2010 Forecast: The Economy, Jobs & World Transits

Challenges, Changes & Choices

By Theodore White; mundane Astrolog.S

After two years, the Banking Crisis continues to cause severe economic problems worldwide. In the United States, it has been recently reported that employers eliminated 4.2 million jobs in 2009 with a total of nearly 8 million people out of work now in early 2010. The European Union continues to be sluggish at best, and Japan's long economic woes have not abated.

I am also concerned about the future stability of China's economy, which I will forecast on extensively in the weeks and months ahead.

What I will say now is that unless there are tens of millions of healthy and happy consumers ready and willing to purchase Chinese goods - and right now there are not - then there is simply no way for China's overheated economy to continue growing at the rapid pace it has been during the last decade.

There is much for everyone to consider here, especially investors, who have put all their eggs into China's basket and have enjoyed wonderful profits over the last seven-and-a-half-years.

From the looks of global transits - those good years may have already come to an end. And, if this is the case, as I believe it to be, then it does not bode well for the global economy into this new decade.

In the U.S., the unofficial unemployment rate is near 26% with official rates listed at over 10 percent. These numbers continue to show that reality is not being faced by the generation that has been the establishment since 1993.

See - http://workingclassstudies.wordpress.com/2009/01/11/the-de-facto-unemployment-rate-2512/

See - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/wall-street

For instance, in early January 2010, it was reported that 8,000 people lost their jobs in the month of December 2009, but it was revealed that this number actually is over 85,000 people who lost their jobs in that month.

Politico's Mike Allen reports in January 2010 that: “Christina Romer, chairwoman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said Sunday that President Barack Obama was ‘subdued’ and ‘disappointed’ upon learning of Friday’s jobless number and said the administration favors further government action.

‘The sense that we need to do more is overwhelming,’ Romer told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s ‘This Week.’ ‘We know there are things that have been working in the Recovery Act that are expiring, like some of the provisions for longer unemployment benefits.

"Some of the state fiscal relief — I think that’s going to be critically important to making sure we keep making progress.’ … Asked about earlier administration estimates that job growth would begin by spring, Romer replied: ‘I think that’s still a very realistic estimate.’” Romer on CNN’s “State of the Union” called Wall Street bonuses “ridiculous” and “offensive.”

So what exactly is going on here?

"The theme for 2009 - well put by Chris Martenson - was extend and pretend," says author James Howard Kunstler. "To use all the complex trickery that can be marshaled in the finance tool bag to keep up the appearance of a revolving debt economy that produces profits, interest, and dividends, in spite of the fact that debt is not being serviced, i.e. repaid."

"There is an awful lot in the machinations of Wall Street and Washington that is designed deliberately to be as incomprehensible as possible to even educated people, but this part is really simple: if money is created out of lending, then the failure to pay back loaned money with interest kills the system. That is the situation we are in.

"The inertia displayed by our system - especially its manifest ability to keep stock markets levitating in the absence of value creation - is strictly a function of its size and complexity. It is running on fumes. I thought it would finally crash and burn in 2009," Kunstler says.

"The Dow Jones industrial average certainly fell on its ass last March, bottoming in the mid-6000 range. But then it picked its sorry ass off the ground and rallied back up again thanks to bail-outs and ZIRPs and really no other place to look for returns on the accumulated wealth of the past two hundred years, especially for large institutions like pension funds that need income to function. I'd called for a Dow at 4000. A lot of readers ridiculed that call. Was it really that far off?"

The sharp drop in the labor force is not merely an indicator of the real unemployment rate. It is a confirmation of the mounting hopelessness in vast stretches of the United States," says John Nichols of the Nation magazine.

Nichols points out that regions of the U.S., "particularly in California, southern New England, the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes States, where communities are being devastated by a federal auto-industry "bailout" that continues to encourage car makers to shutter factories in U.S. cities and to relocate production to Mexico and China."

Banks, run by a generational establishment that is out of control continues to rub salt deep into the wounds of the American public - giving themselves huge bonuses after their banks and financial institutions were bailed out by the American people.

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission that has been established to investigate the causes of the Banking crisis is not expected to have much impact as they begin their meetings in January 2010, but its chairman hints that he will be very keen on making waves.

Phil Angelides, a former California treasurer who is the commission's chairman, told the media last year that he has been active leading what he calls "a tough investigative staff" and "will not allow the proceedings to devolve into a typical blue-ribbon Beltway exercise in toothless bloviation."

The New York Times reports that, "More daunting still is the inquiry’s duty to reach into high places in the public sector as well as the private. The mystery of exactly what happened as TARP fell into place in the fateful fall of 2008 thickens by the day — especially the behind-closed-door machinations surrounding the government rescue of A.I.G. and its counter parties.

"Last week, a Republican congressman, Darrell Issa of California, released emails showing that officials at the New York Fed, then led by Timothy Geithner, pressured A.I.G. to delay disclosing to the S.E.C. and the public the details on the billions of bailout dollars it was funneling to its trading partners.

"In this backdoor rescue, taxpayers unknowingly awarded banks like Goldman 100 cents on the dollar for their bets on mortgage-backed securities."

Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich says, "The five largest remaining banks are today larger, their executives and traders richer, their strategies of placing large bets with other people's money no less bold than before the meltdown. The possibility of new regulations emanating from Congress has barely inhibited the Street's exuberance."

"But if Wall Street is back on top," says Reich, "the everyday lives of large numbers of Americans continue to be subject to overwhelming trauma, chaos and disruption."

That trauma continues into early 2010. Bankruptcy filings for the first nine months of 2009 were recorded to be up to 35 percent to 1,100,035 against the same period in 2008.

It has been estimated that the number of business bankruptcies during the first three quarters of 2009 eclipsed all of 2008 with individual consumer filings that totaled 373,308 during the third quarter of 2009 - up 33 percent versus the same period of 2008.

Nearly every economist says that mortgage and credit problems are worse in 2009 than in 2008 with a million new foreclosures during the third quarter of 2009, which is five-percent more than the second quarter, and 23 percent more than during the third quarter of 2008.

Foreclosures are not waning. Mortgage delinquencies with borrowers who are 60-90 days overdue increased for the 11th quarter in a row - a record - and reached a national average of 6.25 percent in the third quarter of 2009.

Delinquencies always precede foreclosures, and, compared to 2008, all mortgage borrower delinquencies are up 58 percent. This is happening while banks sit on properties acquired to avoid selling them back into the market and needing to book the losses.

The most stressed counties in America:

See - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/11/ap-economic-stress-map-th_n_418276.html

The effect of the global banking crisis has led to billionaires losing everything, with some committing suicide after the banking crisis reached its height early in 2009:

See - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/06/adolf-merckle-german-bill_n_155586.html

With so much wealth being destroyed by the likes of Wall Street, Citibank, Bank of America, AIG and other major financial institutions - Americans are only just now discovering that it may be a long time before the American economy recovers.

What Now?

The transits of 2010 show that when the winter season in the northern hemisphere comes to an end that millions of people who have suffered as a result of the gambles of Wall Street and the big banks and investment houses are about to revolt.

The Cardinal Crisis transits of summer 2010 continue to concern me as they reflect strong anger that has been pent up over 2008 and 2009 exploding onto the national scenes of many countries.

I expect a second drop in the economy that will be called the "second dip" that will arrive by the spring of 2010, and that will feature a "W" drop that is the perfect storm of tight credit by banks, high employment, sinking home values, and anemic contraction of the business sector worldwide.

I forecasted this last year amid talk that the first economic stimulus would be enough to counter the crushing 2009 economic numbers. I now believe the Obama Administration is quietly preparing a second and a potential third stimulus package to stave off what clearly is a economic crisis that does not want to go away.

It has become very difficult for people to pay bills, rents, and their mortgages if they do not have jobs, and, for the year 2010, the business contraction, in my estimation, will not only continue, but deepen according to my astrological calculations.

