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.

Technology Stocks : Semi-Equips - Buy when BLOOD is running in the streets! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (6685)	8/16/1998 3:42:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 10921

Rich watch from the beach as rouble falls By Marcus Warren in Moscow telegraph.co.uk The exchange rates offer for a rouble get changed in the centre of Moscow RUSSIA'S political rulers and new breed of super-rich are steadfastly refusing to allow the country's latest financial crisis to intrude on their summer revelry. The few members of the Moscow elite who deigned to comment were scathing about the prediction from the financial speculator, George Soros, of a meltdown in Russian markets affecting shares worldwide. His self-described "wake-up call to the world" infuriated the Russian government. "Unnecessary", was the curt reaction of Sergei Kiriyenko, the country's prime minister. From his holiday home on Russia's Lake Valdai, President Yeltsin backed Mr Kiriyenko's opposition to any devaluation of the rouble, a pre-emptive move that Mr Soros said was needed to avoid further chaos. Mr Yeltsin summoned ministers from the capital for a reprimand between fishing trips, and said he had no intention of cutting short his vacation. That would only give the impression of panic. Yesterday, he moved closer to Moscow, but was still 60 miles away from his desk. He was definitely still on holiday, only now in his hunting lodge at Rus. At least he did suggest that someone should do something, even if it was only urging the Duma, the troublesome state parliament, to break its recess for an emergency session. Meanwhile, the new Russian rich, despite apparently having most to lose from the turmoil in Moscow, played on. They were determined not to let the chaos interfere with their vacations at the Mediterranean resorts. Most self-respecting Russian businessmen spend the summer as far away as possible from the motherland. They apparently feel that only from the comfort of a villa on the French Riviera or a suite booked for the whole summer in a five-star Italian hotel does one acquire a real sense of perspective on the bad news back home. Even without Mr Soros's remarks, the Russian economy was suffering from a heavy dose of Asian flu, withdrawal symptoms from years of dependency on oil export revenues and a general collapse of morale. Last year Moscow had the world's best performing stock exchange. That same stock exchange has lost 70 per cent of its value since March. A œ13.8 billion package from the International Monetary Fund a month ago, prescribed to boost confidence in Russia, seems to have had little lasting effect. The rouble has already slipped below the rate the government is committed to keeping it against the dollar. By the end of this year Russia must come up with œ12.5 billion to pay off its short-term debts. Some banks began defaulting last week and queues of depositors trying to withdraw foreign currency formed outside branches of others rumoured to be in difficulties. Yet the head of Russia's Central Bank, Sergei Dubinin, and the plutocrats who have made huge fortunes from treating their banks as personal milch cows were not to be seen in Moscow. One Western banker said last week: "I have not heard of any of the big players rushing back to Russia to try to sort this mess out." This is not the Russian people's famous stoicism at work. As far as the self-styled "oligarchs" who crave yet more power are concerned, it is a completely rational response to even the most dire of crises. For the few of the super-rich still in Russia, the view through the tinted windows of their armoured Mercedes is still heartening as their chauffeurs sweep them - often on the wrong side of the road - from their fortress-like homes to the office and back. In Moscow, the poor are too few and far between to pose any threat to the status quo. It is the unsuspecting middle classes who trustingly put their savings in the unsound banks who actually have the most to lose. But those in the back of the Mercedes are unlikely to suffer any fall-out in the process. Their personal assets are already salted away in numbered overseas bank accounts which even the most tenacious tax inspector will never find.