[Announce] Actions to take to bail OUT of Wall Street

[Robert Waldrop]

This is a great article that echoes many of my 
thoughts about the financial crisis that I have 
been writing about at www.bobwaldrop.net .

http://solari.com/blog/?p=1648

OUR NEXT BRAINSTORM: 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, 
pork 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.