European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 4, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday. September 4. 1991 the stars and stripes c Page 17_ Money matters Citibank is testing a special Type of credit card for people with poor credit records. Under the Pilot plan a customer would receive a so called secured credit card after buying a certificate of Deposit As collateral against the unpaid credit card balance. The Deposit a minimum of $300, would be equal to the credit line. Citibank spokeswoman Susan weeks said the Pilot plan could help people rehabilitate a tarnished credit history. Conversion rates London up tuesdays 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 $348.75 an ounce server at $3,855. Sept 2 sept 3 British pound.1.6855 1.6920 German mark.1.7465 1.7400 French franc.5.9280 5.9140 dutch guilder.1.9655 1.9580 belgian franc.35.92 35.80 italian lira.1,303.05 1,298.55 Swiss franc.1.5345 1.5255 greek drachma.192.88 192.30 turkish lira.4,585.60 4,609.00 saudi arabian riyal.3.7503 3.7503 Spanish peseta .108.64 108.37 portuguese escudo.149.44 148.92 Canadian dollar.1.1414 1.1402 austrian schilling.12.2475 12.2375 norwegian krone.6.8260 6.8010 danish krone.6.7375 6.7115 these Are unofficial rates As reported by wire service and banking sources and they Are listed to give some idea of daily currency fluctuations. A the Only official rate concerns the Sale of German Marks to . Personnel for personal use and this will be 1.70 through wednesday based on tuesdays noontime Price fixing. Matchmaking the latest perk at japanese firms Tokyo up corporate leaders a worried that employees Are working too hard to have time to find a spouse a have turned to matchmaking. While japanese firms have Long supplied benefits such As company housing they Are now offering their Young male workers opportunities to meet women. A single male employees such As engineers have trouble meeting Young women because they spend most of their time in the office where 80 to 90 percent of the workers Are male said a spokesman for Meiden Sha corp., an electronic equipment manufacturer. Meiden Sha is purchasing round trip tickets for employees based overseas so they can return to Japan for a formally arranged Date with marriage in mind. Mentec corp. Has opened a disco for firm employees in Hopes it will serve As a meeting place Tor bachelors and women outside the company. And ask corp. Throws parties and weekend trips to give singles a Chance to meet and mingle. Markets closed american financial markets were closed monday in Observance of labor Day. The Repi a the they Pitt Traxl _ am siege Elmei Nisei share of the soviet Economy i ate in tog  inert  pact. . .v.wsw. \ s n \ 11 if Iii Umi what they produce agriculture cattle Breeding Dairy farming Industry horticulture livestock Oil lit mining $ natural Gas ship building $ Timber textiles x wine making us Rump 11.7% by 0 Ion ssi i i uni in is t Stoma lat via Fps s v sri Al a a   Kadzhi Kristan 0.5% turkmen a 0.4% source . Bureau of the census Russia tit All a o u. Armenian u on Azerbaijan Uzbekistan t Kadzhi Kristan 4v my Vulej a air Apt. Dean Cape republics economically bound to soviet Union legislator says Moscow a ten of the 15 soviet republics have declared Independence from the Union but soviet experts predict they will remain bound together economically. A splitting this Economy is impossible a and the republics know it said legislator Alexander m. Yakovlev. A if someone tries to Stop the Oil flowing from Siberia to Lithuania there will be a cold Winter and mass starvation mass death Quot he said. A fall republics regardless of their political slogans and declarations of Independence Are 100 percent dependent on this  in the new and splintered soviet Union resource Rich republics like the russian federation with its massive Industrial base Are Likely to fare better than the already impoverished republics of Central Asia. But legislators from nearly All the republics say the main Challenge they face is not coping with Independence but breaking the chains of the communist command Economy. A Independence that s the easy question Quot said economist and National legislator Pavel Bunich. The command Economy Hinds nearly every factory and store into behaviour that Western and soviet experts describe As senseless and economically destructive. Under the command system communist apparatchiks in Moscow s giant bureaucracies tried to set prices on every transaction and to control the movement of every wholesale and retail product across the country. Republic leaders say they will Benefit from dismantling that inefficient system hut it will be hard to move to a Market Economy. Recognizing the strength of the economic ties that bind them All 15 republics even the nearly Independent Baltic have consistently said they want to continue economic ties with other republics. One year later there s Little doubt the . Economy is foundering by John Cunniff a business analyst new York a during labor Day week one year ago America was debating whether the Economy was or Wasny to in recession. One year later the debate is whether we re in the recovery phase. Either debate leads to the same conclusion the american Economy is in trouble. The descent into recession meant trouble the inability to ascend from it Means trouble remains. Among Many households income is weak savings Low debt High. In business corporate profits arc a disaster lower perhaps than they were a decade ago after adjusting for taxes and inflation. The Only segment of the Economy that has shown spending Power is the Federal government. State governments have had to Cut sharply. And corporate finances Arentt Good even ism has been warned its debt rating May be lowered. Investment adviser John Dessauer states the situation succinctly a no matter How the data Are sliced the same answer emerges business does not invest More and individuals do not save More because they can t. After taxes and inflation they simply do not have the  the labor Day message therefore is not the sort americans have become used to in recent years. More than 8.5 million people Are without jobs not counting hundreds of thousands of discouraged workers who have dropped out of the labor Force. Structural problems exist. Construction of commercial buildings has almost died because of overbuilding. For the first time in decades Home ownership by those in the 25 to 34-year-old category is falling. Many companies Are downsizing. The Federal government which once could be relied upon to Cut taxes and spend the Economy Back to health and inflation be damned has lost that option because of its own big debts and earlier overspending. It is in fact playing the opposite role it has raised taxes and Cut Back 011 social welfare spending. The main Burden of anti recession efforts therefore is in the hands of the Federal Reserve a cautious fed that considers restraining inflation to be of higher priority than spurring the econ omy. What does remain the same As in other economic malaise is the traditional thinking of government and academic economists that the consumer will Lead the nation up from recession. They cite the fact that consumer economic activity accounts for almost two thirds of Gross National product greater than the contribution of government and business combined. The traditional indicators of recovery Are All consumer measurements. When Consumers buy houses it is said the recovery has begun. Perhaps overlooked in such analyses is the poor condition of the consumer whose savings rate has dropped close to 3 percent. A there is no historical precedent for a recovery starting with the savings rate so depressed a says economist  Hunt. He among others fears the consumer is too weak to Lead. In recognition of this the latest expectations of forecasters seem to be More modest than those of a few months ago. The word a Lane mice is used to describe whatever recovery is foreseen As often As a a robust used to he