Fluffmeister
March 1st, 2006, 01:46 PM
The background: currently, all world oil trades take place in US dollars. This confers a significant advantage on the US - it means that since the rest of the world needs dollars, the US can overlook its overspending, currently running at a terrifying level of 8 trillion dollars. Yes, TRILLION - that's $8,000,000,000,000. If the US had to pay this off tomorrow, every single man, woman and child in the USA would need to make a personal payment of over $25,000 each.
Now, the USA doesn't need to pay this off since world trade takes place in dollars. If the US government needs more dollars, it prints more - and people will buy them. Other countries can't do this - printing money just means runaway inflation. However, the USA is safe provided world trade - and in practice that means the oil trade - takes place in dollars.
Now, Iran has put the cat among the pigeons by announcing that it's going to open an Iranian Oil Bourse (IOB) on 20 March, trading in Euros. If this happens, countries who currently pay for oil in dollars (and are effectively subsidising the US debt) can choose to pay in Euros instead. There's a lot of hype surrounding what will happen, but there are fears this could precipitate a crash of the US dollar. A brief summary is at http://www.traderdaily.com/column4/2340.html but any search for Iran Oil Bourse will bring up hundreds of topical articles.
Iran isn't the first country to trade oil in Euros. Iraq started doing so a couple of years back - and the Euro, which had been slipping against the US dollar since its introduction in 1999, started increasing against the dollar. This did worry US financial interests, and after the Iraq invasion the US government quietly converted Iraq's reserves back into US dollars and ensured that Iraqi oil was sold in dollars again, and the dollar's slide against the Euro halted.
Of course, the US could prevent this Bourse by invading Iran this month. Or perhaps there is some back-dealing going on, and Tehran will postpone the launch of its Bourse.
So, here's a mundane astrology question. Assuming the Bourse goes ahead, will it succeed? Although there are suggestions that the Bourse will physically be located on the island of Kish in Iran, I'm assuming the Bourse will be "born" as an entity on the TSE (Tehran Stock Exchange) at 09:00, since the trading hours of the TSE are 09:00-12:30 Saturday to Wednesday.
I've attached the chart. I don't think it looks too promising, though my mundane astrology isn't very good. The chart ruler, Venus, is prominent and conjunct Neptune suggesting it's highly prominent and in the news, but with rather false ideas about itself. The Bourse's wealth is shown by the ruler of the second, Mercury, who is in fall, retrograde, conjunct Uranus and square to Mars. There's a trine to Jupiter, who rules the 8th house (other people's money) and the 11th house (the boss's money - could be good for the CEO of the Bourse!) so there could be an initial flurry. The oil may be shown by the 4th house (buried treasure, literally), ruled by the Sun - however, I'm not sure if this represents oil as the oil is not part of the Bourse, but the buried treasure of the *country* itself. I can't make out the condition of the Sun - some say that in the last degree of a sign he's weak, but he does trine the Moon - but squares Pluto.
Looking at the charts of Iran and the US you can see two flashpoints - the US Uranus on Iran's Moon, and the US Mars square to Iran's Mars. Does anything in the Bourse chart trigger these flashpoints? Loosely, yes - transiting Uranus is squaring that Uranus/Moon flashpoint, and transiting Pluto making the Mars-Mars square into a T-square, and transiting Mars coming up to the US Mars. However, these aren't exact - so there's no obvious reason why the launch of the Bourse should specifically trigger an event - either an invasion or the collapse of the US dollar.
So I'm wondering if the Bourse will be a bit of a flash in the pan - scaring traders, but not precipitating anything major itself. Of course, this doesn't stop the problem that eventually - with the US debt predicted to rise from 24% of GDP to a shocking 68% by 2014 - the US will need to address the issue of living beyond her means or the dollar really will crash. Sooner or later, other countries are going to want to trade in currencies other than the US dollar - and when that day comes, it will be a wobbly day indeed for the world markets! However, I'm not convinced that day will be 20 March 2006. I've attached the charts - what does everyone else think?
Now, the USA doesn't need to pay this off since world trade takes place in dollars. If the US government needs more dollars, it prints more - and people will buy them. Other countries can't do this - printing money just means runaway inflation. However, the USA is safe provided world trade - and in practice that means the oil trade - takes place in dollars.
Now, Iran has put the cat among the pigeons by announcing that it's going to open an Iranian Oil Bourse (IOB) on 20 March, trading in Euros. If this happens, countries who currently pay for oil in dollars (and are effectively subsidising the US debt) can choose to pay in Euros instead. There's a lot of hype surrounding what will happen, but there are fears this could precipitate a crash of the US dollar. A brief summary is at http://www.traderdaily.com/column4/2340.html but any search for Iran Oil Bourse will bring up hundreds of topical articles.
Iran isn't the first country to trade oil in Euros. Iraq started doing so a couple of years back - and the Euro, which had been slipping against the US dollar since its introduction in 1999, started increasing against the dollar. This did worry US financial interests, and after the Iraq invasion the US government quietly converted Iraq's reserves back into US dollars and ensured that Iraqi oil was sold in dollars again, and the dollar's slide against the Euro halted.
Of course, the US could prevent this Bourse by invading Iran this month. Or perhaps there is some back-dealing going on, and Tehran will postpone the launch of its Bourse.
So, here's a mundane astrology question. Assuming the Bourse goes ahead, will it succeed? Although there are suggestions that the Bourse will physically be located on the island of Kish in Iran, I'm assuming the Bourse will be "born" as an entity on the TSE (Tehran Stock Exchange) at 09:00, since the trading hours of the TSE are 09:00-12:30 Saturday to Wednesday.
I've attached the chart. I don't think it looks too promising, though my mundane astrology isn't very good. The chart ruler, Venus, is prominent and conjunct Neptune suggesting it's highly prominent and in the news, but with rather false ideas about itself. The Bourse's wealth is shown by the ruler of the second, Mercury, who is in fall, retrograde, conjunct Uranus and square to Mars. There's a trine to Jupiter, who rules the 8th house (other people's money) and the 11th house (the boss's money - could be good for the CEO of the Bourse!) so there could be an initial flurry. The oil may be shown by the 4th house (buried treasure, literally), ruled by the Sun - however, I'm not sure if this represents oil as the oil is not part of the Bourse, but the buried treasure of the *country* itself. I can't make out the condition of the Sun - some say that in the last degree of a sign he's weak, but he does trine the Moon - but squares Pluto.
Looking at the charts of Iran and the US you can see two flashpoints - the US Uranus on Iran's Moon, and the US Mars square to Iran's Mars. Does anything in the Bourse chart trigger these flashpoints? Loosely, yes - transiting Uranus is squaring that Uranus/Moon flashpoint, and transiting Pluto making the Mars-Mars square into a T-square, and transiting Mars coming up to the US Mars. However, these aren't exact - so there's no obvious reason why the launch of the Bourse should specifically trigger an event - either an invasion or the collapse of the US dollar.
So I'm wondering if the Bourse will be a bit of a flash in the pan - scaring traders, but not precipitating anything major itself. Of course, this doesn't stop the problem that eventually - with the US debt predicted to rise from 24% of GDP to a shocking 68% by 2014 - the US will need to address the issue of living beyond her means or the dollar really will crash. Sooner or later, other countries are going to want to trade in currencies other than the US dollar - and when that day comes, it will be a wobbly day indeed for the world markets! However, I'm not convinced that day will be 20 March 2006. I've attached the charts - what does everyone else think?