People feel poorer, and economists expect that personal wealth will continue their decline in 2010. I expect home prices to depress even more, further exacerbated by a wave of nearly 7 millions homes expected to go into foreclosure over the next 18 months.

This means U.S. foreclosure rates will be well above historical norms into the middle of this new decade considering the huge inventories on the market. This is the perfect storm that has struck residential and commercial real estate, and the effects will be long lasting.

People are asking why housing prices continue to rise in the current climate when it is obvious there is overcapacity everywhere? The answer is that many Baby Boomer owners who are underwater on their mortgages need to sell out at higher prices to come out even, much less to make a profit and downsize themselves.

However, there are few buyers, and those who are looking to buy see the market in early 2010 and continue to sit on the sidelines.

Economists continue to say that housing stocks will continue to perform poorly in 2010, and, in my astrological calculations, this means that a very long recovery is ahead for the residential and commercial real estate markets that will not see substantial growth until about the year 2019.

The jobless recovery is a feature of a generation that is not only afraid of retirement, but that has been blind to the facts of life - which is aging. There is simply no way the Baby Boomer generation can continue to hold down the majority of younger workers by shedding millions of jobs which are needed for the country to recover.

I continue to urge that the retirement age be lowered to 55-57 years old, so Boomers who feel that they will lose their health insurance coverage if they retire can then do so, and allow younger generations to re-enter the jobs market to get the country out of the current economic depression.

The lack of jobs for those 50 years and younger is one of the reasons why wages remain stagnant, and why workers who do have jobs continue to be highly stressed - asked to do more with less, while the national spending rate continues to fall because people are afraid to spend the money that they do have excepting the basics.

According to my estimation, the true unemployment rate is about 26% - a shocking number which reflects the anger that is building and which will cause a major rebellion of citizens who have had enough with their lives being destroyed.

What is now becoming more noticeable throughout the U.S., and much of the world, is that people have become more frugal - pinching pennies. Even those considered wealthy have cut back on spending, and the American economy - 70% of it - depends on consumers who spend. That is not happening.

It is also estimated that at the end of calendar year 2009 there was a $4 trillion dollar pullback on credit lines by banks! This is a sure sign of economic depression.

Individuals and businesses say the current credit standards set by banks are impossibly high and choke off any kind of recovery whatsoever. The great majority of Americans - meaning nearly everyone - cannot borrow money in this climate, and this situation alone shows that the economy will not recover until it changes.

Anger, Fear & Challenges

Americans are very angry going into winter 2010, and this anger and fear of the future will most likely build into feelings of revenge against those considered to be the enemy, and if one reads who Americans believe this to be - it is the Banks.

Some people, like Howard Davidowitz, the building anger comes from these facts:

• An $8 trillion negative wealth effect from declining home values.
• A $10 trillion negative wealth effect from weakened capital markets.
• A $14 trillion consumer debt load amid "exploding unemployment,"leading to "exploding bankruptcies.

"The average American used to be able to borrow to buy a home, send their kids to a good school [and] buy a car," Davidowitz says. "A lot of that is gone."

See - http://www.newsweek.com/id/215442

There is no doubt - all of this was started by the banks and it will end with the blood on the streets if the current depressed economic atmosphere is allowed to continue unabated.

See - http://www.globalchristians.org/tmk/tmk8_how_economic_injustice_is_producing_angry_people.htm

People ask - Why do my aspirations have to come down? Why is there a need to throw people out of their mortgaged homes and allow families to live in camping sites and in their parked cars?

Why is it necessary to deny businesses the fund they need to operate so they can hire workers?

Why is it necessary for Baby Boomers to take the jobs of college students and teenagers?

"2009 was the Year of the Zombie," says James Kunstler. "The system for capital formation and allocation basically died, but there was no funeral."

Kunstler says that "a great national voodoo spell has kept the banks and related entities like Fannie Mae and the dead insurance giant AIG lurching around the graveyard with arms outstretched and yellowed eyes bugged out - howling for fresh infusions of blood... er, bailout cash, which is delivered in truckloads by the Federal Reserve, which, is itself a zombie in the sense that it is probably insolvent."

"The government and the banks (including the Fed) have been playing very complicated games with each other, and the public, trying to pretend that they can all still function, shifting and shuffling losses, cooking their books, hiding losses, and doing everything possible to detach the relation of 'money' to the reality of productive activity."

People have had enough, and it is obvious that the world transits of 2010 feature a major transition from one generation, whose "angst" has caused what can only be called the Economic Depression of the 21st century, to a new generation, whose hands will be full working to clean up nearly 20 years of corruption and financial mismanagement that has drained trillions of dollars in resources from younger generations.

"But nothing has been fixed," Kunstler says. "Not even a little. Nothing has been enforced. No one has been held responsible for massive fraud. The underlying reality is that we are a much less affluent society than we pretend to be, or, to put it bluntly, that we are functionally bankrupt at every level: household, corporate enterprise, and government (all levels of that, too.)"

Does he really believe this?

"The difference between appearance and reality can be easily seen in the everyday facts of American economic life," Kunstler says.

"Soaring federal deficits, real unemployment above 15 percent, steeply falling tax revenues, massive state budget crises, continuing high rates of mortgage defaults and foreclosures, business and personal bankruptcies galore, cratering commercial real estate, dying retail, crumbling infrastructure, dwindling trade, runaway medical expense, soaring food stamp applications..."

While all this was going down the major stock indices rallied, Kunstler points out. "What's not clear is whether money is actually going somewhere or only the idea of money is appearing to go somewhere.

"After all, if a company like Goldman Sachs can borrow gigantic sums of money from the Federal Reserve at zero interest, why would it not shovel that money into the burning furnace of a fake stock market rally? Of course, none of this behavior has anything to do with productive activity."

Kunstler says he believes that a strong tone of 2009 that was easily overlooked is what a generally placid year it was around the world.

"Apart from the election uproar in Iran, there were few events of any size or potency to shove all the various wobbly things - central banks, markets, governments, etc - into failure mode. So things just kept wobbling. I don't think that state of affairs is likely to continue. With that, on to the particulars."

World Transits of 2010

For years now, my contention about the year 2010 and the new decade we have now begun was how unwilling the current generational establishment has been to adapt to change and leave the ideologies of the late 20th century behind during their time in power since the early 1990s.

Choices and decisions which could have easily been made and acted on for pennies on the dollar over the last two decades were cast aside in favor of rampant ideological warfare, widespread corruption, greed, personal satisfaction and generational careerism while the real world demanded vision and leadership.

Now it teeters on the edge of rebellion. Some may ask, "perhaps this is what they wanted all along?"

What the world transits of 2010 show is a major transition year that will determine, in large part, what the overall tone and tenor of this new decade will be all about. From my astrological calculations of mundane transits, the news is not good if many things do not change for the positive.

The main problem is that the old ideologies have simply outworn their usefulness. These ideologies and the ideologues who promote them - from the economic to the youth to religious to the climate to political wars that has defined the behavior current establishment - must go the way of the dinosaur if the world is to progress into this new century without all the baggage that has been holding it back.

Global transits show that the spring, summer and autumn months in the northern hemisphere will be strong in 2010 - particularly, the summer and fall months of the Cardinal Crisis transits.

During the months of July, August, and September 2010, we see a series of world transits that show that 2010 will indeed be a year of major changes and transitions:

The economic numbers of December 2009 will feature more bad news about expected poor holiday sales along with sad news featuring public stress as the unemployment rate continues to rise.

The month of December ends with Mercury and Mars retrograde, and the quiet month of January 2010 ends with the second Saturn/Pluto square re-emerging after Saturn's retrograde in tropical Libra on January 13th.

Saturn will re-enter tropical Virgo by April 7, 2010, and will conduct its last transit in this sign before re-entering tropical Libra on July 21, 2010.

