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To: Alex who wrote (23092)	11/18/1998 11:52:00 AM
From: Enigma	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116856

Alex - this is very positive to say the least - one cautionary note - you will remember the Can Govt. launched the Maple Leaf - but this didn't stop the Bank of Canada from selling off our gold holdings. E

To: Alex who wrote (23092)	11/18/1998 12:04:00 PM
From: Zardoz	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116856

Wednesday November 18, 10:30 am Eastern Time US Sept trade gap narrowed to $14.03 bln WASHINGTON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Commerce Department report of U.S. international trade. Trade in goods and services, balance of payments basis (seasonally adjusted, in billions of dollars). - Sept Sept97 Aug Jan-Sept98 Jan-Sept97 Balance -14.03 -9.24 -15.90 -123.05 -81.76 Exports 77.13 79.71 75.43 694.48 698.13 Imports -91.16 -88.94 -91.33 -817.53 -779.88 Warning: part of the article may be missing at this point. Trade in goods on a Census basis, seasonally adjusted. Billions of dlrs: Sept Sept97 Aug Jan-Sept98 Jan-Sept97 - Balance -19.12 -15.52 -20.73 -172.78 -134.80 - Exports 56.82 58.49 55.18 507.70 512.66 - Imports -75.93 -74.01 -75.90 -680.48 -647.47 EXPORTS-Mln Dlrs: Sept Sept97 Aug Jan-Sept98 Jan-Sept97 -Autos/Parts 6,024 6,180 5,601 53,834 54,868 -Civ.Aircraft 4,038 N/A 2,042 21,981 17,308 IMPORTS-Mln Dlrs: Sept Sept97 Aug Jan-Sept98 Jan-Sept97 -Autos/Parts -12,911 -11,769 -12,236 -109,319 -105,518 -Civ.Aircraft -569 N/A -408 -4,858 -3,292 Unadjusted Census basis, in millions of dollars. EXPORTS -- Sept Aug Jan-Sept98 Jan-Sept97 -Agricultural 3,363 3,611 36,547 39,697 -Manufacturing 45,476 43,073 407,672 407,038 -Crude Oil 36 41 539 792 -Advanced Tech. 15,935 13,989 133,832 131,617 IMPORTS -- Sept Aug Jan-Sept98 Jan-Sept97 -Agricultural -2,812 -2,726 -26,862 -26,383 -Manufacturing -68,907 -66,298 -583,276 -535,986 -Crude Oil -2,711 -3,072 -28,873 -40,884 -Advanced Tech. -13,985 -13,018 -114,854 -107,746 TRADE BALANCE - Sept Sept97 Aug Jan-Sept98 Jan-Sept97 - Canada -2,341 -1,147 -1,669 -12,865 -12,272 - Mexico -1,447 -1,381 -1,759 -11,487 -11,698 West Europe -1,759 -1,337 -2,207 -19,272 -10,826 - China -5,903 -5,522 -5,909 -42,352 -36,534 - Japan -5,074 -5,103 -5,200 -46,465 -40,763 South Korea -754 -387 -780 -6,532 2,361 - Taiwan -1,631 -1,359 -1,574 -11,373 -9,216 South/Central - America 679 717 980 9,530 5,283 - OPEC -853 -1,710 -1,273 -8,207 -15,113 Newly Industrial- Sept Sept97 Aug Jan-Sept98 Jan-Sept97 ized Countries -2,515 -1,976 -2,631 -18,179 -4,680 Indonesia -724 -607 -692 -5,374 -3,544 -N/A - not available NOTES: Volume of total crude and petroleum imports fell in September to 316.0 million barrels from 363.7 million in August and price per barrel rose to $10.98 from $10.63. September value of crude and petroleum imports fell to $3.63 billion from $4.04 billion in August, and fell from $5.82 billion in September 1997. FORECAST: Reuters survey of economists forecast: $16.2 bln U.S. Sept trade deficit HISTORICAL COMPARISONS: U.S. SEPT TRADE DEFICIT LOWEST SINCE JUNE ($13.64 BLN) U.S. Q3'98 TRADE DEFICIT RECORD $44.48 BLN VS Q2 $43.56 BLN U.S. SEPT CRUDE OIL IMPORTS OF $2.7 BLN LOWEST SINCE FEB'94 ($2.1 BLN) U.S. SEPT CIVILIAN AIRCRAFT EXPORTS RECORD $4.04 BLN U.S. SEPT IMPORTS FROM CHINA RECORD $7.12 BLN biz.yahoo.com

