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Catherine Austin Fitts

Former Assistant Secretary of HUD, Wall Street investment banker, and founder of the Solari Report who has spent three decades documenting what she calls "the financial coup d'etat" — the systematic looting of public wealth by unaccountable networks she refers to as "Mr. Global."

FieldDetails
Full NameCatherine Austin Fitts
BornPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
EducationBA in History, University of Pennsylvania (1974); MBA, Wharton School (1978)
RoleFormer Assistant Secretary of HUD / Former Managing Director at Dillon Read & Co. / Publisher, The Solari Report
PlatformThe Solari Report (solari.com), Solari Inc.
Notable WorksDillon Read & Co. Inc. and the Aristocracy of Stock Profits (2006), "Deep State Tactics 101" series, "Narco-Dollars for Beginners" series, quarterly and annual Solari Report wraps
Evidence StrengthSTRONG EVIDENCE for missing money/accounting claims (backed by MSU academic research and government OIG documents); MODERATE EVIDENCE for broader conspiracy framework; SPECULATIVE for interdimensional/spiritual claims

Biography & Career Background​

Wall Street Career at Dillon Read & Co.​

Catherine Austin Fitts joined Dillon, Read & Co. Inc., a prestigious New York investment bank, in 1978 immediately after graduating from Wharton. She rose through the ranks rapidly:

  • Associate (1978-1982)
  • Vice President (1982-1984)
  • Senior Vice President (1984-1986)
  • Managing Director and Board Member (1986-1989)

According to multiple sources, Fitts became the first woman promoted to managing director in Dillon Read's then-156-year history. In 1982, she organized a novel municipal bond sale to raise several billion dollars to revitalize the New York Subway System — reportedly the first time a public agency had sold bonds backed by rider fares. BusinessWeek described her as "Wall Street's foremost champion" of public utilities bonds during this period.

HUD: Assistant Secretary of Housing (1989-1990)​

During the 1988 presidential campaign, Fitts worked on the George H.W. Bush campaign and was subsequently appointed Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Housing — Federal Housing Commissioner.

According to Fitts, upon taking office she made several alarming discoveries:

  • The FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund was reportedly losing $11 million per day
  • The department had a $300 billion portfolio of mortgage insurance but employed only one certified actuary
  • HUD had never implemented location-specific financial tracking, leaving field offices blind to how funds operated locally
  • Losses were concentrated in Regions VI and VIII — areas that, according to Fitts, overlapped with savings and loan fraud networks and Iran-Contra drug trafficking operations
  • She identified "ghost properties" listed as defaulting one to three times per year
  • She found an 18% default rate in a $400 million FHA-insured sub-portfolio managed by Puller Mortgage Associates

Fitts reportedly shut down the corrupt FHA Coinsurance program after discovering approximately $9 billion in guarantees with roughly a 50% default rate. She states that her financial reforms were later adopted through the HUD Reform Act of 1989.

Hamilton Securities Group (1990-2001)​

After leaving HUD in August 1990, Fitts founded Hamilton Securities Group. The firm won a competitive bid as lead financial advisor to FHA/HUD and, according to Fitts, designed and led $10 billion in mortgage auctions, improving recovery rates on defaulted mortgages from 35% to 70-90% and generating $2.2 billion in FHA Fund savings.

Fitts developed a tool called Community Wizard — a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping software that tracked mortgage defaults by location. According to Fitts, this tool revealed disturbing patterns: the geographic distribution of HUD mortgage defaults overlapped with areas of alleged CIA-supported drug trafficking from the Iran-Contra era.

The Hamilton Securities Investigation and Alleged Retaliation​

In 1996, HUD's Office of Inspector General launched an investigation into Hamilton Securities. On June 6, 1996, Ervin Associates, Inc., a HUD contractor, filed a qui tam action under the False Claims Act against Hamilton Securities, accusing the firm of improperly charging HUD fees exceeding $3 million.