Still, the months of January, February and March 2010 offer people the ability to make changes to be able to withstand the coming tense transits of Spring 2010, and the onslaught of the Cardinal Crisis transits of Summer 2010.

This can be done by making small and medium adjustments that help to get one into the years 2011 and beyond, when the lives of tens of millions of people will be changed forever from the corrupt economic years of 1999-2009 when wages stagnated.

What makes the period between spring and summer 2010 so important is the ongoing influences from Saturn's transit in Virgo and opposed to Uranus in tropical Pisces, which began in November 2008.

• The fourth Saturn/Uranus opposition on the Virgo/Pisces axis arrives on April 26, 2010 and the fifth, and last, exact opposition by July 26, 2010. This fourth and fifth Saturn/Uranus opposition features intense ideological battles between people, and within organizations - between old, staid, and unyielding forces to new, fresh, and unique forces reflecting the generational change that is now underway worldwide.

• The Saturn/Uranus opposition features strong, and inconsistent attitudes from those who seek personal freedom at all costs against responsibility. This is the "old" against the "new" where relationships that are needed for personal security is threatened by the inconsistent attitudes and behaviors of the old. This includes new and old ways of doing things.

• The opposition reaches across the personal and professional, and is particularly seen operating within established institutions - where established figures will be under great pressure to retire because of poor decisions, corruption, and bad management that has defined their tenures, while new figures prepare to discover just how much of a mess has been hidden from plain view as they enter as the new establishment.
  

By the end of 2010, the Saturn/Uranus opposition wanes with Saturn's ingress into tropical Libra. However, we will see the first sight of the first Jupiter/Saturn opposition since 1990-91 that builds by May 22-23, 2010, then followed by Saturn's station to direct motion May 30th, which is also followed by a Jupiter/Uranus conjunction on June 8, 2010.

Jupiter & Saturn are always Business planets in mundane astrology and both planets will be in opposition relative to the Earth for 2.5 years from 2010 to 2012. This reveals that polarization will persist in the business and corporate sectors over the next several years until the old establishment that caused the mess is removed from positions of power so a true recovery can actually begin.

World transits of spring 2010 into early summer 2010 are quite powerful. There are increasing economic, social and political protests in the cities as people, now into their second and third years without jobs, and with the economy still reeling from the collapse of residential and commercial real estate - have clearly had enough.

It is important to clear schedules for spring & summer 2010 because the global energies will simply be too strong for some people to handle. The influences of the Cardinal Crisis transits show many people will want action immediately, and, because of the length and depth of the Banking Crisis, emotions are sometimes strong, and hard to contain.

The second half of 2010 contains some of the most powerful world transits witnessed in some time and indicates a need to restrain from emotional outbursts and gathering in large groups, though this will not stop many from doing just that.

I advise those reading this to prepare in advance for the powerful time next year - as 2010 will go down as one of the historic years of the early 21st century. The economies of many countries will crash, and some governments will fall leading to a decade of revolutionary sentiment in many regions of the world.

Planetary Transits of April - September 2010

• April 6-7 - Pluto stations retrograde at 5-Capricorn
• April 7, 2010 - Saturn re-enters tropical Virgo
• April 26, 2010 - Saturn opposes Uranus (4th opposition)
• May 23, 2010 - Jupiter opposes Saturn (first time since 1990-91)
• May 27-28, 2010 - Uranus enters tropical Aries
• May 30th, 2010 - Saturn stations direct motion
• June 5-6, 2010 - Jupiter enters tropical Aries
• June 6-7, 2010 - Mars enters tropical Virgo
• June 8, 2010 - Jupiter conjoins Uranus

• July 5, 2010 - Uranus stations retrograde at 0-Aries
• July 8, 2010 - Jupiter turns North in declination
• July 11, 2010 - New Moon total eclipse at 19-Cancer (not seen in N. America)
• July 21, 2010 - Saturn re-enters tropical Libra for good
• July 23, 2010 - Jupiter stations retrograde
• July 25, 2010 - Jupiter Squares Pluto
• July 26, 2010 - Fifth Saturn/Uranus opposition
• July 31, 2010 - Mars & Jupiter turn S in Declination

• August 3, 2010 - Jupiter, retrograde, Squares Pluto again
• August 6, 2010 - Venus turns South in Declination
• August 13-14, 2010 - Uranus re-enters tropical Pisces
• August 16, 2010 - Jupiter Opposes Saturn
• August 20, 2010 - Mercury retrogrades in Virgo
• August 21, 2010 - Saturn Squares Pluto

• September 8, 2010 - Saturn turns South in declination
• September 8, 2010 - New Moon at 15-Virgo
• September 8, 2010 - Venus enters Scorpio
• September 8-9, 2010 - Jupiter re-enters tropical Pisces
• September 12, 2010 - Mercury stations direct
• September 14, 2010 - Pluto stations direct
• September 14, 2010 - Mars enters Scorpio
• September 19, 2010 - Jupiter conjoins Uranus in Pisces
• October 8, 2010 - Venus stations retrograde in Scorpio

The transits of summer to early autumn 2010 is a time of powerful cardinal energies. Emotions run high as populations demand immediate answers to their problems that stem from the Bank Crisis.

Generational Shift

I have advised my clients to expect 2010, as well as the entire decade of the 2010s, as major years of change in their lives. Those who will be successful will be individuals and groups who are creative, energized and see the economic crisis as an opportunity to forge a new vision for the early 21st century - unfettered by the constraints of the ideologies of the late 20th century.

Most generations last as the establishment for 17-18 years, after which they become senior citizens. The Baby Boomers entered power in 1992-93 and now, by the year 2010, they are at the end of their time as the establishment.

The year of 2010 will therefore feature major transition shifts from one generation to another with the backdrop of economic crisis that forces old interest groups into retirement and new groups into positions of leadership.

It will be impossible for the United States to emerge out of economic crisis unless the 19% of all Baby Boomers who continue to run companies, banks, organizations, schools, and other institutions into the ground are forced out.

The generational "angst" of Baby Boomers has been like a dark cloud sitting over the world for far too long, and this "angst" is responsible for the banking crisis, and the resulting pain and hardships that have been ongoing since 2007 and that continues into 2010.

Though a few people are willing to discuss it openly, it nonetheless must be said that the Baby Boomer generation that has been the establishment since the early 1990s have failed the country, and, as a result, are now being seen as the generation responsible for the wars, debts, and economic crisis revolving around the world.

Many Baby Boomers remain in denial about their retirements. However, according to the transits, this will happen nonetheless in 2010, as workers who are in the 60s and early 70s cannot fuel massive economy growth because senior citizens are not spenders, but savers.

We can already observe that the savings rate of Baby Boomers is rising, but, it will not be enough to account for what is needed for retirement years.

The fact remains that the generation of Baby Boomers, who have been the establishment since 1993 have led the U.S., and the world, into an economic crisis the likes not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

"This generation cannot continue to remain in power because they were the ones who started the crisis," said a 40-something woman. "They will not lead the world out of it - but are leading it ever deeper into it."

It is essential that Baby Boomers who have worked for 30+ years to prepare for retirement without the fantasy of "eternal youth" that this generation has been deluded into believing for most of their lives.

Many Boomers must to come to terms with the fact that they are now senior citizens, but it will be impossible to recover decades of financial losses in 3-4 years. It simply will not happen.

After decades of believing that their youth would last forever, some Boomers are turning to the excuse of "ageism" as they seek for jobs that are usually maintained for younger workers. This mental denialism about the facts of life - which is aging - will not provide any comfort to Boomers who have not prepared for retirement; yet who had decades in which to do so.

Most Baby Boomers who have lost substantial equity strength in their portfolios because of the Banking Crisis of 2007-2010 will simply have to find other ways to prepare for their retirements that have been delayed because of a myth that they will be young forever.

