13 re-affirm his or her view of the world. Control systems are most effective when they overlap and affirm each other. Combine the carrots and sticks created through the financial and economic systems with entrainment tech- nology and subliminal programming and you have something very powerful. Use control files for the sensitive positions or assassination made to look like accidents for the few you cannot control. Use surveillance to fine-tune the moni- toring process and you have the intelligence you need to lead people by their desire and greed – by the carrots and sticks the financial system and the economy can deliver. You end up with a financial and economic sys- tem that can be run significantly outside the law for long periods of time. The financial coup d’etat that began in the mid- 1990’s is an excellent example of this phenom- enon. One of my favorite stories describing the period of the financial coup d’etat is one I tell in Dillon Read & Co. & the Aristocracy of Stock Profits: We were blessed with an advisory board of very capable and committed pension fund leaders. In April 1997, we had an advisory board meeting at Safeguard Scientifics where the board chair led a venture capital effort. I gave a presentation on the extraordinary waste in the federal budget. As an example, we demonstrated why we estimated that the prior year’s federal investment in the Philadel- phia, Pennsylvania area had a negative return on investment. It was, however, possible to finance places with private equity and then reengineer the government investment to a positive return and, as a result, generate significant capital gains. Hence, it was possible to use U.S. pension funds to increase retirees’ retirement security significantly by investing in American communities, small business and farms — all in a manner that would reduce debt and improve skills and job creation. This was important as one of the chief financial concerns in America at that time was ensuring that our retire- ment plans performed financially to a standard that would meet the needs of beneficiaries and re- tirees. It was also critical to reduce debt and create new jobs as we continued to move manufacturing and other employment abroad. If not, we would be using our workforce’s retirement savings to finance moving their jobs and their children’s jobs abroad. The response from the pension fund investors was quite positive until the President of the CalPers pension fund – the largest in the country – said, “You don’t understand. It’s too late. They have given up on the country. They are moving all the money out in the fall (of 1997). They are moving it to Asia.” He did not say who “they” were but did indicate that it was urgent that I see Nick Brady (former Chairman of Dillon Read and Secretary of Treasury under Bush I) – as if our data that indicated that there was hope for the country might make a difference. I thought at the time that he meant that the pension funds and other institutional investors would be shifting a much higher portion of their investment portfolios to emerging markets. I was naive. He was referring to something much more significant. The federal fiscal year starts on October 1st of each year. Typically the appropriation committees in the House and Senate vote out their recommenda- tions during the summer. When they return from vacation after Labor Day, the various committees reconcile and a final bill is passed in September. Reconciling all the various issues is a bit like push- ing a pig through a snake. Finalizing the budget each fall can make for a tense time. When the new bill goes into effect, new policies start to emerge as the money to back them starts to flow. October 1st is always a time of new shifts and beginnings. In October 1997, the federal fiscal year started. It was the beginning of at least $4 trillion going missing from federal government agency accounts between October 1997 and September 2001. The lion’s share of the missing money disappeared from the Department of Defense accounts. HUD also had significant amounts missing. According to HUD OIG reports, HUD had “undocumentable adjustments” of $17 billion in fiscal year 1998, and $59 billion in 1999. The HUD OIG refused to finalize audited financial statements in fis-