Pluto in Capricorn – lessons not yet learnt

    

 

Pluto in Capricorn is the great tracker of all matters economic on a macro-level. You could write a history of money through the times of its appearance, roughly every 250 years.  Charlemagne in the 8th Century –  had an important role in determining the immediate economic future of Europe. He standardised the monetary system which unified the complex array of currencies in use at the start of his reign, so simplifying trade.

Kublai Khan two Pluto in Capricorns later: is considered to be the first of fiat money makers (i.e. paper money not gold or silver). The paper bills made collecting taxes and administering the huge empire much easier while reducing cost of transporting coins.

The next Pluto in Capricorn in early 16th Century Europe saw the start of Mercantilism. And exactly on cue by the next Pluto in Capricorn in 1776 the Scottish economist Adam Smith was critiquing and rejecting Mercantilism in his book Wealth of Nations – Smith’s work helped create the modern academic discipline of economics and provided one of the best-known rationales for free trade.

The present Pluto in Capricorn picked up in 2008 with the resounding US and global financial crash. Little was learned from the meltdown; and the wholesale rethink of the system that was needed never took place. So it was always on the cards that the necessary correction would happen sometime before Pluto’s exit into Aquarius in 2023/24.

Saturn moving into Capricorn last year heading for a last decan conjunction with Pluto in 2019/2020, on its own, is an indication of a recession. But given the larger picture, it could be the catalyst for a tectonic shift that should have happened after 2008.

And by 2022 Saturn in Aquarius is square Uranus in Taurus which is usually also a sign of a financial crunch. There was a Saturn opposition Uranus in 2009/2010 just after the 2008 crash.

In 2010 Edmund Conway of the Telegraph wrote: ‘The international monetary system has failed, and there is no one willing or able to come up with a reconstruction job.’ He suggested that a coherent international monetary system would only come either 1) after another crisis (perhaps sovereign debt, perhaps a full-blown currency war). Or 2) when one economic superpower gives way to another after a period of chaos.

The EU, UK, Germany all have Uranus moving through their 8th house of international and business finances from now onwards for the next few years until after 2025, so they are into an unpredictable and unstable phase.

The previous time Uranus moved into Taurus in the mid 1930s, it was just under way for the Jarrow March against poverty and unemployment in the UK, as well as Hitler’s rise to power and ran till 1941.

Addendum for economic not-quite-illiterates like me: Bretton Woods Conference in 1944 started a process to avoid the disaster of the 1930s, when US insistence on repayment of Allied WW1 debts, plus an isolationist, ‘beggar thy neighbour’ attitude led to a breakdown of the international financial system and a worldwide economic depression. Governments had used currency devaluations to increase the competitiveness of their exports and worsening other nations’ deflationary spirals, which resulted in plummeting national incomes, shrinking demand, mass unemployment, and an overall decline in world trade.

18 thoughts on “Pluto in Capricorn – lessons not yet learnt

  1. Have never understood how the government had a large amount of money in the 1930s to spearhead a number of mass building projects and park layout plans for the employment of the masses of unemployed.

    • Hello Wondering, before the Great Depression, the Federal income tax rate on income over $200,000 (approx. $2,500,000 today), was 24%. In 1932, during the Great Depression, income tax rose to 63% on $200,000 income and above, and then rose again to a 94% federal income tax rate on $200,000 and above income, to fund the WPA work programs that restored and improved America’s infrastructure.

  2. Thanks for these. Intriguing if exhausting thought of what’s ahead. I always forget Neptune will be squaring the US Mars so soon. I’ve got it stuck in early degrees in my head for some reason. Tr Pluto trine the USA Neptune in 2019/2020 will brew up a mess as well.

    • Yes. We are definitely in a major transition point historically, as new technological breakthroughs advance humanity but also disrupt old existing orders. Overlaying this is an oligarchy which is attempting to consolidate their hold over the world’s resources (Pluto in Capricorn). That seems to be at the root of tensions.

      Interesting to note that tr. Jupiter/Pluto in Capricorn will also be trining the US Neptune in Virgo over mid-2020, which suggests the possibility of a huge surge in financial activity based on debt issuance. It could be that the USG will make one last attempt to inflate another bubble ahead of elections, which might create an unsustainable economic situation. That leads us into the troubled economic picture of the early 2020’s. Either way, 2020 is going to be a very significant, crisis-oriented year, not only for the US, but humanity as well. Triple outer planet conjunctions are always a very powerful force to be reckoned with. The post-Cold War financially globalized world order established under the triple conjunction of Saturn/Uranus/Neptune in Capricorn will be tested at that time.

