Listen to the MP3 audio file
The Solari Report – 22 Jan 2009
Michael Corleone: “My father is no different than any powerful man, any man with power, like a president or senator.”
Kay Adams: “Do you know how naive you sound, Michael? Presidents and senators don’t have men killed.”
Michael Corleone: “Oh. Who’s being naive, Kay?”
— The Godfather, Part I
A true family is a group of people who invest in each other’s skills and future. Within such a family, no person is expendable.
Throughout history, financial wealth has been organized around families. Many of the powerful institutions in our society, in fact, represent intergenerational pools of capital -– for example, the Bechtel Corporation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Glenmede Trust Company
If we are to build a strong economy, it will be made up of strong families. Either families in the traditional sense, or families that we create. Many of us are members of families that, like the Corleone family in The Godfather series, have been torn apart by the manipulation of our ambition, greed, and naivete by powerful financial and business interests. Husbands and wives are turned against one another. Children and parents disappoint each other and grow apart. Sibling rivalry threatens family interests.
Most of us assume that The Godfather films — Part I, Part II, Part III — are movies about an organized crime family. The reality is that we all live inside The Godfather’s world. The Godfather series has much to teach us about navigating in our current environment:
- The double-binds that families and businesses face in the real economy
- The stresses that this places on marriages and children
- How we can reduce the risk of being manipulated and turned against one another
- The important role played by churches, foundations and tax-exempt organizations in controlling and managing intergenerational wealth
- The interconnectedness of street crime to the board rooms of global corporations to the financial markets that trade their securities
In this week’s Solari Report our focus is on “Let’s Go to the Movies.” I have prepared a special report on how The Godfather series can help you understand the risks you and your family manage today and what this means to building real wealth in your household and business.
Note: Solari Report subscribers can now listen to Catherine’s discussion of this topic via MP3 recording. You can subscribe monthly or annually here.
Resources:
This seems to fit somehow in these modern times..in some ways.
James 5:1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
James 5:2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
James 5:3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
James 5:4 Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.
James 5:5 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
James 5:6 Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.
I also posted a second comment related to the other fella’s arguments before I hit the sack last night thinking that you had quit for the night before me and not seen the heavy duty one nor my question about it. Now it appears that it was blocked by someone other than you. In my humble opinion I did think “The Powers That Be” like the fact that we crossed paths in an open forum.
I am posting this as a test fire so to speak. Perhaps we should talk ASAP; failing that send me an email and I will send pdf files etc to support what I say is true.
Best Regards
Dave
P.S. I never heard of you until last night and I am listening to your talk at IRTA convention right now. Rest assured I agree and admire your Integrity
Edward:
James Chapter 5 was the scripture this morning and I was just reading this in church an hour ago. Our sermon was on the power of prayer. Check out James 5:20 on.
Catherine
I read Mario Puzo’s GODFATHER novel about 15 years ago and again about a month ago. I tryed watching the first movie soon afterwards and found that the novel gives a much clearer picture of the political world. I tend to view the characters (Don Corleone,Tessio, Clemenza, Michael, Kate, Tom Hagen, Sonny, Fredo, Tattaglias, Barzini,the Turk,Johnny Fontane (“Sinatra”), Luca Brasi ) as representative of nations, national leaders, or religious leaders confronting the problems of business and power on a grand scale.
The central theme of the novel is that Godfather Corleone does not have a successor to the “family business.” Godfather does not want to go into drugs (or prostitution) and almost gets outmuscled and killed by people who need his politcal protection from prosecution since convicted drug dealers might get 10 to 15 years in prison which would prevent mass expansion of narcotics growth. Corleone makes a deal with the drug lords to buy a few years to eventually train Michael as his successor before he hits the drug lords back. Meanwhile, the Corleone Family sell off all their New York assets (at a profit) before making a permanent move into Las Vegas and Hollywood movies. Even after Don Corleone dies, the Family under Don Michael is stronger than they have ever been.
Keep in mind the novel takes place during 1945-1955, with references to a mob war about 10 years before to “clear out the bad blood.” By the way, the leading gangsters of the Five Families consider their rule – even their mob wars – far superior to that of the leadership of the legitimate world considering that their wars left hundred or thousands dead, not tens of millions like World War I & II. The outside world to them was full of savages.
