Here is how they describe what they do: Impersonating big-time criminals in order to publicly humiliate them. Targets are leaders and big corporations who put profits ahead of everything else.

They have a number of clips on Youtube.  Check out http://www.theyesmen.org.

You can watch this for free at Veoh.com or you can get it from Netflix. Click here to watch (need to register).

Watch TheYesMen.mp4 in Educational |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Umberto Calvini: [In explaining the "true" nature of banking in the world] “The IBBC is a bank. Their objective isn’t to control the conflict, it’s to control the debt that the conflict produces. You see, the real value of a conflict, the true value, is in the debt that it creates. You control the debt, you control everything. You find this upsetting, yes? But this is the very essence of the banking industry, to make us all, whether we be nations or individuals, slaves to debt.”

The other important concept that is discovered is just how hard it is to bring an entity like this to justice.  The reason given is that these banks provide the dirty money services required by governments, intelligence agencies, corporations, organized crime and wealthy individuals.  “Everyone is involved, everyone.”

Part 1:

Part 2:

Here is the fantastic board room scene:

Here is the I’m mad as hell clip:

Here is one of his rants about television:

The video shows Chomsky’s guiding belief to be that a decent society should maximize human need for creative work, not treat people as cogs in a machine so that the power elite can maintain control, continue private ownership of public resources and increase profits, all the while managing media content (while preserving the myth of a free press).

Democracy in America is not functioning in an ideal sense.   Instead we have three groups:

1. The power elites that own the large world institutions and are at work to privatize everything for their profits and power.
2. 20% of the population composed of the specialized class (leadership types).  This group is mostly responsible for democratic functioning but is highly controlled by the propaganda machine.
3. 80% of the population (the masses) are marginalized, diverted and controlled by what he calls Necessary Illusions.

This is a long one so I’ll include some information below to capture some of the concepts.

In Chomsky’s words concluding Manufacturing Consent:

“The question, in brief, is whether democracy and freedom are values to be preserved or threats to be avoided [as they have been until now]. In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are … essential to survival.”

“The driving force of modern industrialized civilization has been individual material gain. It has long been understood that a society based on this principle will destroy itself in time. It can only persist with whatever suffering and injustice it entails as long as it is possible to pretend that the destructive forces humans create are limited, that the world is an infinite resource, [and] is an infinite garbage can.

“At this stage of history, one of two things is possible: Either the general population will take control of its own destiny and will concern itself with community interests guided by values of solidarity and sympathy and concern for others, or alternatively there will be no destiny to control.

“As long as some specialized class is in position of authority, it is going to set policy in the special interest it serves. But, the conditions of survival and justice require rational, special planning in the interest of the community of the whole (and by now that means the global community).

“The question is whether privileged elites should dominate mass communication and should use this power as they tell us they must, namely to impose NECESSARY ILLUSIONS to manipulate and deceive [whom THEY believe are] the stupid majority and remove them from the public arena. “The question, in brief, is whether democracy and freedom are values to be preserved or threats to be avoided. In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than values to be treasured; they may be essential to survival.”

So, Chomsky says all states are violent to the extent they are powerful and that there is little correlation between internal “freedoms” in a society and violent external behavior. The modern American industrial civilization and the media system (which suggests a propaganda model) work because people don’t have the time to work and carry out the research to get the information necessary to create change. But, the information is present.

He says he does not have the answers but we should consider moving toward some sort of libertarian-socialist democracy in which our economic institutions would be run by the people. In this way, we would end private control over public resources — which are finite.

To achieve change and overcome the effectiveness of the propaganda model, Chomsky says we need to rely in part on activism and alternative media. We must develop means of intellectual self-defense. We must develop independent minds. We need to review a wide range of press (or do so in conjunction with others), including alternative media — and work at the community level in organizations that may have different focuses but that have similar values.

We must become human participants in our social and political system and work to make a difference. Given full information, ordinary people acting on their best impulse can govern themselves.

Regarding Thought Control in a Democratic Society, Chomsky makes these points:

1) Propaganda is to democracy what violence is to a dictatorship.

2) Ordinary people have remarkable creativity.

3) People have a fundamental need for creative work, which is not being met in systems where people are like cogs in a machine.