The only way for Baby Boomers to make progress into the 2010s will be to accept the truth of what has happened to their savings, and to prepare for retirement in this new decade by going smaller, rather than the usual "big is better" that defined the Boomer generation in the 1990s and 2000s.

According to the world transits, tens of millions of Baby Boomers will be forced into retirements, like it or not. Moreover, the public sentiment, especially among younger generations, is not positive on the Boomers as a generation.

See ~ http://rantventrant.wordpress.com/why-baby-boomers-suck/

Those Boomers who realize this anger at their generation, and who accept it, will do better with younger generations than those Boomers who do not accept the realities of what has happened to their savings and the perspective on their generation by the new generation now coming into power.

The strength of the American economy to recover depends on the ability of the new generational establishment to spark this recovery with massive hiring and new energy that has a vision for the 21st century.

Last year, I forecasted that the Obama Administration would have to initiate a second large stimulus package in 2010 that seeks to get the economy back on a healthy track by the year 2011.

Now, in January 2010, we hear this:

See - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/the-bad-job-numbers-and-t_b_416813.html

People will hear more talk of it this year. Without the second economic stimulus, the U.S. economy will continue to fall deeper into depression, and the anger of the American public will reach new, and frightening heights in the early 2010s.

However, it is the young - those 50 and younger, who spend, and in order for the American economy to save itself - it needs younger workers, executives, managers, entrepreneurs and leaders who are energized and above all - working - to not only revive the American economy - but to save it.

The challenges, choices and changes will be daunting. As one generation ages, and leaves power after 18 years as the establishment with a record so poor in managing the economy that the world has been brought to the brink of collapse, it will not be easy for the newcomers - Generation X - to know just where to start.

"Anywhere," said a 47-year-old executive who says he has had enough of the poor leadership of Baby Boomers. "There's so much work to do that it boggles the mind."

The year 2010 is that year when it all begins, and this new decade, according to world transits, shows us that as a new generation comes into being as the establishment, they will have to deal with the realities of the mess that was left for the world to clean up while also preparing a new vision for the second and third decades of the 21st century.

All Rights Reserved 2010 Theodore White

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Dubai And Its Future

An Astrological Forecast

Today, after U.S. stock markets opened following Thanksgiving Day the news that some had known about for at least nine months - the extension of the global banking crisis to the city of Dubai - has hit the mainstream.

Markets continue to fall as financial news reports on Dubai, the Persian Gulf City built by migrants, is close to economic collapse, according to a majority of news reports.

See - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKr7TP8t9Qk&feature=related

On Wednesday, November 25, 2009, the government of this semi-autonomous city-state with the world's tallest tower announced to the world that it needed time to restructure its $60+ billion debt, and asked creditors to delay debt repayments until May 2010.

Early exchanges fell on the news as the U.S. markets closed for Thanksgiving Day. Those markets, which opened Friday, continue to down slide in stocks.

Stocks fell Friday, Nov. 27th with investors worried that a major government-backed investment company in Dubai risked defaulting on $60 billion in debt. The fears ripped through world markets and served as a reminder of how fragile the financial system remains a year after it nearly collapsed.

The Dow fell 154.48, or 1.5 percent, to 10,464.40.

The S&P fell 19.14, or 1.7 percent, to 1,091.49.

The Nasdaq composite index fell 37.61, or 1.7 percent, to 2,138.44.

For the week:

The Dow is down 8.24, or 0.1 percent.

The S&P is up 0.11, or less than 0.1 percent.

The Nasdaq is down 7.60, or 0.4 percent.

For 2009:

The Dow is up 1,533.53, or 17.5 percent.

The S&P is up 188.24, or 20.8 percent.

The Nasdaq is up 561.41, or 35.6 percent.

So, what is really happening here?

Simply put: tens of millions and billions in defaults on massive debt repayments amid a banking crisis started by bankers, and into late 2009, continued by bankers.

Dubai is nothing new, as entire nations who took part in huge debt financing schemes over the past 12 years are seeing major reversals based on the fact that the banks are hording cash from the public's till to save themselves.

Dubai, for 20 years, has led a feverish rush to construct the world most expensive hotels, bejeweled with technology-rich gold-plated suites, condos and homes, along with its huge shopping malls for the wealthy - has now come to an end.

The city-state known as the westernized oasis of the Middle East is about to see a radical personality change as it deals with being $60-80 billion in the red.

Dubai, oasis in the desert -

See - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUW9MWLIQYw&feature=related

In my mundane forecast, there are forces operating now that in the years ahead will turn Dubai from its western-style "Las Vegas in the desert" personality to another far-more conservative and right-wing religious personality - one of strict Saudi control with devastating consequences for the city-state of Dubai and its people.

Not much has been heard from Dubai's ruler, the billionaire mover and shaker, HH Sheik Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, since the bank crisis set in late last year. Rumors emerged that thousands of migrant construction workers and foreign support staffs were being deported out of the city as construction projects ground to a halt and hotels empty out.

Tourism is down substantially while a majority of Dubai's workers have not been paid. Dubai, which has had a reported 500,000 migrant workers, have been paid as little as $1 an hour to build at speeds unheard of in modern times.

At one time, Dubai's migrant workers were building condos at a rate of one new floor every four days; working day and night in two 12-hour shifts, six days a week. Round the clock construction. It is no wonder that Dubai sprouted from the desert into the gleaming city now billions in debt.

Now, the government is hunting down these workers, deporting many of them while some migrant workers who incurred debts during their time in the United Arab Emirates are seeing time in Dubai's debtor's prisons - that are filling up according to reports.

The worldwide Bank Crisis is one that was manufactured by very greedy, corrupt and inept financiers, and their workers, who, since the heady days of the 1990s and 2000s gambled huge amounts of money on debt finance - only to leave countries, states, and cities in the lurch as their populations struggle to make ends meet.

What is also not being so easily seen is that while most wait for recovery is the fact that tens of millions of lives are changed and that little will remain the same after the Bank Crisis of 2007-2010 is over.

"I think this is a sign of things to come," said Dave Rovelli, a managing director of trading at brokerage Canaccord Adams in New York. "Commercial real estate continues to go lower. People are going to continue to default on debt payments."

The problem with Wall Street, from an astrological point of view, is uncertainty. It is either good news or bad news - but never uncertainty. The eight-month rally in U.S. stocks now depends on the mood of investors and traders as the Bank Crisis sees no end in sight going into 2010.

Dubai is yet another example of wasted resources, built on debt, and gambling on a future that was not forecasted astrologically. This is what happens when one tries to make one's way in the dark without knowledge and action on the global transits.

Dubai In Crisis

See recent CNN International interview: [length: 7 minutes] -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vM5h6r2I_64&feature=related

On November 27, the AP reported - "The latest trouble on Wall Street come as the U.S. kicks off the unofficial start to the holiday shopping season. Investors will be tracking news from retailers for insights into how much consumers will spend in the coming month. Consumer spending is the biggest driver of the U.S. economy.

In the first hour of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 174.35, or 1.7 percent, to $10,290.05.

The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 22.58, or 2 percent, to 1,088.05, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 41.77, or 1.9 percent, to $2,134.28.

Energy, materials and financial stocks posted some of the biggest losses as commodities fell and investors worried about bank balance sheets.

Investors rushed into the safety of U.S. government debt. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.23 percent from 3.28 percent late Wednesday.

The yield on the three-month T-bill, which is considered one of the safest investments, rose to 0.04 percent from 0.03 percent.

The ICE Futures U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of foreign currencies, jumped 0.8 percent. The yen rose to a 14-year high against the dollar.

Commodities, which are priced in dollars, fell as the dollar gained. The move reflected an unwinding of trades that relied on a weak dollar to finance purchases of higher-yielding assets.

Spooked traders reversing the so-called "carry trade" were demanding safe-haven assets.