Catherine,
I am new to this forum, but I have read many of your articles on scoop.nz including all of the Dillon Read web book and the mysteries of the missing Pentagon trillions. I understand that Calpers pension funds also invested trillions into Asia in the late 1990s and am assuming some of this money has floated back to support the US dollar (where else could it go?) after the Asian economies began collapsing in 2008. Otherwise, the dollar’s value would have gone down since 4th Quarter 2008.
MY QUESTION IS: Do you think that the Global Financial Crisis is a gigantic game of “chicken” being played by the global bankers instead of a liquidity crisis or even bank solvency crisis? This is the opinion of Matthias Chang (former member of the Malaysian cabinet)who tends to be outspoken, occasionally in poor taste, and uses profanity in his articles… but his opinions are worth reading at least once. In my opinion, the “trillions missing” may explain the extra edge so-called US interests have right now in this game of chicken though it could collapse at anytime if desired by powerful interests. Just like Nixon wanting to end gold convertability of the US dollar in 1973, not even having to pay interest on T-bills now would give the US a quasi-infinite budget from now on that nobody else could control.
[One theoretically positive aspect of this New Financial Order COULD be that the world economy would no longer have to depend on drug money and money laundering. We could go from a partial Ponzi scheme world economy into a FULL-BLOWN PONZI SCHEME at the behest of the masters of the universe]
Matthias Chang made me view the whole “quantitative easing” in a whole new light. He is saying the USA has been involved in the greatest financial confidence game of all time, and while before the US would at least pay the interest on the national debt to foreigners who own US T-bills, the US is now saying that WE WON’T EVEN PAY THE INTEREST anymore. If the exporting Asian countries don’t like it, their exporting economies will go into recession/depression along with a huge instability and unemployment problems in the near future, which explains why global trade has come to a standstill right now.
…………………….
Excerpts from: http://futurefastforward.com/component/content/article/777 (link broken)
(warning, some of his website has Not Safe For Work language)
” We are the biggest buyers in town. If you don’t want toilet papers from us, that is fine by us. You can get tissue papers from the Europeans, bamboo papers from the Japanese and whatever that is on offer. Who is going to argue whether tissue paper would do a better job than plain toilet paper? Hey, this is a free market. Pick your choice!”
“This is the ultimate poker game. Bush, Bernanke and Paulson is betting that no one will call their bluff, turn away and stop selling anymore goods to the US of A. Bush is counting that the fear of recession and or social unrest in the creditors’ countries will force the creditors to capitulate.”
…………………………….
Chang sounds pretty extreme with some of his other opinions (civil war in the US, global war), but the global game of chicken sounds plausible.
Catherine,
First: You re: Short-sea asked, “What courses in Maine? Can you tell me more?”
First courses will start in the Rockland branch of the University of Maine next semester. This will be engine. University upset that they cannot have, and never will have, any control at all. Nor can the United States. Yes, Coast Guard puts some minor stamp on it at some point but more like an extra button on a jacket. Everything must come from ‘IMO’
International Maritime Organization:
http://www.imo.org
About all countries, as must be, in on this including Faroe Islands as separate from Denmark (2002), Vanuatu (1986), Tuvalu (2004), Sao Tome (1990), Saint Kitts (2001). Russian Federation (1958), United States (1950) and the other usual suspects.
It is in London but that matters little. Members can be anywhere, look at list of countries and dates of entry by clicking ‘member states’ on left.
First course is QMED (Qualified Member Engine Department). This position is far more serious than even Rudyard Kipling times as in MacAndrew’s Hymn:
http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_mcandrew.htm
This is completely necessary as in this cabotage ALL running the equipment MUST be Americans and it is difficult to do find any American qualified by IMO. And the few that are qualified are all over 63 years old.
All the smaller container ships, need about 200+ at cost of 20 to 30 million per pop, must also be American Flag. On horizon. And will most likely come from Horizon,
http://www.horizonshipbuilding.com/shipyard.html (link broken)
owned by,
Carlyle Group
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlyle_Group
Few cargos are now American flag except Sealift etc. You would not trust any American academics in this anyway. God forbid. Example: Highly concentrated ‘Concentrated Bio-Degradable Insecticide’ is transported and must be kept highly refrigerated not to explode. QED problem. If any problem must be immediately vented into the water. There would be call that Atlantic Ocean dead of fish but they would come back in less than 20 years.
