Narco-Dollars For Dummies (Part 3)
How The Money Works In The Illicit Drug TradePart 3 in a 13 Part Series
First published in the Narco News Bulletin
EARLIER PARTS TO THIS SERIAL...
Part 1 - Narco Dollars For Dummies
Part 2 - Sam & Dave Do White Substances
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NYSE Chairman Richard Grasso Embracing A FARC Commander
A Real World Example:
NYSE's Richard Grasso and the Ultimate New Business "Cold Call"
Lest you think that my comment about the New York Stock Exchange is too strong, let's look at one event that occurred
before our "war on drugs" went into high gear through Plan Colombia, banging heads over narco dollar market share in
Latin America.
In late June 1999, numerous news services, including Associated Press, reported that Richard Grasso, Chairman of the New
York Stock Exchange flew to Colombia to meet with a spokesperson for Raul Reyes of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Columbia (FARC), the supposed "narco terrorists" with whom we are now at war.
The purpose of the trip was "to bring a message of cooperation from U.S. financial services" and to discuss foreign
investment and the future role of U.S. businesses in Colombia.
Some reading in between the lines said to me that Grasso's mission related to the continued circulation of cocaine
capital through the US financial system. FARC, the Colombian rebels, were circulating their profits back into local
development without the assistance of the American banking and investment system. Worse yet for the outlook for the US
stock market's strength from $500 billion - $1 trillion in annual money laundering - FARC was calling for the
decriminalization of cocaine.
To understand the threat of decriminalization of the drug trade, just go back to your Sam and Dave estimate and
recalculate the numbers given what decriminalization does to drive BIG PERCENT back to SLIM PERCENT and what that means
to Wall Street and Washington's cash flows. No narco dollars, no reinvestment into the stock markets, no campaign
contributions.
It was only a few days after Grasso's trip that BBC News reported a General Accounting Office (GAO) report to Congress
as saying: "Colombia's cocaine and heroin production is set to rise by as much as 50 percent as the U.S. backed drug war
flounders, due largely to the growing strength of Marxist rebels"
I deduced from this incident that the liquidity of the NY Stock Exchange was sufficiently dependent on high margin
cocaine profits (BIG PERCENT) that the Chairman of the New York Stock Exchange was willing for Associated Press to
acknowledge he is making "cold calls" in rebel controlled peace zones in Colombian villages. "Cold calls" is what we
used to call new business visits we would pay to people we had not yet done business with when I was on Wall Street.
I presume Grasso's trip was not successful in turning the cash flow tide. Hence, Plan Colombia is proceeding apace to
try to move narco deposits out of FARC's control and back to the control of our traditional allies and, even if that
does not work, to move Citibank's market share and that of the other large US banks and financial institutions steadily
up in Latin America.
Buy Banamex anyone?
(continues...)
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...come back tomorrow for Part 4 of Narco-Dollars for Dummies...
- AUTHOR NOTE: Catherine Austin Fitts, author of Scoop's "The Real Deal" column, is a former managing director and
member of the board of directors of Dillon Read & Co, Inc, a former Assistant Secretary of Housing-Federal Housing Commissioner in the first Bush Administration, and the
former President of The Hamilton Securities Group, Inc. She is the President of Solari, Inc, an investment advisory
firm. Solari provides risk management services to investors through Sanders Research Associates in London.
Anti©opyright Solari 2002