According to Fitts, what followed was a systematic campaign to destroy her company:

  • Hamilton Securities was subjected to 18 audits and investigations and 12 civil litigation tracks
  • The firm's offices were seized by HUD OIG and the FBI — an action later ruled improper
  • In April 1998, Fitts filed a civil complaint against HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo, Assistant Secretary Nicolas Retsinas, and Inspector General Susan Gaffney

Fitts has consistently maintained that the investigation was retaliation for her discoveries — that Community Wizard data revealed patterns suggesting federally guaranteed mortgage securities may have been fraudulently issued, and that the geographic mapping exposed connections between mortgage fraud, narcotics trafficking, and covert operations.

In 2002, the investigation was closed, and investigators stated they had found no evidence of wrongdoing by Fitts or Hamilton Securities. No criminal indictments or penalties were ever assessed.

Their Deep State Definition​

Catherine Austin Fitts brings a uniquely financial perspective to the deep state, grounded in decades of experience on Wall Street and inside the federal government. Her thesis is arguably the most financially detailed framework in the deep state discourse.

The "Financial Coup d'Etat"​

The core of Fitts's analysis is that beginning in the mid-1990s, a decision was made by powerful financial and political actors to systematically move assets and money out of the United States as part of globalization. According to Fitts, stated in her Planet Lockdown interview and numerous Solari Reports:

"For twenty years in the United States we've had a financial coup d'etat. At the end of 1995, a decision was made to move much of the assets and money out of the country as part of globalization, knowing that once the assets were moved, they would have to consolidate and change the fundamental system."

This is not, in her framework, a conspiracy theory — it is a financial operation visible in government accounting records, if one knows where to look.

"Mr. Global" — Who Really Runs Things​

Fitts uses the term "Mr. Global" as a shorthand for the network of policymakers, financiers, intelligence operatives, and corporate leaders who, she alleges, collectively manage the global system outside democratic oversight. According to Fitts:

  • "Mr. Global" is not a single person but a committee — a network of individuals and institutions that prioritize global dominion over national sovereignty
  • This network has allegedly eroded domestic accountability in favor of centralized global control
  • The concept encompasses central bankers, intelligence agencies, defense contractors, and supranational institutions operating in concert
  • She has produced a four-part video series with political satirist C.J. Hopkins titled "We Need to Talk about Mr. Global" covering how the financial coup happened, the propaganda apparatus, and the planned future

In her more controversial statements, Fitts has suggested that "Mr. Global" may itself be guided by what she describes as interdimensional or spiritual forces. She has stated in interviews that she believes the world is influenced by "intelligent beings" that operate through human power structures. These claims are speculative and unverified, and represent the most contested aspect of her framework.

The Three Pillars of the Control Grid​

According to Fitts, as articulated in her 2025 Tucker Carlson interview and multiple USA Watchdog appearances, the deep state is building a comprehensive control system with three essential components:

  1. Programmable Money — Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) that come with embedded rules enforced through AI and software, allowing those who control the currency to dictate behavior at the individual level
  2. Digital IDs — Biometric identification systems that link every person to their financial transactions, health records, and movement data
  3. Local Hardware Infrastructure — Surveillance cameras, license plate readers, cell towers, satellites, and data centers that enable real-time monitoring and enforcement

Fitts has stated on USA Watchdog: "They are talking about putting in extraordinary digital control systems and literally turning your car and your home into a digital concentration camp."

The $21 Trillion in Undocumentable Adjustments​

The Discovery​

In 2017, Fitts partnered with Dr. Mark Skidmore, a professor of economics at Michigan State University, to examine government financial statements. According to their research, published through MSU:

  • Between fiscal years 1998 and 2015, the Department of Defense and HUD accumulated $21 trillion in undocumentable adjustments — financial entries recorded without adequate documentation explaining where the money originated or where it went
  • The research began when Skidmore heard Fitts reference a report that the Army had $6.5 trillion in unsupported adjustments in fiscal year 2015 alone — 54 times the spending authorized by Congress
  • Two MSU graduate students searched government websites, particularly the Office of Inspector General, and found documents indicating the $21 trillion total

Michigan State University published the findings, and the research was covered by multiple outlets. The DOD subsequently announced it would conduct its first-ever full audit (which it has repeatedly failed since 2018).

