Great Depression

Thrift Store America

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This is a chillingly accurate assessment of what is happening to America as a result of our bought-and-paid-for, corporately-owned government. Well worth the read ~G

RJ O’Guillory ~ You can see it in the real estate. You can feel the retreat from prosperity and purpose. You can sense the poverty and the loss of an entire generation of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness… and you can see the, “beginning of the end”, for the America of our childhood conditioning.

Lost in the All-American, time-honored barrage of local moving sales, rummage & yard sales, and the sad but admirable explosion of Thrift and Second-Hand Stores, you can witness the decay of the legend and myth,…the stories told to us in our youth of what America was supposed to be,…and to be about.

The signs are clear on a local level; uncounted closed down businesses, thousands, if not millions of houses that are boarded up to avoid uninhabited damage. Even in the homes that are abandoned, but not boarded up, you can feel the desperation of The American Dream? You know you are broke when you can’t afford to board up a foreclosed home…? I am certainly no college degree’d economist, and most of what I’ve learned is through my international experiences, but it seems to me that when the number of Thrift Stores coming online outnumbers the number of new Starbucks and McDonald’s,…the country may have a bit of a problem?

The truly frightening signals are those which smolder out of the burn-pit of our corrupt, unethical government leadership; unmanageable debt, increased police abuses, dead and assaulted members of the “public”, a citizenry grown weary of kowtowing to political, government and “law enforcement” systems that are fraying badly at their ethical edges… and have little or no respect for our Constitutional protections and political limits.

If not for the deadly oil and chemical dispersant wafting over our southern coasts, the radioactive waste misting those of us along the West Coast and the purposeful flooding of the Midwest, perhaps the Citizens of the country may have the time to pay attention to our upcoming political circus, commonly referred to as elections. But really…how many Citizens really still believe in the American Elective process? How many still hold on to that myth of one-man-one-vote, especially when you can push the right button on the voting machine and stand there watching as the vote changes for an opponent? How many Americans still believe in the process?

Not many I’d bet.

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First Uranus/Pluto Square: June 24, 2012

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Barbara Hand Clow | May 1 2012

This is the first of seven articles on the seven Uranus/Pluto squares—2012-2015—the time of the early stages of a great renaissance in our world. We are breaking through to another evolutionary level, a process that always involves great struggle very much like a baby bird breaking its shell. Some day, people will realize that our species experienced a great leap forward 2012-15, one that can be compared to the late medieval Renaissance 500 years ago. During the Renaissance, we learned that art and beauty feed the human soul; now during these seven squares, we are discovering the power of the human heart. This article describes the potential of the first Uranus/Pluto squares in light of the critical issues we face right now. My intention is to clearly assess current reality to identify the special qualities that can manifest do in this climate.

As many of you know, it seems to be impossible to comprehend what’s actually happening to our species right now, and it seems to be even more difficult to forecast what is coming next. However, for one small group of humans—astrologers—there is clear guidance at this time. We are very much needed right now, so we must strive to find ways to describe what we know to ordinary people, not to just shop talk among ourselves. I begin with the general astrological map of our times, which is very informative and compelling.

Astrology is rarely as clear as it is right now: Pluto, which rules truth and debt, went into Capricorn in 2008 where it will be through 2024. When Pluto transits Capricorn, there is always a great struggle over the control of human resources, so the battle opened with the financial crisis in 2008. Previously Pluto was in Capricorn AD 778-795; 1024-1041; 1269-1286; 1516-1532; and 1762-1777, and all of these periods were characterized by great transformative changes in the world. For example, the first period indicated—778-795—was when Charlemagne carved Europe up into territories and the Papacy was granted its territories, which has evolved into the hugely powerful Vatican Bank. The last period listed—1762-1777—was the time of the American Revolution and its foundation as a nation.

Simply put, we are in the early stages of a gargantuan struggle over who globally owns and controls what. As it was during 1762-1777, the United States is the central stage for this transformation because 1) it is still attempting to be the world’s empire, and 2) in the USA 1776 founding chart, Pluto is in 28 Capricorn, so the US will have its Pluto Return in 2022. Secondly, while Pluto is in Capricorn, during 2012-15, Uranus in Aries—revolution and surprise—applies seven squares to Pluto that will trigger a crisis over all the issues that came forth during the Uranus/Pluto conjunctions of the 1960s. The charts for the seven Uranus/Pluto squares are cast for Washington, DC, since it is the theatre for the struggle over global control. More about the 1960s in a moment, since first we need more general astrology.

