SAMVA USA chart: the bank holiday of 1933

[Guest guest]

Dear friends,

 

A list member sent me off list information about this event and I did some research and discovered that banking activity ground to a halt from March 3-14, 1933. Below, please find a description of the event (a bit long, but revealing) and then an analysis of the transits. I have also attached the transit chart and a table of the transits at that time. The SAMVA chart "nails it" again!

 

Best wishes,

 

Thor

 

 

 

The Banking Holiday of 1933

 

Prologue

In March 1929, some bankers had begun to exercise caution in lending to speculators, and the rate for "call money" soared to 20 percent. The market took another tumble but then recovered after Charles E. Mitchell, chairman of the National City Bank in New York, announced that his bank would loan as much money as necessary to "avoid a general collapse of the securities markets." In September 1929, the economist and educator Roger Babson predicted that, "Sooner or later a crash is coming, and it may be terrific." His words caused the market to skid, but share prices quickly recovered. On October 24, 1929 ("Black Thursday") investors panicked after the stock ticker fell behind. The market went into a free-fall

as brokers and speculators scrambled to unload their holdings for whatever price the shares would bring. On October 29, 1929 ("Black Tuesday") another wave of panic selling sealed the market¢s fate.

 

Signs of weakness in the U.S. banking system bad begun to appear long before the stock market crashed. A statement issued in 1930 by the Comptroller of the Currency, the primary regulator of national banks, noted "the failure of 5,600 banks in the past ten year period." (Bank failures had hit 775 in 1924 and 976 in 1926.) Banks in less prosperous rural areas were particularly vulnerable. But in the aftermath of the Crash, the banks¢ weakness became more pronounced, prompting President Hoover to press for reforms. Congress, too, gave banking reform a high priority, as did the banking industry. Unfortunately, the parties were unable to agree on all appropriate course of action. A few

proposals were mulled by Congress, but no substantive measures were passed during 1930 or 1931.

 

By some estimates more than one-quarter of the US work force was unemployed at the end of 1932. The Great Depression didn¢t really loosen its grip on the U.S. economy until 1940. But the Bank Holiday of 1933 marked a turning point. Federal action strengthened the financial system, restored public confidence in banking, and helped to dispel the sense of hopelessness that had

begun to pervade every aspect of daily life.

 

The Banking Holiday (Crisis)

By March 3, 1933, the mounting toll of bank closures and failures had forced bankers and their regulators to recognize the need for decisive action. The directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York adopted a resolution requesting the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C., to urge President Hoover to proclaim a nationwide bank holiday.

 

George Harrison, of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, reversed his opposition to a statewide bank holiday after meeting with Governor Lehman and tile New York State Superintendent

of Banks. representatives of the Clearing House Banks of New York then gave the proposal their qualified support (provided that the record show they neither sought nor directly requested the action, and Governor Lehman declared a statewide bank holiday, effective March 4, 1933. The governors of Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey,, and Pennsylvania soon followed New York¢s lead.)

 

On March 4, all twelve Federal Reserve Banks kept their doors locked, and banks in 37 states were either completely closed or operating under state-imposed restrictions on withdrawals. (Despite the gravity of the situation, Kentucky¢s bank holiday proclamation reflected a certain tongue-in-cheek charm. "While the people of the state of Kentucky are suffering from a general depression, they may, perhaps, in comparison with the people of other states, have just cause for thanksgiving," declared Governor Ruby Laffoon in a proclamation that created four days of "Thanksgiving" as a pretext for closing Kentucky¢s banks.) All that remained was for the President to order a nationwide bank holiday, but neither

President Hoover nor President-elect Roosevelt appeared eager to take that step. Hoover¢s defeat at the polls had left him dispirited and seemingly incapable of rousing himself to call for such drastic action. And the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives showed little inclination for cooperating with a lame duck Republican President. Hoover did, however, send Roosevelt a ten-page handwritten letter describing the gravity of the banking crisis and urging the President-elect to issue a public statement on the matter. But no statement was forthcoming. Roosevelt¢s advisers, Who had no clearly defined strategy of their own for dealing with the banking crisis, were willing to remain vague until after their boss moved into the White House.

 

Expectations ran high on March 4, 1933, as Franklin D. Roosevelt prepared to succeed Herbert Hoover. Americans fervently hoped that a change in Washington would lead to a change in the country¢s economic fortunes. More than 100,000 people crowded onto a forty acre site near the U.S. Capitol to hear the new President take the oath of office and deliver his inaugural address; millions of others huddled around their radios.

