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 (19840)	9/26/1998 4:40:00 PM
From: John Mansfield	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116759

'Japan and the Y2K Dilemma U.S. companies are spending millions of dollars to protect their computer systems from the ravages of the Millennium Bug. But for Japanese companies, the problem is much worse. Many are not aware of the magnitude of the problem; some know, but are not concerned. Time is running out. And the fate of Japanese companies in the year 2000 is intimately linked to that of their better-prepared American colleagues. The world of business has truly become global. High-speed air travel, sophisticated telecommunications and the Internet link corporations with their foreign subsidiaries. Electronic components from Asia power computer equipment all over the world. This interdependence has created a rich and dynamic business environment. But in terms of the Millennium Bug, it could prove disastrous. Even if your company is fully Y2K-compliant, it could be affected by the status of the foreign companies it does business with. And that is why Japan, with its strong ties to the U.S., has become such a source of concern. The statistics are shocking. Over 90 percent of Japanese companies are not fully prepared for the year 2000, according to a survey by the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Takafumi Hamaguchi, the chief researcher at Tokio Marine Risk Consulting Co., says that top managers of Japanese companies are frequently unaware of the urgency of the Y2K problem. They see it as an issue to be handled by the information services department rather than a pressing concern for the whole organization. "What is quite frightening is that the problem is probably bigger [in Japan] than in other countries, says Bob Haywood, vice president of Asia Pacific services at the Gartner Group. "This is because the problem is most noticeable in very large, enterprise-wide, multiframe legacy applications … and Japan's industry has more of these than any other country." In addition, because more than 70 percent of Japanese software applications are customized, each must be analyzed separately. The U.S. government, industry associations and many large corporations have publicized their efforts to achieve Y2K compliance. Many have Web pages that invite feedback from concerned citizens. This free exchange of information has raised public awareness and enabled companies to benefit from the best-known strategies. But Japanese companies are not required to disclose their Y2K status to each other. The true scope of their problem cannot be known. How should your company respond to this challenge? Learn as much as you can about the compliance levels of your overseas colleagues, and start a dialogue. The Millennium Bug will affect businesses all over the world in unpredictable ways. It's survival of the fittest. And in today's international business climate, no company can stand alone. year2000.dci.com

To: goldsnow who wrote (19840)	9/26/1998 7:25:00 PM
From: Alex	Respond to of 116759

How Moscow robbed Spain of its gold in the Civil War By Neal Ascherson Sunday September 27, 1998 The darkest secret of the Spanish Civil War has finally been revealed. The Soviet Union - for decades regarded as the bastion in the struggle against Franco's fascist forces - swindled the dying Republic out of several hundred million pounds in arms deals. The cause of Spain seized the idealism of ordinary people all over the world. Hitler and Mussolini supplied Franco with fleets of modern warplanes and tanks. From Europe and America nearly 60,000 volunteers joined the International Brigades to defend democracy in Spain - where nearly one in six was killed. And the main supplier of arms and aircraft to the Republic was the Soviet Union. Now secret accounts discovered in the Russian archives by historian Gerald Howson have revealed that far from coming selflessly to the aid of the Republic, Joseph Stalin cooked the books - faking the prices of the guns, aircraft and tanks - to get his hands on the Republic's gold. Four hundred tons of gold reserves were secretly shipped from Cartagena to the Soviet Union in October 1936 in the face of Franco's advancing army, with the agreement that part of it would stay in Moscow to pay for Soviet aid. The proceeds of the rest were transferred to a Soviet-owned bank in Paris for arms purchases elsewhere in the world. Long afterwards, Spanish exiles accused Stalin of having stolen much of the gold. But according to Howson's new book, Arms For Spain, they missed the real scam. The gold was almost all spent on arms and the accounts add up, leaving only 0.4 tons missing from the books. Instead, the Russians fiddled the exchange rates to get their hands on the gold. The equipment was paid for in hard currency - American US dollars or their equivalent. A top-secret 'Operation X' was set up in Moscow to handle arms for Spain, with Marshal Voroshilov reporting to Stalin. The Soviet Union said there would be generous discounts. Soviet-made material would be priced by European equivalents - less 10 to 20 per cent. Foreign-bought material would carry a discount of 40 to 50 per cent and - said Voroshilov - "despatched in perfect condition". Studying the secret lists of equipment sent to Spain, Howson was puzzled to find a final column headed in Russian 'Coefficient of Transfer', with different figures opposite each item. Then he realised he was looking at exchange rate indicators. The official rate was 5.3 roubles to the dollar. But a Russian-built Maxim machine-gun, for example, had a 'coefficient' of 2.5, less than half the real rate. There was no discount, and the Spanish Republic ended up paying twice as much in gold as the real price. The Soviet Union sent to Spain 93 SB-Katiushka bombers, a formidable aircraft at the cutting-edge of new bomber design. Here the 'coefficient' was 3.95, and for the 276 I-16 'Mosca' fighters, 3.2. On those two aircraft alone, Stalin embezzled £51.6 million from the democratic Spanish government fighting for its life. Howson estimates the overcharge at £377m. Why the 'coefficient' varied between items, given that this was a command economy that could invent prices at random, remains a mystery. It may have been a childish attempt to cover wholesale fraud with an appearance of rationality. Previous estimates of the number of weapons the Soviet Union sent to the Republic - 1,200 aircraft, 900 tanks and up to 2,000 artillery pieces - turn out to be wildly exaggerated. The true figures are about 630 aircraft, 330 tanks and fewer than 1,000 guns - many of them ancient junk, with little or no ammunition. The Russians were not the only suppliers to cheat the Republic. The non-intervention policy, led by Britain, was a charter for gun-runners and conmen. Even Poland, governed by a right-wing junta which admired Franco, sold the Republicans huge quantities of arms, often overpriced and obsolete. Polish officers afterwards claimed they had made the equivalent of £296m out of these deals. "Why should you worry?" one of them observed. "It's only to the Spanish Republicans!" But the Soviet scam was special. As Howson writes: "Of all the swindles, cheatings, robberies and betrayals the Republicans had to put up with...this barrow-boy behaviour by Stalin and the high officials of the Soviet nomenklatura is surely the most squalid, the most treacherous and the most indefensible." 'Arms For Spain' by Gerald Howson (John Murray, £25). reports.guardian.co.uk