Claim Your Change: Change Your Bank, Change Your World!
Kyle Thiermann

How to Bank at a Local Bank
Solari

Community Bank Locator
ICBA

Starve the Beasts - Start the Revolution
Anecdotal Economics

". . the Systemically Important Too Big To Fail (SITBTF) institutions completely have captured our flag, our capital, our political parties, our "democracy" and our very lives, we as regular, hard-working, country-loving J6Ps have only this one remedy remaining, as all others woefully have failed.

We have only one option remaining to fix this ourselves, to starve the beasts, and it is, simply:
Stop Doing Business With Them.

If you are banking with a SITBTF bank, start by closing your checking account. Move it to a smaller community bank which offers the same features such as bill payment services, payroll depsosit, automatic debits and the like. Close your savings accounts, your CDs, your money market deposit accounts and move them to one or more community banks, and introduce yourself to an actual banker and branch manager (it will be handy someday to personally know someone).

Stop the madness - starve the beasts. If we don't, WE are part of the problem and we deserve what we are getting and what is happening, now and in the future, because it WILL happen again if we let it."

North Carolina Town Prints Own Currency to Support Local Business
Democracy Now

Old idea means 'Plenty' currency in Pittsboro
WRAL News

Brooklyn Food Conference
May 2, 2009
Brooklyn, NY

What is financial permaculture?

It is about the people within a community
building self sustaining, decentralized local
economies that will thrive in this current financial
crisis spawned by the folly of centralized non
local economies.

It is about solutions created by people
working as a community, breaking the
chains of apathy and government dependency.

It is happening now in America in Tennesse.

Financial Permaculture from Greg Landua on Vimeo.

The Garden

THE GARDEN

This award-winning documentary chronicles the complex and emotional story of the destruction of Los Angeles' South Central Farm. Created from the ashes of the L.A. riots in 1992, the South Central Farm was the largest urban farm in the United States until its destruction in 2006. "The Garden" follows the farmers as they organize and launch an impassioned public battle to save the farm. The film documents the farmers' struggle against the city's backroom deals, and exposes the underlying issues of money, power, poverty and racial discord. The film explores the fault lines in American society, raising crucial and challenging questions about liberty, equality, and justice for the poorest and most vulnerable among us.


View the trailer and find screenings here:
http://www.blackvalleyfilms.com/trailer/

Milwaukee neighborhoods could print own money
Chicago Tribune

"They can't spend it at the Wal-Mart or the Home Depot , but they can spend it at their local hardware store or their local grocery store."

Solutions to the economic crisis : Catherine Austin Fitts on going local

Former high level government official
and former wall street banker Catherine Austin Fitts
on Flashpoints Radio talks about how banking with the
big banks/investing in the big corporations will further destroy us economically and how banking/investing local can radically change things for the better:

"This [financial crisis] can't happen unless we as a society
allow it to happen."

click here.

then click on Wed. Oct.22 show and go to the 6:00 mark for interview.

then go to the sidebar of this blog and click on "Take Action: Bank Intimate"
and learn how to find a solid local bank.

Can Our Own Communities Serve As Financial Safe Havens in Troubled Times?

by: Catherine Austin Fitts & Carolyn Betts, Esq.

The fall in global stock market prices over the last year has had a significant impact on most Americans’ retirement savings. When monthly 401(k) and IRA statements arrived last week, many small investors saw their investments drop in value by significant amounts. On Friday, October 10, a Wall Street Journal headline reported: “After Year of Declines, Investors Lose $8.4 Trillion of Wealth.”

The response of the federal government and the Federal Reserve to this situation is further eroding small investor confidence: while small investors and their pension funds suffer significant losses, Wall Street firms are receiving multi-billion-dollar loans, investments and bailouts and the executives responsible for creating a mortgage securities and derivatives scandal escape with rich golden parachutes.

Continue Reading . . . .

Let's BAIL OUT OF WALL STREET!!

WHAT ACTIONS CAN WE TAKE TO BAIL OUT OF WALL STREET?

The time has come to purge these people from our lives. How do we do it? Since our readers had such great ideas on the bumper stickers brainstorm (yes, we are making some!), we thought we would invite ideas on what to do now that Congress has given Wall Street another trillion dollars and a get out of jail free card.

By Catherine Austin Fitts and Carolyn Betts, Esq.

Here are ten ideas that we wrote up to get us started. Sound off with actions you think we can take!