Investors have been pushing into riskier assets for months as they seek higher returns. U.S. interest rates are at record lows, making riskier investments like stocks an enticing alternative to the paltry earnings of safer investments like government debt.

Trading volume in November has been light as many professional investors have pulled back from markets in hopes of locking in the big gains for 2009.

Rovelli said investors have been too quick to assume that the financial markets are on the mend.

"We're way ahead of ourselves in this market. We're in the eye of the storm now and we've been in it since March," he said. "Now we're in the back end of the storm."

This report was published in February 2009 on Dubai, and shows that the signs were around as late as 2008 -

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Sofia, a 34-year-old Frenchwoman, moved here a year ago to take a job in advertising, so confident about Dubai's fast-growing economy that she bought an apartment for almost $300,000 with a 15-year mortgage.

Now, like many of the foreign workers who make up 90 percent of the population here, she has been laid off and faces the prospect of being forced to leave this Persian Gulf city — or worse.

I'm really scared of what could happen, because I bought property here, said Sofia, who asked that her last name be withheld because she is still hunting for a new job. If I cant pay it off, I was told I could end up in debtors prison.

With Dubai's economy in free fall, newspapers have reported that more than 3,000 cars sit abandoned in the parking lot at the Dubai Airport, left by fleeing, debt-ridden foreigners (who could in fact be imprisoned if they failed to pay their bills). Some are said to have maxed-out credit cards inside and notes of apology taped to the windshield.

The government says the real number is much lower. But the stories contain at least a grain of truth: jobless people here lose their work visas and then must leave the country within a month.

That in turn reduces spending, creates housing vacancies and lowers real estate prices, in a downward spiral that has left parts of Dubai — once hailed as the economic superpower of the Middle East — looking like a ghost town.

No one knows how bad things have become, though it is clear that tens of thousands have left, real estate prices have crashed and scores of Dubai's major construction projects have been suspended or canceled. But with the government unwilling to provide data, rumors are bound to flourish, damaging confidence and further undermining the economy.

Instead of moving toward greater transparency, the emirates seem to be moving in the other direction. A new draft media law would make it a crime to damage the country's reputation or economy, punishable by fines of up to 1 million dirhams (about $272,000). Some say it is already having a chilling effect on reporting about the crisis.

Last month, local newspapers reported that Dubai was canceling 1,500 work visas every day, citing unnamed government officials. Asked about the number, Humaid bin Dimas, a spokesman for Dubais Labor Ministry, said he would not confirm or deny it and refused to comment further. Some say the true figure is much higher.

At the moment there is a readiness to believe the worst, said Simon Williams, HSBC banks chief economist in Dubai. And the limits on data make it difficult to counter the rumors.

Some things are clear: real estate prices, which rose dramatically during Dubai's six-year boom, have dropped 30 percent or more over the past two or three months in some parts of the city.

Last week [February 2009] Moody's Investors Service announced that it might downgrade its ratings on six of Dubai's most prominent state-owned companies, citing a deterioration in the economic outlook.

So many used luxury cars are for sale , they are sometimes sold for 40 percent less than the asking price two months ago, car dealers say. Dubai's roads, usually thick with traffic at this time of year, are now mostly clear.

Some analysts say the crisis is likely to have long-lasting effects on the seven-member emirates federation, where Dubai has long played rebellious younger brother to oil-rich and more conservative Abu Dhabi.

Dubai officials, swallowing their pride, have made clear that they would be open to a bailout, but so far Abu Dhabi has offered assistance only to its own banks.

Why is Abu Dhabi allowing its neighbor to have its international reputation trashed, when it could bail out Dubais banks and restore confidence?

Author Christopher M. Davidson, who predicted the current crisis in his 2008 book: The Vulnerability of Success, said that perhaps the plan is to centralize the U.A.E. under Abu Dhabi's control. This, he surmised, would sharply curtail Dubai's independence and perhaps change its signature free-wheeling style."

The impacts will be many: already societies around the world who are suffering because of the Bank Crisis will enter into their second or third year by 2010 of economic distress.

Burdened with speculators' hiked-prices, outrageous interest rates, corruption, greed, and mountains of debt - it should not be a surprise to anyone that the year 2010 will see great changes and transitions that will significantly mark the decade of the 2010s.

Global Transits

The Dubai situation is a classic one of "see no evil, hear no evil." For years, the HH Sheik Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum could have easily invested in detailed astrological reports designed to maximize the success of Dubai.

His highness, and his city-state administration would have been counseled that rather than house a half-million migrant worker force a mile or more away from the city they were building and pack these men six to a room living basically in shacks, why not serve the best interests of construction and growth to do the right things?

Astrologically, the advice would have been the opposite to what was done. It would have been better to house the entire construction force in the city. Why not house these hard working men in the very opulent hotels they built - with the best service given to them?

Would not these working men also provide you with the best they have, rather than subjecting them to low wages, threats, debt prisons, and no safety standards?

By doing what is right - giving the best service to the working men building on deadline, and housing these men in nearby luxury hotels they themselves formed, giving them benefits, rest, peace of mind, safety, and inclusion - then would not the Sheik and his staff be fulfilling the word of Allah?

If God's spirit lives within Man, then is it a bad thing to house the spirits of the workers in the best rooms, provided with the best service, and to reward the very men building the great city of Dubai as they rested from 12-hour day and night shifts six days a week?

If the sheik had done this - the U.A.E. surely would not be on the verge of collapse that it is today. And, it goes to show, that even billionaires must gain astrological counsel before attempting ventures.

Now that the global Saturn/Pluto square is here, and, just months from the T-square configuration of the Cardinal Crisis transits, it appears unlikely that Dubai will emerge out of the mess it finds itself.

The pressures to make due on $60+ billion in debt, the losses amounting in Dubai's residential and commercial real estate, and the fact that many construction projects are in limbo or being canceled outright shows just how poor the strategic planning for Dubai has been.

Responses by Dubai's government to bad publicity has backfired. Now, with the Saturn/Pluto square, and next year's cardinal Crisis transits, it is more than likely that the poor strategic social planning, news, and backroom international finance and business deals that cover Dubai's recent history will emerge into the light, placing even more pressure on Dubai to repay its massive debt load in a global recession.

This is a direct result of the total lack of practical strategic planning that first must be done astrologically and humanly to be successful. Dubai is yet another sad example of how little high finance power players know about forecasting the future. The costs for this, as we have seen, are very high.

As the world enters into the cycle from December 2009 to August 2010 - a nine-month period that will feature, according to my calculations, the start of a new more serious phase of the global bank crisis, it is expected that the major transition from the post-modern world of the late 20th century into the technological world of the second decade of the 21st century will speed up.

What is happening to the city-state of Dubai is a crisis of massive proportions. Unless the city-state acts prudently, the economic woes will last for longer than many would like. The debt crisis in Dubai will continue into 2010 and early into the next decade until there is a strong practical shift away from the fallacies, the poor treatment of workers, and the high cost of living in the city.

Most would not listen to the forecasts during the 1990s and 2000s about the global transits, and the coming impact at the end of the decade of the 2000s. It was too far away, most said. Now, that time is here, and all the preparation time of the last 10-12 years have been lost.

The current transit of Saturn square Pluto from November 2009 through April 2010 sees increasing power struggles around finance, politics and ideology. Then, in summer 2010, the planets Jupiter, and Uranus will come into the mix - filling out the Cardinal Crisis.

We should see this occurring in Dubai at this time, and these internal power struggles will change the "personality" of Dubai to the point of those who have invested and remained in the city-state may have to face the growing hard-line ideology of the powers that be in Abu Dhabi.

In the past 20 years, Dubai's great physical growth should have arrived at the same time as its growth in common humanity, but, sadly, it has not. The city-state now faces global transits that require navigation to return the city to what its own public relations desired to show the rest of the world.

