Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

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.

Strategies & Market Trends : Asia Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas Haegin who wrote (860)	1/14/1998 9:59:00 PM
From: Stitch	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

To All; This should get very interesting. Best, Stitch U.S. Plans Global Meeting on Asia Crisis By Gene Gibbons WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is laying the groundwork for a major international meeting of finance ministers to discuss new initiatives to deal with Asia's financial crisis, the Treasury Department said Wednesday. In announcing the U.S. move to help contain the crisis, a Treasury spokeswoman said: "The United States plans to convene a meeting of finance ministers from key countries around the world to explore implications of the current financial situation in Asia and ways to deal with these challenges." "We are in the process of consulting with the G7 (group of major industrialized nations) and other countries to look at possible approaches going forward," she said. The spokeswoman declined to give a date for the planned meeting or say whether it could be held as part of a scheduled meeting of G7 finance ministers in Britain in late February. But she said it was part of an initiative presented by President Clinton at last November's Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vancouver, at which he announced setting an agenda for the "international financial system in the 21st century." The Treasury statement followed a Reuters report earlier Wednesday which quoted a senior U.S. official as saying the Clinton administration was working with its allies to convene such a meeting with the aim of strengthening the international financial system in response to Asia's turmoil. The official, who asked not to be identified, said the meeting was likely to take place "in the next month or two" and would not be confined to the Group of Eight -- the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan and Russia. "I think what you'll eventually see is a meeting of a certain number of industrialized nations ... more than a G8 and less than a huge group," the official said. The planned initiative by the administration came amid growing opposition in Congress from both Republicans and Democrats to committing taxpayer money to bailing out Asian countries, which some lawmakers accuse of profligate, corrupt, incompetent and repressive policies. Congress is at loggerheads with the Clinton administration not only after blocking extra money for the International Monetary Fund, which has led Asian bailouts of more than $100 billion, but also concerning funding for the United Nations. Congress raised the pressure on the administration Wednesday with the House Banking Committee announcing it will send a high-level delegation to Asia and summon Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers -- currently on a mission in Asia -- and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan to testify Jan. 30 on the turmoil. Also, the second-ranking Democrat in the House, David Bonior, announced Wednesday he would oppose any bailouts that hurt workers in Asia. Leaders of major industrial countries agreed at their 1995 summit in Halifax, Canada, on reforms of the IMF including a system that was supposed to give early warning of financial crises. But critics now say the reforms were woefully inadequate and failed to forestall the crisis. Asked if an effort was under way to put together a "Halifax II" package of financial reforms, the senior official responded: "Yes." The senior official said the prospective meeting to address the crisis would "talk about transparency, talk about the international financial institutions and talk about what kinds of rules, regulations, reporting standards and so forth should be attempted." The official also said Clinton was being urged by some a dvisers to take a "very, very hard" line on both money for the IMF and the United Nations when he makes his State of the Union speech to Congress Jan. 27. In his speech, Clinton is expected to "make a major pitch for our involvement in this (restoring stability in Asia) ... and he will link it to support which was denied last year for the IMF in general and for paying off our U.N. dues," the official said.