4) What would make more sense as a way to govern is a form of rationalist-libertarian socialism — not one that increasingly functions without public input. Chomsky advocates a system where a community and its members run things in a democratic fashion and whose people do not function as some sort of wage slaves.

5) People need to be able to detect forms of authority and coercion and challenge those that are not legitimate.

6) The major form of authority that needs challenging is the system of private control over public resources.

7) The First Amendment means that democracy requires free access to ideas and opinions.

8 ) Democracy in America is not functioning in an ideal sense but more in the sense that Lippmann noted in Public Opinion (where a specialized class of about 20 percent of the people — but who are also a target of progaganda — manages democratic functioning) and, in effect, are under control of a power elite, who more or less own the institutions. The masses of people (80 percent) are marginalized, diverted and controlled by what he calls Necessary Illusions.

9) Manufacturing consent is related to the understanding that indoctrination is the essence of propaganda and in a “democratic” society occurs when the techniques of control of a propaganda model are imposed — this means imposing Necessary Illusions

10) The concept NECESSARY ILLUSIONS is tied to Chomsky’s observation that there are power elites who dominate the way life happens and that part of the population (about 20% who make up the political class and are expected to participate as cultural managers in a limited fashion) are indoctrinated, and how most people (the other 80% of the population) are (in part because of media) marginalized and diverted from political awareness and participation in self-governing — that is, reduced to apathy so they don’t vote or take charge

11) Thus, indoctrination of the political class and diversion of the masses make up the essence of the democracy practiced in the U.S. (Chomsky notes also that there is no correlation between the internal freedoms in a society and violent external behavior — and that all governments are ruthless to the extent that they are powerful.)

12) Media are a tool of society’s power elites and owend and controlled by them and are used to impose those Necessary Illusions — illusions that are necessary to keep people diverted from the political process.

13) Major media (New York Times, Washington Post, TV networks, AP) shape our perception of the world by serving as Agenda Setters.

14) Media allow some dissenting voices but marginalize them via constraints such as CONCISION — a concept referring how in media conventional content and thinking must be stated briefly (concisely) so it can fill up the TV content between commercials or fit in the print media newshole (“600 words” repeating “conventional piety,” Chomsky said)

15) People need to seek out information from ALTERNATIVE MEDIA (media outside the mainstream and usually having a particular point of view) and move toward change by becoming engaged in community action — where people use their ordinary intelligence to make changes in their lives and communities.

16) He says it is “profoundly contemptuous of democracy” when our political system has stage-managed elections and uses manipulation such as testing phrases to determine their likely effect on audiences.

17) Chomsky argues that people need to work to develop independent minds — maybe in part by forming COMMUNITY action groups with others with parallel interests and values, not in isolation, which is where the present system tends to keep people.

18) AT PRESENT AS THINGS ARE, ONLY 2 POSSIBILITIES EXIST: 1) Either the general population will take control of its own destiny, or 2)There will be no destiny to control.

• Watch King Corn (you will need to register which is free) >>
• King Corn Website >>

This guy has some really deep things to say about how we do things in America.  I highly recommend reflecting on what he has to say.  It is mind blowing stuff and he really gets at a lot of root problems with our fundamental systems.

• Watch Part 1
• Watch Part 2

Speaking at Loyola College, David shares his views on the end of the American Empire in three video segments. He says we’re headed for separate Americas of “haves and have-nots.” Simon faults “unencumbered Capitalism” for making our country care less about the most vulnerable of our citizens. Unless we change, he predicts “we are doomed.”

The whole Jon Stewart/Jim Cramer thing shows a piece of this apparatus.  In a pump and dump scheme, early buyers get in low, move the market higher and then need idiots to buy what they are selling.  Or in a dump, insiders need the public to sell what they have at really low prices so they can cover their short positions.  The financial media plays an important role in this game by herding people into unwise financial behavior on the way up and on the way down.  Whether in the pump or dump phase of this game, people are manipulated into the losing side of the trade.

This is the game.  Now you know how it is played and you can begin to be more discerning about how you invest your hard earned savings.