Can it be done? Yes, nothing is impossible if what has been done is undone. First, the debt of the workers must be paid, benefits paid, and the city given to them to live in the splendor of what their own hands built. Stop forcing workers to sign 10-year contracts, and stop confiscating the passports of the family men who build your city. This will save Dubai.

Release those who are Dubai's debtors' prison. Forgive their debts, and shower the workers with housing, and gifts. If this is done, Dubai will be saved and shall emerge from its debt, and the city will thrive once again. Let the workers continue to complete the work while their debts are forgiven, their benefits and rewards increased - and Dubai will be saved.

It this too much to ask? If Allah can forgive many times over, is it no less for the leaders of the U.A.E. to forgive one another, to do good, and to not repeat the errors of their former ways?

What will save Dubai is a "change of heart" - not change from $80 billion. What goes around comes around. Astrologically, there is still a little time left, but without a change of heart, and, by definition, a change of mind and attitude, Dubai will continue to head in very much the wrong direction.

I can tell you from astrological knowledge - that that direction - if it continues, does not have a happy ending. Not at all.

There are two ways this can end - either a love story or a disaster film. The choice is up to the ones writing that book. And transits just keep on moving...

Jupiter/Uranus Conjunction Of 2010

Jupiter-Uranus Conjunction of 2010

By Theodore White; judicial Astrolog.S

As of late autumn in the northern hemisphere, the world is about to enter an historic age.

No where is this seen most than by the coming Jupiter/Uranus Conjunction in tropical Pisces and Aries in 2010.

Beginning soon, many people can expect great transformations to begin to take shape in their lives and throughout the mundane world we all inhabit. I continue to forecast that the year 2010 will be seen as one of the most unique and eventful years of the early 21st century.

Few astrologers doubt this considering the signs already evident throughout the globe that significant world changes are ahead for the decade of the 2010s.

One astrologer who has written on the Jupiter/Uranus conjunction of February 1997 is the Scottish astrologer Anne Whitaker, whose April 2009 book, "Jupiter Meets Uranus: From Erotic Bathing To Stargazing,: contains a wealth of valuable insights from the personal to the mundane on the historic conjunction of Jupiter/Uranus in tropical Aquarius in 1997.

I urge anyone who desires a deeper look into the personal impacts and mundane influences of such important conjunctions to read Ms. Whitaker's ground-breaking book.

For More, See - http://anne-whitaker.com/favourite-quotes/

History On The Horizon

As I've written before here, the coming global transits of 2010 reveal that the world is about to undergo a long transformation that will truly usher in the 21st century and bring a close to the very bloody, but transformative history of the modern and post-modern era of the 20th century.

At the time of writing, the world is now experiencing the first of 2010's Cardinal Crisis in the form of a Saturn/Pluto square between the first 4 degrees of tropical Libra and Capricorn. The influences are seen in the mundane events now taking place in autumn 2009, and will continue into the early months of 2010 before Uranus re-enters the configuration to form a Saturn-Uranus-Pluto T-Square with Jupiter in the mix - thus forming the Cardinal Crisis T-square of mid-2010.

These energies indicate that a wealth of emotional complexity among the world's populations - from the personal to the mundane: tolerance/intolerance, wise actions/rash sudden actions, power struggles, revolutionary sentiments and innovations, international intrigues, and above all - transformations - are highlighted especially by Jupiter's conjunction to Uranus.

The mundane events developing touch upon many areas:

• The Domestic Economy
• Society & Personal Transformations
• International Politics
• Science & Technology
• Discoveries
• Religion

This particular Jupiter/Uranus conjunction of 2010 is very special because it marks a time just before the ending of one era and the beginning of another.

Jupiter and Uranus will meet first by exact conjunction at 0-Aries on June 8, 2010, and then, via retrograde motion, will return into tropical Pisces during the months from August 2010 to March 2011 - when finally, transiting Uranus will end its long sojourn and begin a new orbital period when it re-enters tropical Aries for a seven-year transit starting March 11-12, 2011.

The conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus in Pisces/Aries is a "marker point in history," as I see it and reveals that the Earth is about to see a transformation the likes not seen since the end of the Second World War.

Mundane events will certainly be a cause for wonder and alarm as Jupiter is the Business Innovator, and Uranus works as the Radical Disruptor - these modes of both planets will function as one in the tropical signs of Pisces and Aries in 2010 and 2011 clearly showing that after the conjunction, the world as we have lived it since the last conjunction 1997 will rise to a new level exceeding the expectations of many.

History is surely on the horizon for 2010 and 2011. One of the things we all can be certain about is the fact that during, and after such Jupiter/Uranus conjunctions - our lives will be transformed and we all will have to choose how we want to evolve as human beings into a mundane world that features challenges in the decade ahead.

Jupiter/Uranus & Scheat: Dangers On The High Seas

One of my major concerns regarding the conjoining of personal and mundane events is the conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus to the fixed star Scheat that sits at the very last degree of tropical Pisces. This points to major catastrophes at sea as well as accidents leading to death around bodies of water, large, medium and small bodies of water.

While Jupiter will conjoin Scheat in 2010, and early 2011 before moving out of orb of Scheat, we will see transiting Uranus remain well within orb of Scheat from 2009 to 2014.

Scheat is a dangerous fixed star, and is well known by mundane astrologers for its malefic influences, particularly around bodies of water. I continue to forecast that the world will see major accidents at sea with global implications for the health of the world's oceans. Already, there are signs that the world's oceans are stressed to their limits.

From 2010 through 2014 - expect the oceans of the world to be a top news maker along with the world's weather conditions particularly from the transit of Uranus within orb of this fixed star.

In 2010, because of the nearness of transiting Jupiter in Pisces to Scheat, which sits in the constellation of Pegasus, the problems at sea will be due to poor navigation and misuse of judgment along with sudden changes in weather conditions.

Jupiter's transit in Pisces, and its conjunction to Uranus also shows a great many voyages being planned to take place in 2010 by great numbers of people around the world.

My forecast for 2010-2011 is for several well known ships and vessels of many forms to be the subject of attacks, losses, accidents, and lead to many casualties that could have been prevented with proper planning, and advance foresight.

The Jupiter/Uranus/Scheat conjunction is opposed by transiting Saturn in tropical Virgo in June, July and August 2010 - these months are among the most dangerous for those traveling below or over the oceans.

• June - negative
• July - negative
• August - very negative for travel over water

The month of August 2010 is noteworthy for unfavorable and dangerous transits involving Jupiter, Uranus, Scheat and the opposition of Saturn, which, in early August 2010, is joined by transiting Mars, and soon to be followed by transiting Venus in Virgo. In addition, transiting Pluto in Capricorn squares Jupiter and Uranus in Aries in the month of August 2010.

I continue to urge anyone who plans on spending time in, or around water in 2010/2011 to be extra cautious and to practice full safety techniques. Do not go out on the water without having lifeboats, life-preservers, and maintain vigilance when planning to take extensive cruise ship vacations.

It is also essential for parents to carefully monitor the activity of children around pools during the summer of 2010, particularly in the months of July & August, which have the most powerful transits related directly to accidents that involve drowning in and around public and private pools and around beaches.

Collective Transits, 2010-2012

The year 2010 into 2011 will be remembered as a time that changed the lives of tens of millions of people worldwide. The conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus will have released energies that will have caused people to seriously reconsider the direction that their lives have taken since the year 2000.

The Cardinal Crisis Transits of mid-2010 will bring to the forefront the need to adapt personally to the economic transformations brought about as a result of the Banking Crisis of 2007-2010 and the consequences for tens of millions of people and their respective nations will undoubtedly be transformational indeed.

The most stressing celestial configuration for millions of people has been the Saturn/Uranus opposition along the mutable Virgo/Pisces axis.

