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.

Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold Price Monitor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: goldsnow who wrote (19206)	9/17/1998 9:09:00 PM
From: PaulM	Respond to of 116762

CPI--Inflation Mild But Not Absent biz.yahoo.com

To: goldsnow who wrote (19206)	9/18/1998 5:27:00 PM
From: Alex	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116762

No quick answers to Russia crisis Primakov Cabinet appears to stall By David Filipov, Globe Staff, 09/18/98 <Picture>OSCOW - When President Boris N. Yeltsin relented to pressure from parliament and appointed a trio of aging bureaucrats to tackle Russia's economic crisis, Moscow liberals and Western leaders warned of a return to the Soviet past. But now, the Cabinet taking shape under Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov looks less and less like a government that will take the country anywhere at all. As the ruble plunged, and worried allies and foreign creditors waited for clues to Russia's plans to address the crisis, the Primakov government appeared divided over how to solve the country's considerable economic problems. The Primakov government is starting to resemble all the previous ones under Yeltsin - divisive groups paralyzed by internal squabbles, unable to implement any of their decisions, unlikely to last long. ''Parallel power structures are being set up'' in the new government, wrote the business daily Kommersant. The Moscow Times called the Cabinet ''a strange-bedfellows blend of reform Communists and moderate market reformers.'' The broad coalition of Communists and liberals in parliament that installed Primakov has already broken up; Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov has already begun distancing himself from the government. A leading liberal legislator, economist Grigory Yavlinsky, has refused a senior Cabinet post, saying he did not want to join a ''debate club.'' And Yeltsin told the nation he would spend another week shopping for a new finance minister, a key post in a Cabinet that has not decided whether it plans to pull the country back from the brink of economic collapse by printing money or doing things to persuade the West to give Russia some. Russia has been paralyzed since Aug. 17, when the default on $40 billion in debts touched off the ruble's nose dive, caused the country's banking system to shut down, and dashed foreign confidence in Russia's markets. Yesterday the ruble, which lost some 30 percent of its value on the streets of Moscow on Wednesday, was weaker again, trading for 15.80 per dollar compared with an official 12.45 on Wednesday. It was valued at 6.5 per dollar a month ago. With labor leaders planning a mass demonstration Oct. 7 that organizers yesterday said could get out of control if workers, owed billions of rubles in back wages, do not get paid, Primakov has made paying off late wages his first priority. To fund this, Primakov's Communist first deputy Yury Maslyukov, 60, and the newly appointed Central Bank chairman, Viktor Gerashchenko, 60, have advocated abandoning the austerity programs backed by the International Monetary Fund, which over six years brought inflation down but left millions of Russians without cash. But First Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Shokhin, appointed Wednesday, yesterday criticized calls to print rubles. ''Any talk about'' monetary ''emission provokes inflation,'' said Shokhin. Shokhin also picked a fight with the government's acting chief tax inspector, Boris Fyodorov, saying someone else would get the job. In a statement, Fyodorov refused to quit. Meanwhile, Russia's Central Bank appeared to be pursuing a plan to print more money. An official said banks could free up their funds by exchanging their near-worthless government securities for cash. This plan, according to the bank's deputy chairman, Andrei Kozlov, would be funded by the new rubles. The plan was likely to fuel the suspicions of foreign investors that the Russian government would bail out insolvent Russian banks while Western creditors would be stiffed. Responding to these concerns, Shokhin said the government would try to work out a new deal on the bad loans with foreign banks to revive confidence in Russia. Shokhin also expressed hope that the IMF would kick in with the next $4.3 billion installment of a $22.6 billion package that was agreed on in July, but postponed after Russia defaulted on its debt payments. Russian and Western business leaders say Russia will need outside help to avoid defaulting on its foreign debt payments. The trouble is persuading the West to give that help. The American Chamber of Commerce in Russia said US companies were cutting back jobs after losing $469 million in Russia during the latest government crisis. This story ran on page A02 of the Boston Globe on 09/18/98. c Copyright 1998 Globe Newspaper Company. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - boston.com