Unfortunately, the real criminals at the root of all this run the Central Banks. Our “Federal” Reserve (a private entity) is the ring leader of this banking cartel which includes the IMF. So, if you want someone to blame, start with Alan Greenspan and then move your way through the Federal Reserve and then onto the private London based banks that control the Federal Reserve. Back there somewhere you will find the evil that drives all this garbage and pulls the nobs and levers.

I love the soccer reference…it burns!

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]]> http://www.solarila.com/2009/04/colbert-on-the-economic-crisis/feed/ 0 http://www.solarila.com/2009/04/financial-warfare-waged-against-local-communities/ http://www.solarila.com/2009/04/financial-warfare-waged-against-local-communities/#comments Tue, 14 Apr 2009 05:05:08 +0000 E http://www.solarila.com/?p=264 Catherine Austin Fitts has amazing perspective on today’s world.  Here are a couple pieces of hers that talk a bit about the financial warfare waged on a small community in Tenessee.  Not only do we get to see how derivatives were sold into this community but Catherine then digs into the less obvious forces that rage against local communities, how the media is used to scapegoat the small players while protecting the system and challenges us to find ways to address the real problems.

Click here for Part I and Part II or read below:

LEWISBURG, Tenn. — Five years ago, this small factory town was struggling to pay the interest on a bond for new sewers. Bob Phillips, Lewisburg’s part-time mayor and full-time pharmacist, was urged by the town’s financial adviser, an investment bank named Morgan Keegan & Company, to engage in a complex financial transaction to lower interest rates.

Mr. Philips was urged by an investment bank to engage in a complex financial transaction to lower interest rates…And when Lewisburg decided to go ahead with the transaction, who was there to make the deal? Morgan Keegan.

In January, local officials were shocked to discover that annual interest payments on the bond had quadrupled to $1 million.

The US Treasury, through the TARP bailout program, is the largest named potential shareholder of Regions Bank, which means that each American citizen is indirectly a shareholder. I looked at Regions Bank about a year ago. Their largest investor at that time was Deutsch Bank.

As described in its annual proxy, Regions next annual meeting of shareholders is in Birmingham on April 16th, the day after most of us file our taxes. Region’s slogans promote “going green” and community service.

Since this is all happening in the “bible belt,” I invite the pastors of all participants involved and everyone impacted by state and local financial support of Wall Street high finance, which includes most Christian congregations in Tennessee, to begin a discussion about why mortgage fraud, illegal drugs and marketing derivatives to municipalities are common in our state.

Step one may be for the municipalities in Tennessee to determine whether a proper application of disclosure laws and the theory of fraudulent inducement is a basis for successful abrogation of any and all swap contracts. Step two may be inviting Morgan Keegan and Regions Bank to leave. Step three may be cleansing state and local pension funds and reserves of providing fees and financing to Wall Street.

This Sunday we gather to celebrate our Lord’s crucifiction and resurrection. The resurrection is a reminder that anything is possible — even the miracle that we might integrate the commandment “love thy neighbor” with the practices we use to make and invest our money.

Your prayers are invited.

Part II

Morgan Keegan defended itself today against the NY Times report which we commented on yesterday, titled Liquidating Thy Neighbor – Part I.

I do agree with Morgan Keegan’s spokesman that this was a politically motivated attack. I can only guess what the particular motivation was in this case.

• For example, the New York brokerage firms and banks have a much worse record of financially raping local communities, including with derivatives. (Click here and here for JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley in Pennsylvania and here and here for JP Morgan and Morgan Keegan together in Alabama) Surely they would have a vested interest in watching a regional firm take the fall for the municipal woes overtaking our country. Firms like AIG and their law firms would certainly have access to the information they needed to package this story and hand it to the NY Times.

• As the industry consolidates, certainly competitors both global and local can benefit from the loss of market share by as institution as prominent as Regions, including subsidiary Morgan Keegan.

• What could be more politically useful as folks in Tennessee prepare their individual taxes in the face of a Washington-Wall Street engorgement of $12-14 trillion of bailouts, then their ire be turned on their neighbors?

