Review and Preview

It was a good week for financial markets as well for Financial Astrology. Both equity markets and precious metals were up strongly this past week, following their primary and trading cycles lows registered on June 7-8, coinciding with the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction of June 8. As stated last week, “In retrospect, we now have a case where the U.S. (and many other world) stock markets made their yearly high exactly on the date that Saturn was in opposition to Uranus (April 26), and their bottom exactly on the date that Jupiter was in conjunction to Uranus. This is how Financial Astrology works and why it is extremely valuable…”

It also demonstrates yet another truism about astrology in general. Hard aspects (like Saturn in opposition to Uranus) are not always lows, or the worst of all times. And soft, harmonious aspects are not always highs, or the best of all times. It depends upon your cycle going into these aspects. If you have been struggling and a hard aspects hits, it can coincide with the bottom of your personal cycle from which things begin to seem better. But if you have been a nice successful run and a hard aspect hits, you better be careful. It could end nearby to the time of the hard aspect, especially if you have been careless. It is like, “pride cometh before the fall.” The same is true with harmonious aspects. We see this over and over again with trends in financial markets, and how these aspects simply indicate “change of the trend.” Not necessarily bad, not necessarily good on that day. It is basically an end to one cycle and a new beginning for another.

In world equity markets, prices continued their rise last week from the double bottom lows of May 25 and June 8 periods. In some cases, the rallies have already exceeded 10% in just those 1-3 weeks (i.e. Netherlands AEX, German DAX, India’s Nifty, Brazil’s Bovespa, Argentina’s Merval, and the USA NASDAQ Composite). The biggest gainer that we track was in the Moscow MICEX, 3hich gained over 15% since its low of May 25. You may recollect that May 20-25 was when Venus was in translation to the Cardinal Climax planets, a harbinger of what we might see around d June 8. Indeed it was a double bottom formation, as some indices made a lower low on June 7-8, while the others bottomed May 20-25.

In other markets, Gold soared to a new all-time high on Friday, hitting 1263 intraday. Silver also exploded, closing above 1900 after bottoming at 1719 just a few days ago, on June 7. Crude Oil tested 80.00/barrel last week, after being as low as 64.24 on May 20.

Short-Term Geocosmics

This week starts and ends with two powerful geocosmic events. On Monday the summer solstice begins, and it occurs with a hard square aspect (waxing square) to Uranus. In terms of natural phenomenal, this is a signature that sometimes coincides with earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, and the like. In the geopolitical realm, it can coincide with a sudden reversal of direction on the part of a world leader, or an act of great risk by a group that may pose a danger to the lives of others. In financial markets, it can correlate with a reversal of trend, or a pause, or an explosive breakout of support or resistance. With Uranus, you never know for sure what the event is, or what the reaction will be.

The week will end with a lunar eclipse on June 26. This might be an important eclipse because the moon will be in Capricorn, conjunct Pluto. In fact, this entire week will find the Sun filling in the open point of a grand square between Jupiter and Uranus in Aries, Saturn in late Virgo, and Pluto in Capricorn. It is a translation of the Cardinal Climax, which will be a preview of what we might expect to experience when we enter the fifth and deepest layer of this phenomenal once-in-a-lifetime cosmic pattern in late July through early August. This may still pose a critical risk to the Federal Reserve Board and other central banks, despite the recent reports suggesting that the FRB will remain basically intact of its most important powers per the so-called Financial Regulatory Reform bill. There may be a sudden switch on this proposal. Something may be hidden, and something may be revealed – or buried deeper from sight.

On Thursday and Friday, the “Sagittarius Factor” is in effect. This lunar cycle (Moon in Sagittarius) oftentimes coincides with very sharp price movement sin many financial markets, especially precious metals and Treasuries. In short, there is no reason to think that markets – or world leaders — will be quiet or tame this week. They are still likely to overstep their boundaries, exaggerate, and offend.

Longer-Term Thoughts

“Regulation was the obvious method of keeping corporations answerable to democracy, and not the other way around – but why trust public officials to regulate if they were all on the take?… The power of the railroads (today, banks) gave rise to demands for a stronger government to control them, yet this same power aroused fears that they would simply corrupt a strong government, and grow still more powerful.”
— T.J. Stiles in “The First Tycoon,” regarding the life of Cornelius Vanderbilt in 1860.

Last week I asked, “But will more government regulations prevent crises? Or will they have an unforeseen opposite effect of actually creating more crises? The result of more and more limitations in activities implied by Pluto in Capricorn could lead to more and more risks from the ever rebellious, anti-authoritarian nature of Uranus in Aries.”

One of the many fears in the financial world today is that some nations are so far below water in terms of the debt to other countries that they pose the risk of sovereign default (i.e. not being able to pay back the countries they have borrowed from). Default and bankruptcy are particularly the domain of Pluto in Capricorn (2008-2023) as well as Saturn in its waning square to Pluto (October 2009-August 2010).

But what happens when a country cannot pay its debt when it is due to another country? Prior to the 20th century, governments used to borrow money from its banks or richest citizens. When the debt became too great, they would conveniently force the bank out of business (i.e., nationalize it or make such restrictive regulations that it could not survive), or hang the wealthy individual to whom they owed the money, and presto! The debt was gone. The nation’s treasury would return to surplus or a more manageable deficit. France, for instance, made an art of this process. Spain was not far behind. These two countries, by the way, have the most numerous cases of default in the history of nations’ finances, although for the last one-two centuries they have been pretty good compared to Latin American nations (source: “This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly” by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, Princeton University Press, 2009).

But take the United States, for example, with all its recent and soon-to-be regulations of financial institutions, like banks. As the government bailed out these banks with TARP monies, with the intention that the banks would release those monies to the main street and thus re-stimulate private spending, a strange Uranian phenomenon happened. The banks didn’t lend the money out. They kept the money, and instead built up their own balance sheets, registering record profits last year.

And they are still not letting the money out. In fact, they are exhibiting new behaviors that are sure to stoke the populist cry for more regulations as we head towards the center of the Cardinal Climax in late July and August. In Friday’s “Wall Street Journal,” a front page article is titled “End is Seen to Free Checking.” That says it all. The government passes new regulations and fines onto banks, which then pass on more fees to pay for this loss of revenue. The same thing happened with the so-called Health Care Reform bill that was suppose to rein in costs that health insurance companies charge. But instead of lower rates, the regulations have enabled the insurers to raise rates, and many of them will take effect in August as well. It’s going to be a hot summer.

Regulations may start off with the best of intentions to protect consumers and citizens. But by the time the banks and businesses get to the politicians (i.e. regulators), regulation gets transformed in such a way that the reforms actually cause more harm to those it was suppose to help. Why? That’s an easy answer and as old as the time when politics and business first went to bed with one another. Pluto in Capricorn, and now Saturn in waning square to Pluto, is just the beginning of a new era of government intervention into — and regulations addressed to — businesses and banks. But Uranus in Aries (2010-2018) is also the era of increased competition and demand for goods and services that are being restricted by these new regulations (and taxes that will soon follow). I don’t think it takes too much imagination to see the implications and even likely consequences of these dynamics coming together.