To: Alex who wrote (23092)	11/18/1998 2:38:00 PM
From: John Mansfield	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116856

OT - 'Water Utilities Survey Reports Extremely Bad News and Very Good News. How's That Again? Link: awwa.org Comment: The American Water Works Association has released the results of a comprehensive survey of the y2k status of the industry. A disaster looms. You have to click through on each question to get the results of the survey. Spend some time on this. Without water, you're dead in five days. Without water, no modern city could survive a year. Water is the lifeline. Where will cities get water? This survey indicates that the industry will not finish on time. Urban people think water is forever, and it's cheap. If it stops flowing, urban life degenerates into bare survivalism. Click through for the bad news. Spend some time clicking on the list of questions. 36% have no formal y2k plan. Less than 10% of the industry began its y2k projects earlier than 1997. Over 70% have not completed the repairs and testing; 6% refused to respond. In large cities, it's over 90% 69% had not surveyed their suppliers and vendors; 5% did not answer. 72% have no contingency plans for internal breakdowns. 5% did not answer. What about emergency contingency plans for external problems? 83% said they had none. 5% refused to answer. But. . . . How many of their systems remain at risk? 59% said zero. 20% said under 10%. 65% said they are confident that they will be ready in 2000. One question was not asked: Have you implemented your y2k-compliant system? Link: awwa.org garynorth.com

To: Alex who wrote (23092)	11/18/1998 2:42:00 PM
From: John Mansfield	Respond to of 116856

' The Ticking Clock on The Euro: No Way to Meet the Deadline Link: euroclear.com Comment: Click through to see the ticking clock on a forecast guaranteed to fail. Look in the upper right-hand corner. Here is a dream that has been in progress since the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, a dream of a single European government, heralded by a unified European currency, leading to a single central bank. The Eurocrats have bet the survival of Europe on this pipe dream. The bankers have refused to allocate programming resources to y2k because the software revisions demanded by the Euro could not be met if programmers worked on y2k. Result: Europe will miss both deadlines. The deadline is fixed: Jan. 1, 1999. It has been trumpeted for years. It has been fundamental to one of the great public relations campaigns of all time. But Europe will not make this deadline. The world will know on Jan. 4. What you must pay attention to after January 4 is the back-peddling, the excuses for failure, the redoubled efforts to impose the new software, and the delay of y2k repairs in the name of the Euro, which will be dead on arrival. All of these excuses will be applied to that other missed deadline, namely, "compliance on December 31, 1998, with a full year for testing." Europe's public relations hacks will go into action in just a few weeks. They will tell us why the deadline was not really very important, how things are progressing nicely, etc. But there is this problem: the programmers will have missed the deadline. The deadline was the token of great and unstoppable things to come. PR giveth, and programmers taketh away. Early this year, we were told this: "Through fiscal binoculars, European corporations watch the swell loom in the distance. Europe's Economic and Monetary Union, once given a moderate chance of making landfall, is now just about as certain as death and taxes. Estimated time of arrival for the first and hardest hitting wave: Jan. 1, 1999, when European financial institutions must be fully compliant as financial markets begin trading Jan. 4 with a single currency, the euro. "The EMU wave is enormous for the financial sector, some five to six times the size and complexity of the Year 2000 problem, analysts say. Farther inland, the euro conversion's ripple effect will leave no global corporation in any industry untouched, as the euro brings with it a host of business issues — everything from redirecting foreign exchange operations to supply chain billing to product pricing. "Companies with any ties to Europe are being challenged not just to update their information technology systems, but to modify business practices and capitalize on euro opportunities. IT spending on euro conversion worldwide is expected to cost $100 billion to $400 billion, according to The Gartner Group in London, offering integrators an opportunity to ride the crest of the euro's wave or be left soaking in its wake. "The seismic shift responsible for triggering the monetary union began as early as the 1950s with a series of declarations and acts seeking 'an ever closer union of peoples in Europe.' The Economic and Monetary Union is the latest and most ambitious part of the European integration process." This Tower of Babel, Part 2 will soon be visible to all. The musically challenged Arthur Godfrey put it well in 1950 in a deservedly forgotten song: "Heap big smoke, but no fire." Click through to see the deadline clock. I wonder what will be posted in the upper right-hand corner in the first week of January, 1999. How I wish Jean Monnet (d. 1979) were alive to see it! His dreams and schemes almost came true, and then, whoosh -- the deadline speeds past. Close, Jean, but no cigar. Link: euroclear.com garynorth.com