(I made this list up for another forum's post, but I thought many of you might like to check out the stories and links)

Here are some excerpts and article links from todays financial and political news. It looks like something may be up; changes are in the air for Japans interest rate policies and Israel has been admitted to the UN! Meanwhile, Clinton is in the EU arguing trade disputes and receiving a globalist award that only two other Americans have every received....George Marshall and Henry Kissinger. Note that the URL follows the excerpts if you want to access the entire article Also there are a few places where I added my own comment before a new article by using parenthesis.

BOJ may end zero rates early By Reuters - 31 May 2000 10:36GMT

Bank of Japan Policy Board member Teizo Taya said on Wednesday the BOJ would not necessarily wait for confirmation of a full recovery in capital spending and personal consumption data before ending its zero interest-rate policy. His comments indicated the BOJ is not committing itself to any particular set of data in determining the timing for a change in Japan's ultra-easy monetary policy, which for 15 months has guided short-term interest rates virtually to zero. The BOJ has said it would continue the policy, aimed at pulling Japan from its worst post-war recession, until fears of deflation had abated. "Once we see the prospects of a recovery from several angles, the current policy can be ended," Taya told business leaders in a speech. http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3A8L1JW8C&live=true&tagid=ZZZGXV4R00C

IMF warns Japan on dangers of recession By Gillian Tett in Tokyo Published: May 29 2000 14:08GMT | Last Updated: May 30 2000 01:13GMT

The Bank has been implementing a so-called 'zero interest' rate policy for over a year, in which it has attempted to push down interest rates to zero in the overnight money markets by supplying excess liquidity. However, most economists suspect that the Bank would attract strong criticism from bodies such as the IMF if it attempted to raise rates immediately, since the current data on the state of the Japanese economy are very mixed. http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3A6WE6U8C&live=true&tagid=ZZZC19QUA0C&subheading=asia%20pacific

(Next......Could the PPT Team be Expanding???)

Kvhler offers banks role as partners By John Willman in Paris Published: May 30 2000 20:42GMT | Last Updated: May 31 2000 11:06GMT

(excerpt l) Horst Kvhler used his first public speech on Tuesday since becoming managing director of the International Monetary Fund to offer private sector banks a new role in building global financial stability. He told the annual meeting of the International Monetary Conference in Paris that he wanted to shift towards "constructive engagement" in the resolution of crises in particular countries and regions. The emphasis would be on co-operation between the borrowing countries, the private sector and the international institutions, rather than what Mr Kvhler called the "coercive or punitive approach" that involves pressure on banks for "burden-sharing"

(excerpt 2) IMF funds should be used to clarify responsibility and accountability in developing countries. The Asian and Russian crises had shown the importance of mature domestic financial institutions in handling inflows of private capital. However, he said that he wanted to take a less prescriptive approach in setting conditions for help. http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3GZQGWV8C&livve=true&tagid=ZZZGXV4R00C

FT.COM SITE: GLOBAL WARNING FT.com site, May 17, 2000, 1,125 words

(excerpt 1) This week Horst Kohler, the new managing director of the International Monetary Fund, is carrying out his first public duties on a lightning tour of southern and central America: Rio on Monday, Buenos Aires yesterday, Mexico City on Friday. The purpose of Mr Kohler's trip is to listen to the views of the developing world about how the international financial system should be reformed. Few dispute that radical changes are needed: the problem is the lack of agreement - particularly among the rich countries that largely fund the IMF - on what shape reform should take. Mr Kohler's task is to move the debate forward. His biggest difficulty is that the area of greatest disagreement is at the heart of the IMF's role: what should it do when the next big financial crisis strikes? In principle, there are two approaches: either an international lender of last resort could step in, offering funds to the stricken countries for as long as the crisis lasts; or the countries in crisis could stop payments on their debts. (excerpt 2) The net result is still that no one really knows what will happen, who will be hurt and who will be spared, the next time a big country such as Korea gets hit by a serious crisis. Mr Kohler has given few indications of his views, and is at least free to make a fresh start. But concerns remain over whether he can build a consensus that the principal developed countries will agree on. http://search.ft.com/search/multi/globalarchive.jsp?id=000517000120

(Its clear the rest of the world thinks more of Clinton that the US does....this award is quite the honor...given to someone who has put the globalist agenda above his own countries)

Mixed response to Clinton visit By Stephen Fidler in Lisbon Published: May 30 2000 19:12GMT | Last Updated: May 31 2000 14:02GMT

US officials say Mr Clinton should take his share of the credit. Sandy Berger, Mr Clinton's national security adviser, said: "There was no discussion about a Europe whole and free. . . The president outlined in 1994 a blueprint, and in the years since we have made significant progress." Some in Europe share this view. Mr Clinton will on Friday in Aachen become only the third American - after George Marshall and Henry Kissinger - and the only US president in 50 years to receive the Charlemagne prize for his contribution to European unity. "This is the most pro-EU administration that there has been. For this reason alone, he deserves the Charlemagne prize," said one European diplomat in Washington. http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT36C6SWV8C&live=true&tagid=ZZZGXV4R00C

EU unhappy with US trade plan By Neil Buckley in Brussels Published: May 30 2000 17:28GMT | Last Updated: May 30 2000 19:21GMT

