Catherine Austin Fitts: What can anyone do? A lot!

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?

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