This one opposition has been the inclination for the massive changes now underway throughout most of the world and will continue into the year 2010 as part of the Cardinal Crisis Transits.

Most individuals under the global transits of 2008-2009 have been in a state of shock as their personal lives have been turned upside down as a result of the global economic crisis. The loss of homes, jobs, relationships, and plans for the future has caused an unnerving feeling for the future. Moreover, the popular culture fear-mongering of the year 2012 has not helped many people feel a sense of security about the near future.

See - http://www.whowillsurvive2012.com/

The collective consciousness behind such fear-mongering does not help the misunderstandings and general lack of knowledge about the celestial events of a single day - in this case, December 21, 2012.

The personal transformations now underway throughout the world marks a time where each one of us can take comfort in the fact that humanity is evolving past the lost hopes and aspirations of the 20th century.

What is really happening is that when humanity does not share a common hope for the future, it often falls to those who would mix myth with fiction to shape that vision in their own ways. We have been witnessing this concerning the year 2012.

Astrologically, the year 2012 is significant, but not for the "end of the world" as we know it, but the end of an era of the post-modern world. The transformations are personal, but also mundane, as the world is affected by celestial transits that bring to a close one era, and begins another in the years 2010 through 2017.

The irresponsibility of those who cause alarm with "end of the world" documentaries, films, and Internet postings reflects a generation at ill ease with their own aging at the expense of the young, who are being taught not to value the future because there "isn't any future."

This is unforgivable considering the fact that the majority of those who say that 2012 is the "end of the world" cannot even note the planetary positions of any day of the week, much less read those of 2012 to state that the world will come to an end.

The world will not come to an end on December 21, 2012, that much is certain by mundane astrologers in the know. What is happening is that a major transformation of the world is occurring within the lives of people and is mixing with the negative collective consciousness of a generation that fears aging, and, subsequently death, to the point of not wanting the future of the world to progress simply because of generational angst and disenchantment with their own lives.

This has a detrimental effect on the world at large, particularly on the young, who should not be burdened with such dangerous fallacies like the December 2012 "end of the world" myth at such tender ages in their own lives.

There is nothing for younger generations to fear about the so-called end of the world in 2012. After the date December 21, 2012 passes, there will be a strong distrust and dissatisfaction with the older generation that promoted such silliness. One can see it in the transits of the year 2013.

What is occurring is that an aging generation that has long worshiped its own youth continues to falsely believe that there is no spiritual meaning in own their lives as today's seniors.

Nothing could be further from the truth. It says much about post modern society when an older generation cannot come to terms with the natural facts of human life that have been with the Earth from its very genesis.

The personal transits of individuals - mainly in the early degrees of the cardinal signs of Aries, Libra, Cancer, Capricorn, and the degrees of the mutable signs of Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces, will be touched most by the transits of the outer planets from Jupiter to Pluto in 2010-2012.

A Jupiter/Uranus conjunction can also be used to promote tolerance, understanding, and positive action within all of us - person by person, group by group, and nation by nation. The entry into the decade of the 2010s will be challenging, but only to the points of our own limitations, virtues and vices.

Human beings always have choices. We can chose to envision futures of transformative growth that seeks to learn the lessons of history - not repeat them - and to promote a generous, visionary and positive future where the wisdom of the transits of Jupiter and the innovations of the transits of Uranus are joined together to help all of us reach out towards the future with friendly, welcoming open hands and bright smiles on our faces - not with closed fists, disaster films, dark grimaces and grunts from a graying generation unhappy with itself.

We are the masters of our own lives. We can accept the limitations of our world with unlimited joy because what exists within us all is a boundless universe that can point the way to a future designed by those who know that happiness comes from within ourselves.

Sharing it with others means spreading that joy further on to insure that the future we make is of our own choosing and reflects a inner world that is at peace with itself - not at war.

The collective generational angst that has consumed the world for far too long is what is coming to an end - all you have to do is to look around to see the truth of this.

I choose to look ahead with brighter eyes because humanity has better options than to fake itself out because a generation fears something that happens to all natural beings on this planet - and that is growing older.

So, I am planning for a new era in a world past the year 2012. I know as an astrologer that the world will still be here in 2013 and beyond.

Those who make the error of believing that the world will end in 2012 are making a great mistake because the decade of the 2010s will lead into the decade of the 2020s, and it is very valuable to live and think ahead of the world era that is to come.

The future is ours for the making. We are the drivers of our own destinies, for the planets only incline - they do not compel.

Saturn In Libra: Changes On The Horizon

There's a sense of historic change that most people can feel taking place in the world these days. This sense, of course, coincides with the continuing banking crisis, which has brought many nations to their knees, as hundreds of millions of people worldwide attempt to recover from what has been called the worst economic recession since the 1930s.

In these challenging times, it is important to understand the bigger picture, and for this to happen, we need mundane astrology to map out what the potentials and possibilities of the future may be to make preparations and form strategies to adjust to what surely is a new era about to dawn.

In my forecast on the times ahead, I see a general climate of revolt in many nations as a result of the banking crisis, and the acts of corrupted groups and organizations that has caused the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression.

One sign of the revolt can be read here:

See - http://www.alternet.org/story/143813/as_foreclosure_nightmares_increase%2C_will_more_homeowners_pay_off_their_bankers_in_violence?page=entire

Saturn, a planet of essential importance to the Earth, crystallizes its energies into matter, and as such, its energies are transmuted into the thoughts and forms of the sign it transits over a two-and-a-half year period.

Saturn entered tropical Libra on October 29, 2009, and will transit in the early degrees of Libra until April 7, 2010, when Saturn re-enters Virgo, after stationing retrograde several months earlier at 4-degrees Libra on January 13, 2010.

Saturn's current transit through the first four (4) degrees of Libra is a kind of "preview" to its coming 2.5-year transit through tropical Libra from July 21, 2010 to October 5, 2012. During this period of time, Saturn will take part in a series of aspects, mainly squares and oppositions, to and from the other outer planets.

Though some astrologers see Saturn in Libra as a positive influence, as Saturn is exalted in Libra, we must look at the combined global transits of this era - July 2010 to October 12, 2012 to see how Saturn will behave during its "exalted" transit through the Seventh Mundane House of Libra, which is ruled traditionally by Venus.

Planets that are "exalted" are those planets that act powerfully in signs that they do not rule. Saturn rules of the signs of Capricorn and Aquarius traditionally, and is exalted in Libra.

Libra is a cardinal sign, of the air element, and ruled by Venus. This sign begins a "cardinal" initiating movement that leads into the next sign of Scorpio, a fixed sign, of the water element, that then is followed by Sagittarius, a mutable sign, of the fire element.

Saturn will transit through each of the above tropical signs from July 2010 to mid-December 2017 - a 7.5-year transit - from the western equinox point to the southern solstice point, when, by December 19-20, 2017, Saturn will enter tropical Capricorn.

This transit of Saturn over 7.5 years will be the first half of the time of a new generation of leaders who were born in the 1960s, attempting to relieve and fix the massive damages in global society that resulted from massive corruption, misuse of resources and lack of vision for the future.

To understand Saturn's impact on this period of time from 2010 to 2017, it is important to note the areas that will be highlighted over this 7.5-year cycle of time during the 2010s.

The 8th Mundane House Of Scorpio
Saturn Transits -> October 5, 2012 to September 17-18, 2015

• Mortality, death rates
• Sexual Matters
• Privy Councils

The 9th Mundane House of Sagittarius
Saturn Transits -> September 18, 2015 to December 19-20, 2017

• Commercial Powers
• Global Trade & Shipping
• Laws, courts, Judges,
• Clergy & Religions

The 7th Mundane House Of Libra

• International/Foreign Affairs
• Treaties
• Global Trade
• Rules of Law/New Laws
• Relationships/Marriages/Divorces

The Seventh Mundane House is very important in mundane astrology. As one of the angular houses, this sector of the Zodiac is seen to govern all matters relating to international relations, laws, disputes, wars, etc. All the matters relating to diplomacy and relations between one nation to another is ruled by the 7th Mundane House.