  3. I agree that we are likely to experience a secondary economic decline after the market crash of 2008. To me, the key date to watch for this will be 2021, when Jupiter and Saturn in Aquarius will be squaring Uranus in financial Taurus (Exact in Feb., Jun., and Dec., of that year, but in close orb for much of 2021 and its effects lingering through 2022). So there will be issues with commodities, currency valuation issues, debt, and supply chains. Electronic currencies or payments systems may be disrupted during this period worldwide. But these crises can certainly happen much earlier, with Saturn’s conjunction to Pluto next year and 2020, which is usually economically sluggish. 2019 may be a year of economic softening, 2020 a year of political and economic turmoil/transition with grand conjunction in Jupiter/Saturn/Pluto. 2021-23 may be years of economic pain and restructuring. Improvement begins gradually in 2023-24, but really taking off 2026 after Saturn and Neptune ingress into Aries together. By then Pluto will be fully into Aquarius and Uranus will be entering Gemini. So very different energies from the current period. More progressive, collectivist, and activist, with major technological advances possible. But we are going to have to get through the early part of the 2020’s, which will be an adjustment period, for certain.

    In terms of the US chart, Neptune in Pisces will be squaring the countries Mars in Gemini for 2021 and 2022. Neptune will be back in the same position as it was during the Panic of 1857, so it’ll be in a sensitive point for economic concerns. The US Pluto return in Capricorn will be making its first pass in February of 2022. Saturn will be conjunct the country’s Moon that year, which certainly isn’t upbeat. I don’t think that the US will cease to be a world power, possessing the dominant reserve currency, but much of the world may not be so reliant on the West for leadership.

    • About the US possessing the dominant reserve currency, consider Ms. Orr bringing up Edmund Conway. “2. When one economic superpower gives way to another after a peroid of economic chaos.”

      AndyB, Ms. Orr gave us a big hint, as you know (given your expert assessments).

      Economic chaos? All the points you mentioned, plus:
      China has broken off talks with Trump about tariffs. US farmers receiving their first Trump aid
      checks to negate the damage of tariffs are already saying it is not enough. Major US companies announced price hikes (Walmart 25% across the board in 2019, with Target and dozens of others following their lead). Manufacturers of refrigerators, washers, dryers, air conditioners, furnaces say they won’t even be able to get some parts they need from China. Prices will increase for electronics imported from China. Companies are scrambling to be excluded from Trump’s tariffs. So far, only a miniscule few are succeeding.

      Conway has predicted what will happen to the reserve currency, and it looks like it is going to be a shift between the US Dollar and the Chinese Renminbi, aka Yuan.

      • Candace, I don’t think China is ready to assume global leadership just yet. Most world powers (including China, Russia and the EU) have currencies that are backstopped by the dollar and dollar backed assets. The Yuan is reliant on the dollar to support its value and there isn’t a wide enough level of trust in China’s financial system globally for nations to denominate their assets in their currency. Some have suggested the Euro, but the political situation there is complicated, they don’t have the hard military power needed to secure global supply chains, and they too rely on the dollar to support their financial system. An SDR would present many of these same issues.

        At the start of any global crisis, I think that people will move liquidity into the US assets because it is a safe haven. In mid 2020, we have Tr. Jupiter/Pluto in Capricorn trine US Neptune in Virgo. This dynamic might create an initial boost to US equities during that period, as demand for dollar denominated assets increase. But any price spikes at that time will prove temporary. The global economic system will likely go into crisis due to excess debt levels. The US will probably enter into a new stage of its development at that point, with major reforms to its economic and political systems. It won’t happen overnight, but over the long term, we are shifting away from a unipolar political order to a multipolar one. China will probably begin to take its place as a world leader in the 2040’s, when Jupiter conjuncts Saturn in Libra and Uranus in Virgo opposes Pluto in Pisces. That decade will be one of the most eventful ones of the 21st century.

        For better or worse, the US will remain at the center of the global financial system into the foreseeable future. Everyone is too interdependent on the dollar, and there’s no power out there at the moment large enough to credibly fill gaps in the global credit system. The US is the world’s reserve currency because we have the deepest capital markets, a credible, stable currency, and a military that can be used to protect global supply chains and defend its imperatives when needed. These advantages won’t be erased overnight. Historical changes like this happen gradually, over many years. Pluto is a planet which transforms whatever it touches slowly. With the US going into its Pluto return, how to relate to other powers and how we order our government & economy (Capricorn) will begin to undergo major transformations. The world will look different after Pluto finishes its work. Pluto moves slowly.