 

Roosevelt¢s words were calculated to buoy public confidence, and by most acconnts they succeeded in doing so. He began by declaring his "firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself-- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." He blamed the economic collapse on "the rulers of the exchange of mankind¢s goods [who] have failed through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure and abdicated." For emphasis he added, "Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men .... The money changers have fled fiom

their high seats in the temple of our civilization."

 

Although the address was short on specifics, Roosevelt identified two immediate objectives: putting people to work and "strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments." immediately after the inaugural ceremonies, the new Administration and the new Congress began to grapple with the banking crisis. The Senate swiftly approved Roosevelt¢s cabinet choices, and later that afternoon the entire cabinet was sworn in during a single ceremony at the White House.

 

The following day, cabinet members joined with Treasury and Federal Reserve officials to lay, the groundwork for a national bank holiday, and at 1:00 a.m. on Monday, March 6, President Roosevelt issued a proclamation ordering the suspension of all banking transactions, effective immediately. (The bank holiday proclamation was based on drafts originally prepared by Treasury and Federal Reserve Board officials for President Hoover).

 

To the Senate and House of Representative (from President Roosevelt)s:

On March 3, banking operations in the United States ceased. To review at this time the causes of this failure of our banking system is unnecessary. Suffice it to say that the government has been compelled to step in for the protection of depositors and the business of the nation. Our.first task is to reopen all sound banks.

 

Emergency Banking Act signed into law by President Roosevelt at 8:36 pm on March 10, 1933.

 

The Emergency Banking Act was never intended as a comprehensive reform bill. Its two main purposes were to stop the erosion of public confidence in the banking system and to establish a mechanism for reopening the closed banks. To those ends, the Act gave the President tremendous World War powers of regulation over transactions in credit, currency, gold and silver,

including foreign exchange." It also empowered the Secretary of the Treasury "to require delivery

at the Treasury of all gold and gold certificates held by anybody in the country [in exchange for dollars]." (The prohibition against U.S. citizens buying, selling, or holding gold -- other than jewelry -- was not to be repealed until 1974.) These measures stopped the outflow of U.S. gold reserves and put a halt to the domestic hoarding of gold.

 

On March 13, only four days after the emergency banking legislation went into effect, member banks in Federal Reserve cities received permission to reopen. By Marcia 15, banks controlling

90 percent of the country¢s banking resources had resumed operations, and deposits far exceeded witbdrawls.The immediate crisis bad begun to subside, but government officials, Congressional

leaders, and most bankers recognized the need for a major overhaul of the U.S. banking system.

Favorable reaction to the Emergency Banking Act had created momentum for comprehensive reform, audjust three months later, on June 16, [1933] President Roosevelt signed the Banking Act of 1933, more popularly known as the Glass-Steagall Act.

 

After Glass-Steagall, the Roosevelt Administration completed its reform of the banking industry, with the Banking Act of 1935, which strengthened the monetary and regulatory system by granting the Federal Reserve greater independence from the White House, the Congress, and the banking industry.

 

 

The astrological dynamics

Ra/Ve period is operating in the SAMVA USA chart.

 

Jupiter and Sun are the general indicators of banking in SA mundane astrology. Jupiter rules finance and the Sun vests the banks with the authority of the state. In the SAMVA USA chart, Jupiter as 6th lord of financial stability becomes the functional indicator of debt finance. During the banking holiday crisis Jupiter in transit at 26° Leo and 2nd house was exactly afflicted by natal 8th lord of obstacles, Saturn at 26° Scorpio. Transit Saturn was also exactly afflicting natal Ketu and houses 7, 9, 1 and 4. This aspect adds to the energy of sudden breakdown. Transit Ketu and Mars in Leo and the 2nd house were conjunct and also exactly afflicted by natal Rahu, suggesting crisis for the government. Last but

not least, transit Sun and Rahu were transiting the 8th house of obstacles, were they were afflicted by natal Ketu, also adding to disruptive energy and problems for the government. Finally, Venus as 4th lord of collective harmony was also transiting the 8th house, adding to the strain of the situation.

 

Interestingly, as soon as transit Jupiter moved out of the aspect of Saturn, the banks reopened their doors. This is considered a pivotal moment in the decade long crisis, in that the recovery of finance was a crucial step in getting the wheels of prodcuction and commerce moving again.

 

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Source: Closed for the Holiday - The Bank Holiday of 1933

The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

http://www.bos.frb.org/about/pubs/closed.pdf (20:26 GMT on January 16, 2008)

 

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