Catherine Austin Fitts

After graduate school, Fitts went to work at Dillon, Read & Co.[2] While there, in 1982, she organized a novel municipal bond sale to raise several billion dollars to revitalize the New York Subway System, marking the first time that a public agency had sold bonds backed by rider fares.[3] In 1986, Fitts became the first woman promoted to managing director of Dillon, Read & Co. in the investment bank's then 156 year history.[2] At the helm of the bank she became what Businessweek described as "Wall Street's foremost champion" of public utilities bonds.[2]

During the United States presidential election, 1988, she worked on the campaign of George H.W. Bush and was appointed as Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Housing in the Bush administration where she was billed as the "cleaning lady of HUD", charged with repairing its reputation in the aftermath of the savings and loan crisis.[4][3][1] Among her initial observations upon taking office was that the department had a $300 billion portfolio of mortgage insurance but only employed one certified actuary.[5] The reforms she announced included a plan to sell government-foreclosed homes at a 50-percent discount to non-profit organizations to operate as rentals; previously the government sought to sell residential properties for the highest possible value leading to a large amount of real estate it had to manage at great expense and a shortage of housing stock in some high-density markets.[6]

She resigned her post in 1990, following a report that her relationship with Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Jack Kemp had soured, a report Kemp denied.[7] Fitts' departure prompted criticism of Kemp; she had been – according to Neal Peirce – "widely regarded as the best manager he brought in".[8]

According to Fitts, she was offered an appointment to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors after her departure from HUD but declined, preferring to return to the private sector instead.[9]

After leaving government, Fitts founded Hamilton Securities, an employee-owned brokerage house, which she ran until 1998.[10] In 1993, Hamilton Securities won a contract with HUD to manage its $500 billion investment portfolio.[4] While managing HUD's portfolio, Fitts devised a streamlined mortgage selling software program – Community Wizard – that some have claimed saved the department several hundreds of millions of dollars.[4][11]

In 1997, HUD canceled the Hamilton contract over what it claimed were accounting errors involving the program; an investigation into Hamilton Securities was launched by the HUD Inspector-General, the FBI, and the Securities and Exchange Commission.[4][12] According to Fitts, the investigation was undertaken as retribution against her; she claims that Community Wizard data revealed that some federally-guaranteed mortgage securities may have been fraudulently issued.[4] One outside complainant, a government contractor, charged insider dealing and bid rigging in its contention that Hamilton Securities had obtained its HUD business due to favoritism, charges Hamilton Securities denied.[12] In 2002 the investigation was closed with prejudice with investigators stating they had found no evidence of wrongdoing by Fitts or Hamilton Securities.[4][11] However, according to Fitts, all of the company's assets, along with her personal assets, were destroyed defending themselves during the multi-year investigation.[13]

Fitts subsequently founded Solari, an investment advisory firm, which she runs as of 2020.[13][4]

Fitts has researched and commented on government spending. In a 2004 study published in World Affairs: The Journal of International Issues, she purported to find "evidence that a very large proportion of the nation’s wealth is being illegally diverted since several decades into secret, unaccountable channels and programmes with unspecified purposes, including covert operations and subversions abroad and clandestine military R&D at home. Public institutions have been infiltrated and taken over by shadowy groups in the service of powerful private and vested interests, often at the expense of the common good."[14]

In 2017 Fitts co-authored a report, with Michigan State University economist Mark Skidmore, that claimed to find $21 trillion in unauthorized spending by the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development over a 17-year period.[15] Four days following the report's release, the Department of Defense announced it would undertake the first independent financial audit in its history.[15] The report was subsequently cited by United States Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as evidence of government funding that could be redirected to healthcare programs.[16]

Fitts has claimed that HUD's mission of spurring economic growth is secondary to what she contends is its use as a fundraising mechanism for military and intelligence agencies involving a complex securities scheme using HUD-backed Ginnie Mae investments.[4][14] According to Fitts, HUD overpays to rehabilitate public housing and funnels the difference into unaudited black budget programs at the behest of national security agencies.[4][14]

During the United States presidential election, 2016, Fitts supported the campaign of Donald Trump.[17] On December 8, 2020, Trump retweeted one of Fitts' tweets which linked to an article on Breitbart.[18] She has donated to political campaigns of Democrats Cynthia McKinney and Marcy Kaptur, and Republicans Rand Paul and Thomas Massie.[19]

Fitts has been a recurrent guest on the overnight radio program Coast to Coast AM.[20]

In 2021 Fitts released an interview in which she criticized technocracy, transhumanism, and centralized political and economic control made possible by digital currencies.[21]