        But in the short term, economic weakness begins to build in 2019, with tr. Jupiter in Sagittarius Squaring Neptune in Pisces and Saturn and Pluto moving into orb for their conjunction in Capricorn. 2020 will be volatile, socially, politically and economically. 2021-23 will be the acute phase of a new economic crisis, with a rebound for the later part of the decade.

        • I absolutely agree with all those poinnts

          It should be remembered it took two world wars to bring the curtain down on the British Empire and the UK is really a tiny island nation with limited internal resources not a continental power like the USA. America can essentially subsist on its own economy as foreign trade is nowhere near as important to it as it was to Britain. This means that whatever vicissitudes befall the USA it will remain a world power to some extent for as long as it stays politically intact. Incidentally, it is a trait it shares with Russia

          • The US will certainly remain a global power well into the future, the nature of how that political/financial power is exercised may be transformed over the coming years though. Saturn/Pluto conjunctions change and challenge. Trade wars can be very disruptive to interlinked global supply chains and financial markets. It isn’t a bullish aspect. That might be a trigger that sets the overall economy on a downhill trajectory. A downturn in China could just as easily spread throughout the rest of the world, impacting most nations. The administration might be of the belief that the market is stronger than what it actually is. They are making a mistake if that’s the case. But I do think that the US’s financial position is resilient enough that it can recover quicker than other nations might.

          • China has been going after the prize of being the reserve currency for years. Why would they put the brakes on for another 22 years?

            As for the process of national undoing being slow, look to British history. Two World Wars in less than 30 years brought the superpower of Great Britain to its knees. Britain had been a superpower for hundreds of years, most certainly at the apex during the reign of Victoria. The british pound was the world reserve currency from 1860 to 1946. After WWII Keyes and Dexter-White formed the International Monetary Fund that gave the US dollar its prominence—an untested, young US dollar. The US became both a superpower and world currency leader suddenly, by spoils of war, and may be undone just as quickly.

            As for the economy being resilient, in 1930, the US raised tariffs to record levels (the Smoot Hawley Tariff Act), and it actually worsened and lengthened the Great Depression as tariffed countries increased their own tariff on US goods, which cut US exports by more than half. We now have the Trump Tariffs, and they will have an effect on the economy much like Smoot Hawley.

            Now, we do not have the manufacturing capacity to be a resilient when imports dry up. The list of items that are not even made anymore in this country is staggering and has almost doubled in 30 years. Need Gerber baby food, Mattel toys, a minivan, some Levi jeans, maybe some forks spoons or knives, or rebar to build a house? All imported.

            As for the world’s investments propping us up, that very well may be a pipe dream. We are not an invulnerable superpower in it’s spunky adolescence, with a functioning two party government. Although your prognostications are soothing as a whole, we’ll see. There are curious and unsettling astrological portents yet to be experienced.

  4. One point I have noticed is that the annular Solar Eclipse on 26/12/2019 is going to be at 4° Capricorn which is where the previous Pluto Saturn Conjunction in Capricorn occurred in 1518. This is the last solar eclipse before the next Pluto Saturn
    Conjunction in Capricorn in January 2020. Curiously when Pluto crosses the ecliptic on 30 October 2018 transiting Saturn will also be at 4° Capricorn, once more echoing the earlier chart. There is a definite symmetry between these events separated by 500 years.

    • Interesting angle. 1517-18 corresponded to when Martin Luther nailed his “95 Theses” to the church door at Wittenburg in Germany. That triggered the Protestant Reformation and many years of political strife in Europe. So as the current Saturn/Pluto aspect moves into closer orb this year and into 2020, we might expect challenges to the current political or economic elites, as in those times. The solar eclipse on Dec. 26, 2019 is also interesting because it conjuncts Jupiter in early Capricorn. There might be issues with overexpansion of debts or defaults at the time, with governments taking extraordinary steps to cure the issues.

      • It has been suggested that you can tell the beliefs of a civilisation simply by looking at the biggest and most impressive buildings. That would suggest the West worships money in all its forms above all things. I think that those echoes to the earlier chart suggest our belief in money is about to be challenged in quite a fundamental way.

        • The US has it’s commercial Mercury in Cancer in the financial 8th House opposing Pluto in Capricorn in the 2nd house of material resources. So structured finance has always been very important to how we distribute our resources through capital markets. This aspect will be tested in the coming years.

    • In 1518, Hernan Cortes conquered the area now known as Mexico for the Spanish, leading to the destruction of the Aztec civilization of North America. The astrological aspect you mentioned, Hugh, definitely had an effect on North America.

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