Fannie and Freddie: More Welfare for Wall Street

Interesting that we’re hearing the feds are going to take over mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on the eve of Jupiter going direct in Capricorn. Jupiter is expansion and Capricorn rules the financial establishment.

The lingo Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is using is “conservatorship,” but in reality the mortgage outfits are being nationalized — by a Republican Administration.

As many financial commentators have noted, these stopgap measures to prop up the U.S. financial system are merely postponing the day of reckoning. The Fannie/Freddie bailout is going to benefit the mostly institutional holders of its bonds and mortgage-backed securities, but owners of its common shares are still at risk.

If you’re looking for more detail on the bailout from a Wall Street source, here’s a link to my favorite money maven Barry Ritholtz.

One of my first posts when I started writing this blog on Mar. 17 made the link between Jupiter in Capricorn and the efforts of the U.S. government to avert a financial crisis by rescuing Bear Stearns.

Back then, Pluto was making its test-drive in Cap. Now, it’s back in Sagittarius and going direct. Hold on to your hats! This fall’s financial roller-coaster ride is just beginning!

Hotter Than July

My laptop seems to be withstanding temperatures of close to 100 degrees (I know that’s cool compared to the temps our troops are facing in Iraq), but my brain has turned to mush. I’ll also admit to being stunned by the events in the financial markets this week — the run on IndyMac Bank, mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac being bailed out by the Fed, Google missing its earnings forecasts, and General Motors cutting its dividend in half, to name just a few.

Interesting that a bank with “Indy” in its name failed while the asteroid Indiana is traveling close to Neptune, the planet of dissolution. For more about the asteroid Indiana, please see https://astrologymundo.wordpress.com/2008/05/23/bringing-back-the-glory-days-of-the-indy-500/

Closer to home, several tech-savvy colleagues were let go at my day job, while less accomplished performers get to stay on. The unfairness of it floors me.

Being a Cancer Moon, I respond to unsettling news by getting out my well-thumbed Louisana cookbooks and cooking, heat be damned. You haven’t lived until you’ve tasted Cajun deviled eggs, which rely on sweet relish, deviled ham, and mustard instead of mayo, and are topped with a pimiento-stuffed olive and a sprinkling of paprika. The recipe comes from Terry Thompson’s Cajun Creole Cooking.

What I love about cooking is predictability. Sure, there are disasters every now and then, but basically if you follow the directions, you get what is promised in the picture. If only life were so simple!

If you want to get really depressed, read Jim Kunstler’s post on Wile E. Coyote Nation: http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/

Meanwhile, I’m off to the farmers’ market, another cure for anything that ails me. I’m too scared right now to read Ray Merriman’s weekly post.