SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold Price Monitor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: long-gone who wrote (46669)1/4/2000 10:43:00 PM
From: lorne  Respond to of 116764
 
INDONESIA: IMF urges action over Bank
" The International Monetary Fund has called on Indonesia's central bank to act rapidly on the findings of an independent audit which suggests that Bank Indonesia is technically bankrupt."
Full story >>>
ft.com



To: long-gone who wrote (46669)1/5/2000 12:54:00 AM
From: Richnorth  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 116764
 
Banks returning extra cash to Fed

WASHINGTON (January 4, 2000 9:20 a.m. EST nandotimes.com)

Around the country, armored trucks are carrying back to the Federal Reserve some of the billions of extra dollars distributed to banks in case of Y2K panic.

Economists said Monday the temporary displacement should have no significant impact on the economy.

Yields on Treasury bonds, meanwhile, hit two-year highs as some investors sold bonds they had been holding as insurance against Year 2000 disruptions. The selling wave pushed down bond prices, which move inversely to yields.

"It appears to be money going back home," said David Wyss, chief financial economist at Standard and Poor's DRI in Lexington, Mass.

In addition, government bond prices were driven lower by what Allen Sinai, chief global economist at Primark Decision Economics, called "the same old concern: inflation and the Fed" and whether the central bank would raise interest rates early next month.

The Federal Reserve distributed some $80 billion to banks, thrifts and credit unions during the fourth quarter of 1999, compared with $23 billion over the same period a year ago. But some of the extra currency could have been requested for reasons unrelated to Y2K, such as bank customers' holiday shopping needs, Fed officials say.

Now that 2000 has arrived without a run on banks, the banks and other financial institutions started packing up the surplus currency and sending it back to regional Federal Reserve banks, as previously planned. The process is expected to take several days.

"The funds were just there temporarily," Wyss said. "(The Fed is) going to take them right back."

Since most of the Y2K money stayed in bank vaults and didn't get into the public's hands, there shouldn't be any inflationary effect on the economy, he said.

Still, the Fed needed to provide the extra cushion of cash to reassure the public, banks and the financial markets, Sinai said from New York City.

"No responsible central bank could have done otherwise," he said.

Overall, the nation's banking system appeared to be operating largely free of Y2K glitches on the first business day of 2000 - when weekend transactions were first accounted for in massive computer databases.

ATMs - stuffed with extra cash - continued to work, and bank balances and loan information appeared accurate throughout the system, government and banking industry officials reported.

"We've been doing the 'health checks' of financial institutions," said Fed spokeswoman Rose Pianalto, referring to the telephone calls to the nation's banks made by Fed employees. "There have been no major problems reported."

In addition, Pianalto said, the central bank's check-clearing operations, which process 68 million checks on a typical day, continued to operate normally. "Everything went smoothly," she said.

Banking industry officials say they're optimistic people won't experience problems withdrawing cash from automated teller machines.

Still, banks will be watching closely to see how their computer systems perform this week.
******************************************************************

Surely the repatriation of the cash back to the Feds should affect liquidity and hence the performance of the stock markets, in particular the Nasdaq. Any comments about this?





To: long-gone who wrote (46669)1/5/2000 4:37:00 AM
From: Bobby Yellin  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 116764
 
Richard if you know even a smidgeon about systems and programming
you would be shocked out of your mind if you didn't see bugs here
and there..you can't imagine how many error routines are in a good
system..
you have to check for exceptions besides the rule..it should take
longer to test a system than it does to write one..one line of code
among millions can give you a bug..I think it is totally incredible
that not more glitches have arisen...
I am still curious about corporation's spendings in the next quarter..
and where all the people who have worked on checking for bugs and
doing remediation will go..if that will help keep wages down in
a lot of high tech areas..
again the internet is a real deflationary force..
Greenspan might be very happy if the market goes down for a while..
that will help him out big time..consumer confidence will start dropping and their spending will start falling..