Open Thread

The below was written by Catherine Austin Fitts, * Founder and managing member of Solari Investment Advisory Services, LLC.
* Entrepreneur: President of The Hamilton Securities Group, investment bank and financial software developer.
* Government Official: Assistant Secretary of Housing – Federal Housing Commissioner, Bush I.
* Investment Banker: Managing Director and member of the board of Wall Street firm Dillon, Read & Co. Inc.

From the viewpoint of the neighborhood there are six ways to centralize local
capital:

First, you consolidate all retail sales into a few large corporations,including franchise operations, cutting out local small business.

Second, you outsource (“privatize”) all local government functions to a few large corporations or subject them to such an overwhelming
amount of federal regulation that they can be controlled and managed for the benefit of a few large corporations and their investors.

Third, you buy up all the land and real estate, or encumber them
with mortgages in a way that is as profitable as possible and allows
you to get control when you want it.

Fourth, you finance the entire process with the profits from narcotics and organized crime that you market into the neighborhood. This enables you to finance your expansion in a manner that lowers your cost of capital in a way that conveniently lowers the initial price of your investment and/or weakens your competition.
I buy your business and land with your money at a fraction of the cost. No one sells her home faster and cheaper than a mother trying to make bail or pay a lawyer to save her family from jail or
death. That is why narcotics trafficking is the ultimate form of neighborhood leveraged buyout.

Fifth, you leverage all of this with tax shelters, private tax-exempt bonds, municipal bonds,government guarantees,and government subsidies, all protected with complex securities arrangements.

Sixth, you ensure that the only companies and mutual funds
allowed meaningful access to capital are those run by syndicate approved management teams. To raise significant campaign funds candidates for political office appoint syndicate-approved management teams. Investment syndicates define the boundaries of managed competition that cycle all capital back through their pipelines. That means the only local boys who can make good are those who play ball with the syndicate. In this way the private equity in a community can be extracted at a near infinite rate of return to investors and a highly negative rate of return to taxpayers.

God Bless the Whistle Blowers

***JOE FROM BROOKLYN***

It was funny when Chunk did the “Truffle Shuffle” on Goonies.

the wife and I had black truffles every day in Umbria and Tuscany this summer. I’ve hired my buddy’s pooch to sniff some up ’round here to no avail. EH.

oh i saw on the news about the passenger struck on 7th ave f train and the f and g trains were cancelled. i was dreading that everyone would be taking the r, but the r seemed about normal. people who jump in front of trains are annoying. cant they just jump off a bridge or something?

*rob*