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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pater tenebrarum who wrote (88122)	3/30/2001 3:51:05 PM
From: 200ma	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

a little bit of tape painting today...HOMS still worth 2 billion for a collection of webpages so the excess is far from squeezed out

To: pater tenebrarum who wrote (88122)	4/1/2001 8:51:24 AM
From: re3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Message 15594344

To: pater tenebrarum who wrote (88122)	4/1/2001 9:34:20 AM
From: Box-By-The-Riviera™	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 436258

contraryinvestor.com

To: pater tenebrarum who wrote (88122)	4/2/2001 12:02:58 AM
From: stomper	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

I guess now we know why mark to market is such a sticky wicket for the Japanese system (and good lord, this was just for convenience store equities): Mitsubishi Corp slid 3.96 percent to 800 yen , while Itochu Corp shed 3.37 percent to 430 yen after the financial daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported the trading houses each carry latent losses of more than 80 billion yen ($634.4 million) on their holdings in convenience store shares biz.yahoo.com -dave

To: pater tenebrarum who wrote (88122)	4/2/2001 1:58:26 AM
From: ild	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Heinz, Please look at #reply-15593722 The bears have lost one of them. What's your opinion on TA Don Hays used? Thanks, ild Disclosure: Still holding lots of gold and "short US" (Ala chic -g).

To: pater tenebrarum who wrote (88122)	4/2/2001 8:30:21 AM
From: Box-By-The-Riviera™	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

U.S. Officials Push Use of Reforms, Not Yen Manipulation, to Aid Japan By MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL WASHINGTON -- With the Japanese currency in a tailspin, the Bush administration has decided it won't put up with an ever-weaker yen if Tokyo doesn't take serious steps to clear the bad loans from its struggling banking system. The yen fell to a 29-month low Friday on unsubstantiated rumors -- fanned by a senior Japanese official -- that the White House may see a weaker yen as a desirable way for Japan to spur exports and shake off its 10-year economic malaise. But administration officials, increasingly concerned about the danger that Japan's woes present to the Asian and even global economies, believe the markets are missing the point. The important thing, these officials say, is that Japan embrace necessary -- if painful -- reforms to boost domestic growth, not use foreign-exchange rates to export their way out of trouble. 1Tankan Shows Broad Deterioration in Japanese Business Sentiment 2Japan's Banks Manage to Dodge Bullet as Stock Market Stages Slight Rebound "If the Japanese tried to talk down the yen in the absence of necessary reforms, at a certain point the administration would become uncomfortable with that strategy and probably convey that discomfort to the Japanese," said a senior administration official. Furthermore, U.S. officials aren't inclined to sit idle should the yen fall so far or so fast that American companies lose ground to Japanese competition. That would be unacceptable politically for the White House at a time when the U.S. economy is slowing to a crawl, and perhaps even a halt. The administration hasn't made clear what steps -- other than a stern private complaint -- it would take if it felt the Japanese were trying to use a weak yen to cure their economic ills at the expense of the U.S. Global currency markets move $1.6 trillion a day, and it is difficult for governments to counter prevailing sentiment about appropriate exchange rates. But the Bush team could, for instance, try to engineer a statement from the Group of Seven major industrialized nations suggesting that the yen was undervalued. Or, much less likely, the U.S. could buy yen to try to push the price up. That said, the Bush economic team knows -- and accepts -- that some of the same policies that could help Japan and the yen recover over time are also likely to weaken the currency in the short run. And they know there is little they can do to reverse the yen's decline for now. "Many policies the U.S. might encourage might lead to a short-term weakening of the yen, but there's no effort to talk the yen down at all," said another U.S. official. That is a delicate balance to strike, and currency traders are pushing to see where exactly the administration stands. The yen has dropped more than 10% since the beginning of the year, hitting 126.38 to the dollar in late New York trading Friday. The markets convulsed on news reports that Japan's economic minister, Taro Aso, said that Bush administration officials last month considered, but rejected, the idea of cheapening the yen. Traders in Tokyo, reading the tea leaves, assumed a yen-cheapening accord might actually be in the works. An aide to Mr. Aso said later that the minister had based his statement on U.S. news reports, not on firsthand knowledge of U.S. policy. Further, U.S. officials are stressing that such a yen-weakening policy was never under consideration. Japanese officials with more direct influence over currency policy than Mr. Aso also have played down devaluation talk. A week ago, Haruhiko Kuroda, who as vice minister of finance for international affairs is the country's chief foreign-exchange strategist, suggested the Japanese government won't act to bring down the yen significantly. The U.S. has been pleased with the Bank of Japan's decision last month to combat deflation by pursuing a more expansive monetary policy, even though that policy -- by leaving the market with more yen chasing each dollar -- undoubtedly contributed to the yen's recent declines. The more tricky imperative for Japan is to clean $750 billion in bad loans from its banking system. With so many bad loans on the books, the banks aren't providing credit to worthy business ventures that might spark the economy. "At the center of this problem is they've got to get the loans priced at market value," said Stanley Fischer, first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund. U.S. officials are discussing a variety of options they could suggest to the Japanese, from creating an agency akin to the Resolution Trust Corp., which took charge of the U.S. savings-and-loan crisis, to a set-up that would convert bad bank loans into shares in a fund that would then swap the loans back to the companies in exchange for equity. "The problem is there's nothing Japanese policy makers can do for long-run growth that will not produce significant short-run pain," Mr. Fischer said. Japan's top banking regulator promised to unveil this week a new plan for getting banks to write off their bad loans. But Japan is unlikely to truly act boldly on this issue any time soon. Lame-duck Premier Yoshiro Mori is expected to be replaced this month, and his successor faces a key election to the upper house of parliament in July. Yet there is a growing sense of urgency in Washington that Japan must act quickly to restore market faith. And there is some worry that a major Japanese bank failure could reverberate through American financial institutions, causing a contraction of credit even in the U.S. -- Michael Sesit in London and Michael Williams in Tokyo contributed to this article.

To: pater tenebrarum who wrote (88122)	4/2/2001 8:37:54 AM
From: Box-By-The-Riviera™	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--Bank of New York Co. (BK) expects to see an increase of nonperforming loans in 2001 due to the softness in the economy, according to its annual report filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a result, the company anticipates a modest rise in its loan loss provisions and net charge-offs, the filing said. In 2000, nonperforming assets increased by $35 million, or 22%, to $193 million due to a gradual deterioration in credit quality. Bank of New York, however, said its emphasis on fiduciary, securities servicing and cash processing services has resulted in an increased exposure to the financial services sector. That exposure tends to be lower-risk secured liquidity lines to investment grade companies. The company also said its most significant concentrations of risk are to the financial services and the media and telecommunications sectors. -By Donna Hemans, Dow Jones/Federal Filings; 202-628-7691; donna.hemans@dowjones.com (END) DOW JONES NEWS 03-30-01 12:09 PM

To: pater tenebrarum who wrote (88122)	4/2/2001 12:35:18 PM
From: re3	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

any thoughts on why hl has not performed a bit better given the news about the sale of the division and the payoff of the debt ? i know silver is continuing to get hammered but i thought hl would perform a bit better given the above info.