When Uranus goes into Aries every 84 years, a whole new innovative cycle begins, and the surprise factor is always huge. The last time Uranus was in Aries was 1927-193—the previous world financial collapse. Few doubt that we are now in the middle of a global financial crisis. Well, Uranus in Aries squared Pluto in Cancer in 1932-34, but these were waning squares after Uranus opposed Pluto in 1901-02, the time when processes complete, which in the 1930s was the West’s heavy industrialization. So, even though comparisons between our era and the Great Depression are tempting, something entirely new is going on, since the squares are applying as the squares after the conjunction when new things emerge. We will see a totally new reality emerging out of due the struggles generated by these squares. We need to identify what this reality will be and also realize that nobody can avoid the coming changes. The Uranus/Pluto squares were pushing everyone during 2011, which was so apparent with the Arab Spring and the European financial crisis. Personally, anyone who is not experiencing great changes right now is resisting this energetic push. However, you can see what’s actually happening to all of us if you face your truth. This will happen because these seven applying squares are the first to occur since Pluto was sighted in 1930; we are slated to hyper-truthful.

No matter how much anyone tries to hide from it, Earth’s people must adopt sustainable living, or the slated renaissance will abort. As this new emergent reality formulates pushed by intense Uranus/Pluto squares, we struggle to co-create with it. Meanwhile, many people are confused by the failure of the 1960s alternative-cultural revolution, yet now we can now see that sustainability was birthed by the flower children. This failure occurred because it wasn’t time yet. But now that Uranus has attained its square position to Pluto, sustainability will be the fruition of the Uranus/Pluto conjunctions of the 1960s. This failure forty years ago is the cause of a great amount of angst and pain between generations, which is explored in depth in my article, “Uranus Square Pluto and Generational Tension”. This failure is the wound that needs to be healed now because the generations must work together.

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Global Elites Are Confused, Reactive, And Sinking Into A Quagmire Of Their Own Making

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William I. Robinson | Al Jazeera
November 30 2011

OPINION | Santa Barbara, CA – As the crisis of global capitalism spirals out of control, the powers that be in the global system appear to be adrift and unable to proposal viable solutions. From the slaughter of dozens of young protesters by the army in Egypt to the brutal repression of the Occupy movement in the United States, and the water cannons brandished by the militarised police in Chile against students and workers, states and ruling classes are unable are to hold back the tide of worldwide popular rebellion and must resort to ever more generalised repression.

Simply put, the immense structural inequalities of the global political economy can no longer be contained through consensual mechanisms of social control. The ruling classes have lost legitimacy; we are witnessing a breakdown of ruling-class hegemony on a world scale.

To understand what is happening in this second decade of the new century we need to see the big picture in historic and structural context. Global elites had hoped and expected that the “Great Depression” that began with the mortgage crisis and the collapse of the global financial system in 2008 would be a cyclical downturn that could be resolved through state-sponsored bailouts and stimulus packages. But it has become clear that this is a structural crisis. Cyclical crises are on-going episodes in the capitalist system, occurring and about once a decade and usually last 18 months to two years. There were world recessions in the early 1980s, the early 1990s, and the early 21st century.

Structural crises are deeper; their resolution requires a fundamental restructuring of the system. Earlier world structural crises of the 1890s, the 1930s and the 1970s were resolved through a reorganisation of the system that produced new models of capitalism. “Resolved” does not mean that the problems faced by a majority of humanity under capitalism were resolved but that the reorganisation of the capitalist system in each case overcame the constraints to a resumption of capital accumulation on a world scale. The crisis of the 1890s was resolved in the cores of world capitalism through the export of capital and a new round of imperialist expansion. The Great Depression of the 1930s was resolved through the turn to variants of social democracy in both the North and the South – welfare, populist, or developmentalist capitalism that involved redistribution, the creation of public sectors, and state regulation of the market.

Globalisation and the current structural crisis

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Veil of Secrecy at the Fed Lifted, Time for Change

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By Bernie Sanders | Reader Supported News
November 8 2011

As a result of the greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior on Wall Street, the American people have experienced the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Millions of Americans, through no fault of their own, have lost their jobs, homes, life savings, and ability to send their kids to college. Small businesses have been unable to get the credit they need to expand their businesses, and credit is still extremely tight. Wages as a share of national income are now at the lowest level since the Great Depression, and the number of Americans living in poverty is at an all-time high.

