Monday 17 March 2008

Turbulent Times for the American Economy


Following on the sub-prime mortgage crisis of the second half of 2007, economic indicators in the USA continue to slide. In recent weeks the US Dollar hit new lows in value compared to the Euro, and oil prices climbed above $110 per barrel. Most recently, a major investment corporation, Carlyle Capital, which features some very famous political figures on its board of directors, has essentially gone bankrupt, and another two banks, Citibank and Countrywide (both of which widely involved themselves in securitization of sub-prime mortgages) followed suit. This was then immediately followed by the US Federal Reserve bailing them out with a $200 billion loan in an effort to keep some of the banking system afloat. Hence a decision was made to inject solvency into the bankers’ operation, despite the prey of those same bankers’ predatory loan practices (who are in the large majority African-American and Hispanic) not being offered the same assistance. If this sounds unfair, well that’s the game the Federal Reserve likes to play, ever since its foundation in 1914, when it usurped the power to provide paper money to the people of the USA, including its government, at interest that it knows can never be repaid. This is debt peonage, and has been a simple yet powerful tool of financial elites of European origin for about the last 400 years.

The problem, however, is that we are fast approaching some externally imposed limits to wealth creation on our planet, such as peaking oil supplies and carbon-fuelled climate change. Additionally, increasingly people are starting to wake up to the grossly unfair and piratical system of international finance which has been operating to enrich the few at the expense of the many. The US economy is almost certainly in recession, and mortgage foreclosures are rapidly mounting not just in the USA, but in European countries too. Only two months ago, the British prime minister announced that a UK bank would be nationalised. Only 2-3 years ago this would have been regarded as unthinkable given the unquestionable assumptions of globalisation and free-trade capitalist economics. Bubbles are bursting and stock-markets are falling fast. There is increasing talk of a major depression over the next few years.

The upcoming Full Moon, which occurs at 5:40 AM AEDT on 22 March 2008, Melbourne time, is shown here. Note the remarkably exact square the full moon makes to Pluto, only 24 minutes out of orb. Now examine the chart for the opening of the Federal Reserve (16 November 1914, noon chart, at Washington, DC) and compare. Transiting Pluto in the Full Moon chart opposes natal Pluto (45’ orb) and natal Saturn (17’ orb). Transiting Neptune squares the Sun (orb 21’) and transiting Saturn is on the South Node (1ยบ02’ orb).

It seems to me that this lunation, so close after the Aries equinox, is a potent suggestion of major problems hitting the Federal Reserve, problems that will become very public or at least affect the public at large, and may well sound the death-knell for this entity, or at least indicate the need for radical changes and transformations in its purpose and function. Neptune squaring the Sun suggests lack of confidence, an aura of deception and corruption and disillusionment with the role of the Federal Reserve. Saturn on the South Node is always a bad sign of past realities coming back to be dealt with and acknowledged and mistakes to be corrected (particularly with Saturn and the South Node being in Virgo).



A quick look at the Astrocartography map for this lunation shows a prominent confluence of lines on the Mexico/USA border near the states of New Mexico and Arizona. The Uranus on MC line intersects with the Pluto setting line and the Mars rising line. Could this be indicative of a major explosive incident in the Southwestern USA, perhaps riots in the major cities? Only time will tell.

This lunation is one of a series of difficult astrological configurations due to hit the charts for the USA in the coming year. The major one in coming months will be the exact Saturn-Uranus opposition occurring on Election Day. I will write more about this in coming weeks.