Summary: Special on Domestic and Global Economic Austerity Catherine Austin Fitts is the president of Solari Inc. and the publisher of the Solari Report, which provides investment consultation for shifting wealth away from financial institutions without acting on our best interests. Earlier, Catherine served as a managing director and a member of the board of directors for the Wall Street investment bank Dillon Read, and was the Assistant Secretary of Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development during the first Bush administration. After leaving the Bush Administration, Catherine founded The Hamilton Securities Group, Inc., an investment bank and financial software developer. in 1996, she and her successful company became targets of a vicious, longlasting "qui tam lawsuit", that resulted in the closing on Hamilton Securities. Fitts was ultimately successful in Court of Claims litigation asserting that the government had no right to withhold monies owed to Hamilton. Her website is www.Solari.com Mar Vorpahl is a seasoned union steward, Latin American solidarity and anti war activist. He is an investigative journalist for Workers' Action- a workers organization dedicated to defending and improving the standard of living and to create a more just and economically viable economy. Marks essays and commentaries frequently appear in Counterpunch, Truth Out and other progressive news and oped sites. His website is www.workerscompass.org Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he taught economics from 1973 to 2008. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University, New York City. He also teaches classes regularly at the Brecht Forum in Manhattan. Over the last 25 years, he has developed a new approach to political economy that rejects the economic determinism typical of most schools of economics. He has written many books and numerous articles, his latest book being "Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism", which probes the root causes of the economic crisis.
