Dear Friend and Reader:
I did something weird last night, which was come home from my studio without my laptop. When I went out for coffee this morning, I saw an unusual New York Times for a Monday — Merrill Lynch, on the verge of collapse, sold to Bank of America; Lehman Brothers being liquidated after it could not find a buyer. Apparently it was all hands on deck yesterday on Wall Street — a kind of Black Sunday. Note the Full Moon effect: it was full early this morning, so these discussions were going on all weekend as the Full Moon was building.
There were emergency meetings with the Federal Reserve. Bankers across the city in their offices trying to figure out how much of their company’s assets were invested in these two companies, and then the horrendous game of “Who’s Next?”
People are wondering if this is the beginning of the end; the end, that is, of the economic system as we know it. It seems the shadow banking system is finally percolating to the surface.
We last covered this issue in March, when Bear Stearns was sold for pennies on the dollar. It looked like Pluto in Capricorn then, and it looks like Pluto in Capricorn now.
We’re currently working on how this development is likely to affect the presidential race. I am putting calls out to my contacts on Wall Street, and developing an article for Friday on the impact of the coming journey of Pluto in Capricorn. For now, here is an excerpt from our coverage of the financial crisis earlier in the year. This is not an easy story to write, so I’ll be avoiding blogging on it this week, saving my energy for Friday’s edition of Planet Waves Astrology News. We will have coverage by other writers and be keeping an eye on other blogs as well — so stay tuned.
Part of the structure of society involves the financial markets and the way that the economy is set up, or rather, set up for change. I have been doing my best to wrap my head around the current news and get to the bottom of things. I think it can be explained pretty easily, at least in its most rudimentary elements. We have seen this thing recently called the “subprime mortgage crisis” take on new dimensions as a credit crisis, a solvency crisis and potentially, a global economic crisis. Banks in France, the UK and the central European bank have all been affected, and it could easily spread to Asia.
How did this happen? American banks sold a lot of mortgages to borrowers (a/k/a homeowners) who could not afford them. This worked fine, as long as housing prices stayed high; you could always get out. But then housing prices dropped, meaning that people owed more to the banks than their homes were worth. This involved first-time buyers and also many experienced homeowners who invested above their means. People could not make the payments, and many defaulted; but by then all of these mortgages had in effect contaminated the entire investment industry and global securities markets.
In short, real estate turned out to not be so real. The most secure investment of all — one’s home — for many people turned out to be a lot of hot air. The biggest story that whipped through the week was the federal government guaranteeing the buyout of Bear Stearns, one of the world’s largest securities firms, by J P Morgan-Chase. The firm’s stock is now sold for $2 a share when it had recently been trading for $170.
worth watching: sent by a Fish called Kelly … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMkJik6NTVM
> People are wondering if this is the beginning of the end; the end, that is, of the economic system as we know it <
It makes me wonder, no actually it makes sence…….. my knowledge is very limited.
“Novus Ordo Seclorum” What a dream, what a hope, what the?
The motto Novus Ordo Seclorum was coined by Charles Thomson in June 1782. He adapted it from a line in Virgil’s Eclogue IV, a pastoral poem that expresses the longing for a new era of peace and happiness which was written by the famed Roman writer in the first century B.C.
The following passage at the beginning of the poem refers to the Sibyl who prophesied the fate of the Roman empire.
Now the last age by Cumae’s Sibyl sung
Has come and gone, and the majestic roll
Of circling centuries begins anew:
Justice returns, returns old Saturn’s reign,
With a new breed of men sent down from heaven.
Only do thou, at the boy’s birth in whom
The iron shall cease, the golden age arise. . .
Under thy guidance, whatso tracks remain
Of our old wickedness, once done away
Shall free the earth from never-ceasing fear.
He shall receive the life of gods, and see
Heroes with gods commingling, and himself
Be seen of them, and with his father’s worth
Reign o’er a world at peace.
Come are those last days that the Sybil sang:
The ages’ mighty march begins anew.
Now come the virgin, Saturn reigns again:
Now from high heaven descends a wondrous race.
Thou on the newborn babe – who first shall end
That age of iron, bid a golden dawn. . .