This house also governs society in general through professional and personal relationships that are directly connected to marriages, divorces, and laws pertaining to relationships of all kinds, as ruled by Venus.

Saturn's transit in Libra, and the aspects Saturn makes to the outer planets of Jupiter, Uranus, and Pluto from 2010 to 2012 clearly shows many important changes are ahead.

What is most important about Saturn's transit in Libra will be the T-Square alignment it makes during July/August 2010 that is called the Cardinal Climax, or, the Cardinal Crisis transits. This configuration has Saturn opposed to Jupiter/Uranus with all three planets squared by Pluto in Capricorn during the northern hemispheric summer of 2010.

This T-square was last seen in cardinal signs during the early 1930s during the deepest years of th Great Depression and the 2010 Saturn/Uranus/Pluto T-Square will play a role in the economic crisis of this era.

The cardinal T-square forces long-standing situations to come to an end. It also demands that new ideals and visions meet in the real world. Saturn's previous transit through Virgo and its opposition to Uranus in Pisces crystallized the old world against the rising new world and in Libra, Saturn brings sees that the outdated ways comes to a sure end.

Saturn In Libra: International Relations

There are international issues that are crystallized into negative form as a result of the misapplication of prior laws, institutions and agencies that threaten peace within nations and between them. This is an unfavorable position for Saturn when it comes to foreign affairs and international relations.

The inability to come to agreements on a wide spectrum of global and international trade matters will extend into other areas of foreign affairs. The battles between the "old" ways of doing things, and new ways are highlighted.

The economic stresses that have impacted trade between nations is exacerbated to the point of sometimes severe international problems that will require extraordinary acts of diplomacy to achieve balance between nations.

Saturn Square Pluto: Out With The Old & In With The New

Saturn's transit as regards to the political/professional/business infrastructure shows that prior old contacts and relationships will be ended, and force workers, particularly older workers to discover new ways to navigate in a world changed.

Pluto's transit in the early degrees of Capricorn, and its late 2009/early 2010 square to Saturn's transit in the early degrees of Libra show that there are intense internal battles around political, professional and business infrastructures run by the ruling generational establishment.

The crisis that is now underway during the late autumn months of 2009 will continue into the winter of 2010, and extend into the summer and fall months of 2010 leading to a near complete ousting of long-standing political and business establishments.

The political structure is seen transformed by Pluto's transit in Capricorn. The square to Saturn, and the coming square of Pluto to Uranus in the early to mid-2010s reveals radical changes associated with repeals of political insider networks and establishments replaced by watchdog organizations and groups who have been fed up with corruption within many political and corporate entities.

Patronage issues, a part of the generational transition, is now coming to an end and will lead to investigations of individuals, groups and political parties who for years have been involved in wide-ranging activities that violated the rules of law.

Saturn's square to Pluto sheds light on the internal battles now raging from outside investigations of those who have long held the power over people through insider activities hidden from sunshine laws.

The Saturn/Pluto square is now active. There are three (3) exact partile squares:

• November 15, 2009
• January 31, 2010
• August 20-21, 2010

The general influences of these Saturn/Pluto squares shows an extended cycle of competing egos and will power struggles within business, political and professional organizations. Acts of coercion, blackmail, scandals, and paranoia are quite common under this square aspect between Saturn & Pluto.

The main influences are those that feature rigid and cold attitudes; especially from those in positions of power. The outbursts that are directed under this Saturn/Pluto square are directed from, and towards those who are seen to have caused the economic crisis are highlighted through sometimes sinister acts where some may have to fight against dishonest and corrupt persons and organizations.

Those who are involved in using dishonorable means to gain advantage will discover that their acts will backfire under the global transits that affects many people from the celestial conditions now building.

What is happening is that the generational angst of the ruling establishment has become negatively crystallized in the physical world. However, what is revealed by the global transits is that those who have for nearly 20 years refused to envision change are beginning to have to face the consequences of their actions.

Saturn's opposition to Jupiter from 2010 to 2012, mainly on the Aries/Libra axis reveals that the general climate business contraction will continue; especially for existing companies and institutions that have outlived their purposes.

I am forecasting that large job cuts will continue as an aging generation of executives and managers continue to lay off workers en mass in order to make up for very bad business decisions to enter the debt markets, in effect, gambling the life-blood of their firms but now slashing multiple positions with hiring freezes so as to keep drawing excessive pay for themselves before their own retirements.

The banking crisis, at the heart of the economic depression, will continue to be in force during the early years of the 2010s. High unemployment will be a drag on the economy and businesses will continue to contract until the generational transition is complete.

This means several more years of a tight labor market until finally the negative climate is relieved by a new generation of leaders, executives, managers, boards, and owners who will need to hire millions of new workers to meet the challenges of the 2010s.

Personal Relationships

The anxieties and stresses from children to adults from nearly 18 years of widespread abuse and dysfunction in society will have reached its peak by the year 2010. Losses of homes, jobs, and high personal debt will brought many personal relationships to their highest stress points by 2010-2012.

The transit of Saturn in Libra from 2010 to 2012 and its impact on society, families, personal relationships, and marriages shows a rise in divorce rates; mainly as a result of the banking and economic crisis. The stresses on marriages in the years 2007-2010 will have led to a rise in the divorce rate.

Currently, the divorce rate has fallen dramatically because of the economic crisis. "It is very hard to refinance right now and many people are being forced to just stay on," said a divorce lawyer. "That's where I have seen the change. People may think twice about getting divorced and just separate."

This will continue through the year 2010, until Saturn re-enters Libra, and then turns south by declination in early September 2010. As Saturn begins its 2.5-year transit in Libra, separations, annulments and divorces will rise after being delayed since 2007.

The "fear" factor also plays a role: fear of aging, fear of change, the fear of the future - all these fears are associated with a generation that has been generally fearful of anything that appears to threaten the need for things to remain exactly the same.

The problem for the aging generation is simply of "letting go" of those material things in life that have been given much more importance than they really contain. Uranus' transit opposed to Saturn shows that the "new" will win out over the "old" and that in order to discover balance, one must work with Saturn's lessons to simply and strengthen relationships on all levels.

For many years the ego-based "I" has been given precedence over the "us" or the "we" - and learning to form a happy foundation will mean to discover what one really requires for personal happiness that is not a means to "entitlement."

This culture of "fear" has been in effect since the late 1990s and after a decade of "fear" - the peak of which will be reached by the year 2012 - society will say "enough is enough" and take the mantle of change into their own hands.

What can help to counter this will be the ability to achieve a level of "downtime" for children and adults to return to slowing down the pace of daily life and the demands of society in order to re-discover one's personal values for oneself and one's families.

Reducing the amount of clutter and distraction in one's life plays an important role with the transits of the 2010s. By taking more time off the Internet, from watching too much television, from becoming distracted by one's Ipod and cell phone and personal digital organizer can lead to achieving more depth in life under the global transits just ahead.

Creativity, relaxation and a sense of humor can do wonders to counter the overexposure to television, technology that has quickened the faster pace of life that has become more intrusive on the lives of people since the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Personal relationships will suffer under Saturn's Libra transit for those who have found that their relationships have outlived their own coming needs and desires. Therefore, the most important thing to do during 2010 is to focus on relationships that feature common sense and a return to the core values that make human relationships enjoyable.

This will be especially important during Saturn's transit in Libra as the effects of the economic crisis will continue to have maximum impact on millions of individuals and families who will seek to recover from the economic, social, professional and personal damage that has resulted from internal fears of the collective that has been projected negatively into the outer world.

Times are changing. It cannot be stopped, but should be embraced as Saturn begins a new series of transits in the 2010s.