-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A> ----- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Single Currency Euro Opens Strong in FX Market The computers are ready PARIS - The new European single currency, the euro, opened strongly in Asia-Pacific currency markets Monday after European central bankers, having worked through the holiday weekend, had pronounced themselves ready for the currency's introduction in European markets. The euro hit trading screens in Sydney at 1800 GMT on Sunday as Australia became the world's first major market to deal in the new currency. The euro opened at $1.1747, higher than the reference rate of $1.17 given Thursday by the European Central Bank, and at 133.20 yen, slightly stronger than the level of 132.80 yen set by the bank. Traders also reported opening trades of 70.8 British pence - higher than the reference rate of 70.5 pence - 1.6110 Swiss francs and 1.9190 Australian dollars. Earlier, in the Bombay market, one of the few that was open New Year's Day, the euro closed Friday at $1.1720. In Tokyo, the euro opened at 133.15 yen, also at 1800 GMT on Sunday - 3 A.M. on Monday, local time - but major trading was not expected to take place until about five hours later, when most traders were due to return from the New Year's weekend. The main test of the new currency's strength against the dollar, analysts said, was expected to come Monday in London, which has the largest segment of the $1.5 trillion-a-day global currency market. The European Central Bank said Sunday that national central banks and commercial finant concentrated data-entry programs in history. ''Throughout the process of conversion undertaken this weekend by the European Central Banking System, there has been no report of any incident that could impede the start'' of trading in euros, the bank said. The central bank, with a staff of fewer than 600, is the pyramid of a system that includes the national banks of the 11 countries adopting the single currency - France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Portugal, Ireland, Finland and Austria. While the central bank has the task of setting monetary targets such as interest and exchange rates, the national banks with more than 65,000 staffers were responsible for watching over the transition to the new currency. National currencies were irrevocably locked into the euro Thursday, turning francs, marks, pesetas, punts, schillings, lire, guilders, escudos and markkaa - which will continue to circulate until the introduction of euro bank notes and coins in 2002 - into subsidiaries of the single currency. The euro instantly became Europe's largest currency for noncash transactions, which account for the vast bulk of movements in the money supply. Over the weekend, tens of thousands of computer technicians, secretaries, dealers and brokers worked to convert trillions of dollars of securities into the new currency. While European finance ministers proclaim that the euro will be a stable and strong currency, too much strength is not entirely welcome news to European economic planners. They fear that if the euro is too strong, it could make it more difficult for Europe's exporters to sell their wares, as a strong currency makes exports more expensive. In Japan, the U.S. currency is weak anyway, having fallen to about 113 yen, its lowest level since October. Analysts said a successful launch of the euro, drawing investments into Europe, could cause even more headaches for the Japanese bond market, which last week fell to its lowest level in more than a year after the government said it planned to issue a record 31.05 trillion yen ($274.17 billion) in bonds this year The Frankfurt-based European Central Bank said the prospect of a successful conversion to the new currency was ''a sign of the quality of the preparatory work carried out in the past months and years by the community of central banks and by private operators in the financial markets.'' Although there have been many dry runs, the first day of trading was certain to be a major challenge for financial systems. Even if the financial system comes through the first day of trading unscathed, it will be several days before market operators will be able to breathe easier. The deputy governor of the Bank of England, David Clementi, warned that commercial banks and financial houses could face ''substantial losses'' because of botched trades or payments sent to the wrong bank. Jean-Claude Trichet, the governor of the Bank of France, said Sunday that Europe's marketplace was an enormously complex system in which even a small error could be magnified with unforeseen results. Merging 11 economies, he said, was like building a spacecraft in which each complex element had to work not only on its own but as part of an integrated system. International Herald Tribune, Jan. 4, 1999 Assassination Politics Prime Minister of Pakistan Escapes Bombing A bridge too far A powerful bomb blast outside Lahore yesterday which claimed four lives, triggered fresh concern over the security of Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistani prime minister. The blast blew up a bridge near Raiwind, a suburb of Lahore, shortly before