Read previously: Historical Cyclical Patterns | Eclipse November 25 2011 – Part 1
The eclipse from SAROS family 123, returned in November 3, 1975 and on the 17th of that month the Congress of USA aproved the North American Free Trade Agreement – NAFTA, which came into force on January 1, 1994 (also a return datee for this eclipse: 1993 November 13).
Its goal was to eliminate barriers for trade and investment for USA, Canada and Mexico, eliminatiing tariffs for import and export, estalbishing a free trade zone, installing in Mexico big ‘maquilas which produced with raw material from USA and Canada, hired cheap labor force which had no right social benefits, putting in the same level of conditions to Mexico and to ‘developed’ countries which had almost abusive advantages in ocmparison, putting enterprises above the law and the State.
Also on November 1975, USA underwent, same as today, a fiscal crisis since 1973. The most outstanding event was in New Yor State which needed two thirds of its budget and received the negative of President Ford to ‘rescue’ or bail it out. They ended up borrowing from the Teacher’s Union that invested 150 millions from its pension funds, besides a refinancing of 3 billions from its debt. In December, Ford signed a financial act for New York opening a credit line of 2.3 billions that allowed the USA Treasury to earn near 40 millions on interests. Source
Until today the causes of New York fiscal crisis is discussed, here some of the hypothesis:
- Too many free credits to spend on social programs (which for liberal economies is a sin for they do not give any return)
- Municipal syndicates ‘forced the State to accept very generous contracts
- External factors with a strong link to world economy which was on shock from the 1973 Arab oil embargo
- It was victimized by banks they relied upon to buy bonds Source
But there were also those in 1975 which saw the beginning of future financial crisis in USA, including today’s, and even forecasted that banking management on course it would be very easy to have huge illicit earnings, although even then they were already above the law. Source
In 2009, Time magazine published an article “The man who forecast the financial crisis. In 1975” , referring to Chris Welle’s classic ‘The Last Days of the Club’, where he states that it was the greatest extorsion in the history of business in the USA, they got rich massively (a new financial Club) charging investors with huge high comission rates. He describes also new emergiing financial schemes: institutional investors highly concentrated and extremely powerful whose trade habits, ironically, are the immediate reason for this shanble… these institutions, most of them banks had already seized Wall Street and soon will dominate the financial power of this country.
Both events from one of the most powerful financial centers on this planet show the cyclical patterns of this eclipse:
Power was no longer religious and States were debilitating in favour of business, big investments, earning no matte what. It’s necessary to remember that this ‘business’ pattern has its origins in the 1600s and is part of ‘liberal’ economies postulates.
In 1074, actions were justified by ‘divine’ mandates which obviously for 1975 were already anachronistic, so the new religion was the ‘free market’ which was also linked to ‘freedom’ and the right to ‘development’, offering welfare paradises to the people when they only reached the few.
On time, States established rules that held back the interests of the ‘free market’ which does not really exist, it’s just the excuse to facilitate the road for big conglomerates which have substituted the church and states: corporations and transnationals. In order to re-centralize power it was necessary to create rules to recover power and continue growing with ambicious business that usufruct from the poorest and usurp rights from the majorities all over the planet.
Then came the big loans for poor countries, the demand even to big ones to adjust fiscal policies to debts leaving them at the mercy of powerful non-visible corporative structures. But also ‘financial rescues’ with which they could ‘re-finance’ as many times as countries wanted and they could dictate ‘perfect’ prescriptions to continue making money with them.
Of course the final goal was not to weaken the states nor get rid off from inconvenient rules holdiing back their ambitions, rather the territorial re-colonization where they could be untouchable owners of ‘private properties’ and develop their profitable business. There comes the NAFTA opening access to Mexican territories. This is just a branch, TLC territorial expansion in the American continents would come with the Free Trade of the Americas- FTA.
These energies that in 1975 through the TLC puts forward the great re-concentration of power plan and territorial re-colonization in honour of ‘free trade’ for the big financial conglomerates, returns with the 1993 eclipse, the NAFTA comes into force on January 1, 1994.
For the return of this eclipse in 2011, NAFTA is still on headlines and free trade agreements were just passed between USA, Panama and Korea. But conditions not only from this eclipse’s patterns, also from the eclipse in July 1, 2011 that shifted the axis, as well as the Trastoque at the global level, shook corporative structures, banks, stock trade and others holding the economic and financial power, starting to debilitate and probably new structures will be created to re-centralize power.
NAFTA has becoma bad word, within the USA as well as in Latinamerica where big social movements re-concentrated power to face up NAFTA, considered in the words of former Brazilian President, Luis Ignacio da Silva “not a trade agreement, but an annexation”.
Republican candidate for next elections, Buddy Roemer, on an interview with the Huffington Post (Oct 21 2011) said free trade agreements are terrible and should be reapeled for they did not benefit USA nor anyone. On Panama that recently accepted a free trade agreement, he said it’s a fiscal financial fraud offshore and considers free trade treaties takes off from them many tools used to fight versus financial fraud. Besides reiterating free trade agreements affected unemployment levels, he sees those treaties as agreements not coming from the American people, but rather they are wanted by corporations and with the campaign-financial system there is now, corporations can buy whatever they want in Washington. Source
On November 4, 2011 in Mar del Plata, Argentina, there was an event ‘The Burial of FTA’, after the IV Summit of the Americas in November 2005 also on that city, most Latinamerica governments agreed opposition to FTA as adverse to integrationist processes (another re-concentration of power with different characteristics), and regarding it as a mechanism to accentuate USA control and domination of economies to the South of Río Grande. Here you can read the whole article on the event (Spanish) and these links with lots of information on NAFTA, FTA and the and the government of corporations:
- http://www.noalalca.org.ar/
- http://movimientos.org/noalca/
- http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/NAFTA_FTAA/Lessons_NAFTA.html
- http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/n/north_american_free_trade_agreement/index.html
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Corporations_Rule_the_World
But thre is more, patterns of 1975 for 1993 also had other strategies and mechanisms towards power re-concentration, introducing big structural reforms that led countries to the financial fall down we see in headlines today. That will be reviewed in Part III.