Government Response: FASAB Statement 56​

In October 2018, the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) issued Statement 56 — "Classified Activities." According to Fitts's analysis and independent reporting by Rolling Stone and Truth in Accounting:

  • FASAB 56 permits government agencies to "modify" public financial statements and move expenditures from one line item to another for national security reasons
  • It expressly allows federal agencies to refrain from telling taxpayers if and when public financial statements have been altered
  • According to Fitts, this means "a small group of unelected individuals with security clearances" can "establish and maintain separate sets of classified secret books in most federal agencies"
  • Effectively, as Fitts stated on USA Watchdog: "The federal government will keep two sets of financial reports — one modified set for the public and one true set that will remain undisclosed"

Fitts has characterized FASAB 56 as legalizing what was previously done covertly — transforming government financial reporting from "laxly enforced reporting standards to a new benchmark entirely: expressly approved obfuscation of reporting and, in some cases, outright concealing financials."

The "Breakaway Civilization" Thesis​

In her more expansive framework, Fitts has suggested in interviews with Dark Journalist (Daniel Liszt) and on the Danny Jones Podcast that the missing $21 trillion may have funded what she and researcher Richard Dolan call a "breakaway civilization" — an alleged parallel, technologically advanced infrastructure built with diverted public funds. According to this theory, there are effectively two space programs: a visible, underfunded NASA and a covert, black-budget-funded operation. This claim is speculative and represents one of her more controversial positions.

The Narco-Dollar Economy​

One of Fitts's earliest and most distinctive contributions to the deep state discourse is her analysis of how drug trafficking revenue is laundered through legitimate financial institutions and government programs. In her 2001 series "Narco-Dollars for Beginners" (published through Narco News and available at ratical.org), Fitts argued:

  • The U.S. financial system, government, and citizens are "addicted" to narco dollars
  • If you trace the family networks of America's leaders, narcotics and arms trafficking are allegedly a "multigenerational theme"
  • Her Community Wizard mapping software at Hamilton Securities reportedly showed that HUD mortgage defaults in Los Angeles concentrated in areas with the heaviest alleged CIA-supported Iran-Contra drug trafficking
  • The war on drugs serves, in her analysis, as cover for intelligence agency drug operations while simultaneously feeding the prison-industrial complex — a thesis she detailed in Dillon Read & Co. Inc. and the Aristocracy of Stock Profits

Deep State Tactics 101​

Fitts published a multi-part series on the Solari Report titled "Deep State Tactics 101" based on tactics she states she has "encountered personally or observed at close hand." The series covers:

  • Control System Goals — What the deep state is ultimately trying to achieve
  • Faith/Hope/Love — Attacking the spiritual and psychological foundations of resistance
  • Health — Using health systems as control mechanisms
  • Communication & Surveillance — Monitoring and controlling information flow
  • Mind Control — Psychological operations and media manipulation
  • Brand & Prestige — Leveraging institutional credibility
  • Media & Disinformation — Propaganda and narrative control
  • Control Files — Compromising material used for blackmail (parallels Whitney Webb's Epstein research)
  • Financial Tactics — Economic warfare against targeted individuals and organizations
  • Legal System — Using litigation, enforcement, and regulatory systems as weapons (Part V, with attorney Carolyn Betts)
  • Covert Operations & Crime — Direct action and criminal operations
  • Targeting of Children — Exploitation of children as a control mechanism
  • Beatdowns — Systematic destruction of targeted individuals

This series draws directly from Fitts's personal experience during the Hamilton Securities investigation and her decades of observing deep state operations.

Views on CBDCs, Digital Currency, and the Control Grid​

Fitts has become one of the most prominent voices warning about Central Bank Digital Currencies. Her core argument, articulated across dozens of interviews and in testimony before state legislatures:

"What I call the Rothschild syndicate wants programmable money, and they don't want anybody stopping it." — USA Watchdog, March 2026

"If we went to a 15-minute city, your programmable money would not work outside the 15-minute city. It's not just programmable money. If you have an electric car and you try to leave the 15-minute city, your car will not work." — USA Watchdog

"CBDC is going to turn me into a slave, and they are going to be able to take all my assets." — Solari Report

According to Fitts, programmable money represents the "final piece of the global control grid" because it allows central bankers to "control fiscal policy and essentially replace legislatures" — embedding behavioral rules directly into the currency itself. She has described this as the "fourth gate on the corral," where combined with digital IDs, surveillance infrastructure, and electric vehicles, authorities could theoretically "turn your money on or off" at a granular, individual level.