Mr Sharif was due to drive over it. The explosion killed three men walking along the road and a police inspector who was among those making security arrangements ahead of Mr Sharif's journey. Mr Sharif's family owns a farm in Raiwind, which is widely known as Mr Sharif's weekend retreat. Officials said that Mr Sharif was due to drive over the bridge on his way to the farm yesterday. No one claimed responsibility. Police officials described the blast as an "act of terrorism", an implicit reference to an assassination attempt. "Obviously it was targeting the person of the prime minister," said Mushahid Hussain, the government information minister. "The government has taken stringent measures to root out terrorism and this incident has further strengthened our determination to fight against this menace." Some officials blamed activists belonging to Karachi's Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM). However, analysts said it was too early to hold any particular group or individual responsible. Mr Sharif's ruling Pakistan Moslem League (PML) broke ranks with the MQM in the southern province of Sindh in October, after running a coalition government for 20 months. The break came after the killing of a former provincial governor of Sindh. Government investigators alleged that the suspects subsequently arrested were MQM activists. The MQM has denied its involvement in terrorism, including the killing that caused the break. However, government officials say that the MQM, which is headed by Altaf Hussain who is exiled in London, has trained its activists in the use of firearms and explosives in an effort to combat paramilitary and police troops used in Karachi, the provincial capital. Yesterday's blast comes as Mr Sharif faces an uphill task in restoring political stability in the country, despite the PML's large majority in parliament. During his two-year rule, Mr Sharif has appointed a president, a supreme court chief justice and a military chief of his own choice in an effort to make his position unassailable. However, the concentration of power has only intensified criticism from his opponents. The Financial Times, Jan. 4, 1999 Fin-de-siecle End of World Shoot-Out in Jerusalem? More Temple Mount Follies EIGHT members of an American doomsday cult were arrested in Jerusalem yesterday, suspected of planning a shoot-out with police which, they believe, would hasten the end of the world and take them to heaven. According to Israeli police, the cultists, who had six children with them, planned "extremists acts" on Jerusalem streets in the final days of 1999 to hasten the second coming of the Messiah. A police source said the cult members believed that being killed by police "would lead them to heaven and start the process of bringing Jesus back to life". Violence was planned for Jerusalem's Old City, possibly the Temple Mount, site of the Jewish temple destroyed in AD 70 and now occupied by the Muslim shrine of the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque. The group is an advance guard of 78 members of the Concerned Christians cult who sold their property and disappeared from Denver last October and were believed to be heading to Jerusalem. Their leader, Monte Kim Miller, has prophesied that he would die in the final hours of the century and be resurrected three days later. His hold on his followers is so strong that they are thought to be willing to commit mass suicide at his order. The three families were living in the smart Jerusalem suburbs of Mevasseret Zion and Moza and gave up without a struggle. Miller was understood to be abroad. A police statement said: "The arrests were carried out to protect certain sections of the Israeli population and members of the cult themselves who blindly follow a leader who is now overseas." The raid was led by the Jerusalem police chief, Yitzhak Yairi - an indication of how seriously the authorities are taking the prospect of disturbances during the Millennium celebrations by unbalanced or temporarily deranged Christians. The authorities plan to deport the group, but they will appear in court first. Miller, a former marketing manager, founded Concerned Christians in the 1980s to fight what he saw as an anti-Christian bias in the media and a perceived threat to Christianity posed by the burgeoning new age movement. Over the years, critics say, Concerned Christians became an apocalyptic personality cult with Miller's preaching developing an anti-Semitic and anti-American twist. Worries about the cult rose in 1997 when Nicolette Weaver, 17, testified that her mother said she would kill her, if Miller ordered it. Miller and his followers disappeared shortly after his prophecy that the Apocalypse would begin with an earthquake in Denver last October did not materialise. Bill Honsberger, a Christian missionary who has studied the cult, said at the time that if Miller's predictions failed to come true, his divine edicts could turn violent. He said: "Because his followers believe he is God they might also be willing to die if ordered to do so by him." The London Telegraph, Jan. 4, 1998 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. 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