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To: Earlie who wrote (54342)	1/4/2001 8:47:15 PM
From: UnBelievable	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

At Least Everything is Progressing Well In Japan Just off the ticker: Reorganized Gov't Bodies To Put up New Signs Sat. KYODO NEWS - January 04, 2001 20:31 TOKYO, Jan. 5 (Kyodo) -- When the government reorganization of its ministries and agencies goes into effect Saturday, the most visible change will be new signs in front of the buildings to be unveiled on the day, some of them written by the heads of the new entities. New Conservative Party leader Chikage Ogi, who will become the first minister of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, wrote the ministry's name on paper with a brush and ink, and this was used to make a wooden sign measuring 160 centimeters in length and 40 cm high, an aide to Ogi said. The sign will be displayed at the front entrance of the ministry building in Tokyo's Kasumigaseki district. The mammoth ministry is to be created by merging the Construction and Transport ministries and the National Land and Hokkaido Development agencies. Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori wrote the name of the Cabinet Office, which merges four government offices including the Prime Minister's Office, while International Trade and Industry Minister Takeo Hiranuma did the same for the new Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, government officials said. The streamlining of government offices is part of the government's effort for administrative reform, cutting the number of government ministries and agencies to 13 from the current 23. Eight of the 13 will have new names. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology asked calligraphy master Ryosetsu Imai, a professor emeritus at Tsukuba University in Ibaraki Prefecture, to write the ministry's name for its signboard. The Finance Ministry, which will change its name in Japanese from ''Okurasho'' to ''Zaimusho,'' used computers to write the new name for its sign. Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa is regarded as one of the most accomplished calligraphers in the political world, but he declined to write the new ministry's name for the board, ministry officials said. Miyazawa, however, judged the seven patterns submitted, picking one written in what Vice Finance Minister Toshiro Muto described as ''strong and good characters.'' 2001 Kyodo News (c) Established 1945 -0- News provided by COMTEX

To: Earlie who wrote (54342)	1/4/2001 9:25:05 PM
From: UnBelievable	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

More Seriously Other than a general crisis in confidence, its hard to imagine exactly what specific problem this action, which truly is more symbolic than substantive, especially since the Fed has never been hesitant about increasing liquidity even when it was raising rates, would actually help. I'm sure the wild swings in prices played havoc with all sorts of plans, portfolios, loan covenants, and what not but I've found that additional confusion and diversion are usually not helpful when attempting to address a complex and sensitive issue. The fundamental problem is that the market can only increase at a rate significantly faster than the economy is growing for a very short period of time. Exponential growth gets impressive very quickly. There are a number of things to think about and that clearly have never been honestly addressed. One of the most obvious is what would an acceptable and achievable solution look like. It seem to me that any landing that does not include 20 to 30% annual increase in equity prices seems like it will be considered a hard landing. If the Chairman were to get on TV and say that the Federal Reserve can intervene to help prevent further erosion but that it will be unreasonable for people to expect stock prices to increase at a faster rate than the economy is growing over the next decade, which at best is going to be 6% per year, would that staunch the outflow of money that was invested based on 50 - 100 % year on year growth? It is also unrealistic to think that the market started declining due to a lack of confidence and that if we restore the confidence the growth will continue. The slowdown is due to the most basic laws of physics and will no more be changed by changing beliefs and expectations than terminal velocity. It also is not clear who, with the exception of the most CNBC addled could actually believe that unlike Tuesday, and the months which preceded it, given the Feds action yesterday the market is now a safe and secure place to invest money you are going to need. Common sense may be rather uncommon but I think that the dangers of the market have been made clear and that many normal people may reasonably conclude that whatever the Fed did may have fixed the problem but I have enough doubts about the government actually fixing anything that I think I'll take my money and put it in the bank and if things really are OK in 6 or 8 months maybe I'll think about putting it back in. Which brings us to the most troubling possibility. Since the Fed did not actually change anything that really was responsible for the market meltdown what happens once it becomes clear the market is still melting?