European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 24, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday August 24, 1991 the stars and stripes b Page 17. S Money matters today s tip prices on some items in the new military mail order Catalon May change with the Rise and fall of the Dollar officials said. The army and air Force Exchange service will feature these Price adjustments in its 1991 fall Winter mail order Catalon now available at most Post and base exchanges. For the first time the Price of items procured by the Exchange Catalon service with japanese yen and German Marks will be adjusted if the fluctuation is greater than 10 percent of a base Price said Liz hedge chief of Catalon order sales. Normally prices remain fixed for the life of a Catalon she said. The mail order Catalon costs $3. It includes a discount Coupon for $5 off the first order of $25. Conversion rates London up fridays 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 $353.75 an ounce. Silver was quoted at $3.89 an ounce. Aug. 22 aug. 23 British pound.i.1.694 German mark.1-7?z� French franc.5.9225 5 dutch guilder.1.9615 belgian franc.35.63 36 015 italian lira.1,303,50 1.296.65 Swiss franc.1.5125 i53�9 greekdrachma.192.14 1?2.05 turkish lira.4,552.60 4,549.60 saudi arabian nyal.3.75 3.75 Spanish peseta.108.71 108.45 portuguese escudo.149.13 148.85 Canadian dollar.1.1438 1-ji3 austrian schilling.12.2525 12.2330 norwegian krone.6.8045 6.7890 danish krone.6.7275 6.7080 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 1.69 through monday based on fridays noontime Price fixing. Dow Jones new York up Dow Jones closing Range of averages thursday 30 industrials 20 transport 15 utilities 65 stocks High 3029.96 1199.40 206.50 1074.70 Low 2989.94 1180.89 203.93 1059.93 close 3007.38 1190.41 205.62 1067.16 change up 5.59 up 2.65 up 0.37 up 2.09 new York Exchange new York up a York Stock Exchange Stock Salomon inc Uniss corp Telen de mex at amp to company Philip Morns us Marathon ism corp Rwjr Nab bldg Archer Daniel Pepsico inc Triton Energy Heinz he co general motors genl electric Lilly Eli amp co the 15 most Active stocks in new composite trading on thursday. Sales last net chg. 5,775,800 22% Oft 2% 2,549,500 5 Vic 2,498,200 32% Oft % 2,474,600 39 Vuk unch 2,332,100 73 i off % 2,196,100 30% up 1 % 2,165,500 94% off 1 % 1.984,200 12% unch 1,863,700 25% up 1 % 1,744,700 32% off % 1,571,400. 44% up 2% 1.568.600 47 up 2 1,556,300 36% off % 1,474,400 73 up % 1,400,400 80% off 1 % american Exchange new York up american Stock exert Stock Bat Indus am expo rate Echo Bay mines Plains re sour Conti air Hodgs epitome Dow chemical it Cal Energy inc Forest labs inc Hill Haven corp the 10 most Active stocks in Lange composite trading thursday. Salot 909,300 823,500 731.100 636,700 562.200 326.100 320.800 244.800 241.200 202,400 last 11 7-16 4 a 8 15 it 1 % 16 8% 14 % 40 a a 3 failed coup with former East bloc economies net chg. Off 13-16 up 1 of up % up i off 2% up a Quot up 4k up % unch by Mary Neth staff writer _ Mikhail s. Gorbachev is Back in Power and the world is breathing a sigh of Relief. The dramatic events this week however have underscored the big problems facing the soviet Union and the rest of the former East bloc analysts say. Switching from communism to a free Market society Isnit easy. The easter european lands Are blighted with economic woes. They need Western investment and they Are not getting it in significant amounts. Just last month at a London Summit meeting of the group of seven top Industrial countries Gorbachev asked for $100 billion in economic Aid. The country is in a total economic crisis. In an interview in Germany a Der Spiegel Magazine economist Leonid Balkin predicted a deficit of from 210 billion to 240 billion rubles in 1991, four times greater than last year. The situation is not much better in other former communist countries. Everywhere there is a shortage of consumer goods Money and employment. A although there have been some significant indications of interest from the West the East europeans still Haven to gotten the investments they hoped for a said Robin Marshall of Chase investment Bank in London. There have been Only a few exceptions he noted. A there has been quite a lot of interest in the automobile Industry in Poland and Czechoslovakia and the manufacture of buses in Hungary a Marshall said. Large investment however has been lacking he said in the less successful heavy industries such As petrochemical works steel production and engineering technology. A these Are areas where not As much investment has come Forward. Western investors can not be entirely blamed a Marshall said. They Are put off by the internal unrest political uncertainty and antiquated legislation they find in the former communist countries he pointed out. A it is not just a question of Western companies buying property. There has to be some kind of internal purchasing Power As Well a Marshall added. A it is difficult to get internal buyers when there is not a lot of internal Money. All in All Progress has been much slower than the East europeans had  Bill Wallace director of the Institute for soviet and East european studies at Scotland a University of Glasgow agrees. He sees poor Market infrastructures As the main stumbling Block. A former East Germany should be attracting investment but it is not a he pointed out. Businesses he said fear investment would prove fruitless that they would have no Way to distribute goods produced. Wallace also blames the economic problems in the new German states on a wrong currency conversion  with the Union one year ago the Exchange was made on basically a 1-for-l rate. A they were dictated by political exigencies a Chancellor Helmut Kohl trying to get re elected. He was pretty much buying East German votes by giving them currency conversion terms offering spending Power for Western goods a said Wallace. A the Economy is suffering from sharply rising unemployment because local Industry has been rendered uncompetitive by the virtual 1-to-l Exchange rate Kohl offered a he said. Wallace believes the Exchange rate should have been around 2 or 3 East Marks to 1 West Mark More in line with a woman examines a sparsely stocked store in the former East German City of Llaulle. What the German Bundesbank wanted. What has happened now was predictable. A that was a Good example a of expectations running ahead of events a Wallace said. A everyone thought there would be a rapid Renaissance with the Union of West and East Germany. A instead the first 18 months of currency conversion have seen enormous economic problems and sharply rising unemployment. There has been a big labor migration out of East Germany into West Germany and wholesale social  he predicts that it is going to take awhile for the private sector to be convinced that the former East Germany is competitive. A they can to sell to the West and they can to sell to the former Eastern bloc either a he said. A there is very Little spending in those Eastern  Wallace believes that Gorbachev has been practising too timid of an approach to entry into a free Market Economy. A you have politicians who refuse to go Down what you might Call the a big bang route. That would mean letting the Market develop spontaneously despite  increase in social displacement a he said. Western investors also have been put off by legislative restrictions Marshall said. A in the beginning there were a lot of restrictions on How much can be invested and How much could be taken As profit by foreign firms. The situation now has generally improved a he said. Quot today in most cases Western companies can own Eastern investments outright and repatriate All their  Marshall notes however that the question of political uncertainty remains acute. A in Czechoslovakia there is the dispute Between the czechs and the slovaks. Hungary is having problems with its coalition government. In Poland there has been the dispute about the presidency Quot he said. Despite the slow Start in Eastern investment which Marshall also attributes to continuing recession in part of the West he is not totally pessimistic. A i would say that one could expect the amount of foreign direct investment in Eastern Europe to double or triple within the next three years a he said. �?o1 believe that there will be enough bargains around and enough political support for businessmen to begin to speculate