Investment adviser Catherine Austin Fitts was joined by financial commentators Bill Murphy (2nd hour) and Andy Gause (3rd hour) to discuss the current state of the economy, bailouts, and how fraud and manipulation are at the root of our financial turmoil.

We've been draining value out of the real economy, and the proposed bailout will just funnel investments into propping up the bubble, said Fitts, suggesting that the plan will actually send money from Main St. to Wall St., instead of the reverse. What's going on with the bailout is more than theft, "it's a coup d’état" –-a "reengineering of government institutions," she declared. Fitts has listed 10 reasons not to bail out Wall Street in her recent blog entry.

Murphy, who's done extensive research to show the price of gold has been suppressed and manipulated, commented that the free market process has been thwarted in the US. Gause metaphorically described the huge amount of debt as "radioactive and toxic." This pool of mortgages has been changed at the atomic level and can't be put back together-- it can only be taken out to a field and covered with a tarp, he opined. In the last hour, Fitts took calls from 'sound off' listeners.

Giant Crystal Cave

In the first half-hour, Dr. Chris McKay talked about his exploration of a giant crystal cave, which will be featured on a National Geographic special. The clear crystals, formed over millions of years, are the size of huge trees, he said.

Floating Garbage Patch

In the latter-half of the first hour, writer Thomas M. Kostigen reported on a floating garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean. The huge area off the coast of Hawaii is twice size of Texas, and contains millions of pounds of trash, mostly plastic.