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To: Jeffrey L. Henken who wrote (358)	10/7/1998 8:22:00 PM
From: Ray Tarke	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 939

Jeff relief is in sight. The Fed next meets to debate interest rates is on Nov. 17, his indicating will see a cut sooner. Greenspan signals Fed may cut rates again By Knut Engelmann WASHINGTON, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on Wednesday raised the prospect of further cuts in interest rates to keep the U.S. economy on track in the face of a looming credit crunch triggered by global financial turmoil. Greenspan told an economists' group the Fed was virtually certain the U.S. economy would slow from its still-solid pace, particularly because lenders appeared to be holding on to their purse strings in the face of increasing economic uncertainty -- thus depriving even viable companies of much-needed capital. ''We are clearly facing a set of forces that should be dampening demand going forward to an unknown extent,'' Greenspan told the National Association for Business Economics. ''This is a time for monetary policy to be especially alert.'' Analysts read Greenspan's remarks as indicating the Fed's readiness to continue cutting rates to both prevent an economic crash and boost liquidity levels in jittery capital markets. The Fed last week cut its key short-term interest rate by a modest quarter-percentage point to 5.25 percent to cushion the effects of a global financial crisis on the U.S. economy. But many in financial markets deemed the cut insufficient to fend off the economic slump that has hurt many parts of the world. ''He's certainly opened the door to another rate cut,'' said Diane Swonk, economist at First Chicago NBD, after listening to the speech, adding that the Fed would need to monitor events as they evolve and react to them as warranted. The Fed next meets to debate interest rates on Nov. 17, but some Fed watchers read Greenspan's forthright speech as opening the door to a possible rate move even before that -- a highly unusual step which the Fed has not taken since 1994. John Silvia, chief economist at Scudder Kemper Investments Inc. in Chicago, said such a move could not be ruled out. ''What he's telling us is that we don't know what it is going to take to keep the economy moving ahead. Because of all these unknowns, there's a lot more of a possibility of an inter-meeting move,'' he said. Greenspan's comments briefly helped to boost the prices of inflation-sensitive bonds which had suffered losses overnight. Key U.S. stocks also traded higher. Greenspan said a ''marked shift in investor psychology away from risk and toward liquidity and safety has exacerbated the problems in foreign markets, where deflationary forces remain virulent'' and had spread to U.S. financial markets. ''It is pretty obvious that the outlook for 1999 for the U.S. economy has deteriorated measurably,'' he warned. While insisting that a full-blown credit crunch was still a distant danger, Greenspan recounted U.S. companies' mounting problems to raise capital because scared lenders preferred to hold on to their cash -- to an extent that he had not seen in some 50 years of looking at the economy on a daily basis. ''This risk aversion is showing up as increases in equity premiums and the cost of capital for capital investment,'' Greenspan said. Describing the situation in the U.S. economy as ''fluid,'' he added: ''We do not know how far it will go, or how much it will affect consumer and business spending here at home.'' Most forecasters -- including the International Monetary Fund and the National Association for Business Economics -- expect the U.S. economy to grow by little more than two percent in 1999, after growing by an estimated 3.5 percent this year. For now, Greenspan acknowledged the domestic economy was still in good shape and labor markets still unusually tight. ''The truth of the matter is we've got an economy which as of now...is really still quite an impressive sight,'' he said, even though he acknowledged that the manufacturing sector had been hit by falling exports and rising imports from Asia. Greenspan's overall tone represented a major shift from only a few months ago when most Fed officials warned repeatedly against economic overheating caused by excessively tight labor markets and urged banks to tighten up lax lending standards. The Fed chairman acknowledged as much: ''I had argued quite extensively over the last two or three years that the markets were becoming too complacent about risk. Well, that has changed. If there was a dime to turn on, it did.'' biz.yahoo.com Regards, R.T

To: Jeffrey L. Henken who wrote (358)	10/9/1998 3:46:00 PM
From: mike mulhearn	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 939

Here you go Jeff. Maybe this explains my interest in this stock a little better. INTERVIEW-U.S. RealTel hits the roof By Susan Nadeau CHICAGO, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Jordan Glazov will never again look at a rooftop as just a rooftop. To Glazov, president of U.S. RealTel Inc., the tops of buildings, silos, shopping centers or just about anything are lucrative sites for telecommunications equipment, ever in need of a home as the wireless phone, two-way radio, paging, Internet and television markets continue to expand. U.S. RealTel is in effect a landlord of rooftops. The company leases the space from property owners, then subleases it to telecommunications operators. The operators can also provide services to the tenants under the leased rooftops, which is an increasingly lucrative business. ''Everybody in the real estate industry ... looks at their properties totally from a new dimension, and that is the dimension of telecommunications,'' Glazov said in an interview. ''On the one hand there's an opportunity to increase the income of the property portfolio through telecommunications rent, and on the other hand there's the opportunity to increase the value of the property by having state of the art telecommunications services available to the tenants. And that's becoming more and more important each day.'' The Chicago-based company has telecommunications rights to some 5,600 rooftops throughout the United States, and for most of those buildings the company also controls access to the tenants' telecommunications services. As the middleman, U.S. RealTel brings in revenues ranging from 24 and 35 percent of the gross rent charged to the telecommunications operator, which can range from $200 a month for a rural placement to $3,000 for an urban location. Glazov said broadcast antennas can even hit $20,000 a month. In exchange, U.S. RealTel assures that environmental and other codes are met, and arranges other preleasing requirements. Glazov said the company makes aesthetics a priority, as antennas are now available which look like, for example, a pine tree or a clock tower. For the telecommunications operator, U.S. RealTel offers websites and CD-ROMs with searchable lists of properties. It also coordinates access to tenants under the leased rooftop who want to utilize the operator's services. But most important, Glazov said, is the fact that both the property owner and the telecommunications company negotiate and sign just one lease, regardless of how many rooftops are offered or rented. ''That saves them an enormous amount of time and money in negotiations and legal fees,'' Glazov said. Telecommunications companies are also asking for financing services for the purchase of antennas and other equipment, he said. U.S. RealTel is now launching RealTel Finance and is in the process of signing its first transaction, a $71 million infrastructure financing deal with a wireless phone company for a new system in the Southeast. He declined to identify the company. ''Eventually site leasing and financing will be about equal (in terms of revenues),'' Glazov said. For U.S. RealTel, with only a small portion of the company's stock having begun trading just seven months ago, competition is still not a huge threat, Glazov said. Other companies do the matchmaking, but do not actually hold the lease or provide access to the tenants, putting U.S. RealTel a head -- or a story -- above the rest. ''The telecommunications industry is highly technology-based and every month and even sometimes every week new technology or an upgrade or update comes out,'' Glazov said. ''It requires some new wrinkle in the business.'' Shares of U.S. RealTel last traded at $10.