The European Union will launch a complaint at the World Trade Organisation if the US does not drop plans to rotate on to new products some $300m of sanctions imposed on EU goods in two recent trade disputes, EU officials said on Tuesday. European Commission and EU member states' officials said Brussels was likely to seek WTO consultations - the first step towards a disputes panel - unless senior US officials announced at Wednesday's EU-US summit in Lisbon that they would not implement the so-called "carousel" legislation. The carousel provision requires the US trade representative to find new targets every six months for punitive import duties imposed on $308m of EU goods last year after Brussels failed to comply with WTO rulings against its 11-year-old ban on US hormone-treated beef and its banana import regime. The provision was tacked on to a bill to extend US trade benefits to African and Caribbean countries which won final congressional approval last month. The US administration last Friday took the first step in implementing the legislation by setting a June 19 deadline to review, and possibly change, the sanctions list. The EU says the carousel provision leaves industry uncertain which goods might be hit next. The threat to take the carousel issue to the WTO could further raise tensions before Wednesday's Lisbon summit. It came only 24 hours after the EU rejected US proposals to amend a scheme allowing US companies to avoid billions of dollars in tax by funnelling exports through offshore "foreign sales corporations" - risking a new trade rift. Brussels also last week extended its bans on beef from cattle reared with growth hormones, after European scientists reaffirmed an opinion that one of six hormones was carcinogenic and the other five posed health risks. The US says the hormones are safe. The Commission is thought to be keen to challenge the carousel provision head-on in the WTO. http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3P0SLSV8C&live=true

(next...North Korea loves Clinton too! No wonder our energy costs are skyrocketing)

'Bribery' Becomes a Key Component in the U.S.-North Korea Arrangement By JIM MANN

The Clinton administration entered into this strange netherworld with its 1994 deal to stop the North Korean nuclear program. U.S. officials agreed to organize construction of the two civilian nuclear reactors and also to supply fuel oil to meet North Korea's energy needs. Since then, the administration has gradually gotten into the business of shipping food and other aid to North Korea. Over the last six years, the Pyongyang regime has become the largest single source of U.S. foreign assistance in East Asia. Why are we paying this money? After all, we are also paying large sums to station troops in South Korea, supposedly to defend against North Korea's 1-million-man army. And our country is talking about building a $60-billion missile-defense system, supposedly to defend against North Korean missiles. The Clinton administration claims our national bribery of Pyongyang is good policy because it stops North Korea's nuclear and missile programs. Yet it's never been clear whether North Korea was as much of a nuclear threat as the administration claimed. And when North Korea temporarily halted its missile testing last summer, it left open the possibility it might go ahead in the future. (Translation: More North Korean demands for money are in our horoscope.) A clearer insight into the Clinton administration's North Korea policy comes from Chinese scholar Wu Xinbo. Speaking at the Woodrow Wilson International Center earlier this month, he said the United States and China have been working together on the "three no's" for North Korea: no war, no nuclear weapons and no collapse. The first two goals are unchallengeable. But you might wonder why the Clinton administration should want to prevent the collapse of North Korea, a regime it often denounces as a "rogue state." Could it be that keeping North Korea alive serves hidden U.S. government interests? http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/20000531/t000051396.html

(next....BIG story)

Israel Wins Full UN Representation The Associated Press, Wed 31 May 2000

UNITED NATIONS (AP)  More than 50 years after Israel became a member of the United Nations, it will finally get the chance to be represented on key U.N. bodies in New York. For Israeli U.N. Ambassador Yehuda Lancry, acceptance in one of the U.N. regional groups that decides on committee memberships marks a turning point in the Jewish state's stormy relationship with the United Nations and an end to decades of isolation. For U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, it marks the end to a grave injustice and a victory for the Clinton administration, which decided to publicize a decades-old, behind-the-scenes campaign to find a region that would accept Israel. Under U.N. rules, regional groups decide who fills the 10 rotating seats on the Security Council and other key U.N. committee assignments. Israel was the only U.N. member that was not part of a regional group, because Arab nations have repeatedly blocked its admission to the Asian Group  where it belongs geographically. Last Friday, the U.N. regional group of European, North American and other countries invited Israel to become a temporary member, with some strings. On Tuesday, Lancry sent a formal letter of acceptance to the Netherlands' U.N. Ambassador Peter van Walsum, who currently heads the West European and Others Group, or WEOG, as it is called. ``We consider that this is a historic turning point in our relationship with the United Nations. It is really a new chapter which we are opening with the family of nations,'' Lancry said. http://www.worldnews.com/?action=display&article=2182155&template=worldnews/headlinesleft.txt&index=recent

Wednesday, 31 May, 2000, 14:29 GMT 15:29 UK Clinton to hold Israel summit

US and Israeli leaders have announced a new summit in an attempt to move the deadlocked Middle East peace process forward.

Minister Ehud Barak and US President Clinton will meet in Lisbon on Thursday - and not in Berlin as previously announced. Israeli Prime Minister Mr Barak will now be able to return to Israel in time for celebrations marking the 1967 capture of Arab east Jerusalem, which he was under pressure not to miss.

He and President Clinton had originally planned to meet in Washington last week, but the talks were cancelled due to Palestinian unrest and fast-moving events in southern Lebanon.

The violence also led Israel to suspend peace talks with the Palestinians in Sweden

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_769000/769969.stm

(Great links to Hot Middle East Stories here....)

http://www.worldnews.com/?action=display&article=2182155&template=worldnews/headlinesleft.txt&index=recent

OTHER RELATED ARTICLES The Dallas Morning News: Israel pullout leaves Lebanon path unsure The Daily Telegraph: New bloodshed threat to July withdrawal by Israel Business Recorder: Israel admitted to UN group for first time The Independent: Barak's next test is UN backing for Israel's withdrawal The Manila Times: Without Syrian peace, Israel stuck in Lebanon mud Canberra Times: Israel honours Dr Howard for peace commitment People Daily: Israel Warns Syria, Lebanon Not to "Play With Fire" The Age: Israel reluctant to disarm, disband SLA BBC News: UN breakthrough for Israel The Korea Herald: Israel and Korea enjoy golden age of opportunity: In political, cultural and economic arenas

-- meg davis (meg9999@aol.com), May 31, 2000