Remarks by Catherine Austin Fitts Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee
Inc. Conference GATA Goes to Washington -- Anybody Seen Our Gold?
Hyatt Regency Crystal City Hotel, Arlington, Virginia Saturday,
April 19, 2008
I would like to thank our chairman, Bill Murphy, and our
secretary/treasurer, Chris Powell, for the opportunity to speak
with you and to be a part of the extraordinary journey and network
that GATA has become.
Thank you for coming and making "GATA Goes to Washington" and our
efforts to press for full disclosure of the U.S. gold stores a
success.
To accomplish our goals in a politically managed economy requires
a new integration of political and market skills. From the vantage
point of good old-fashioned politics, I want to talk about what we
can do.
For some time we have been experiencing an extraordinary centralization
of economic and political power. Economic power, political power
-- the two go hand in hand.
We have watched assets shifted out of governments and central banks
worldwide and moved into private hands at below-market prices --
or simply stolen -- while liabilities have been shifted back, often
for free. Governments are not so much being privatized as piratized.
At the heart of this piratization has been the transfer of gold
stores into private hands, as gold is one of the most critical
strategic assets that one must control to achieve political power
--whether in one place or on an entire planet.
After almost a decade GATA and our allies have proved our point:
The precious metals market is manipulated. Time and the steady
bankrupting of the federal government's credit have also proved
what we have long known -- that the bankers and private interests
who manipulate the precious metals markets are manipulating markets
and events broadly.
GATA's efforts have helped to protect the personal, family, and
business assets of its growing numbers around the world.
Being right and helping a growing network of financial and natural
resource leaders around the world are creating a tremendous foundation
from which to build.
Yet, no doubt in anticipation of April Fools Day, on March 31
Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, former chairman of Goldman Sachs,
announced the Paulson Plan (http://www.solari.com/blog/?p=772) --
an extraordinary proposal to expand the Federal Reserve's power --
including consolidation of control of all U.S. payments systems,
enforcement powers with respect to anything that moves in the U.S.
financial sector, and full authority with the President's Working
Group on Financial Markets to politically and arbitrarily determine
the cost of capital of every player in the economy through
government-funded means.
This means that the so-called cartel can ensure that any company's
cost of capital -- presuming we even have access to capital -- is
many multiples of that of Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase (that
is, themselves), without regard to fundamental economic productivity
and performance. On top of that, they can stick the bill for this
politicized state of affairs back on us, whether through taxation,
inflation, or regulation.
Ultimately, no real economy, no real civilization, can survive such
a drain. This is the heart of the financial mechanism I refer to
as "the Tapeworm." Increasing the powers of this financial parasite
is a direct attack on life itself -- not just on us but on future
generations as well.
In short, we grow stronger, but so does the cartel we attempt to
hold accountable.
So the question before us is: What can we do? In a politically
managed economy, and in the political fight unfolding before us,
how do we shift the course of events in our favor and in the service
of freedom and life?
In honor of Edwin Vieira's marvelous book on U.S. monetary history
discussed yesterday, "Pieces of Eight," let me suggest eight areas
of opportunity for your consideration in the hope that one or two
will inspire you to action appropriate to your unique situation.
First: Let's buy gold and silver.
Those of us who are here today have enjoyed the protection afforded
by the knowledge that gold and silver are money. Our assets have
been protected accordingly. Now the time has come to help those
around you -- family, friends, and colleagues -- to understand the
importance of shifting their assets out of the bubble economy and
back to the real economy, first and foremost to precious metals and
the companies that responsibly explore for, produce, and manage
them.
More and more people are concerned about what is happening in the
current economic and political environment. At the same time,
investing in precious metals is a big step for people who have never
done it, are not financially sophisticated, or are not used to
managing market volatility. We are the early adapters. We need to
reach out to those around us and help them move their assets to
higher ground in a manner that diversifies ownership and control
of precious metals stores.
Second: Let's shift the media.
I don't mean wasting time with corporately controlled media that
is paid to centralize. We can encourage those we know to shift to
the many wonderful alternatives that have become available, including
the Internet sites and newsletters that are represented and mentioned
at this conference.