Meanwhile, when small-business owners were being turned down for loans at private banks and millions of Americans were being kicked out of their homes, the Federal Reserve provided the largest taxpayer-financed bailout in the history of the world to Wall Street and too-big-to-fail institutions, with virtually no strings attached.

Over two years ago, I asked Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, a few simple questions that I thought the American people had a right to know: Who got money through the Fed bailout? How much did they receive? What were the terms of this assistance?

Incredibly, the chairman of the Fed refused to answer these fundamental questions about how trillions of taxpayer dollars were being spent.

The American people are finally getting answers to these questions thanks to an amendment I included in the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill which required the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to audit and investigate conflicts of interest at the Fed. Those answers raise grave questions about the Federal Reserve and how it operates — and whose interests it serves.

As a result of these GAO reports, we learned that the Federal Reserve provided a jaw-dropping $16 trillion in total financial assistance to every major financial institution in the country as well as a number of corporations, wealthy individuals and central banks throughout the world.

The GAO also revealed that many of the people who serve as directors of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks come from the exact same financial institutions that the Fed is in charge of regulating. Further, the GAO found that at least 18 current and former Fed board members were affiliated with banks and companies that received emergency loans from the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis. In other words, the people “regulating” the banks were the exact same people who were being “regulated.” Talk about the fox guarding the henhouse!

The emergency response from the Fed appears to have created two systems of government in America: one for Wall Street, and another for everyone else. While the rich and powerful were “too big to fail” and were given an endless supply of cheap credit, ordinary Americans, by the tens of millions, were allowed to fail. They lost their homes. They lost their jobs. They lost their life savings. And, they lost their hope for the future. This is not what American democracy is supposed to look like. It is time for change at the Fed – real change.

Among the GAO’s key findings is that the Fed lacks a comprehensive system to deal with conflicts of interest, despite the serious potential for abuse. In fact, according to the GAO, the Fed actually provided conflict of interest waivers to employees and private contractors so they could keep investments in the same financial institutions and corporations that were given emergency loans.

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Immunity and Impunity in Elite America

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By Glenn Greenwald (TomDispatch) Reader Supported News
25 October 11

How the legal system was deep-sixed and Occupy Wall Street swept the land.

Economic inequalityOPINION | As intense protests spawned by Occupy Wall Street continue to grow, it is worth asking: Why now? The answer is not obvious. After all, severe income and wealth inequality have long plagued the United States. In fact, it could reasonably be claimed that this form of inequality is part of the design of the American founding – indeed, an integral part of it.

Income inequality has worsened over the past several years and is at its highest level since the Great Depression. This is not, however, a new trend. Income inequality has been growing at rapid rates for three decades. As journalist Tim Noah described the process:

“During the late 1980s and the late 1990s, the United States experienced two unprecedentedly long periods of sustained economic growth – the ‘seven fat years’ and the ‘long boom.’ Yet from 1980 to 2005, more than 80% of total increase in Americans’ income went to the top 1%. Economic growth was more sluggish in the aughts, but the decade saw productivity increase by about 20%. Yet virtually none of the increase translated into wage growth at middle and lower incomes, an outcome that left many economists scratching their heads.”

The 2008 financial crisis exacerbated the trend, but not radically: the top 1% of earners in America have been feeding ever more greedily at the trough for decades.

In addition, substantial wealth inequality is so embedded in American political culture that, standing alone, it would not be sufficient to trigger citizen rage of the type we are finally witnessing. The American Founders were clear that they viewed inequality in wealth, power, and prestige as not merely inevitable, but desirable and, for some, even divinely ordained. Jefferson praised “the natural aristocracy” as “the most precious gift of nature” for the “government of society.” John Adams concurred: “It already appears, that there must be in every society of men superiors and inferiors, because God has laid in the… course of nature the foundation of the distinction.”

Not only have the overwhelming majority of Americans long acquiesced to vast income and wealth disparities, but some of those most oppressed by these outcomes have cheered it loudly. Americans have been inculcated not only to accept, but to revere those who are the greatest beneficiaries of this inequality.

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