European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 12, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday. July 12, 1991 the stars and stripes Page 17. Money matters i today s tip Wal Mart stores inc., the largest retailer in the United states is expanding into Mexico. The discount retail giant announced a joint venture with Mexico a largest retailer Cifra a to operate discount warehouse stores in Mexico City. A Wal Mart while Best known for its discount store Chain also operates warehouse stores under the name same a wholesale clubs. The joint venture will also develop Trade Between the United states and Mexico Wal Mart said. The retailer did not say what mexican products might be sold in its . Stores. Cifra operates 192 stores in Central Mexico. That includes 35 Al Acenes Hurrera combination stores 22 Bod Guarrera discount stores 34 Superata supermarkets 27 Suburbia department stores and 74 vips restaurants. Conversion rates London up thursdays closing rates for the . Dollar to other currencies. Figures Are expressed in dollars to the British Pound other local currencies in dollars Gold was quoted at $368 an ounce Sliver at $4.42. July 10 july 11 British pound.1.6225 1.6055 German mark.1.8160 1.8350 French franc.6.1770 6.152 Outch guilder.2.0510 2.0410 belgian franc.37.4900 37.2925 italian lira.1,355.25 1,350.5 Swiss franc.1.5755 1.59 greek drachma.198.60 197.91 turkish lira.4382.10 4378.10 saudi arabian riyal.3.7503 3.7503 Spanish peseta.114.46 113.75 portuguese escudo.158.25 157.13 Canadian dollar.1.1479 1.1484 austrian schilling.12.8125 12.76 norwegian krone.7.1090 7.0715 danish krone.7.0435 7.0175 these Are unofficial rates As reported by wire service and banking sources and they Are listed to give some idea of daily currency fluctuations. The Only official rate concerns the Sale of German Marks to . Personnel for personal use and this will be 1.77 on Friday based on thursdays noontime Price fixing. New York Exchange new York up a the 15 most Active stocks in new York Stock Exchange composite trading on wednesday. Stock Rwjr Nabisco hid Pepsico inc cadence design Tel Fonos de my Columbia is sys Fedl Natl Mage Wal Mart stores Nike inc Beazer Pic Philip Morris waste mgt inc at amp to co k Mart corp Amer express Maxis Energy american Exchange sales last Netchel. 2,975,000 11 up % 2,549,600 26 i Oil 1 % 2,323,300 15 0 13% 2,201,400 28 %. Up % 1,920,200 15% off 1 1,868,100 51 % up % 1,826,800 44% unch 1,765,500 42 % up 1 % 1,728,200 4 % unch 1,634.700 66 % up % 1,536,700 38% up a 1,501,200 38% Oft a 1,470,400 45% up % 1,420,600 22% up % 1,337,800 8 % off % new York up the 10 most Active american Stock Exchange composite trading Day. Stock revolt Monogram Echo Bay mines Hasbro inc Dia sonics inc Amdahl corp Chambers Dev a Graham fid Hith metro Mobile b Koger equity Nabors Industry Dow chemical it stocks in wednes Sale last net chg. 1,283,700 10% unch 682,000 9 % 0 1% 355.200 28% up % 294,100 49-16 up 3-16 284.500 14% up a 241,400 28% up 1 232,800 7% up % 215,000 16 % up % 203,800 9% of 196,700 5% up % 194,300 7% off % Dow Jones new York up rages wednesday High 30 industrials 2990.83 20 transports 1224.08 15 utilities 196.62 65 stocks 1067.02 Dow Jones dosing Range of a Low close change 2927.77 2944.77 off 2.46 1201.34 1205.04 off 2.47 194.54 195.17 off 1.45 1045.88 1050.75 off 2.18 burgeoning soviet business by David Remnick the Washington Post i Leningrad .s.r. On a summer morning not Long ago the fresh faced Young men from the local a Charity society paid a visit to one of the richest businessmen in the Vassilevsky District. It was time to collect the weekly 5,000-Ruble  a some people Call us gangsters a a former athlete named Sergei explained As he popped a knuckle. A we like to think of it this Way we protect people. We persuade them to let us protect  sometimes Sergei said they use pistols and uzis bought on the Black Market As their instruments of persuasion. With private business growing by the Day Here life is Good for the Charity society. Its members shake Down everyone from owners of newspaper kiosks to department stores Selling foreign goods. A just the Price is different a Sergei said. After the Charity society left Alexander a nordic looking Man in his late 30s, said paying Protection Money is a just part of doing business  since he works out of an abandoned basement his Only other expense is his phone Bill. A this country is in a state of transition a wild time and so there Are no rules no stability. Its open season a said Alexander who trades in cars fax machines televisions refrigerators jeans a anything that Sells. A i know of one Guy who could t make his payments and they tortured him with a soldering Iron. Ninety nine percent of the businessmen in town a me included a violate a lot of rules taxes hard cur Rency restrictions,1 the Laws on hiring people. We have to break the Law if we want to get anything done. And so the racketeers know we can to resist. A calling in the police is hopeless a Alexander continued. A that is unless you want to spend the rest of your life behind a fortress. Or dead in the  in classical marxist theory the initial stages of the accumulation of wealth produce a morbid  groups such As the Charity society Are but one. This country is in a stats of transition a wild  so. There Are to rules to stability a a soviet entrepreneur in interviews in Leningrad Moscow Perm Magnitogorsk Magadan and other soviet cities private entrepreneurs mainly agreed that at one time or another they have Bent the Law or broken it. With society in such a state of confusion they said ttys can hardly do otherwise. The fisc of business has raced ahead of the legislative and cultural process. The Laws of foreign currency real estate1 transactions private ownership and imports c Hange All the time. And after 70 years of communism there is no business culture no