Dollar astrology

Dollar has made headlines since October 1, 2007. Its value relative to the Euro and the Yen has decreased steadily. Even the Chinese have suggested that they might reconsider pegging their currency, Yuan, to the value of the dollar.

At the OPEC meeting November 17th, Saudi officials were overheard suggesting that they might sell their oil for Euro's instead of dollars. Speculating reporters at the OPEC meeting suggest that if the dollar is further devalued it could trigger a world wide recession.

OPEC is feeling very wealthy and powerful. (Jupiter is conjunct the OPEC natal Jupiter.) However, over supply problems loom in the future with Jupiter opposed Mars and then square Mercury.

News that the Chinese government had delinked its currency from the dollar (as transiting Saturn was conjunct the US Mercury-Pluto opposition) takes us back to the astrological history of money and of the US dollar in particular. Human societies, for the past three millennia, have been held together by language and money. Money is defined as a medium of exchange and measure of value. Many things have been used as money down through time, from seeds to stones, although metal coins arose as the most preferred form. Gold became the most popular and ubiquitous. It has the needed qualities: it is scarce, durable, and easy to carry; it can be standardized and weighted for larger or smaller amounts.

For something to work well as money it must have another quality: in economics this quality is called “intrinsic value," meaning value in and of itself. Actually, no thing under the Sun really has intrinsic value, but just about any thing can be imbued, by common agreement, with intrinsic value. The more accurate term would be perceived value. Because of its unique qualities, we humans have collectively perceived gold as having intrinsic value.

Timothy Geithner has said he’d never consider devaluing the dollar in a currency war to boost exports. Though printing more money as Fed Reserve chief Ben Bernanke looks likely to do will have the same effect in pushing the dollar down. The dollar chart (2 April 1792 12.04pm Washington, DC) does look very depressed through late 2010/early 2011 with a Solar Arc Saturn square Pluto and tr Saturn conjunct Solar Arc Venus and opposition Sun in November this year, then repeating till mid 2011. Late 2011/12 looks trapped and frustrated so still held back. 2012 is confused and uncertain and 2013 insecure and edgy. The 1970s which saw the dollar fall from high to low had tr Neptune going through the 5th ‘speculation’ house and at the moment tr Neptune is going thro’ the 8th of business finances till the end of this decade. Currencies never go down to nothing - well expect for Germany in the 1920s and Zimbabwe but those are extreme cases. And a weak dollar is a mixed blessing – bad for national pride but great for exports. Why the Euro is as high as it is remains a mystery given the state of the Eurozone, barring Germany. France is all set to implode and will have a domino effect on other peripheral strugglers like Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal etc. Both the Euro 1999 and 2002 charts have a 10 degree Capricorn Sun so are catching the tr Saturn square at the moment.