**Note: We are republishing each of the 22 challenges from Catherine’s fiscal cliff article – one a week. Helps to digest them bit by bit!**
By Catherine Austin Fitts
Financial systems operate on trust – on faith in the laws and their enforcement as well as general morality. The growing loss of faith in the government is having a profoundly corrosive impact on the US economy.
From the point of view of many entrepreneurs, small farmers, and business people, the U.S. government offers them two options: complete dependence or financial warfare. The message is “crime pays” and “lawful people are a target to be kept in the dark and harvested financially.” This is hardly the basis for the kind of trust that leads to reinvestment in the long-term economy and the creation of productive employment.