Problems now MacAndrew’s Hymn times a million. Other positions, di da di da, will follow. Need immediate ‘boots on deck’. Imagine: East Coast and West Coast would need each about 10 more ports. Add another 10 in Great Lakes. All will need everything from cafeteria workers to…., name any occupation. Railroads not only to be redone but new lines.
This does not matter even if trade decreases!!!! Panamax was era of cargo that just slips through canal. Now we have massive 25 knot mostly refrigerated wider ‘post panamax’ who use rail across the US. Most everything comes in/out Long Beach on West Coast and “Back in Lodi Again” Port Newark/Port Elizabeth on East Coast. Incredible waste.
Most eighteen-wheelers will not be needed. Cross country driver’s life expectancy only 52 anyway.
I think economy is at point where ‘burn’ can be controlled up or down as needed. Obviously it need be much more ‘make-um-cry’ harder before masses accepting of the massive changes needed. We went down wrong road with the giant ‘fix da roads’ government intervention in the 50s. However, Europe went to Short-sea and has already worked out most of the bugs. Here it will be a foundation for MANY other add-ons.
I will try it again. Consider this a new post not a repost
FYI while I was blogging with you the other night Catherine. I was also blagging about related matters within the The Beast and the Wall Street Journal etc etc. Most of my words are blocked or erased on the Internet or in courts. I not paranoid in making a true statement. Thus I have resorted to keeping pretty good records of everything I do. The strange thing to me is that I can rely on the Wall Street Journal of all places to allow every one of my comments to stand. Whereas not one other big corporate media will dare to do the same, I think either somebody is asleep at the switch or playing an interesting game with the “Powers That Be” so to speak.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that some my words did stand the test of time in your blog and The Beast’s (Tina Brown)as well. Both of blogs are moderated so it spoke volumes of your integrity and support in the belief in free speech. However when I did post two other comments yours and you did not respond to the third for over a day and half I gave up on you. then i got you email later ans sent mine and called you. Correct? (I do believe that I saved the other comments to repost sometime but I have not time to check for them right now and it is kinda hard to rewrite things that come off the top of my head.) Furthemmore there are kinda important things happening up here in Canada next week that must be dealt with by as many ethical Canadians before they before a matter of malevolent history.
So for now I will post in your the text of an email that I sent out to the General Counsel of J.P. Morgan and many of his buddies last week. If anyone bothers to check they would see that both Eliot Spitzer and Stephen Cutler testified on Novemeber 20th, 2003 at the US Senate Banking Committee Hearing that I pointed to earlier. Anyone can see on page 15 or so of the following file that Spitzer answered me on the same day that he testified but Culter ignored me and just quit his job and got a bigger one the J.P. Morgan tis all.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2718120/Integrity-Yea-Right
I torture both fancy lawyers every chance I get if only to sooth my savage soul and to let them know I am still alive and kicking like Hell. I have run for public office four times thus far in Canada since then to no avail. Sooner or later though enough people will lose enough money that somebody will start asking what the hell I am talking about. EH?
Canadians who read this will find this paragraph funny but ost folks in the USA don’t even know who Belinda Stronach is let alone why I would offer the Dark Lord of a British Subway Stop a get out of jail free card to see if his Yankee lawyer Genson would know how to play it. Lets just say a Proud Maritimer is using a locked up Lord as a chump for bait in order to catch far bigger fish. Prime Minister Stevey Boy Harper not too long ago told us all to fish or cut bsit. I doubt that that evil little lapdog for Bush even knows what that means but at least I am proving to him that some of us still know how to fish even if we are largely fished out.
Never mind that talk of Hollywood for a minute did you even look at what i provided about my affairs in the real world to check my sincerity? Other people who read your blog did but i saw no one from your neck of the woods. The questions I have for you now Catherine are after your nap will you bother to try to come to an understanding of my emails that I forwarded to you earlier? If you do come to know what Obama and his lawyers such as Graig Craig knew all along will this comment stand the test of time? More importantly would you push the big red button like I have been doing for seven longs years much to the chagrin of my little Clan?