Can you imagine what the likes of Rob Kirby at Kirby Analytics,
Bill Murphy at Le Metropole Cafe, James Turk with his Freemarket
Gold & Money Report, Bill King at The King Report, and the countless
other excellent sites and newsletters represented in the GATA
networks could do if they had 10,000 more subscribers, let alone
100,000 -- let alone a million? Why not? They have been right and
Fox News has been dead wrong.
Let's support the Web sites, newsletters, and radio shows that are
creating access to a growing audience. Let's think big about shifting
the readership and cash flows into the right media.
Third: Let's shift the brand.
One of the cartel's greatest weapons is its brand. We have seen
leading members of the New York Fed and other Federal Reserve banks
such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorganChase, Citigroup, and Bank of America
commit atrocities again and again. The rape of Russia, the International
Monetary Fund's economic warfare throughout Latin America and Asia,
Enron, the pump and dump of the dot.com market, trillions of dollars
missing from the U.S. Treasury, the fraudulent inducement of America
through the housing and consumer debt bubbles, and the manipulation
of the precious metals markets are just some of many financial
crimes that have been used to engineer centralization by these same
players. We hear the same names over and over again. And yet if you
talk to those around you, everyone is still inviting such executives
and employees to parties, welcoming them as sons- and daughters-in-law
and doing business with them and their investors.
Why are we banking with these people? Why are we trading with them?
Why are we treating them as if they were socially acceptable?
I think the time has come for some serious, good old-fashioned
shunning.
Fourth: Let's shift the money.
With a shift in media and brand, it is then time to shift our
associations, our bank deposits, our brokerage business, and our
investments as far away from these enterprises as possible.
Now this is when I am always told that we are only a few people,
and our assets do not amount to market clout.
I don't believe it. First of all, I have seen what excellent people
can do with a small amount of resources when it was shifted into
them. Look at what Bill Murphy and Chris Powell and the GATA team
have accomplished on a shoestring. Look at what James Turk has
accomplished with several hundred million at GoldMoney. Several
hundred million may sound like a lot, but not when compared to the
billions the cartel is draining from our deposits, brokerage accounts,
and pension funds as we speak.
Then think of what would happen if we left today, and in the butterfly
effect of the possible, GATA and all the responsible, capable
business represented here experienced a sizeable inflow of assets
as those assets left JPMorganChase, Goldman Sachs, and their ilk.
I can imagine such a profound financial shift. You can too. Let's
create an intention to see the shift of billions of capital out of
the cartel and into the businesses represented and networked in
this room.
Fifth: Let's think and prospect locally.
This action item is critical because, ultimately, all politics are
local. Local action is how we pull the cash flow rug out from under
the cartel.
Wherever you call home, all around you are pools of capital. Perhaps
your church, temple, or mosque has an endowment. Perhaps your
university and your community foundation have significant investment
capital. Your municipal and state entities have pension funds.
All of these entities are doing business and getting drained by the
same criminality.
Where we know people, where we are active, let's start to lobby for
shifting assets and investments onto solid ground and get the
criminals out of the fee flows. If you donate money to an institution,
make sure they are not sending that money back into the cartel.
Let's use what we have learned to protect the capital pools around
us, including the precious retirement savings of our neighbors and
fellow citizens.
Shifting capital at a local level is particularly important as the
credit crunch unfolds, increasing the cost of capital available to
small business, small farms, and municipalities relative to their
larger counterparts.
The piratization that has asset-stripped the U.S. government is
working its way toward state and local governments as the early
signs of municipal budget woes and bankruptcies increase.
"The stock-market guys say you have to reach a bottom before you
can recover, and that a bottom is often signaled by the collapse
of some big entity. Many people thought it was Bear Stearns Cos.
In reality, it's Jefferson County."-- Joe Mysak of Bloomberg News Service, "Largest U.S. Municipal
Bankruptcy Looms in Alabama," April 11, 2008.
