As if there weren’t enough economic and stock market bears around, we’ve got some new ones — the moon, the sun, and the stars.

That’s what I discovered over the weekend in pursuing a response to an unhappy reader, Hal Simmonds, who wrote me, “Why don’t you lighten up and chill out. You’re way too bearish. The world is not going over the cliff. I just finished reading your front-page piece [last Friday’s column on a Standard & Poor’s study] predicting another 12% market decline. I can only assume your next article will feature a forecast from some doomsayer predicting a replay of the 1929 depression, or maybe something worse.”

He went on: “A few years back, I recall you did an article on what the stars were telling us. Why not tell us what they’re saying now? Maybe by some miracle they’re bullish. Heaven knows. We could sure use some bulls, even if they’re from the galaxy.”

Okay, you want the word from the stars, you’ve got it. You may regret asking, though, because the outlook from the heavens is hardly heavenly.

That’s what I heard over the weekend from Bob Marks, a professional Big Apple astrologer and TV personality who has been tracking planetary movements for more than 27 years and boasts some remarkable predictions.

One of his notable market forecasts came in early 1998, when stock prices were spiraling. He predicted at the time that two years later, on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2000, the bull market would end. As it turned out, the market began to cave in on March 17, 2000, just four weeks later than he had predicted. At that point, the market went down, bounced back, and then collapsed.

On the political front, he also made a spectacular forecast, predicting that President Nixon — prior to the Watergate disclosures — would not serve out his full term (which he didn’t do because he was forced to resign).

His latest message from the heavens, as it turns out, is more alarming than what I have heard from some of the gloomiest individuals: The country’s current astrological problem, financially, as Mr. Marks sees it, is that come Election Day (November 4, 2008), two planets — Uranus and Saturn — will oppose each other. Uranus, he notes, rules high-tech companies, while Saturn is a planet of difficulty, delays, and obstacles.

“When these two planets oppose each other,” he explains, “it means we’re in for a very bumpy ride both in the economy and the stock market.” He also sees 2009 as “a very bad year for technology stocks,” which he expects “will drag down the rest of what should be an unstable and roller-coaster market throughout the year.” He sees a similar rocky performance for the balance of 2008.

Making matters worse, Jupiter, a planet that makes things larger, will enter the picture after the first week of January. That signifies, he says, the prospects of significantly higher inflation, which should push the rising price of gold even higher.

Mr. Marks, who since 1979 has hosted and produced “Astrology Now,” a weekly show on channel 57, a Manhattan cable television station, notes the last time Uranus and Saturn opposed each other was in the mid-1960s, a period which spawned civil rights demonstrations, riots, and anti-war protests. Come election time this year, he sees a resumption of turmoil, with the forces of old fighting the forces of social upheaval. This battle, he says, will be very pronounced.

His astrological readings concerning the election leads him to conclude the next president will not be in office long enough to accomplish anything significant because most likely he will not serve out his first term. The latest national polls indicate that Senator Obama will be the next occupant of the White House. Mr. Marks sees tough sledding ahead for the Illinois senator, however, noting his horoscope shows a sudden rise followed by a sudden fall. “Senator Obama’s problem is that he has already had his sudden rise,” Mr. Marks says.

dandordan@aol.com