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To: Bobby Yellin who wrote (14255)	7/8/1998 6:09:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116897

Russian protests, market plunge go on 05:09 p.m Jul 08, 1998 Eastern By Alastair Macdonald MOSCOW (Reuters) - Coalminers blocked the Trans-Siberian railway for a sixth day on Wednesday in the most visible sign of a cash crunch that has Russia racing against the clock to secure a bail-out from the international community. As the miners failed to reach agreement with government officials on rapid payment of back wages, defense workers rallied in Moscow and Vladivostok to claim their own unpaid salaries. Arctic miners also protested, saying the government had not met promises it made to end earlier rail blockades in May. Some sailors of the Baltic Fleet, spearhead of the Bolshevik uprising of 1917, went on hunger strike seeking better housing. The government, which on Tuesday won some market-soothing words of reassurance but not yet any new funding from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, said it expected the IMF board to decide on a new credit package within a month. But investors continued to cut their risks. On the stock market, where prices have fallen by some two-thirds so far this year, Reuters real-time dollar-denominated index fell 3.57 percent to 87.47. The Russian Trading System reported a 2.65 percent fall to 134.81, its lowest level since May 1996, on reported volume of $18.35 million. Market liquidity remained close to zero and dealers said the future depended solely on the outcome of talks on a new aid package between Russia and the IMF. The $10-15 billion Russia is seeking depends on the Communist-led parliament finally approving an anti-crisis package of economic reforms next week. ''It will be the end of July, beginning of August before it goes to the (IMF) board,'' Deputy Finance Minister Oleg Vyugin told Reuters. Financial analysts said Russia might not be able to hold out beyond next month. Failure to find new funds could leave the state unable to meet obligations to creditors -- something Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko has said Russia must never do. ''This very brittle, unstable stalemate we've had since May will continue but, barring some really bad news, I think Russia will just manage to get through to late August,'' Vlad Sobell of Daiwa Europe in London told Reuters Television. ''The situation on the markets is deteriorating. We see no signs of improvement coming up. Everyone is waiting for the IMF,'' said Margot Jacobs of United Financial Group in Moscow. ''I wouldn't say they can hold out much longer than the end of August. All eyes are turned on the IMF and the Russian Duma (lower house of parliament) to come to terms.'' The Duma's pro-government deputy speaker, Vladimir Ryzhkov, said he expected parliament to approve most of the austerity plan but forecast a ''hot'' autumn of social tensions caused by wage and pension arrears. He said a parliamentary election due in late 1999 could be brought forward. Yeltsin is due to go to the northwestern province of Karelia next week for a holiday. But Kiriyenko has curtailed a planned visit to Japan and China early next week, making him available for the Duma debate on July 15 and 16. Russia has suffered for years from a vicious circle of debts that has left millions of workers and pensioners short of cash. But the federal government, which has long got by despite chronic shortfalls in tax revenue, has felt the cash squeeze particularly acutely in recent months due to sharply lower oil export prices and investor nervousness spreading from Asia. The cost of the government's short-term rouble borrowings hit 114 percent at a 35-day bill auction on Wednesday, well over double what it cost at the start of the year. The central bank suspended a facility by which it lent to banks at 80 percent. The government now pays out more than a third of its income just to service its debts. In a bid to improve revenues, Yeltsin last week ordered giant gas monopoly Gazprom to pay back taxes. Gazprom has responded by cutting off bad debtors, including power companies in St Petersburg, Russia's second city, forcing generating plants in some neighborhoods to shut off hot water. Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.

To: Bobby Yellin who wrote (14255)	7/8/1998 6:56:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116897

Bobby, some material for your research on inflation/deflation :) Japanese sell off treasures as art bubble bursts By Juliet Hindell in Tokyo JAPANESE art collectors who bought some of the world's most famous paintings in the Eighties boom are selling them because of the current financial crisis. The sell-off is a humiliating reversal of fortunes for Japan which acquired a taste for expensive Western art when the economy seemed unstoppable. Sotheby's estimates that 40 per cent of the paintings it has been asked to sell over recent months have been from Japan. Christie's is also reporting a huge increase in the number of paintings coming up for sale in Japan. Last year the auctioneers sold œ25 million of art in the hands of Japanese collectors. At the Kawamura Museum of Art in Tokyo, Japanese art lovers have been snatching a last glimpse of 11 works by Anselm Kiefer before they leave the country. A Japanese businessman, Harunori Takahashi, bought the collection of the German artist's work - which once belonged to the Saatchis - for a reported œ8 million in 1988. But after the collapse of Mr Takahashi's two companies, he decided to sell. The British art dealer Entwistle paid œ4 million for them. Roberta Entwistle, director of Entwistle Art, said: "We first saw them in a warehouse full of fridges and sewing machines, they've never been on show in Japan." Before taking the works out of Japan however, the new owners thought that they should be seen, and two exhibitions have been held in the last six months. Mrs Entwistle said: "You have to admire the Japanese collector. He chose an avant garde artist when for the same money he could have bought famous Impressionists like most people in Japan." The story of the Kiefer paintings is typical. The Japanese bought huge numbers of paintings from Europe and America when the economy was booming in the Eighties "bubble period". What is now dubbed "bubble art" is being sold by the Japanese and most of it is ending up back in the West. Van Gogh's Sunflowers and his portrait of Doctor Gachet were bought by the Japanese for record prices. Sunflowers is still on display at the headquarters of Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance in Tokyo and the company has no plans to sell. But the fate of Doctor Gachet is less certain. When Ryoei Saito bought it for œ50 million in 1990 he shocked the world by pledging to have it cremated with him. The painting survived Mr Saito who died in 1996 but it could soon be sold by his heirs. Last year they sold Renoir's Le Moulin de la Galette for œ30 million - œ17 million less than they paid for it. Many other works are selling for much less than the Japanese paid out. Some Japanese collectors are making a profit. The art market in America is booming and Monet's Le Grand Canal sold in May for œ7.2 million, reportedly to Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft. The Japanese owner bought it for œ6 million in 1990. Few will be so lucky.