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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: StanX Long who wrote (58341)	1/2/2002 10:10:47 PM
From: StanX Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Good news on three continents 2002 starts with positive signs all around the Atlantic By Paul Erdman, CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 3:26 PM ET Jan. 2, 2002 cbs.marketwatch.com SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- There was good news coming out of three different continents on this first business day of 2002. First, it was Argentina. The country's new president, Eduardo Duhalde, Argentina's fifth president in two weeks, has finally bitten the bullet. He announced that the currency board, which tied the Argentine peso to the dollar on a one-to-one basis, and in Duhalde's words "destroyed the middle class, bankrupted our industries, pulverized the work of Argentines" is going to be abolished. The peso will now be free to float, and it will float straight down. Simultaneously, Argentina will suspend all payments on its $132 billion foreign debt, the largest sovereign debt default in history. This will open the way for the IMF, World Bank, and the U.S. Treasury to move in with a financial and economic restructuring plan for the country, and the money to back it up. So the Argentine nightmare is finally coming to an end. Then it was Europe. The January 1st launch of the euro as a real currency was an overwhelming success in the 12 European countries that have adopted it. Reflecting the confidence that the hundreds of millions of people who will now be using it instead of francs and marks and lira as their medium of exchange in conducting their daily affairs, the foreign exchange dealers also marked the currency up 1.6 percent, from 88.94 to 90.37 U.S. cents -- the highest level in 4 months. This signals the final, irrevocable acceptance of the euro as an international currency, one that will now inevitably grow in stature and in value. It is only a matter of time before the euro and the US dollar will be trading at parity. And finally the United States. A very key measure of where our economy is headed is the index of business activity compiled by the Institute of Supply Management, formerly known as the National Association of Purchasing Management. It rose to 48.2 in December from 44.5 in November, well above the expected reading of 45.