Fitts has actively testified before state legislatures advocating for laws protecting cash as legal tender and preventing the implementation of CBDCs. She recommends that people maintain cash holdings, invest in gold and silver, and support local and community financial institutions as resistance strategies.

Views on the Pharmaceutical Industry​

Fitts views the pharmaceutical industry as a major deep state profit center and control mechanism. Key arguments she has made:

  • Regulatory agencies like the FDA have been captured by pharmaceutical industry interests (regulatory capture)
  • According to Fitts, when the term "vaccine misinformation" is used, it is "a euphemism for any statement that departs from official government policies and pharmaceutical industry profit-taking. It has nothing to do with whether it is true or false"
  • She has stated: "The proof that depopulation is happening is when the data started coming in about how bad the deaths and injuries were — they didn't stop it or change it" — a claim that is debated and contested by mainstream medical institutions
  • In her framework, the pharmaceutical industry intersects with the financial deep state through mandatory health interventions tied to digital IDs and financial access

Global Institutions: BIS, IMF, World Bank​

Fitts places global financial institutions at the center of the deep state architecture:

  • Bank for International Settlements (BIS) — The "central bank of central banks," headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. According to Fitts, the BIS operates with sovereign immunity, zero transparency, and the ability to move vast sums secretly. She views it as the apex institution coordinating global monetary policy in the interest of "Mr. Global"
  • IMF and World Bank — Fitts argues these institutions, along with the BIS and the UN, have created "an international overlay of organizations with various forms of sovereign immunity, enabling them to break the law without consequences"
  • The Federal Reserve — The domestic operating arm of this global system, enabling unlimited government spending through money creation and serving as the bridge between Wall Street and the federal government

This analysis parallels G. Edward Griffin's work on the Federal Reserve in The Creature from Jekyll Island, though Fitts extends the framework to encompass the full international banking architecture. It also connects with Patrick Byrne's documentation of institutional corruption and regulatory capture.

Key Quotes​

"Between 1998 and 2015, the Department of Defense and HUD had $21 trillion in undocumentable adjustments. Twenty-one trillion dollars that we cannot account for."

"We're not dealing with a conspiracy theory. We're dealing with a financial coup d'etat."

"The central banking system is the operating system of the deep state. Control the money, control everything."

"If you want to understand the deep state, follow the money. Always follow the money."

"What these guys want to build is a digital control grid and, once they get a digital ID and 100% digital transaction system with no paper currency, what are they going to do? They're going to throw a switch and put us in a digital concentration camp." — USA Watchdog

"Programmable money allows the bankers to control fiscal policy and essentially replace legislatures." — Tucker Carlson Show, 2025

"Mr. Smith, this is the government calling, and we know you have three children. We want one of them transgendered. You can choose which one, but if you don't transgender one of them, we will turn off your money." — USA Watchdog, March 2026 (hypothetical scenario illustrating CBDC dangers)

"You fight back by saying No. Do not comply. What we are seeing around the world is that the places where people refuse to comply, it's not working." — USA Watchdog

"Hopelessness is an op and it's planet-wide. Don't fall for it." — Solari Report

"The horse has left the barn without the bridle and without the saddle." — USA Watchdog, March 2026, on the urgency of establishing guardrails against programmable money

Where They've Said It​

The Solari Report (2003-present)​

  • Weekly and quarterly analysis of financial, political, and deep state topics
  • "Deep State Tactics 101" — five-part series detailing specific deep state operational methods
  • Annual wrap-ups analyzing deep state financial trends and "The State of Our Currencies" reports
  • "We Need to Talk about Mr. Global" — four-part video series with C.J. Hopkins

Books and Written Works​

  • Dillon Read & Co. Inc. and the Aristocracy of Stock Profits (2006) — detailed account of Wall Street's connection to the prison-industrial complex and narco-dollar economy
  • "Narco-Dollars for Beginners" (2001) — series on drug money laundering through the financial system
  • "The Myth of the Rule of Law" (2001) — essay on how legal systems serve financial power
  • "Missing Money: A Personal History, 1989-2019" — detailed timeline of her HUD discoveries and the Hamilton Securities investigation

Tucker Carlson Show (2025)​

  • Extended interview covering the control grid, programmable money, banks' role in war, FASAB 56, Iran conflict, and the "breakaway civilization" thesis. Tucker Carlson described it as one of the most important conversations about where money and power actually intersect.

