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To: John Mansfield who wrote (21406)	10/11/1998 2:23:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116894

I think these people are much more concern for political posturing if the school class is 18 or 25 students (they would remain far behind Asian/European educational standards anyway ) than Y2K problem, besides who would even care untill late in present enviroment.... Jobs axe now expected to swing on Wall St By Sheryle Bagwell, London With major European banks already beginning to take the axe to jobs, attention will switch to the big Wall Street firms this week where the blood is now expected to flow. America's biggest securities firm, Merrill Lynch, is expected to announce tomorrow that it is cutting more than 3,000 jobs, or about 5 per cent of its global workforce. The job losses are expected to be confirmed when the firm unveils its quarterly results, which are likely to show a slump in profits as a result of its exposure to Russia and other emerging markets, as well as to the stricken hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management. Merrill Lynch led the $US3.6 billion ($5.8 billion) bail-out of LTCM last month by a consortium of 14 major banks from across the US and Europe. Reports say the bulk of the jobs losses are likely to be in Merrill's fixed-interest operations, emerging markets divisions and in the back office, rather than in equities and mergers and acquisitions. If confirmed, the retrenchments at Merrill Lynch will be the largest cull in financial markets since the emerging markets turmoil began to hit the global banking industry. Last month, the large Dutch-owned banking group ING announced that it would slash 1,200 jobs from its operations worldwide, with its emerging markets operations taking the brunt of the losses. Cuts are also said to be in the pipeline at Bankers Trust, and at the big Swiss banks UBS and the Credit Suisse Group. UBS has already lost its chairman and three risk-management executives as a result of its ill-fated foray into LTCM. Morale is particularly low at Credit Suisse's investment banking division, Credit Suisse First Boston, which has suffered large losses in Russia and Asia. The wave of job losses comes on top of a huge cull at the newly merged Citigroup, which brought together Citicorp and the Travelers Group in a deal finalised on Thursday. London's The Independent newspaper suggested over the weekend that the retrenchment total could hit 8,000, following an additional announcement last week from the merged group warning that earnings would fall drastically in the third quarter because of trading losses in global bond markets and emerging markets. And the desperate moves by the banks to stem losses by sacking staff may not end there. UBS was forced to deny reports last week that it intended to sell its investment banking unit, Warburg Dillon Read. But some observers say it is only a matter of time before the present crisis triggers a major shake-out in the global banking sector that may see some banks disappear or go under. "There are just too many banks," Mr Fraser Coutts, of the London-based Centre for Economics and Business Research, said last week. "It can't go on with too many banks chasing too little business." afr.com.au

To: John Mansfield who wrote (21406)	10/11/1998 2:28:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 116894

IMF's Stanley Fischer Says More Rate Cuts to Come Among Industrial Nations IMF's Fischer Says More Rate Cuts to Come in Industrial Nations Chicago, Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Central banks in the U.S. and Europe will likely cut short-term interest rates as the financial situation across the globe deteriorates, said a top International Monetary Fund official. ''This week, there was a growing realization by the Europeans at the annual meetings that the financial situation in the world was risky and gloomy,'' said Stanley Fischer, first deputy managing director at the IMF. ''It's more reasonable to expect now that there will be cuts in interest rates in the industrialized countries, in the U.S. and Europe.'' The U.S., Canada, England and Japan have all cut interest rates in the last two weeks and the president of the Bundesbank, Hans Tietmeyer, said easing monetary policy ''isn't taboo,'' Fischer said, clearing the way for additional cuts. Federal Reserve policy-makers cut the overnight bank lending rate by a quarter point last week, to stimulate the U.S. economy as world growth slows. Fed policy-makers meet again Nov. 17. The IMF projected earlier this month that world economic growth will reach 2 percent in 1998, that's down 1.1 percentage points from the IMF's estimate made in April. The IMF predicted that world growth will reach 2.5 percent in 1999. Korea and Thailand Separately, Fischer said that he expects both South Korea and Thailand will post economic growth late this year or early next year, a more optimistic outlook than recently made in the IMF's semi-annual report. ''I think both Korea and Thailand are improving steadily,'' Fischer said in a speech to a conference on the Asian crisis sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the IMF. The IMF research department said earlier this month that Korea's economy will contract 7 percent this year and Thailand's economy will shrink 8 percent for 1998. In fact, a recent program unveiled in Japan to establish a $30 billion regional fund to supplement government budgets ''would help in both those countries,'' he said. Fischer also praised the recent rise in the Indonesian currency, the rupiah. As for the Japanese banking sector, the IMF second-in-charge said that government's efforts to fix its banking system is ''moving ahead.'' Brazil Fischer declined to comment on the details of the IMF's discussions with Brazilian officials on a possible aid package. He did say that he was pleased that the Brazilian authorities were emphasizing that the program being developed was their own, not one imposed by the IMF. The IMF, World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank have been discussing plans to lend money to Brazil to reduce the outflow of capital that's forced the government to spend precious foreign currency reserves -- which have fallen below $48 billion from $75 billion in mid August -- to defend the value of Brazil's currency, the real. The IMF came under fire for prescribing high interest rates and deep cuts in government spending to stabilize emerging markets and currencies in South Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand. The IMF, in exchange for governments accepting austere conditions to halt the slide in their economies, put together about $117 billion in financial aid so they could repay short-term debts and defend the value of their currencies. Fischer said he was pleased that the U.S. Congress appears to be on the verge of approving the $17.9 billion U.S. contribution to replenishing the IMF's depleted reserves. ''If we know the quota is coming we can let our reserves go down'' to provide aid to other countries, Fischer said. Some in Congress wants the IMF to change its operations and lending practices, including raising interest rates on loans, in exchange for the additional funds and are demanding U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin certify that the U.S. and other industrial nations are working to overhaul the IMF's ways. bloomberg.com