’s whole systems perspective is capable of revealing efficiencies which can then be designed in to highly effective systems for prosperity in a given place.
    The Bank would also be an appropriate venue for the creation of a LETS –Local Energy Trading System: an alternative currency. Once a community of small businesses got production for local needs up and running, a local currency could protect an area from inflation, deflation, supply disruptions, and failures in the existing financial system. In prosperous areas, the network of businesses would be integrated with the regular cash economy, and evolve as needed. In low income areas with high unemployment, it could operate under work-trade or other types of barter arrangements.
    This is an idea that is not very hard to do, not very expensive, can start small and grow, and can end up with local prosperity capably building up in a climate of trust and cooperation, with a fair and understandable moral foundation.

43. Author and attorney Ellen Hodgson Brown wrote an article entitled “Fannie and Freddie: Giving Away The Farm” (8/6/08) which was published on the GATA webiste. In this article Ellen Brown says: “As for Fannie and Freddie they may be too big to fail but they aren’t too big to be nationalized. If we the people are paying the bills, we should get the stock.” Doesn’t that say it all? “If we the people are paying the bills, we should get the stock.”

    Socialism or corporate fascism or whatever it is seriously begins to mar the body politic of the nation, yet no shot is fired. People just keep going to work, washing dogs and babies and playing cards–or whatever it is we do. Days don’t appear to be different than average normal days. Yet the very absence of strangeness in the national air is itself strange. How can everything be so normal when ideas so abhorrent to the core of the American psyche are deftly implimented into US life through this Housing Bill.

    Though I have begun to learn a little of the scope of graft in government in the USA, there is something which I find even more challenging. Catherine Austin Fitts has begun to educate me that if the problem is centralization than the answer is decentralization. But what if learned helplessness is pervasive among individual American? Then what happens?

    In the primaries leading up to this current US election, what seemed to be verbalized in social settings so very often was: “Well I like this guy more than anybody and he represents what I believe more than anybody else running but we all know he can’t win. He doesn’t have a ghost of winning so I will vote for the lesser of two evils.” There you have it–people consciously voting for those they define as an evil. Who has called us to vote for an evil? Who has called us to vote expedience and learned helplessness? Who has called us to pull a lever for someone we think of as an evil and to not vote for the candidate we most admire? Something in me thinks that unless this very pervasive thinking pattern changes, then the rest cannot change. We actually do not vote our own self-interest–we vote the tapeworm.

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