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To: Enigma who wrote (19600)	9/24/1998 9:41:00 AM
From: Alex	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116764

Hi E. Don't know if it's a direct quote or not. Churchill first became an M.P. in 1900 and held many high posts in both the Liberal and Conservative governments until he became Prime Minister in 1940 if my info is correct. I don't know if he served a Chancellor of the Exchequer in the 1930's..................... FOCUS-Hedge fund losses raise international fears By Joe Ortiz LONDON, Sept 24 (Reuters) - International efforts to contain the fallout from a troubled U.S. investment fund intensified on Thursday amid investor fears of renewed market volatility. British authorities said they had been in contact with officials in the United States over troubles at Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM), a hedge fund that has required a multi-billion dollar bailout. Britain also announced steps to monitor exposure in London to hedge funds, speculative investment vehicles that often take highly leveraged positions. This followed moves by the U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday to broker a $3.75 billion rescue package from banks for LTCM, one of thousands of hedge funds. The Fed was involved in meetings with 15 banks which agreed to put up money for LTCM. Authorities are concerned because of the potential for violent market swings if previous hedge fund bets need to suddenly be unwound. Dealers in Europe voiced fresh concerns. Bond traders in the United States and the UK said LTCM's problems have been hurting debt markets. They also said the current bailout will help in the short-term but they were wary of new market shocks. ''The money they have given is sufficient to cover margins,'' said one bond trader in London who deals with hedge funds. ''It's a short-term fix but in the longer term this issue could come up again.'' Britain's Financial Services Authority (FSA) asked 55 financial firms to provide details of their exposure to hedge funds. An FSA spokesman said the businesses involved are what are known as ''complex groups'' -- firms such as international securities houses whose business spans a wide range of activities in the financial industry. The FSA said it had been kept informed by the Fed on the LTCM affair and had also worked with the Bank of England and the British Treasury. Dealers said it seemed that most of the exposures from LTCM were in mainstream markets. ''What we do know is that it wasn't anything exotic and was all fairly generic stuff,'' said a European bond trader at a U.S. bank in London. There was also a degree of cynicism in the markets over the affair. Hedge funds are notorious for making large profits in unstable markets -- sometimes at the expense of a country's economic health, critics say. ''It comes down to the adage of 'fear and greed','' the U.S. bank trader said. ''Obviously these guys had greed beyond any measure of fear and they are not even paying the consequences. The banking system is having to bail them out because they are so scared that if (LTCM) goes down it will take the banks down.'' In London, British bank Barclays Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: BARC.L) confirmed its participation in the $3.75 billion bail-out, but declined to give financial details other than to say it did not expect its profit and loss account to suffer. LTCM said on Wedneesday that a consortium of banks took equity in the fund and was setting up an oversight committee with reprentatives from Goldman Sachs (GS - news), Merrill Lynch (NYSE:MER - news), Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (NYSE:MWD - news), Travelers Group (NYSE:TRV - news) and UBS .