European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 23, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes monday March 23, 1987 columns William f. Buckley or. Some questions Don t deserve to be answered president Reagan got off a Nice line during his press conference palpably underappreciated by his audience. The question was sir Are you distressed Haj even your own polls show that a majority of american people including Many who voted for you believe that you Are nol telling the full Rulh on the Iran Centra affair his answer Well in View of what they be been Reading and hearing for All i Csc several months i can understand Why they might think not bad. Ronald Reagan lives. There have been one or two press conferences nixon1 in Florida one thinks of after the saturday night massacre in which the attention was perhaps As sharply focused on style As on Content bul not Many. The news junkies had a disadvantage last thursday that they did t suffer under where or. Nixon was concerned namely he con Trast in the behaviour of the two presi dents when they got into trouble or Nixon was clearly on the defensive and it teemed during 1973, As though the Sun would never Csc save on a Day that made or. Nixon took trickier than he looked the Day before Reagan has been Hurt bul it is less Likely since Flora Lewis the publication of the Tower commis Sion report that the people feel that he is lying to them. They have other complaints. So that when half gently half mordant by Reagan assumes that genial facial expression of his and says that he can hardly blame those who suspect him of covering up from thinking that he has done so Given what they see on television and read in he papers he is giving Back just a Little of whal so Many so briefly have Given to him. It is possible logo from in dec to grave wondering what is an appropriate answer to some of the questions regularly put to our Public figures nowadays. "60 min utes is first class investigative reporting tendentious to be sure bul brilliantly directed. Still its interrogators can and sometimes do ask questions no Public official should deign to answer. A week or so Back Diane Sawyer was questioning vice president George Bush. Toward the end of he program she read one after another criticism of Bush foraged from a year s clippings mostly from pundits. Now it is one thing to ask or Bush something on the order of did you or did you not oppose the approach to Iran to which he can say yes i did no i did not or. Cabinet meetings arc confidential and i can t answer that question. But what is a Public figure supposed to say in answer to the question or. Vice president one columnist wrote a year or so ago that the unpleasant sound you Are emitting. Is a thin Liny Arf the sound of a Lap what is a self respecting Man going to do when Diane tosses him a hand grenade of that sort whal poor or. Bush was reduced to saying was thai most Lap dogs Aren t shot Down at age 20 As Navy fliers and most wimps Don t watch a daughter die gradually at age 3 and survive the experience what or. Bush might have said is that for All that he has trouble with hostile critics he has not yet been called names As ugly As those that have been used in american history against Washington Jefferson and Lincoln. But there is an obsession abroad thai seems to require every Public figure to reply to every question and thai obsession ought to be made to go away a. Little ice water would t Hurt a bit. I Don l know what or. Dean Acheson would have said in answer to the ques Tion or Secretary Why do the Majori by of the american people think you Are a liar or. Acheson never ran for Public office and could therefore say things about the majority of the american peo ple with relative impunity. He d have been Loo tactful to say the majority of the american people can be dumb enough to believe asked to comment on the charge that he is Best characterized As a Lap dog or Acheson might have stared mis Sawyer in the face and raid please ask me an Intelli gent question the folkways of Rule the Waves but seriously folks serious folks ought not to accept just any question As warranting an answer. I once politely declined an invitation to spend an hour on a Public to interview after Reading the script of the interview one month earlier and discovering thai the first question directed to new York mayor John Lindsay was John were you popular at prep school that was some years ago and 1 still can t think of an appropriate answer to such a question that is publishable. Or Reagan ought to add to his Agenda a clipped next ques Tion when asked one thai and mils of no dignified answer. Be a Maul Ftp Europe keeps wary Eye on . Stock scandals among themselves european businessmen and financiers Are quaking at the implications of the Wall Street financial scandals. For one thing they arc worried about a sudden loss of investor Confidence if the scandals turn out to be even More widespread than they appear. Stocks Are still High bul prices arc consid ered to represent a speculative Bubble due in Large part to what is now called the Oil Bonus not to real growth. Industrial countries have saved Between $70 Bil lion and $100 billion As a result of lowered Oil prices. Economists ask where that Money which would have been paid to Oil producers has actually gone. The answer seems to be primarily Inlo the Stock markets bidding up quotations rather than expanding production and creating jobs. As a result of three important changes in the last few years a new global financial Market is developing linking National markets. Computer communications providing instant information around the world remo Val of regulations on capital transfers in major euro Pean countries and what the experts Call financial engineering new techniques for raising funds have combined to create an unprecedented Imp of Money across Borders without relation to actual Trade. This spreads the risks and can be considered a new strength in the world system one economist said but he pointed out Hal in also Means a much bigger Blowout if the Bubble bursts. Another economist noted that it also Means pressures will mount for some standardization of Market rules and practices which now vary widely from country to country. There is almost no american Type regulation in european markets and the dealers dread the idea that it May be forced on them. A dutch businessman with wide top level International connections said sarcastically that there were three Basic reactions to the scandals among the euro Pean establishments. One has been to sniff at shoddy . Instruments such As Green mail and junk Bonds and say Al can t happen Here. We Don l do such things. Thai s Why in s americans who arc being caught. We always knew americans did t keep up to our High moral Stan but he said thai what this really meant was that the europeans keep their operations secret and no one makes a careful Check on them we have political scandals but we hardly Ever have corruption scandals because we Aren t that open. Our dirty Linen never gels washed bul he would t let his name be published. Even to the whistle blowers the habits of discretion Are too deeply set another reaction in Europe is to shrug off the Wall Street Hij Niksas incidents not pan of a pattern be andihaboesk/5 cause that would be too damaging to the. Whole Finan Cial system. Thai is an Ostrich response. And the third reaction is Radical though it comes from conservative industrialists who worry that the Money markets on which they must rely Are deteriorating into Jungle capitalism. They Lalk about nationalizing Banks. The scandals in is pointed out have All involved financial manipulator takeover artists who move paper around not the managers of productive Compa Nies. Further they Haven t involved the big Banks which Are accustomed to keeping detailed records and making full reports. Some europeans feel the commercial Banks should be allowed to move in on the relatively smaller invest ment houses and impose their stricter rules. But that would Only add to gig amiss and the possibility of a few firms dominating the markets. So the idea is also spreading that Wall Street s scan dals offer healthy proof that the . System of Finan Cial regulation does catch cheaters. It can use improvement bul it is already far ahead of others. The traditional european system has been to rely on peer pressure the supposition that established houses will keep each other hones because it in t gentlemanly not to be. Of course that leaves it up to the gentlemen who run the Market to decide what is and what is not honest. They Don l at All like the thought of having investigators prying into their records and they worry that tie with american firms Wilt subject them to unaccustomed scrutiny. But the Choice now is to open up National markets to outsider or resign themselves to he backwaters of the global Economy. Therefore it is time for the major countries id think about working up some International Market rules. This would be a useful subject to launch at the next so Van Nalion Summit conference. The financial world has raced ahead of government bul All depend on ils being kept in reliable working order
