I’m working on an article about Pluto’s entry into Capricorn at the end of the year that I will probably serialize in these columns to facilitate its birth, but meanwhile I found a link to this article on the Astroworld site:

Globalisation backlash in rich nations

A popular backlash against globalisation and the leaders of the world’s largest companies is sweeping all rich countries, an FT/Harris poll shows.

Large majorities of people in the US and in Europe want higher taxation for the rich and even pay caps for corporate executives to counter what they believe are unjustified rewards and the negative effects of globalisation.

Viewing globalisation as an overwhelmingly negative force, citizens of rich countries are looking to governments to cushion the blows they perceive have come from the liberalisation of their economies to trade with emerging countries. . . .

Corporate leaders fared little better, with 5 per cent or fewer of those polled in the US and all large European economies (except Italy) saying they had a great deal of admiration for those who run large companies. In these countries, between a third and a half said they had no admiration at all for corporate bosses.

In response to fears of globalisation and rising inequality, the public in all the rich countries surveyed – the US, Germany, UK, France, Italy and Spain – want their governments to increase taxation on those with the highest incomes. In European countries, a large majority want governments to go further and to impose pay caps on the heads of companies.

Europeans still overwhelmingly support the principle of free competition within the European Union, contrary to Nicolas Sarkozy’s wishes at the recent European summit, but in France, Germany and Spain, the populations want their political leaders to play a larger role in managing their economies.

The depth of anti-globalisation feeling in the FT/Harris poll, which surveyed more than 1,000 people online in each of the six countries, will dismay policy-makers and corporate executives. Their view that opening economies to freer trade is beneficial to poor and rich countries alike is not shared by the citizens of rich countries, regardless of how liberal their economic traditions. The issue of rising inequality is now high on the political agenda of every country and will feature prominently in the 2008 US presidential election.

Pluto’s sweep through Sagittarius and its desire for far-reaching experiences has brought the globalization phenomenon to a climax, and it is only fitting that the passage into Pluto in Capricorn brings a backlash against it. Capricorn is the sign of achievement and material success but it comes at a price, and Pluto often demands a toll. The liberal trade policies from the Pluto in Sagittarius era have enriched portions of several countries in the developing world such as China and India, but wealth has become more and more concentrated in the pockets of the wealthy.

Uranus is the planet that instigates change, and since 2003 when it entered Pisces it has not had a clear direction or focus for that change. When Uranus enters Aries in 2010 we are likely to see an increase of revolutionary fervor and rebellion. The last trip of Uranus through Aries began in the late 1920s and continued through the early 1930s when it squared Pluto in Cancer. This was the time of the nonviolent Gandhi revolution in India where citizens were encouraged to resist repression (Pluto in Cancer) and stand up for their rights (Uranus in Aries) and the Great Depression in the US, where citizens were encouraged to sublimate their own needs (Uranus in Aries) for the sake of their communities (Pluto in Cancer). We’ll investigate this more thoroughly in pages to come, but it will be an interesting combination of planets and I’m sure, an interesting time.