Perhaps it would be better if, instead of deploying our local capital
to finance large corporations, investment funds, and banks coming
in as speculators to buy up our local assets at depressed prices,
we buy them ourselves. Indeed, if we had our capital safely stored
in gold and silver instead of in the cartel, we would increase our
capacity to do so.
As assistant secretary of housing in the first Bush administration,
I was responsible for cleaning up the bust of the last housing
bubble. At one point my staff identified a town in New Mexico in
which 70 percent of the mortgages were in default and owned by the
Federal Housing Administration, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. I asked
my staff why the community did not buy the mortgages. Taken aback,
they explained that the community had no money.
I explained that I was from Wall Street, where we regularly bought
things without money. We created an entity and used stock. Since
the town clearly needed to reinvent its local economy, why not
create an entity and swap stock for the FHA mortgages?
Securitization of real estate was still a novel idea in 1989. Today
there is no longer a reason for the local community to be outbid
by speculators if its financially sophisticated citizens take heed.
Today the question is still before us: Who will clean up the defaults
-- Wall Street or Main Street? I would suggest that the answer is
that the cleanup will be done by the players that we finance with
our capital.
Did you know that at the end of the Great Depression, America had
3,200 community currencies? There are numerous groups throughout
America interested in starting community currencies. As my good
friend Franklin Sanders likes to say, using precious metals could
be the "Just do it!" shortcut. (See www.SilverAndGoldAreMoney.com.)
Sixth: Let's think global too.
In every other industry of clear strategic importance -- food,
water, other natural resources, new technology -- the big guys are
trying to squeeze the little guys by manipulating their cost of
capital and using a variety of dirty tricks. Where can we network
with leadership in these other sectors who are struggling to best
the same cartel without the benefit of our knowledge of money and
financial markets? Where is the opportunity for us to ensure that
we are circulating our money and know how to each other and not
back to the cartel?
Seventh: Let's teach our young people about the importance of gold
and silver.
To win the younger generations, we need to undo some of the most
powerful brainwashing that the cartel has been selling.
First, we need to teach the younger generations that fiat currency
has done more damage to the environment and to human and animal
rights than the most irresponsible mining companies dared even dream
of doing.
Second, we need to challenge the definitions of socially responsible
investment that shun precious metals and natural resources and
instead channel retail capital to cartel stocks and bonds. Diversifying
the ownership and control of precious metal stores and the exploration,
production, and management capacity is arguably the most socially
responsible investment on Earth today.
Eighth: Let's support GATA.
All solutions start with truth. To grow our capital and thrive in
this environment, it is essential that we continue to illuminate
and document the mechanisms a politically managed market uses. We
need to switch the cartel's market force out of the magic of the
black box and black budget and into the daylight in a way that
returns market power to our team.
Can you recruit more members? Can you promote links to our site and
bring us more media attention? If you have not yet, can you donate
what is appropriate for you?
I can assure you that GATA appreciates your support and will go far
with what you give.
In summary, there are many opportunities for action. Let's shift
the media, let's shift the brand, let's shift the money, let's act
locally, let's network globally, let's win the hearts and minds of
the next generations -- and let's support GATA as we do so.
As you return to your home, think about which actions are most
energizing for you. And remember: Whatever the cartel does to try
to persuade you that things are hopeless when they are not, you
must not take to heart.
Hold instead in your heart the memory of the stuff of which we are
made. I leave you with the words of Winston Churchill:
We have not journeyed across the centuries, across the oceans,
I also want to remind you that encouragement is available daily.
across the mountains, across the prairies, because we are made of
sugar candy.
Simply log in and read Bill Murphybs latest Midas column at Le
Metropole Cafe and Chris Powell's acerbic commentary on the GATA
wire.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for gathering at "GATA Goes
to Washington." My prayers are for your safe journey home and for
your efforts to blossom and grow until we meet again.
----
Catherine Austin Fitts, a member of the Gold Anti-Trust Action
Committee's Board of Directors, is president of Solari Inc. in
Hickory Valley, Tennessee, former managing director of the Wall
Street investment bank Dillon, Read & Co., and former assistant
U.S. secretary of housing.
* * *
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