Economy ..... Treasury Department Act September 02, 1789

December 19, 2004

Hi Steinar

Scrutiny of the horoscope for the U.S.Treasury Department may help your thinking

about some of the fundamental issues you have raised regarding the U.S. Federal

Government finances:

September 02, 1789 : Treasury Department Act signed by President George

Washington at his Cherry Street, New York City residence @ 12:00 noon of that

Wednesday.

Steinar <steinar wrote:

Merriman's last long-term outlook from his free weekly newsletter:

----------

-

Long-Term Thoughts:

It just doesn't add up.

Looking out at the long-term horizon, there is a crisis looming

for the financing of the Social Security and Medicare programs in the United

States . I have addressed this potential crisis several times within the

context of the downside of Saturn-Pluto cycle, which moves from its

opposition to conjunction between 2002-2020. This is a period when,

historically, increases usually occur in Federal deficits, interest rates,

and taxes. Of course that does not have to happen, because leaders have

choices, and outcomes we can control depend more upon on choices than they

do upon astrological signatures. But historically, these signatures have

coincided with financial choices that leaders have made during this phase of

the Saturn-Pluto cycle, and these choices have led these types of economic

crises.

And it could happen again, for reasons discussed in the past

couple of columns. But what is difficult to understand are the replies to

this looming crisis given by the White House. Let's look at this matter from

a simple, practical point of view. You have an $8-10 trillion shortfall

expected in Social Security shortly. You have a $61 trillion shortfall

expected in Medicare. By the time Saturn and Pluto reach their midway point

in their down cycle (a waning square) in 2009-2010, " baby boomers' will

start retiring in droves. The number of people working to support the number

of people retiring will diminish substantially. The current projection for

the program is that it will run out of money by 2018, despite the claim from

some Congressmen that the program is fine until 2042. It would have been

fine until 2042 if the appropriation of funds for this program had been

implemented as planned. So, where is the money going to come from to cover

the expected shortfall, if you have less and less people contributing to a

system that needs to fund more and more people?

There are only four ways that I can think of to fund these

programs into the next decade and beyond. You raise taxes, borrow money

(issue more and more Treasury Bonds and Notes), extend the retirement age,

or hope for such a booming economy that more and more people will actually

work and make a lot more money and pay more into the current tax structure.

I don't think we can count on option #3 or 4, at least not in the few years

when the crisis needs to be worked out.

So we are looking at either raising taxes or borrowing more

money. President George W. Bush has ruled out " .raising taxes to finance a

Social Security overhaul to help the system survive an impending wave of

about 70 million retiring baby boomers, " according to a December 10

Associated Press article by Scott Lindlaw. OK. That leaves borrowing more

money through the issuance of Treasury Bonds and Notes. But that will

increase the Federal deficit, and President Bush has promised to cut the

Federal deficit in half during his final term in office. It just doesn't add

up.

And in an almost perfect example of this current Mercury retrograde period

of conflicting signals, the same article reports, " White House budget

director Joshua Bolten said the cost of implementing Bush's plan would not

undercut Bush's goal of cutting the deficit in half in the next 5 years.

Yet, he said, such costs 'may well' add to the short-term annual deficit. "

Huh?

Let's be practical again, because it sounds like the White House

plan to handle the crisis will involve at some issuing of more debt. What

happens when you do that? Well, when you increase the supply of anything,

its value goes down. When Treasuries go down in value that means yields

(interest rates) go up. And when interest rates go up at the same time your

deficit is increasing, then the deficit goes up even more because you have

more interest rate payments to make on that debt. At some point, the only

way to cut back the increasing national debt - if it increases too much - is

to raise taxes. And with the shortfall expected soon in Social Security and

Medicare, an awful lot of money is going to be needed to fund these

programs, starting around 2008, just as the Saturn-Uranus-Pluto T-square

starts to come into orb. The last time we saw this configuration was in

1930-31. And if it is not dealt with then, the projected date of running out

money is 2018, just in time for the Saturn-Pluto conjunction in January

2020.

It just doesn't add up. And until financial messages from the White House do

add up, the price of basic commodities, like Gold and Crude Oil and even

food, may continue to rise into the end of this decade, while equity prices

around the world might struggle. But since this is a crisis mostly unique to

the United States , it is also a reason why currency values, vis-a-vis the

U.S. Dollar, may also continue to rise. Yes, we will likely see some

significant corrective declines in these markets in the next few months. In

fact, they may have started in the past 1-2 weeks. But the longer-term trend

in commodities and currency markets appears bullish. And that long-term

outlook can be a valuable basis for your investment decisions, as you try to

protect your capital through the next 15 years. After all, that is the

message of the down side of the Saturn-Pluto cycle: to " protect your

capital. " During the upside of this cycle (1982-2001), the economic climate

is conducive to " appreciating your capital, " through investments like

equities. It's a different world now, and the politicians are giving us no

reason yet to think this time will be any different than past Saturn-Pluto

down cycles.

http://www.mmacycles.com/artweek.htm

(the link is only valid for one week)

December 19, 2004

Thanks for the advise, but let me emphasize that the e-mail was an excerpt

form Raymon Merriman's weekly newsletter. So no credit to me :-)

http://www.mmacycles.com/artweek.htm

Thanks for the Natal data, it will be interesting to run the chart.

Best wishes,

S

John TWB [jtwbjakarta]

Sunday, December 19, 2004 7:02 PM

Economy ..... Treasury Department Act

September 02, 1789

Hi Steinar

Scrutiny of the horoscope for the U.S.Treasury Department may help your

thinking about some of the fundamental issues you have raised regarding the

U.S. Federal Government finances:

September 02, 1789 : Treasury Department Act signed by President George

Washington at his Cherry Street, New York City residence @ 12:00 noon of

that Wednesday.