From: David Amos
Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:30:27 -0400
Subject: RE Stephen M. Cutler General Counsel of JPMorgan Chase and
the reurn call from Ida in his office.(212 270 3260)
To: jacqueline.meere@jpmorgan.com, JPMCinvestorrelations@jpmchase.com,
joseph.evangelisti@jpmchase.com, paul.hartwick@chase.com,
lauren.m.francis@jpmorgan.com, brian.j.marchiony@jpmorgan.com,
stephen.m.cutler@jpmorgan.com
Cc: Edith.Cody-Rice@cbc.ca, jacques_poitras ,
“Robert. Jones” , “roger. gillies”
Hey Ida
I do thank you for the return call but now it is the end of the day
and nobody from your office followed up. Their silence for five years
and the actions of your boss gives me every right to not have any
faith in the Integrity of the “Powers that Be” in your bank. If they
were even remotely ethical they would have obeyed their own rules of
Ethical Conduct for a publically held corporation and definitely not
sued my wife years ago. Eh?
FYI to support that thinking I must repete that I did not remove any
of the attachments from my fowarded emails I sent to your to your
office earlier that you promised to print and show them to whomever.
In fact I sent the emails to myself and friends as a doublecheck on
the Integrity of your Bank. However this time I will send you some
links to the pdf files and sound files that did not come to you as
attachments.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2718120/Integrity-Yea-Right
http://www.scribd.com/doc/9092510/Chicago
http://www.scribd.com/doc/9092344/Jesse-Jackson-Jr
http://www.archive.org/details/FedsUsTreasuryDeptRcmpEtc
http://www.archive.org/details/Part1WiretapTape143
http://www.archive.org/details/WiretapTape143
http://www.archive.org/details/PoliceSurveilanceWiretapTape139
For the record your bank did receive my documents years ago.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/10973945/SEC
Furthermore I have no doubt whatsoever he was involved in getting his
fellow lawyers within the SEC to try to talk to me before they made a
quick settlement with Putnam Investments that spawned the following US
Senate Banking commiteee Hearings.
http://www.archive.org/details/SecTreasuryDeptEtc
Anyone can see byway of reading the Wall Street Journal’s law blog
that the trancripts and webcast of these imporatnt hearing have
dissappeared.
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/05/14/emperors-club-booker-pleads-guilty-
to-counts-of-conspiracy/
http://banking.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Hearings.Detail&H
earingID=102e41a1-f540-4ce5-a701-b6d09b7606b1
Cutler along with Spitzer certainly testified at this hearing.
http://banking.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Hearings.Detail&H
earingID=90f8e691-9065-4f8c-a465-72722b47e7f2
http://www.scribd.com/doc/10979193/Securities-Commitee
And clearly I have my copy of the transcript of the hearing taht the
US Senate Banking committee has lost. EH?
http://www.scribd.com/doc/5362918/Senate-hearing (link broken)
Veritas Vincit
David Raymond Amos
Here was the last commet I put in THe Beast
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-01-05/bring-it-on-michael-wolff
Flag It12:19 am, Jan 24, 2009
DavidAmos
Thanx for posting my comment Beastie Boyz.
When you dudes delayed doing so last night I blogged elswhere as well.
Here is just one example that should make Mikey Wollf reconsider many
things.
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/11/24/conrad-blacks-notes-from-the-undergr
ound/#comment-389153
Now I wonder if the Dark Lord of a Subway Stop or his old buddy from
way down under even bother to read what lawyers write let alone the
Wall Street Journal’s law blog about their nonsense. If they did rest
assured the Dark Lord would never have been prosecuted in the first
place.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/5352212/Public-Sector-Integrity
or at the very least he would have been out of jail the instant his
old buddy Eliot Sptizer got caught in DC with the wrong girl
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/05/14/emperors-club-booker-pleads-guilty-
to-counts-of-conspiracy/
or when UBS got in hot water in the USA
.http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/10/07/aufhauser-former-ubs-gc-settles-ins
ider-trading-allegations/
BTW Anybody heard of a dude named Sam Zell? the Beastie boyz should
find this funny gossip about the near bankrupt corporate media EH?
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/09/16/la-times-writers-sue-sam-zell/
Veritas Vincit
David Raymond Amos