Thou, trampling out what prints our crimes have left,
Shalt free the nations from perpetual fear.
While he to bliss shall waken; with the Blest
See the Brave mingling, and be seen of them,
Ruling that world o’er which his father’s arm shed peace.
And now another will come to pass: Daniel 7:23 “Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.” And I cant forget the little horn.
And then who will save us from our economic, enviromental and other woes, Putin? Scwatznegger? Uncle Dick…….. or Maybe the pentacostal Palin will let us in on a secret. can we still interpret the tounges?
Pluto in Capricorn? perhaps. Greed in our hearts, just a little.
What’s remarkable to me is that the Fed/Treasury — the authorities — refused to back up Lehman’s toxic debt or provide guarantees to potential buyers. The Fed, during the Greenspan era, repeatedly bailed out banks and even hedge funds (like Long-Term Capital Management, managed by two Nobel prize winners — that’s another story). By doing this, Greenspan created ‘moral hazard,’ meaning that banks/funds would continue to take risky positions, overleverage etc., safe in the belief that Uncle Sam could always bail them out in the end.
Lehman Bros actually had interested buyers; it’s not like they couldn’t find suitors. Its CEO knew about the extent of the problems and had been negotiating with the Koreans only last week (fell apart cause Lehman wanted a higher price, another story). British investment bank Barclays has been longing to buy another big bank and had been studying Lehman’s books all weekend. However, Barclays was only going to do it if the Treasury would provide guarantees, similar to what it did with JP Morgan when it bought Bear Stearns back in March.
Not only did Treasury refuse, but neither Paulson nor the NY Fed bank could convince the other Masters of Universe to support any Lehman sale at an emergency meeting on Friday. Tres unusual.
‘They take more risks and are highly leveraged’ yup this was all news to me, the real lack of juristiction or even knowledge there is over what these people are up to…
David Wyss standard and poor chief economist was on the news earlier saying it was time to have more rules and regulations concerning this murky world of investment banks – basically they are apparently going to be forced by government to be more transparent about their inner workings.
The thing that has become blatently clear to me now is that our world is controlled by something that is an idea -not real ( banking these days is just numbers on screens) affected strongly by an emotion ( confidence and faith in other lenders and investors) I think Pluto is going to test just how real and important this idea of money is to humanity, she will also give very powerful institutions a good whipping, for a change brakes and rules wil be applied to them rather than the little guy – i feel revolution!!
Here are some notes from Friday’s edition of Planet Waves, which will focus on Pluto in Capricorn, the Saturn-Uranus opposition and the financial crisis. These are interview notes with an anonymous source I know pretty well — not in my own words.
The FED has regulatory powers over traditional banks…banks that have depositors. Historically they have been at the center of the US economy. The FED has the power to require these banks to have reserves so they don’t become too leveraged. It has the power to regulate them and seize them. The banking system has morphed. Now we have large organizations that don’t come under the power of the FED and they are now larger and more powerful players than many of the traditional banks. They are hedge funds, investment banks, equity funds, and they don’t disclose to the FED. They take more risks and are highly leveraged, perhaps as high as 60:1. On the way up large amounts of money are made, on the way down, well we are getting a taste of the results. They have arms that reach into all the aspects on the economy. Hell, they are the economy in a sense. With no oversight, no one knows (shadow) what they have on their books, what they are worth, etc…yet they are the key players in the US banking system. Am I building a picture that gives you a sense?
Bottom line…no one knows if Lehman’s fall will bring a financial meltdown as we are in new waters here. I think I’m comfortable saying most are holding their breathe today to see what happens. It may take time to see the results. The last I looked the Dow was down 300 points and many think that isn’t so bad.
Maybe i’m a little perverse but i’m as happy as a pig in shit about this, money does very strange things to people – they forget their humanity. How many times have we thought to ourselves ( i know i have) that the frankly insane choices made by governments wouldn’t be so insane ( and more protective of our REAL interests like happiness) if this strange thing the ‘economy’ didn’t exsist. Yay for Pluto, tho’ i may not be saying that when ‘civilisation’ grinds to a halt and we are all mashing each others brains out in supermarkets trying to get the last can of beans. x