firm sense of contracts relationships and stability. The soviet Union is a place where even Many lawmakers cannot decide whether Ordinary business people Are criminal exploiters or saints in three piece suits. A How can you be honest when they change the Laws Ever a week and the government wants to play poker with a stacked deck a said Oleg Sultanov the general director of Tel a Leningrad trading company based in a Railroad shed. During the regime of soviet Leader Leonid Brezhnev the comic Symbol of Sleazy business dealings was the Tomkuch the weary factory representative who would travel the country to make sure he got the supplies his firm needed. Bribes and gifts were his Stock in Trade. But the Tomkuch was Only the comic face of a degraded dishonest system. Corruption permeated the centralized Economy from top to Bottom from the state Butcher shop manager who sold his Host beef on the Black Market to the members of the Council of ministers who lied about production Levels to Curry favor with the general Secretary. One of the great scams of the Early period of Reform in the soviet Union was known As thei a convenient  in an Effort to encourage semiprivate cooperative businesses the government issued huge Start up Loans at Low interest rates. Some cooperators used the funding to open stores or services. But others who did not believe the period of liberalization would last More than a few months and wanted to make a Quick Fortune grabbed the Money and when the loan came due said Quot sorry the business  the Bank could do Little More than put a 12 percent Lien on the debtors meager state salary. Despite All the talk of Reform the legacy of cynicism and corruption lingers. A the Standard of a dual honesty for 70 years Here has led to a deterioration of ethical standards. You Rob your workplace. You Cut in line. You skip out on contracts if its convenient. Dishonesty is deep rooted a said Vladimir Al Canyan an emigre businessman with import Export offices in Moscow and California. Corruption is a matter of course. In Leningrad a kirov District officials and business people said merchants fast discovered that to do a simple remodelling Job on a building or to get a decent location for a Kiosk they had to pay off the District governments architect. Finally the local police caught the architect Timur Kuril cd taking a 9,000-Ruhlc bribe in a Public bathroom. But bribery goes on As usual Leningrad entrepreneurs said. A the soviets done to have any experience in conducting business in an ethical fashion Quot agreed Richard Deane an attorney who was head of the Moscow Law office of the Coudert Bros Between 1988 and 1990. A there arc no business values in place nowhere to learn How to to this. Its a business culture in which the end always justifies the  fed chief Greenspan to be reappointed Quot in Washington a president Bush said wednesday that he will appoint Alan Greenspan to a second term As Federal Reserve Board chairman endorsing the Central Bank a efforts to lift the Economy from recession. He praised Greenspan for his skill in juggling the competing economic concerns of keeping inflation Low while stimulating growth. A the has done an outstanding Job a Bush said. A a. He a been a fierce fighter against inflation but i think he also is As strongly committed to  he said Greenspan a reappointment which is subject to Senate confirmation a certainly should be a reassuring signal not Only to Domestic markets but to world  the announcement although withheld until Greenspan had Only a month left in his four year term was expected. A the markets would have been really really upset if he Hadnot been reappointed a said economist Jay Goldinger Greenspan of capital insight inc. In Beverly Hills Calif. A markets like predictability and a new fed chairman would have brought a lot of uncertainty into the  Over the past year As the Economy sunk into its first recession in eight years Bush and his senior advisers have constantly pressured Greenspan and his fellow Board members to stimulate an economic recovery by quickly and steeply lowering interest rates. Central Bank officials however resisted loosening credit As forcefully As the administration had wanted fearing resurgent inflation. Greenspan whose current term expires aug. 11, said he believed the recession had ended. A i think the evidence is increasing week by week that the Bottom is passed and the Economy is beginning to move up. We still do not know How rapid the recovery is or the underlying strength of it but i think its a pretty Safe bet at this stage to conclude the decline is behind us Quot Greenspan said. Last month various economic indicators have Given signals of an upturn ranging from higher retail sales to increased factory output liven so unemployment last month reached its five year nigh of 7 percent. At a news conference. Bush and Greenspan sidestepped questions of whether the fed should work to further reduce interest rates. Greenspan is a longtime consultant to Republican presidents and one of Bush a Tennis partners lie served As chief economic adviser in president Ford s while House. In 1987, president Reagan appointed him to succeed Paul Volcker As chairman of the seven member Board governing the Central Hank. Only two months after taking the Job Greenspan faced the october 1987 Stock Market crash. He received High Marks for his handling of the crisis. He encouraged Banks to keep Loans flowing to Cash strapped stockbrokers and later loosened1 credit to Cushion the crashes blow on the Economy. Before wednesdays announcement financial Market analysts had speculated that the renomination was delayed to maintain pressure on the Central Bank to keep interest rates Low. Bush a announcement came a Day after the Wall Street journal reported that led officials decided in a closed door meeting last week not to lower their Money growth targets