(1) Vote with your feet and our money in your personal banking affairs. Take all the money you control out of big money-center, tapeworm banks and financial institutions and put it in local credit unions, thrift institutions, savings banks and state chartered banks.

(2) Take control over your retirement savings. Listen to our audio seminar, Positioning Your Assets for Growth in Uncertain Times and use what you learn to protect your assets. Look for more ways to use your investments to increase self-sufficiency for you, your family and your community. Look into the requirements for self-directed IRAs, which will allow you to invest in such things as precious metals, commodities, real estate, local small businesses and offshore investments that are not publicly traded or otherwise on the usual lists available to small investors. If you are limited in your investment options because your retirement funds are in your employer’s 401K, research the list of permitted investments and purge your portfolio as much as possible of tapeworm companies. While you’re at it, talk to the investment folks at your company and urge them to adopt anti-tapeworm investment strategies.

(3) Support state legislative efforts to amend state securities and tax laws to facilitate investing in loans and equity in community businesses by middle-class investors. Remember that safeguards to protect investors from unscrupulous snake-oil, penny stock and chinchilla salesmen are good, but in the name of protecting “unsophisticated” investors without substantial holdings ($200K annual income and $1MM net worth excluding residence), federal and state securities laws have effectively forced the “little guys” to invest in the tapeworm. Why is it easy for people of moderate means to lose money in the lottery, but almost impossible to invest in each other’s businesses? (The answer is Wall Street does not want us to be able to invest in each other – they want us to go through them.)

(4) Use your influence to urge institutions and governments you deal with to vote with their feet and the money they control. Urge others to do the same. Make a list of these institutions and governmental and quasi-governmental units and write letters, go to meetings and otherwise get involved in the processes by which they make decisions about where they deposit and invest their cash. Here’s a list to get your creativity flowing:

a. Everyone who asks you to contribute money: charities, college and private school endowments and churches
b. State, local and union pension funds
c. City and county governments and government-related entities (e.g., water company, school board, county general fund, bond reserves)

For more ideas on pools of capital in your community, see http://solari.com/blog/?p=1214.

Another thing to keep in mind is that big pools of money like huge charities or charitable pools (e.g., United Way, Red Cross, etc.) and college endowments (e.g., Harvard, with its $30 billion endowment) are usually controlled by members of the tapeworm. This money generally is deposited and invested in the tapeworm. Boards of directors of these institutions are loaded with the good ole boys who may be put in their places to bolster the prestige of their employers and garner social acceptance for institutions whose activities you and I might not approve of (e.g., consider the motives of Archer Daniels Midland in sponsoring public television shows). Reconsider your options so that you invest in causes where you know your contributions are not used this way.

(4) Spend money locally and reduce dependence on big box stores. Make a list of family expenditures over the last year and categorize them in terms of whether they are local or “tapeworm” oriented and whether they are discretionary or non-discretionary. Look at the discretionary category and the money you spent at “tapeworm” restaurants, big box stores, chain stores and similar outfits. Then identify a local alternative for each one, keeping in mind that some big names are franchises owned by local small businesspeople who need our support. If you don’t know, go to your local stores and ask who owns them. Also remember that while local grocery stores may be preferable to chains, even at chains you may have the option to choose locally-grown and organic foodstuffs, which both support local and regional farmers and contribute to your family’s health and well-being.

When you make out your Christmas list or school shopping list, see how many items you can identify that can be purchased through non-tapeworm sources. Of course, while you’re at it, remember that you’ll get a “two-fer” in heaven, or more bang for your buck, if your spending decisions favor goods that are produced (a) in this country or at least a country that supports fair labor standards, (b) using green technologies or packaged in recyclable materials, (c) by companies whose employment policies, community contributions, garbage, trash and toxic waste disposition policies, business dealings, production methods and other policies are “net energy plus” and have a positive return on investment to the community.

(4) Prepare for more power outages, cash shortfalls and other emergency situations. More central controls leads to more unstable systems. We need to protect ourselves from the risk of relying on unstable systems. Since inflation in the costs of real goods are here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future, and who knows what kind of shortages we may be subject to for whatever reason (market manipulations, weather-related catastrophes, break-downs in neglected infrastructure, etc.), investment in the following makes both economic and strategic sense:

(a) household systems that contribute to lower energy costs and better health (geothermal, solar and wind systems, water storage tanks and wells, electronic air and water cleaners and filters),

(b) staples like toilet paper, non-perishable ingredients and foodstuffs,

(c) canned goods and bottled water,

(c) propane generators and other back-up systems,

(d) community or personal vegetable and herb gardens or local CSAs

(e) locally-slaughtered and packed sides of beef, port and lamb (preferably combine with back-up generating capacity, although homeowners’ policy riders for food spoilage are available for as little as $10/year).

