Rediscovering Community Wizard – Rob Kirby
by Rob Kirby, Gold Seek:
We all live in and with a debt based system, so in the spirit of Keynesianism – perhaps we might want to try “borrowing” something of very great value from the past.
Catherine Austin Fitts is former asst. sec. Federal Housing Administration [FHA] at HUD in the Bush I Administration. It was during her time in government that Fitts realized government finances needed to be re-engineered from the ground up – one locality at a time. When she left her post in government, she formed Hamilton Securities, which became a contractor to FHA.
“One of The Hamilton Securities Group’s goals was to map out how the flows of money worked in the U.S. and create software tools that would make this information accessible to communities. We believed that the way to re-engineer government was for citizens to have access to the information about the sources and uses of taxes and government spending and financing in their communities, and to participate in the process of making sure that these investments were managed to restore our neighbourhoods to a “Popsicle Index” of 100%. Transparency is essential for private markets to work and for government investment to be economically productive, accountable to those who fund it and managed according to the laws that are supposed to govern such investment.”
Specifically, Fitts oversaw the development of one such software tools called, “Community Wizard”. Utilizing available data bases, community Wizard allowed Fitts and Hamilton Securities to quickly, transparently [all data available on the internet] and efficiently analyze government spending and quickly identify INNEFICIENCIES, WASTE and FRAUD – all at the local level.
Utilizing Community Wizard and her proprietary software tools, Hamilton and Fitts brought stunning efficiencies/savings to HUD.
“…As a result, in approximately $10 billion of loan sales lead by The Hamilton Securities Group, HUD was able to generate $2.2 billion in savings to the FHA Fund. Later audits confirmed that the loan sales had a positive impact for communities in which the properties were located.”
Savings and efficiencies at HUD were threatening to a cadre of companies that had been riding the “gravy train” of the Washington pork-barrel trough, graft and outright swindle.
Everyone knows, when PIGS are faced with an empty trough, they squeal.
The timeframe was the mid 1990’s and let’s just say that the White House was occupied by folks who had other thoughts and ideas on their minds – like pleasing their raping, brethren, squealing pigs – than making America great again.
So what happened next was a litany of fabricated charges against Fitts and Hamilton Securities.
“On August 6, 1996, Hamilton received the first subpoena in what became years of subpoena warfare by the HUD Inspector General (investigating under delegated authority by DOJ.)”
And things got worse.
“The first subpoena was the beginning of a two-year period during which I was not allowed to know of the existence of the qui tam lawsuit that resulted in the destruction of my company and a four-year period during which I was not allowed to read or hear the allegations made against my company and me or know who made them. It was five years before I had access to transcripts of sealed court hearings (unattended by me or my counsel, of course) in the qui tam case.”
It did not take long for Fitts to get it.
“There was a war going on for the rich corporate cash flows determined by the federal budget — between those who made money on building up of communities and a peace economy, and those who made money on the failure of communities and a war economy. As stock market prices and the Dow Jones Index rose, this economic warfare grew in fierceness. For example, a comparison of how DOJ handled The Hamilton Securities Group — a firm that helped communities succeed — versus how it dealt with Enron — a company that criminally destroyed retirement savings and communities — underscores much about the system’s true intentions.”
It was Fitt’s Community Wizard approach to dealing with government finance that had laid bare the sordid squalor which had come to infect the American public purse.
Don’t think this stuff goes on? In Fitt’s own words,
“One day I was a wealthy entrepreneur with a beautiful home, a successful business and money in the bank. The next day I was hunted, business assets seized, living through some eighteen audits and investigations, a smear campaign directed not just at me but also members of my family, colleagues and friends who helped me, and nine years of highly personalized litigation against The Hamilton Securities Group. For many years, I and those helping me lived with serious physical harassment and surveillance at the hands of mostly unseen, dark forces. Events such as home break-ins, stalking, poisonings, having houseguests followed, friends, colleagues and family warned to not associate with me, a dead animal left on the doormat, and worse became commonplace.”
We know Fitt’s solutions have merit and work – because they nearly cost her own life – 4 times over. If anyone has any true intent to make America great again, all they need to do is “dust off” or – in true Keynesian spirit – borrow the software tools created by Catherine Austin Fitts and Hamilton Securities back in the 1990s. Maybe one day, another wealthy entrepreneur with a few beautiful homes, a successful business and money in the bank will figure this all out.
Good luck President Donald Trump.
