2009: THE YEAR OF THE GREAT VAMPIRE SQUID Catherine Austin Fitts  Solari.com January 6, 2010The world’s most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money. - Matt Tabbi, “Inside the Great American Bubble Machine”

THE GREAT VAMPIRE SQUID

For years, it was hard for many of us to fathom the psychopathic nature of our financial elites, or to expand the meaning of Matt Tabbi’s marvelous description of Goldman Sachs, the great vampire squid. Squid seems a fitting name for the financial cartel that drives what I have traditionally called the Tapeworm.

There were some who saw the danger immediately and tried to warn us, like Sir James Goldsmith. There were some, like myself, who tried to prevent the housing bubble and find alternatives to investing our life savings in it.

While those efforts did not stop the squid, they certainly made it clear that the squid take down of the planet was, indeed, part of a plan. That’s all documented now.

THE SQUID SHIFTS THE MONEY

I often tell the story of my meeting with a group of pension fund leaders in 1997 in which the President of the CalPERs pension fund— the largest in the country—said, “You don’t understand. It’s too late. They have given up on the country. They are moving all the money out in the fall (of 1997). They are moving it to Asia.”

Sure enough, in the fall of 1997 trillions of dollars began to shift out of North America and into the emerging markets, including Asia and China. This included over $4 trillion that went missing from the US government, which I have referred to for years as “the missing money.”

 

 

 

Trillions of dollars are missing from the US government. What's going on? Where is the money? How could this happen? Where are the checks and balances? How much more has gone missing? What would happen if a corporation failed to pass an audit like this? Or a taxpayer? Who is responsible for this? Would your banks continue to handle your bank account if you behaved like this? Would your investors continue to buy your securities if you behaved like this? Learn more in the articles below.

CBS News coverage of Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon speech on September 10, 2001
Watch the YouTube Video

 CSPAN coverage of Donald Rumsfeld's congressional testimony
Watch the YouTube Video  

Articles on Catherine Austin Fitts' Blog:

Billions over Baghdad
by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele - Vanity Fair
September 2007

Those Who Blow Whistle on Contractor Fraud in Iraq Face Penalties
Deborah Hastings - AP
August 2007


Key Documents

U.S. Department of Defense Web Site

"The technology revolution has transformed organizations across the private sector, but not ours, not fully, not yet. We are, as they say, tangled in our anchor chain. Our financial systems are decades old. According to some estimates, we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions. We cannot share information from floor to floor in this building because it's stored on dozens of technological systems that are inaccessible or incompatible."
- Remarks as Delivered by Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, The Pentagon, Monday, September 10, 2001

Independent Audit Report - Department of Defense
Re: $1.1 Trillion Missing from DOD
February 26, 2002

Testimony of the Inspector General - Department of Housing & Urban Development
Re: $59 Billion Missing from HUD
March 22, 2000

Discrepancies in America's Accounts Hide a Black Hole
By Daniel Gros, Financial Times
June 15, 2006

Road to Ruin
by Eric Sprott, Sprott Asset Management
Regarding the $11 Trillion Deficit in the US Government in FY 2004
January 2005

U.S.' Missing $Trillions Make Mainstream At Last
Scoop Media's version of the Chronicle Story with more links added
May 26, 2003

Dillon, Read & Co. Inc. and the Aristocracy of Stock Profits
by Catherine Austin Fitts
A case study of two teams each with competing visions for America.
April 2006

Estimate $3.3 Trillion Missing From U.S. Treasury
by Buddy Grizzard
An excellent overview integrating coverage by key investigative journalists
August 2002

Where is the Collateral? and So, Where is the Collateral?
A two-part series by Chris Sanders of Sanders Research Associates in London
These articles connect the dots between the missing money, the Where is the Money? litigation, questionable HUD deals, and the impact on the investment community
October 2003 and July 2004

