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December 18, 2008: Economy and Financial Fraud - Gerald Celente & Catherine Austin Fitts

Dec 18, 2008
2h 36m
Gerald CelenteCatherine Austin Fitts
0:00 / 0:00
Art Bell dedicates the program to the unfolding economic crisis, welcoming trend forecaster Gerald Celente in the first hour. Celente delivers a stark warning that America is entering what he calls the Greatest Depression, arguing it will surpass the 1930s because modern Americans carry unprecedented debt, lack manufacturing capacity, and face a declining societal structure. He predicts widespread unemployment, social unrest by spring 2009, and the possibility of secessionist movements fracturing the country.

Catherine Austin Fitts joins for the remaining hours, offering a different but equally sobering perspective. As a former assistant secretary of housing at HUD and Wall Street insider, she describes a "slow burn" scenario where insiders systematically drain outsiders through managed economic decline. Fitts traces the crisis to credit default swaps, hidden black budget expenditures, and narcotics-linked financial corruption that has hollowed out American communities for decades.

Both guests agree the bailouts are ineffective, with Celente calling the auto industry rescue a waste and Fitts questioning where hundreds of billions in TARP funds actually went. Callers share stories of personal financial hardship while debating whether America can survive what lies ahead.

Key Moments

  1. The collapse of '09 and the $353 trillion derivative shadow: Celente labels what's coming the 'collapse of 09' and says the $700 billion bailout is meaningless against a credit-default-swap market estimated worldwide at roughly $353 trillion, framing the rescue as a stopgap.

  2. Commercial real estate is the next domino, by February: Celente forecasts a commercial real estate collapse worse than the housing one, leveraged with virtually no money down, becoming recognizable around February 2009 once inauguration optimism collides with cold-winter numbers and empty malls.

  3. The Greatest Depression: 22 to 25 percent unemployment: Celente argues this will be worse than the 1930s Depression because the country now carries $14 trillion in consumer debt, runs trade and budget deficits, and lacks manufacturing, projecting real unemployment heading from a hidden 12.5 percent toward 22 to 25 percent.

  4. John Connolly told Celente Americans would revolt if they knew: Celente recounts a 1992 visit to the Texas School Book Depository with John Connolly, who told him that if the American people understood what was really going on there'd be a revolution, and Celente predicts post-collapse unrest already visible in Greece will arrive in the US.

  5. Madoff alone is implausible: PROMIS and intelligence agencies: Catherine Austin Fitts argues a $50 billion Madoff Ponzi cannot be one man and points to institutional complicity, naming PROMIS software and intelligence agencies as the only plausible mechanism for sustained insider returns at that scale.