USA Watchdog with Greg Hunter (multiple appearances, 2015-2026)​

  • "Financial Tsunami Coming Because of Programmable Money" (March 2026)
  • "Headed for a Digital Concentration Camp" (2023)
  • "Central Bank Digital Currency Prison" (2023)
  • "Using Disaster Capitalism to Control All Humans" (2023)
  • "Greatest Immediate Danger is Digital ID" (2024)
  • "Omniwar — Weaponization of Everything" (2024)
  • "Federal Accounting Now Meaningless & Frightening" (2019, on FASAB 56)
  • "Bipartisan Support for Secret Accounting to Hide Missing Money" (2019)

Dark Journalist with Daniel Liszt (multiple appearances)​

  • Interviews on the UFO economy, black budget, FASAB 56, breakaway civilization, and the missing money
  • Secret Space Program conference presentations

Planet Lockdown Documentary (2020-2022)​

  • Fitts's 49-minute interview was released in December 2020 and reportedly received over 20 million views and engagements across social media before being removed by YouTube and Facebook. The full documentary, directed by James Patrick, was released in 2022. In the interview, Fitts laid out her framework of "Mr. Global," the financial coup d'etat, and the COVID-era acceleration of the control grid. The film was banned on major platforms for allegedly containing misinformation about COVID-19.

Danny Jones Podcast (2025)​

  • Episode #305: "$21 Trillion Black Budget is Funding a Rogue Breakaway Civilization" — extended discussion of missing money, corruption, and the control grid

State Legislature Testimony​

  • Fitts has testified before multiple state legislatures on programmable money and CBDC, advocating for cash protections and against digital currency mandates

Other Appearances​

  • David Knight Show (March 2025)
  • Karen Hunter Show
  • Financial Sense
  • Secret Space Program conferences
  • Multiple appearances on Rumble and BitChute after mainstream platform removals
  • Solari Report Substack (solarireport.substack.com)
  • G. Edward Griffin — shares focus on the Federal Reserve as the deep state's financial engine; Fitts extends Griffin's framework to the full international banking architecture (BIS, IMF, World Bank)
  • Tucker Carlson — interviewed Fitts extensively in 2025 on the control grid, programmable money, and banks' role in war
  • Patrick Byrne — shares focus on institutional corruption, regulatory capture, and deep state financial operations; both come from Wall Street/finance backgrounds
  • Whitney Webb — complementary research on intelligence agency financial networks, Epstein connections, and control files; Fitts's "Deep State Tactics 101" parallels Webb's research methodology
  • Edward Snowden — corporate-government hybrid surveillance analysis connects to Fitts's control grid framework
  • Aaron Good — "overworld" financial elite analysis parallels Fitts's Wall Street critique and "Mr. Global" concept
  • Andrew Napolitano — shares concern about unaccountable government spending and constitutional violations
  • Dennis Kucinich — shares concern about government contractor influence and the military-industrial complex
  • Mike Lofgren — shares insider perspective on deep state financial operations; Lofgren's "hybrid" deep state concept overlaps with Fitts's framework
  • Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — shares analysis of pharmaceutical industry regulatory capture
  • Ron Paul — shares critique of the Federal Reserve and central banking system
  • James Corbett — shares focus on the Federal Reserve, BIS, and supranational financial institutions

Other Coverage Worth Reading​

  • Alex Jones: Radio host and Infowars founder who defines the deep state as a cabal of shadowy liberal elites working...
  • The Kalergi Plan: The "Kalergi Plan" refers to a conspiracy theory alleging that Austrian-Japanese politician Richard Nikolaus Eijiro, Count of Coudenhove-Kalergi...
  • The National Security State — The Dual State: The theory that a hidden national security hierarchy operates alongside — and sometimes overrides — the visible constitutional...
  • Kim Iversen: Independent journalist and podcaster who covers intelligence agencies operating with impunity, identifying Epstein as a "tool of intelligence...

Sources​

This information was compiled by Claude AI research based on web searches and publicly available sources.