(5) Find or Establish a Local Barter Network. Maybe you can’t get the credit you need to operate your small business, or take out an equity line of credit to make improvements to your home. But remember, you aren’t in this alone. Your neighbors are in the same position. Maybe your local home improvement contractor or lumber yard owner or small business supplier would like to find a way to afford piano lessons or math tutoring for his child, a professionally drafted contract or will or a new website that you could provide. Take a stand in proving that Wall Street cannot bring down our local economy and local businesses if we do not channel our money through Wall Street and the Fed and if we support each other. Used in conjunction with the local currency (see below), this is a powerful way to (a) reduce your exposure to losses from the falling dollar and the forces of inflation, (b) get new customers for your small business, (c) earn extra value in addition to your stagnating salary to help make ends meet and (d) support the local economy so that your customers and neighbors can pay their mortgages and other bills.

(6) Consider a Local Currency. Local currencies aren’t subject to devaluation when the Fed makes bad monetary decisions or Treasury invests taxpayer dollars in useless derivatives, and you don’t have to worry about FDIC insurance coverage. One way to start is to use precious metals within trusted networks. To help you get started, see our silver and gold exchange calculator, www.silverandgoldaremoney.com.

(7) Start a local version of Kiva or Solari Circle for group education, action and investing in local small businesses. Get together with friends and family to decide on what the actions are that can best serve you and take them together. Turn off your TVs, simplify, start a food purchasing club, study options for sustainability and help each other with money management and savings. Many established and stable local businesses are having trouble maintaining their working capital lines of credit to keep their operations going. At the same time, there are many local people who want to take their money out of the control of Wall Street, but don’t know where to put it. Look for local leaders who are knowledgeable at angel, venture and local investment. Perhaps there is a way for you to participate with them.

(8) Let your congressperson know you won’t take this any more. Find out how your congressman/senators voted on the bail-out legislation. If they voted “no,” thank them and send a campaign contribution. For those who voted ”yes,” check out the opponent and let them know why you are doing that (see 10 Reasons Not to Bail Out Wall Street).

(9) Educate yourself and your children about what you really need to know in the future. Urge local public and private schools, community colleges, technical schools and sources of adult education (e.g., community centers, churches and retirement homes and centers) to adopt curricula to teach both children and adults about:

(a) Community self sufficiency and community organizing.
(b) Economics and how the money REALLY works,
(c) What the US Constitution stands for and civic values,
(d) How to fix things: cars, washing machines, plumbing systems, etc. and
(e) The history of our currency (the Federal Reserve, fiat currency, abandoning the gold standard, etc.), NAFTA, the Great Depression and American stock market crashes, financial scandals and crises and what were the causes and solutions.

(10) Start a local solar energy panel franchise, geothermal drilling company or other green business. Retire from your tapeworm job or take the opportunity after a job loss or cut-back to get off the tapeworm job grid. Do business with people you know you can trust. Contribute to a positive return on investment in your community.

Jim Rogers says you live in a communist country

“Anytime your money is controlled or invested in a large anything, large governments, large banks, large businesses, you’re gonna lose.” – Catherine Austin Fitts, former Wall Street banker and Assistant Secretary of HUD

Denial aint no river in Egypt and Americans are deep, deep in it.

In the recent past, American investor/financial commentator Jim Rogers has called for the abolishment of the US central bank, the federal reserve, on mainstream news channels. Of course, any central bank model is the antithesis of a free market and is fundamentally non-economic. Indeed, it is the source of all economic fraud in the US.

Rogers recently weighed in about the bailout of Freddie/Fannie which according to the Associated Press, overnight added nearly $5 TRILLION to the national debt.
“America’s more communist than China right now.
“You can see this is welfare for the rich, this is socialism for the rich. It’s bailing out the financiers, the BANKS, the WALL STREETERS. It’s not bailing out the homeowners who are in trouble.
BANK stocks around the world are going through the roof. That’s because they’ve all been bailed out.”