U.S. "Could Be Going Bankrupt"
by Edmund Conway, Economics Editor
UK Telegraph
July 2006

whereisthemoney.org
Web site documenting the missing money -- includes petition, FAQs, Who's Who ... also available in Spanish


Independent News Coverage

The Great "Incompetency" Heist
by Catherine Austin Fitts, Scoop Media
May 17, 2006

US Government "Misplaces" Trillions of Dollars
Anxiety Culture Bulletin News
September 3, 2003

US' Missing Trillions Make Mainstream At Last
Scoop Media
May 26, 2003

The Solari Solution: A Responsible Way to Fund America's State and Local Government Deficits
Scoop Media
May 2003

On the Money Trail
MetroActive
September 5, 2002

Questions for a Congressman
Scoop Media
July 4, 2002

The Myth of the Rule of Law
Sanders Research Associates
November 2001

Testimony of the HUD Inspector General
House Government Reform
May 2000


Corporate News Coverage

Auditor Quits with NASA Finances in Chaos
By Arindam Nag and Deborah Zabarenko
May 15, 2004

The War on Waste
CBS News
Citing "cooked books" at DoD, Rumsfeld on the missing $2.3 trillion, ...
January 29, 2002

Military Stashes Covert Millions
St. Petersburg Times
September 28, 2003

'High Risk' Finance at the Federal Level
Insight on the News
August 21, 2003

Congressman Kucinich on NPR's 'Morning Edition'
NPR, June 28, 2003

Pentagon Fights for (Its) Freedom
CBS News
May 19, 2003

Color Codes: The Deja Vu View Back to Abnormal
San Francisco Chronicle
May 25, 2003

So Much for the Peace Dividend
The Guardian
May 22, 2003

Military waste under fire $1 trillion missing
San Francisco Chronicle
May 18, 2003

HUD's Financial Woes Continue
Insight, April 18, 2003

HBO The Sopranos: "Watching Too Much Television" (Scamming the Feds)
Sopranos Episode 46
Brian lays out a way to use bogus real estate deals to con money out of the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development...
November 1, 2002

US Treasury Web Site Reveals $ Half-Trillion Deficit
NY Post
May 14, 2002

Government Fails Fiscal Fitness Test
Insight on the News
April 29, 2002


From Insight Magazine's investigative journalist Kelly O'Meara

Treasury Checks and Unbalances
April 14, 2004
The 2003 financial statements mark the seventh year in a row that the federal government could not audit, let alone balance, its books...

Is the US Going for Broke?
July 14, 2003

'High Risk' Finance at the Federal Level August 21, 2003
The US Government reports that its financial management systems are seriously unreliable...

HUD's Financial Woes Continue
April 18, 2003

Government Fails Fiscal Fitness Test
April 29, 2002
This article cites both the $1.1 Trillion and the $59 Billion...

All That Glitters Is Not Gold
March 2002

What Does It Take to Lose a Contract?
March 2002

Cuomo leaves HUD in Shambles
March 2001

Inside HUD's Financial Fiasco
June 2001

A Financial Fiasco is in the Making
July 2001

Rumsfeld Inherits Financial Mess
September 2001

Total Lack of Trust
September 2001

Wasted Riches
October 2001

Bureaucrats Circle Their Wagons
December 2001

Why is $59 Billion Missing from HUD?
November 2000


Government Links

U.S. Code:

Executive Branch:

DOD News Articles:

Congress:

 

Case Examples of Missing Money

Where is the Money? Litigation
Ervin & Associates and the US Government shut down Hamilton Securities after it developed software for citizens to learn about HUD spending by place, seized the software, bankrupted the company, and never produced any evidence of wrongdoing ... see http://www.dunwalke.com/gideon/

CPA IG Finds Halliburton Mismanaged Government Property in Iraq
Committee on Government Reform: Minority Office, July 2004

Tennessee's Get Our Money Back Campaign -- 2002
Includes: The Story of the Missing Money; A State by State Breakdown of What the Missing Money is Costing You and Your Family; Questions to Congressman Van Hilleary (R-Tenn.) on Actions a Congressman Could Take to Get Our Money Back


