Sales of “Atlas Shrugged” Soar in the Face of Economic Crisis
Washington, D.C., February 23, 2009—Sales of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” have almost tripled over the first seven weeks of this year compared with sales for the same period in 2008. This continues a strong trend after bookstore sales reached an all-time annual high in 2008 of about 200,000 copies sold.
“I’m a lunatic farmer, that’s my new catch phrase. I have a Ph.D. That stands for Post Hole Digger. Today we only need to buy toilet paper and Kleenex, everything else we make here. The only reason the framers of the Bill of Rights did not include freedom of food choice along with the right to bear arms, worship and speech was that they couldn’t conceive of the day when food would have to have a USDA sticker on it.”
- Joel Salatin, Polyface Farm, from www.organicconsumers.org
Many years ago, a neighbor asked me to write a curriculum for his high school students. These days, more and more people are interested in learning about economics and financial systems. Perhaps this will help you get started:
Economics 101 by Catherine Austin Fitts
Heartfelt thanks and many blessings to all who have joined us in prayer, either on the conference line or at home. You cannot know what a difference it makes! Catherine and the entire Solari Team are very grateful for your support. All are welcome to join for this fifteen-minute gathering, whenever you can make it:
10 a.m. Pacific/11 a.m. Mountain/12 noon Central/1 p.m. Eastern
Conference line: 1-218-936-7988 Code: 234123#
Elianne Obadia
Solari Prayer Team Leader
Now that social security is being looted, the time has come to replenish it with the remaining balances in our 401k’s.
The George Orwell award to Dean Baker, who thinks the solution is to give the government more power over our retirement savings. After all, an organization that has refused to produce financial statements for more than a decade, has failed to comply with the laws regarding financial management and is missing over $4 trillion, is the asset manager we need to manage our remaining savings.
Miller Says 401(k) Plans Are High-Stakes ‘Crap Shoot’ by Alexis Leondis (Bloomberg)
This first video is a documentary which describes a Southern Christian community exploring the creation of an ethanol business for energy independence and other businesses to build local self-sufficiency.
Financial Permaculture on Vimeo.
This second video describes Fox News’ description of this same phenomenon as “the Bubba Effect.”
War Room: “Bubba Effect”
YouTube
I guess Fox can demonize just about anything, including the desire to live in happy communities and rebuild a vibrant local economy.
In Stanley Kubrick’s thriller, Eyes Wide Shut, we watch as Dr. Bill Harford (played by Tom Cruise) attends a private party given by a secret society whose members have the power, among other things, to kill with impunity.
If you have not seen Eyes Wide Shut, I strongly recommend watching it if you want to understand the real privacy issues related to the mandatory health records database proposed by the Administration.
~ View Parts I through VI of this article here.
Step one to understanding the economy and finance is simply understanding the accounting and financial terms that are new to you or which you do not understand. I usually start with a good dictionary or encyclopedia. A complete Oxford-English Dictionary or a good finance or accounting dictionary should have most of what you need. I always start with Wikipedia and Wiktionary. They usually have the basics.
You can link to both in the links section at this blog under “Get Data.”
If you don’t understand a word, look it up. If for some reason, you feel you still don’t understand, post a question here and I will see if I can answer or get one.
Letter to the Editor
Editor, The Nation
Ladies and Gentlemen:
On February 13th, you published “The Peterson Foundation Responds” by David Walker, CEO of The Peterson Foundation (See Peterson Foundation Tax Return, Pete Peterson), a response to William Greider’s excellent article, “Looting Social Security.”
While David Walker served as the chief auditor to the US Congress, the US government consistently failed to comply with laws requiring audited financial statements and over $4 trillion went missing from the US government. Mr. Walker made no effort to identify funds missing and get them back. He failed to honor his commitments to publish the names of government contractors associated with these losses.
In short, David Walker watched while trillions of transactions continued for years that had not been authorized by appropriations and continued to draw a paycheck and enjoy the benefits of his position.
I can think of no person less qualified to comment on William Greider’s work or to help us determine how to achieve financial responsibility then the auditor who was well paid to give speeches while our wealth was stolen.
Sincerely Yours,
Catherine Austin Fitts Solari, Inc. Assistant Secretary of Housing, George H. W. Bush Administration
See also at Catherine’s Blog: Looting Social Security