Catherine Austin Fitts

Catherine Austin Fitts is an American investment banker, former public official and publisher known for her work on financial transparency and the structure of modern finance. In 1986 she became the first woman named managing director of the Wall Street investment bank Dillon, Read & Co. She served as Assistant Secretary of Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development under President George H. W. Bush, and was president of Hamilton Securities Group. She is the president of Solari, Inc., publisher of The Solari Report, through which she analyses global financial systems, investment strategy, risk and public spending. Fitts developed the idea of 'Financial Permaculture', applying ecological and permaculture principles to redesign the financial system for community resilience and economic self-reliance, including an 'Eight Forms of Capital' framework that expands the definition of wealth beyond money.