The Exchange

Introduction Before the financial crisis triggered by the 2020 worldwide pandemic, approximately a dozen years earlier, there was another financial meltdown that deserves attention for the scars it left on the world economy. Little understood and somewhat esoteric subprime mortgages manufactured this one. And as it rippled throughout continents, it, like a viral contagion, negatively impacted the financial status of millions of people. Conversely, a handful of people who were privy to inside information made millions, if not billions of dollars from the disaster. Find out the secret story written in the stars about who was pulling the strings to orchestrate this calamity, and why. And who discovered it, and how. Chapter 1 Tuesday, March 1, 2008, Noon A short man with a shock of silver-grey hair that fell into his eyes from the thicket that sat on his head took one more card from the blackjack dealer. “Twenty-two” the deal said, and with one swipe he took the man’s cards and small stack of chip laid out on the green felt-covered table. “Damn it!” the man murmured with anguish under his breath, exasperated that he busted again while just crawling his way out of the massive ditch he dug for himself. “Tourists,” he thought. “Rich, amateur tourists from middle America.” He shot darts at the plump woman in bad pale peach suit next to him who helped to mess up his count that would have given him the card he needed to make twenty-one. He left the table and placed a call. ***** “I’ve got to go. Really, I must leave now,” Janie McDonald said as she pulled her arms into her coat, balancing the phone on her shoulder. “Just one more minute. I have to know if he’s cheating on me before I go to lunch with him. This will be our third date,” Shayla whined into Janie’s ear. “Okay, okay, but one minute is all I’ve got, two minutes tops. Let me pull up his chart and take a look.” She sat back down, fingers flying over her keyboard past her screen lock. “What’s his birth date again?” “August 21, 1984.” “Time?” “I couldn’t get it.” “I told you to get that info. It’s the only way I can be accurate. Plus, he’s straddling two signs and there’s quite a difference between a Leo and Virgo,” she said staring at the screen, absorbed in thought. Big sigh, “Okay, let’s see.” She thought, as she looked for answers in the circle before her with glyphs scattered about in sections of a pie divided into 12 pieces. “Yes, he could be. I see deception in his 7th house of partnership, he’s also having a hard transit in his house that signifies authority. It would mean he’s cheating. Or, it could mean he may have recently had a run-in with the law. “He did just get a speeding ticket,” Shayla offered lamely. Janie stood abruptly, looked at her watch. “I’m hanging up now. Whatever you do, do nothing impulsive, like sleep with him. And see if you can find out his time of birth. Bye!” Janie clicked off, darted out of her office, stuck her hand precariously in an elevator door to catch it, and out the door onto the street, busy with lunch hour pedestrian traffic. She hustled down the street and got to the convenience store at 1 p.m. She had one minute to get her Megaball ticket that would make her a millionaire. One-minute past 1 p.m. was when two major conjunctions in her chart were scheduled to be exact. One minute that will pave her way into the comfortable life Janie craved, and allow her to leave the daily grind of working for the local newspaper. “Oh no,” she muttered, seeing the line four people deep. Throwing her hands up and rolling her eyes in exasperation, she considered cutting to the front. She had less than a minute to decide. She went for it. Two high school boys let her to pass. An elderly man cordially allowed her to step in front of him, only to be stonewalled by a blonde mom in her late 40s decked out in a designer work-out outfit with a full face of makeup and her spoiled five-year-old daughter in tow. “Do you have Sally’s gluten -free cookies?” The mom asked the disinterested clerk. “No, we don’t carry those anymore,” the counterman said. “Sorry honey, you can’t have that,” the mom said as if they had victimized her, showboating her conversation to the rest of the convenience store patrons. The child’s disproportionate wail came out of nowhere, “I want Sally’s cookies!” “What else do you have that’s gluten-free?” She continued in her too-loud voice. The counter man stared back at her blankly and replied, “What’s gluten?” This was going to take be awhile, Janie thought. To cut the line was futile. Janie missed the exact moment the conjunction occurred and believed the power was diminished. Her understanding of luck from an astrological point of view was that it is all about timing. And to win a large jackpot, the winner’s transiting aspects had to be better than everyone else’s, and timing was key. And the chart of the game itself had to jibe with the native’s chart. When she finally got her ticket, it was nearly 10 minutes after. She moped off. She mustered a smile and pushed her way through the revolving door of her office building. “I love my job, I love my job, I love my job” she said unconvincingly to herself. Oddly, the more she repeated this mantra, she felt embers of believing it. It was a lot better than her first job at the paper, when she was writing obits. Maybe her need to leave this all behind was connected to her former position, she wondered. After all, she just started in her new role less than a year ago. She rose to the occasion since this powerful, so-called ‘lucky’ aspect wouldn’t come around for another two years. “I need to be more grateful!” she was determined to make adjustments. After all working as an assistant to the top syndicated newspaper astrologer in the country was big. But she wanted her freedom to pursue her dream, although not exactly sure what that might be right now. She knew it didn’t involve working 9-to-5 each day for someone else. She returned to her cube, threw her coat on her chair and sat down hard. Frustrated. She saw the post-it note affixed to her computer screen. SEE ME ASAP, the note from her boss, Eva Romanoffsky screamed. Eva was a brilliant astrologer. She’s an Aquarian, and at 59, was going through her second Saturn return and making some decisions about her life.