Let take a step back to history and see which 甲子 (Jia Ji), Annual Pillar, represented the down cycle of the world's economy or turbulence events.
1980-1982 Great Recession (1980 庚申 Geng Shen, 1981 辛酉 Xin You, 1982 壬戌 Ren Xu)
The early 1980s recession was trigger of by the energy crisis in 1979. It began to afflict the economy of the United States (US) with high inflation. The Fed Fund increased the interest rate to controlled inflation. The chained reaction effect slowly spread to other countries.
If you notice the 庚申(Geng Shen, 1980) and 辛酉(Xin You, 1981) is pure metal pillar. Metal represents the west. It clearly indicates the recession started in US.
Metal element can also represent financial industry and the government and politician. The recession had severe effect on the financial institution especially the banks, and caused the savings and loans crisis in United States. At the same time, President Ronald Reagan popularity also took a deep due to unpopular policies introduced to combat the high inflation rate and recession so much so the recession was called "Reagan Recession".
Subsequently, 壬戌 (Ren Xu, 1982) year, the problems spread to other part of the world as the Ren Water travel and able to reach to every corner of the earth. 壬戌, was a controlling pillar where the Earthly Branch, Xu Earth, controlled the Heavenly Stem, Ren Water. This indicated whatever the problems were; it will be under controlled. It was also the year where the recession ended.
1985-86 Slowdown (85 乙亥 Yi Hai, 86 丙寅 Bing Yin)
1985 was a mild recession or more aptly called a slowdown. The excess of supply caused many problems. As the demand from US slowdown reasonably, the Asia countries who export to United States faced excess supply. Subsequently, causing default in manufacturing industry. The hardest hits were the South East Asia countries as most of their products were exported to US.
乙亥 (Yi Hai, 1985) and 丙寅 (Bing Yin, 1986) were production pillars. However, you noticed that in the Ren Water in 亥 Hai Pig is not suitable to grow 乙wood. This means excess resources were being used to produce an output. Again in 丙寅, the Bing Fire does not need to the Jia wood in 寅 Yin Tiger. Imagine the sun does not need wood to make it brighter. In contrast the wood needs the sunlight to grow. This again indicated the supplies by manufacturers were not needed which resulted excessive supply while demand was low. However, both the 乙亥 and 丙寅 were still considered smooth qi (production) pillar, therefore the economic conditions did not exaggerate.
1987 Black Monday (1987 丁卯 Ding Mao)
Black Monday refers to Monday, 19 October 1987, when stock markets around the world crashed, shedding a huge value in that very day. The crash was trigger off in Hong Kong and spread west through to Europe, hitting the United States after other markets had already declined by a significant margin. Malaysia was not spare either. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index dropped 12.4% in that day.
The Black Monday's crash was shrouded with mystery. There were many contradictory reasons given to the sharp fall in the world stock market but it was mainly blame on program trading. Subsequently, whenever there is sharp fall in the stock market on Monday, it is referred as Black Monday until today.
1987 丁卯 (Ding Mao) was a production pillar. The 乙Yi Wood in 卯 Mao supported the Ding Fire. It is continuously in a burning form. Imagine a bush fire that spread rapidly. No one knows how it started but the wild fire licked everything that stood in its path. It leaved an everlasting mark.
1990 Gulf War (1990 庚午 Geng Wu)
The Gulf War started on 2 August 1990 and end on 28 February 1991. The United Nations authorized the war against Iraqi in Kuwait after Iraqi captured the Kuwait in the same year.
The 庚午 Geng Wu pillar contained Yang Metal and Ding Fire in the Wu Horse. It is controlling pillar. With 庚午 Geng Wu pillar, you can immediately imagine heavy fire arms and war were involved. In addition the reason to this war is found in the hidden secondary qi in the Wu Horse, the 己 Ji Earth. It indicated war over territorial issue and the rich crude oil found in that area.
1997-87 Asian Financial Crisis (1997 丁丑 Ding Chou, 1998 戊寅 Wu Yin)
The Asian financial crisis started in Thailand in May 1997. The Baht was hit by massive speculative attack. The Thai government action not to revalue the Baht quickly sparked the financial crisis in other Asian countries. Many Asian countries plunged into recession during the period. The Asian financial crisis raised fears of a worldwide economic meltdown.
If you look at the 丁丑 Ding Chou pillar, the wet earth Chou doused off the Ding Fire. The Ding Fire, represented by the financial and stock markets as well as the currency activity in Asia which was very active and positive at that time. The Asia's economy was riding a good cycle which quickly was disappeared due to currency speculative attack.
In 1998, 戊寅 Wu Yin, is a controlling pillar. The year was unfavourable to metal and water element. During this period, the International investors were reluctant to lend to developing countries, leading to economic slowdowns in developing countries in many parts of the world. By the end of 1998, the South East Asia countries were able to rebuild it economy and controlled the crisis.
However, the chained-effect flowed to Russia (Northern area represents by water) and US (Western area represents by metal) toward end of 1998. The shock of the economic slowdown sharply reduced the price of oil causing a financial pinch in OPEC nations and other oil exporters towards the end of 1998. This reduction in oil revenue contributed to the 1998 Russian financial crisis, which in turn caused Long-Term Capital Management in the US to collapse after losing $4.6 billion in 4 months. Subsequently the Fed Fund step in to control and prevent the wider collapse in the financial market by implementing the bail-out plan.
2000 Dot Com Bust (2000 庚辰 Geng Chen)
The dot com bubble was a speculative bubble that covered the period in between 1995 to 2000. The period marked the mushrooming of the internet based companies that commonly known as dot com in US (indicated by the Geng Metal). It finally collapsed in the year 2001. The share prices of these companies roused without any fundamental support. It very much likes speculating activities in the stock market which was represented by fire element. The element was unfavourable during 2000. The dot com bubble burst soon after in year 2000.
To be continue…
2001 World Trade Centre under Attack (2001 辛巳 Xin Si)
2002-03 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Epidemic (2002 壬午 Ren Wu, 2003 癸未 Gu Wei)
2003 World Mass Weapon of Destruction (2003 癸未 Gui Wei)
2004 Tsunami (2004 甲申 Jia Shen)
2008 United States Property Bust (2008 戊子 Wu Zi)
2009 The Earth Ox (2009 己丑 Ji Chou)