We saw yesterday the House of Representatives, with heads bowed in prayer, remembering and praying for the people killed and injured in the Aurora, Colorado shootings. This is a familiar sight; we saw the same in the wake of the Gaby Gifford shootings. Everyone weeps and remembers. There are the usual calls and cries for gun control. Yet nothing is done. For one the politicians find it politically inexpedient to pursue such a track. And the people themselves are less than enthusiastic about gun control. 

I remember much to my chagrin in 2008 when the Supreme Court ruled that the preparatory clause of the  Second Amendment that begins, “A well regulated militia…” does not limit  or amplify the clause that comes after, ” the right of the people to bear arms.” Despite the fact that I am a strict constructionist, I disagreed with that. When the founders wrote the Second Amendment, the states maintained militias, which were called up on a moment’s notice. It was required of an able bodied man to keep a firearm on hand to be used in the event of such a call up. There were no armories or state militia training facilities where arms were kept.
The anti-Federalists were also concerned that a check and balance was needed against the Federal government to prevent it from declaring martial law and/or war upon the states. So the citizen was given the right to bear arms in conjunction with participation in a well regulated state militia. Today there are no militias, and therefore no need for an able bodied man to keep a firearm at home. And it is highly unlikely the Federal government will declare martial law or attack any of the states. Well, maybe California.

But by de-linking the preparatory clause from the rest of the amendment, the Supreme Court’s decision let the “right of the people” clause to stand alone, thus allowing citizens to acquire and possess as many firearms of any type that they choose. This is a dangerous and intolerable situation. If the Congress and the American people are serious about gun control I believe a two pronged approach needs to be taken to remedy the situation. One, efforts must be undertaken in the Congress to repeal the amendment and simultaneously in the states to ensure that strong gun control laws are put in place. This will require a long, arduous state by state campaign. Perhaps a Bill Gates or George Soros would step up to fund a a 50 state effort to do this? And, dear reader, are you up to it?

Eddie Mercury is concerned. His ruling planet is in retrograde since July 14th and will remain in this state until August 3rd. This does not bode well as everything tends to slow down and sometimes stall during this periord which occurs 3-4 times each year. What does retrograde mean? Well, think of the train in which you are riding passes a slower train. Looking out the window it appears that the other train has stopped or is going much slower. In this case, as with the stopped or slower train, Mercury does not physically slow down, it just manifests an apparent slowdown relative to Earth’s motion. There is good news however! Today Mercury is at aphelion (or apogee as it is incorrectly called). Which means that it is the closest to the earth that it can be. It has flung itself out on its eliptical orbit miles from the Sun, and with it brings positive energy and force. Will that action counteract  its retrograde properties? I believe so, although many in the astrological and astronomical communities disagree wth me. 

Needless to say Eddie does not need slowdown or stalling in his life right now. His life is moving too fast. When he was a little kid it seemed to move so slowly; not any more. He remembers the grammar school days when he and his pal Hocky would start out on Saturday morning at 8:00 and rejoice that they had 9 whole hours to play before the street lights went on and they had to be home. And that 9 hours took a long  time to pass and they had it crammed full of wondrous activities: catching mice, snakes and parakeets, building wagons, race cars and rockets, fishing, finding meteorites. But today Eddie says “Where has the time gone?” Which is why he likes Mercury. It is the planet that circles the Sun in the shortest period of time. While its day is equivalent to 59 Earth days, it takes only 88 days to orbit the Sun, its year. Mercury chases the sun. It wants to outrun the Sun, but of course it can’t. It gives it its best shot. Which is why Eddie loves it so much. Besides being his ruling planet (Eddie is a Gemini), it inspires him.  And thus the discussion about retrograde, aphelion, and the Sun. But the most exciting event of all is Mercury Transit, when the planet actually comes between Earth and the Sun. More about that later. In 2016.

The economy is in  the tank. Most economists seem to agree that second-quarter 2012 growth will come in lower than first-quarter’s 1.9%. The recession officially ended in the middle of 2011 and most economic indicators have risen since then but over the past year they all  have flattened out. There are many reasons for this. While housing starts have grown, over $7 trillion of housing market value was wiped out in the months leading up to the recession and today over 11  million Americans owe more on their houses than they are worth. Then,  Americans used rising home equity to fix up their homes, pay kid’s college tuitions and buy things for themselves; those days are far gone. Industrial production and investment is flat, and retail sales are declining. Unemployment is stagnant at 8.2%. Mr. Bernanke and the Fed plan to do something to increase liquidity (add more money to the economy) but so far the plans have not been made known.

Why am I saying all this? Why, because no where are the banks to be seen. Do you remember the bank bailout following the collapse of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers? Seems such a long time ago. Do you remember all the talk of investigating and seeking accountability for all the banks’ wrong doing? What happened? Nothing. And since then the banks have all become profitable, and the executives are once again receiving their bonuses. Just like the old days. How did the banks become profitable so quickly? The banks’ goals and objectives differed slightly from ours and the government’s. As they saw it, their priority was to get out from under the government’s thumb. So they needed to get profitable as quickly as possible and repay the government’s loans. This they did in record time. How did they do this you ask? Very simply: they traded. They did not lend to homebuilders and owners, or to small businesses, or to start up companies. No they traded for their own account government bonds. Instead of trading the sham real estate products that go themselves into trouble  in the first place, they went into, what is known in the biz as the bond trade carry business. Prior to 1996 when banks were deregulated they had three functions: provide deposits (savings and checking), make loans and provide letters of credit for foreign transactions. Now they can do almost anything they want, including selling stocks and insurance. And since 1996 there have been many scandals that have touched on all these areas.

Lending creates jobs and helps grow the economy. The government made capital available to the banks; the banks did not make it available to the American people and businesses. I fear the Fed will again make capital easily available to the banks and the banks will ignore their basic responsibility and continue trading at the sacrifice of investing in America. And most Americans will not say a word. They will not pay attention. They will remain asleep. But what about the administration and both houses of Congress? Why are they silent about this? Could it be in that in the race to raise $2 billion both political parties are loathe to rock the boat? To not bite the hands that feed them?