The Astrology of Finance: Saturn Square Pluto–A Very Capricorn Function

ifrs-vs-gaap
This astrologer wrote this time last year when Jupiter was in Capricorn:

“We have entered a period due to the planet of expansion, Jupiter, being in the sign of constriction, Capricorn and the planet of transformation, Pluto, soon to reenter that sign, when government control of resources will grow more pervasive than ever.
Pluto as a planet talks about power and control, and in its extreme side, theft, rape and gross greed. The theft and rape of economic resources of under the aegis of the government control will never be subtler than with Pluto in the sign of Capricorn. We won’t be dealing with Big Brother; we will be dealing with Big Daddy, and a withholding one at that. All governments will seek to maintain the status quo, a very Capricorn function. To do that more laws will be placed to steal resources from those least able to defend themselves against the system to pay those entities that have an insatiable greed.”

And so it was not with much surprise that in the wake of the U. S. Government seizing control of weaker banks and selling them to the highest bidder, then handing over billions in bail out money to those same banks (such as Bank of America) I received an email asking me if my business was ready to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards, IFRS for short.

Current United States publicly traded companies are required to report profit and loss under GAAP, Generally Accepted Accounting Standards. GAAP is rules based system, where the rules for assets and liabilities are firmly set. There is a line for everything and everything is its on its proper line. It shows you the how much money the company has made. It is very black and white.

IFRS on the other hand is a principles based system. It allows less tangible assets that are not cash and inventory to be added to the value of a company. It is called “fair value accounting”. For instance, software that a company sells as a product has tangible worth, but software that a company uses itself under GAAP would not be so considered. Under IFRS company used software can be considered an asset and added the value of the company. It a system that projects the value of the company as a going concern. INFS is a system that operates under shade of gray.

If we’ve learned anything from Enron and the collapse of the financial markets we’ve learned that we do not need more ambiguity in the reporting of financial strength of a company. American financiers and stock market analysts rely on that information determine whether or not to invest in a company’s stock. Under IFRS though, the black and white, dollars and sense approach to investing will evaporate into a “professional judgement” assessment, an atmosphere that could trade heavily into insider’s knowledge of the true strength of a company. In other words, those who travel in the corridors of financial power will be in a position to reap the greatest benefits while average Americans with their 401K’s meant for their retirement could be left in cold with lukewarm financial information..

Though our SEC top dog, Mary Shapiro urges caution and a slower timeline in adopting INFS, she is pitted against the likes of Paul Volcker, chairman of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board formed by President Obama. Volcker wants INFS adopted as quickly as possible.

As Saturn prepares to enter the zodiac sign of law and justice, Libra, it will make a challenge aspect to the planet of control, Pluto. Whether the people step up to plate and voice their opinions about the loosey goosey financial dealings of the government to lobby for laws that protect the interests of Americans is entirely up to us. Otherwise, we’ll be fed the same pabulum of “let’s make the financiers happy and we’ll all be happy”. Yep. That’s worked so well in the past.

If you have a question you would answered on these pages, please send your birth date, birth time and birth place along with your question starrynightastro@aol.com. Sorry, time limitations prevent me from answering other than a single question.

Image printed under a Creative Commons License from Flickr.

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