Steinar <steinar wrote:

Merriman's last long-term outlook from his free weekly newsletter:

--------

--

-

Long-Term Thoughts:

It just doesn't add up.

Looking out at the long-term horizon, there is a crisis

looming

for the financing of the Social Security and Medicare programs in the

United

States . I have addressed this potential crisis several times within the

context of the downside of Saturn-Pluto cycle, which moves from its

opposition to conjunction between 2002-2020. This is a period when,

historically, increases usually occur in Federal deficits, interest rates,

and taxes. Of course that does not have to happen, because leaders have

choices, and outcomes we can control depend more upon on choices than they

do upon astrological signatures. But historically, these signatures have

coincided with financial choices that leaders have made during this phase

of

the Saturn-Pluto cycle, and these choices have led these types of economic

crises.

And it could happen again, for reasons discussed in the past

couple of columns. But what is difficult to understand are the replies to

this looming crisis given by the White House. Let's look at this matter

from

a simple, practical point of view. You have an $8-10 trillion shortfall

expected in Social Security shortly. You have a $61 trillion shortfall

expected in Medicare. By the time Saturn and Pluto reach their midway

point

in their down cycle (a waning square) in 2009-2010, " baby boomers' will

start retiring in droves. The number of people working to support the

number

of people retiring will diminish substantially. The current projection for

the program is that it will run out of money by 2018, despite the claim

from

some Congressmen that the program is fine until 2042. It would have been

fine until 2042 if the appropriation of funds for this program had been

implemented as planned. So, where is the money going to come from to cover

the expected shortfall, if you have less and less people contributing to a

system that needs to fund more and more people?

There are only four ways that I can think of to fund these

programs into the next decade and beyond. You raise taxes, borrow money

(issue more and more Treasury Bonds and Notes), extend the retirement age,

or hope for such a booming economy that more and more people will actually

work and make a lot more money and pay more into the current tax

structure.

I don't think we can count on option #3 or 4, at least not in the few

years

when the crisis needs to be worked out.

So we are looking at either raising taxes or borrowing more

money. President George W. Bush has ruled out " .raising taxes to finance a

Social Security overhaul to help the system survive an impending wave of

about 70 million retiring baby boomers, " according to a December 10

Associated Press article by Scott Lindlaw. OK. That leaves borrowing more

money through the issuance of Treasury Bonds and Notes. But that will

increase the Federal deficit, and President Bush has promised to cut the

Federal deficit in half during his final term in office. It just doesn't

add

up.

And in an almost perfect example of this current Mercury retrograde period

of conflicting signals, the same article reports, " White House budget

director Joshua Bolten said the cost of implementing Bush's plan would not

undercut Bush's goal of cutting the deficit in half in the next 5 years.

Yet, he said, such costs 'may well' add to the short-term annual deficit. "

Huh?

Let's be practical again, because it sounds like the White

House

plan to handle the crisis will involve at some issuing of more debt. What

happens when you do that? Well, when you increase the supply of anything,

its value goes down. When Treasuries go down in value that means yields

(interest rates) go up. And when interest rates go up at the same time

your

deficit is increasing, then the deficit goes up even more because you have

more interest rate payments to make on that debt. At some point, the only

way to cut back the increasing national debt - if it increases too much -

is

to raise taxes. And with the shortfall expected soon in Social Security

and

Medicare, an awful lot of money is going to be needed to fund these

programs, starting around 2008, just as the Saturn-Uranus-Pluto T-square

starts to come into orb. The last time we saw this configuration was in

1930-31. And if it is not dealt with then, the projected date of running

out

money is 2018, just in time for the Saturn-Pluto conjunction in January

2020.

It just doesn't add up. And until financial messages from the White House

do

add up, the price of basic commodities, like Gold and Crude Oil and even

food, may continue to rise into the end of this decade, while equity

prices

around the world might struggle. But since this is a crisis mostly unique

to

the United States , it is also a reason why currency values, vis-a-vis the

U.S. Dollar, may also continue to rise. Yes, we will likely see some

significant corrective declines in these markets in the next few months.

In

fact, they may have started in the past 1-2 weeks. But the longer-term

trend

in commodities and currency markets appears bullish. And that long-term

outlook can be a valuable basis for your investment decisions, as you try

to

protect your capital through the next 15 years. After all, that is the

message of the down side of the Saturn-Pluto cycle: to " protect your

capital. " During the upside of this cycle (1982-2001), the economic

climate

is conducive to " appreciating your capital, " through investments like

equities. It's a different world now, and the politicians are giving us no

reason yet to think this time will be any different than past Saturn-Pluto

down cycles.

http://www.mmacycles.com/artweek.htm

(the link is only valid for one week)

December 19, 2004

Hi Steinar

Go ahead and compare August 28 with September 02nd.

Personally, I am not persuaded by those who rely on final signatures for

determining time moments of birth:

EXAMPLES:

John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress, and 53 other delegates

didn't sign the Declaration of Independence until August 2nd, 1776. Wisner and

McKean, nos. 55 and 56 even later.

The final signature on the ratification of the Articles of Confederation was

affixed on March 01, 1781. It was duly adopted without signatures in the late

afternoon of November 13, 1777 (Sorry, David Solte, " R.I.P. " ). Nobody waited for

the shear formality of Maryland's signature.

The Federal Reserve Act was duly adopted by the Congressional Conference

Committee on December 22, 1913 in the afternoon at 3:30 pm. Wilson's signature

at 6:02 pm the next day was truly a formality without cosmic import.

CHECK IT OUT.