Government Contractors

1. Lockheed Martin

Software That Steals: Mortgage Market Unanswered Questions - Hitting On HUD August 2002

2. AMS

Federal Lawsuit Adds to AMS Woes Company Also Faces Trouble in Ohio, Vermont
Washington Technology
July 2001

A Taxing Dilemma by John Berlau
Insight Magazine
April 2001

IRS Boss Snagged a Clinton Waiver by John Berlau
Insight Magazine
May 2001

News Alert: Eizenstat Explains Why He Gave Waiver to IRS Commissioner by John Berlau
Insight Magazine
May 2001

How Can Rossotti Reform the IRS?
Insight Magazine
May 2001

News Alert: Grassley Questions Rossotti's Ties to AMS by John Berlau
Insight Magazine
May 2001

Rossotti Hires Raise Red Flags
Insight Magazine
September 20001

3. DynCorp

CSC DynCorp & the Economics of Lawlessness
Scoop Media
April 2003

4. Harvard

The Harvard Datadump -- An Update

5. Enron

The Real Deal about Enron -- An Interview with Catherine Austin Fitts by Daniel Armstrong
Scoop Media
February 2003

6. The Carlyle Group

Carlyle's Way -- Making a mint inside "the iron triangle" of defense, government and industry by Dan Briody
Red Herring
January 8, 2002


Missing Money in Iraq

Iraq Audit Can't Find Billions
Boston Globe, October 2004

US Probes $100 Million Missing in Iraq
MSNBC, May 2005

So, Mr. Bremer, Where Did All the Money Go?
The Guardian, July 2005

Billions Wasted in Iraq
CBS News, February 2006

Iraq's Missing Billions (video)
Journeyman Pictures, March 2006

Halliburton Watch: US Mismanaged $8.8 Billion in Iraqi Funds, August 2004

Iraq Revenue Watch: Reports & Briefings
Open Society Institute, December 2004

The Not So Strange Case of Phillip Merrill
Joe Quinn, Signs of the Times, June 2006

Balancing Our Bank Book: The Missing $9 Billion and More (Windows Media Audio; PDF Transcript )
Rep. Cynthia McKinney, June 2006

Those Who Blow Whistle on Contractor Fraud in Iraq Face Penalties
Deborah Hastings, Associated Press, August 2007

A 'Fraud' Bigger Than Madoff
Patrick Cockburn, The Independent, February 2009


Missing Gold

Gold Anti-Trust Action (GATA)
http://www.gata.org

LeMetropole Cafe
http://www.lemetropolecafe.com

All That Glitters Is Not Gold by Kelly O'Meara, March 2002

Is a Silver Scandal on the Horizon? by Kelly O'Meara, March 2004


Quotations 

From Kelly O'Meara ~ Treasury Checks and Unbalances April 2004

Robert E. Rubin, 1997, Unauditable
"We believe that the publication of these audited statements is an important step in providing American citizens with more information about the operations of their government."

Robert E. Rubin, 1998, Unauditable
"We believe that the publication of this financial report is an important step in providing the AMerican public with useful information about their government's assets, liabilities and operations."

Lawrence H. Summers, 1999, Unauditable
"We are committed to producing and reporting financial information that meets the highest standards of integrity and to provide to the American people the accountability and professionalism they expect from their government."

Paul H. O'Neill, 2000, Unauditable
"I am committed to producing and reporting financial information that meets the highest standards of integrity and to provide the American people the accountability and professionalism that they expect from the government."

Paul H. O'Neill, 2001, Unauditable
"I believe that the American people deserve the highest standards of accountability and professionalism from their government, and I will not rest until we achieve them."

John W. Snow, 2002, Unauditable
"I intend to continue the commitment to producing and reporting financial information that meets the highest standards of integrity and to provide the American people the accountability and professionalism that they expect from their government."