“It took 232 years to accumulate $9 trillion of debt and in July, we increased it by another $5 trillion by accepting responsibility for Fannie’s and Freddie’s debts.” Catherine Austin Fitts, former Wall Street banker

And so it goes. Wealthy people are financing their criminal schemes with OUR money reaping enormous profits and it is done under the leadership of the federal reserve and executed through ALL the large commercial banks.
Indeed, former wall street investment banker and Assistant Secretary of HUD has stated that EVERY large commercial banks IS engaged in mortgage fraud. She should know. It was her job in government to clean up mortgage fraud and waste.
Obviously then, if you bank at a large commercial bank you are saying “yes” to socialist criminal fraud and you are financing the destruction of communities and people’s wealth.
It’s even more sobering when you consider that a former World Bank economist has stated that " ‘we're going to see a whopper, a really big one’ - suggesting a big US bank is about to go belly-up.”
World must brace itself as the US banking sector 'fesses up' to losses

Thus, it is not even financially safe to bank with these banks.

As I wrote this I found a few days old example confirming again the thesis that these large banks are non-economic and fraudulent. This one involving JP Morgan criminal fraud at it again reaping enormous profits at the tax payers’ expense:
Facing federal probe, JPMorgan exits municipal swaps

The collapse of Freddie/Fannie and the thousands of foreclosures are symptoms of a disturbingly vast and complicated network of institutional fraud imbedded in the system.
There have been 8,000 foreclosures in my town of Brooklyn in this past year alone!
So far removed from fundamentally sound economics is the mortgage market that even Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Arthur Schack has denied the bank foreclosures because they can not tell where the loans originated!
Fighting Foreclosure: Subprime Borrowers Battle (and Beat) Lenders in Court

I don’t know if you’re aware but there has been a quiet exodus out of the US by many upper middle class and wealthy people. They know the economy is only going to get worse.
But you won’t hear about any of this on CNN or FOX.

There is an alternative, a way to protect yourself financially and even make money on what Catherine Fitts calls “the slow burn”.

Your political vote will not save you as both the Republican and Democratic candidates have a pre-school understanding of the economy.
Rather, your vote in the marketplace is what will count for you and your family.
So you have a choice.
Vote for large, socialist government by continuing to invest your money in large corporate banks and lose your shirt or win by withdrawing your support from them, and invest in sound economic local banks, credit unions and even precious metals.

The slow burn is on. Time is of the essence. What will you do or not do?
Do you like living in a communist country?

CNBC Reports Wachovia Poised On Failing

“Anytime your money is controlled or invested in a large anything,
large governments, large banks, large businesses, you’re gonna lose.”
– Catherine Austin Fitts www.solari.com

Merrill, Wachovia in Danger of Failing: Strategist
CNBC

there is an alternative --
to bank at a sound LOCAL bank

Voting With Your Wallet

A 6 Minute Video Expose of the Banking System
and why we should switch to local, well managed banks
by Catherine Austin Fitts

too many americans that i talk to that
are aware of the corruption on all or
some level of government have a
hopeless outlook on the entire situation.

however, when americans take the time
to research the law and their rights as
acknowledged by the constitution,
they immediately become empowered and spring
into action.

this is happening all around the country
right now!

the video link here is an excerpt from a
televised town meeting in a small municipality
in the state of Oregon.

well, what's the big deal then?

the big deal is that the video has received
11,0000 hits around the country!
and its not even a month old.

why?
because it is history in the making!

these american citizens understand power.
through their legal research
they have uncovered that . ..
the IRS, the gestapo wing of the federal reserve,
at the behest of our state and local municipalities
around the country, are illegally seizing american
citizens' businesses and property throughout the country
without allowing these folks their due process of law.

due process is one of our most fundamental
rights acknowledged by the constitution.
this is not communist china, right?

so this post is to demonstrate
that people are waking up and understanding
the power that they have and they are using
it. if americans choose to do this then
the situation is not hopeless.
but if americans continue to do nothing,
then, yes, it will be hopeless and
we are laying down the welcome met
for fascism.

but we need to understand our inherent rights
first.

remember this is not a dictatorship, the
federal government can not dictate to the
people whatever they want.
it's whatever WE want.
for those in government are our public servants.

as the woman in the video boldly states:
the pecking order in this country is:
god
the people
the local gov.
the state gov.
the federal gov.