I don’t agree with Morgan Keegan’s defense of its practices. As an investment banker who has closed more than $25 billion in transactions and advised both governments and corporations for decades, including on interest rates swaps (the transaction in question), what happened to Lewisburg, Tennessee should not have happened. But let’s set that aside. There is something much more deeply, seriously wrong here that needs to be addressed.

The important question is not why did Lewisburg use a interest rate swap deal in which it assumed the risk for a default or downgrade by the insurance provider in connection with taking on more debt. The important question is why in the world did Lewisburg take on more debt in the first place? Why did Lewisburg not shift more local capital out of Wall Street and into investment in Lewisburg?

Lewisburg, Tennessee borrowed money to fund water and sewer for economic development. Why were they borrowing for such purposes in the first place?

Typically, municipalities borrow because there is insufficient equity investment and income in the county in the first place.

The county makes a significant investment in educating and rearing young people. What happens to that investment? A few high performers head of to college on scholarships never to return. Many of the rest go to the military or, if entrapped instead into dealing drugs, to prison. The return on investment on their young? It goes to Wall Street and Washington, not to the families and community.

Despite the drain of human capital, numerous hard working members of the community build businesses and careers, live modestly and over a life time accumulate capital. Where is that capital? It is in state and local pension funds, 401k and IRA accounts, and various bank and brokerage accounts, all such as those marketed and managed by Morgan Keegan and Regions Bank.

So as Morgan Keegan and Regions Bank and their competitors attract all of this hard earned capital into their accounts, where is that investment channeled? It is channeled out of the community. It is invested through Wall Street in the stock of Citibank, JP Morgan Chase, Wal-Mart, the big defense contractors, the internet stocks, Enron and the telecoms, or, as the powers that be direct, into investments abroad.

How much of it is channeled back into equity investment in the community? Typically, none.

And so, as the human capital in the community is shipped out to Harvard, Iraq and the state penitentiary or the morgue while the equity capital in the community is shipped to Wall Street, the value of the local small business community is drained. Reinvestment into the local businesses slows to a trickle. They do not keep up with technology and globalization.

This means that the franchise businesses financed by Wall Street (including with the state and local equity) can then come in and take over the market, eating into the market share of the local businesses and putting them out of business. The local savers, turning over their capital to Wall Street through firms like Morgan Keegan, Regions and their national counterparts, are financing their own destruction. The theory, of course, is that doing so would make them money. As we have seen over the last year, that theory has not panned out particularly well.

So what happens next? Well some smart fellow from a firm like Morgan Keegan or Regions Bank comes along and proposes that to create new businesses the town should borrow money to do an industrial development park and create the water and sewer infrastructure to attract business.

Note they do not promote the idea that the town should set up an apprentice program for young people to encourage them to stay and build the local small business. They do not propose that the town should create an incubator or a local angel network to support the existing businesses and entrepreneurs. They do not propose a local venture fund with local capital that will allow consumers to enjoy the equity creation from their own purchases. They do not promote that local savings should circulate locally as equity investment. They do not promote any of those ideas. In fact, those who do promote such ideas, such as myself or Franklin Sanders find themselves under attack by the Department of Justice and unable to continue. Those who do not promote centralized control by Wall Street of the savings and capital in the community are driven out and treated like pariahs.

So the town borrows money. Now, what is the difference between equity and debt? Well, if Wall Street had invested equity in Lewisburg, Tennessee, then they would make money if Lewisburg’s projects succeeded and lose money if they failed. However, if they finance Lewisburg with debt, then they don’t need to worry about whether the project succeeds or not. They get paid either way. If Lewisburg’s economic development plans sour, the town will just have to dig deeper or raise taxes to pay the debt.

Debt bondage. Suck up their capital. Use it with rigged government deals to make you rich and hire away all their kids. Get them to borrow their own money back from you. While you are getting bailed out by the government, jack up their interest rate because something went wrong and Washington and Wall Street have no intention of fixing that derivative — just the ones that Goldman Sachs holds.

Is the problem that we need the banks to be able to lend so that we can borrow more money to get the economy going again, as President Obama says?

I think not. We need our equity and income to be rising and our debt to be falling – not vice-versa. Indeed, the time has come to speak seriously about how to shift our capital out of the same old Wall Street and Washington channels and into ways that build greater wealth for us, our children and our communities.