European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 8, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 16 the stars and stripes Money matters monday March a 1993 today a rates following Are fixed rates at which Community banking and credit Union facilities will sell for eign currencies to . Personnel for personal use German Mark British Pound dutch Guilder greek drachma meet a 1.61 1.49 1.80 216.1556 note the rates above apply within the Host country. Figures Are expressed in dollars to the British Pound other currencies to the Dollar following Are Interbank rates that fluctuate and should be regarded As the approximate value of the . Dollar to foreign Curren Bicsi a a italian lira. 1,564.24 turkish lira 9,266.80 Spanish peseta. 118.20 portuguese escudo  152,10 austrian Schilling 11.59 saudi rial. 3.7495 Bahrain Dinar .0.3765 Kuwait Dinar 0.3069 norwegian Krone. 6.995 danish Krone 6.316 British Pound. 1.449 German Mark. 1.666 Swiss franc. 1.5425 French franc. 5.5855 dutch Guilder 1.8443 belgian franc. 34.20 Canadian Dollar 1.241 note figures Ere expressed to Hollars to the British Pound other currencies to the Dollar Gold quote $330.00 an ounce Silver quote $3.61 an ounce. Quot a experts wary of permanence Quality of 365,000 new interest drop helps offset Rise in taxes by John Cunniff a business writer new York taxes might be on their Way up but folks with variable Home Mort Cage rates May hardly notice the difference because of falling interest rates. In fact the Pinch of higher taxes might cause no More pain than the bite of a sandfly when compared to the enormous Comfort and Relief afforded by monthly payment reductions that sometimes amount to Hundred of dollars. Moreover As homeowners appreciate the tax deductibility of mortgage interest is one of the last remaining a a loopholes available to individuals seemingly too sacrosanct a Benefit for legislators to touch. Those attractive Long term rates arc also giving a boost to the Economy. Combined with stable prices in Many areas the lowest interest rates in two decades Are boosting Home sales and construction providing a Booster shot to a still sluggish Economy that periodically shows signs of petering out. V the combination is also Likely to reveal a problem that might have seemed utterly outlandish just a year or so ago. Home Sites say some Large builders Are in Short Supply and the shortage could begin to Force up prices. In just a few years some homeowners have had mortgage rates almost Cut in half and some forecasters say More cuts Are Likely before the year is out. For homeowners with Large mortgages budget Relief of $400 a month is common. While specific Dollar amounts Are difficult to come by the net Impact of such reductions is High into the tens of billions of dollars amounts beyond even the most daring tax Cut proposals made during the political campaigns. The Relief saved Many families from losing their properties especially when incomes were Cut off by the recession. By Stefan Fatsis a business writer new York a in his former academic life labor Secretary Robert b. Reich preached a doctrine of Quality employ mint. The number of Nev jobs he wrote Isbit nearly As important As the skills they require. Now Reich faces the real world. His department said Friday that the Economy created 365,000 new business jobs in february the most in four years. But their Quality and permanence Are suspect. The new jobs Are predominantly in the services retail and construction industries. Many Are part time. While those facts Are viewed As signs of economic recovery no one is Gleeful yet. A in the service Industry one of the problems is that while jobs Are created they tend to be jobs at lower pay Levels a said Michele Mccormick of the California jobs journal which provides employment information. A a lot of people Are taking jobs that Are outside their area of professional expertise that arc part time a she added. In California where a Sharp economic downturn has been led by declines in the defense and real estate industries Job fairs Are attracting thousands of unemployed White Collar workers. V Many companies that Laid off workers during the recession arc hiring part timers before committing to full time pm. I Dyment. In a Survey of 15,000 businesses last month by manpower inc., 26 percent of respondents said they would increase staffing in april june a Sharp gain from a similar study the previous Quarter. However the number of temporary workers placed by manpower is 20 percent higher than a year ago. United states percent of work Force seasonally adjusted 8.0 mama Jason j f 1992 1993 feb. �?T92 Jan. �?T93 feb/93 7.3% j i 7.1% ii 7.0%l source . Dept of labor a cart Fox a a it a sort of a cautionary move in which a lot of temporary people and a lot of part time people Are used just because an employer Isnit sure where he is a said Mitchell Fromstein president of the big temporary help service. The labor department statistics showed gains of 131,000 jobs in services industries such As business and health 131,000 in retail trades such As stores and restaurants and 96,000 in construction. Less impressive was the manufacturing sector which added just 10,000 jobs. Economists expect manufacturing to continue to lag. Employment there has fallen by nearly 190,000 jobs in the last year. One Bright spot has been technology services. Corptech., a Woburn mass., firm that tracks 35,000 technology firms projects that High tech companies with fewer than 1,000 employees will generate about 130,000 new jobs in the next 12 months. A big reason corporate clients that held off improving or expanding computer systems during the recession have begun to do so. Some Banks have expanded staffs to handle a flood of mortgage activity As individuals refinance or take out first time Home Loans. First Union corp. Last week announced it was creating 200 new jobs in Roanoke va., to service mortgages. Other industries were not heartened by the february employment figures. Construction gains for instance appear concentrated in Home building. Corporate projects still Are on hold in Many parts of the country. Corporate hesitance to spend and hire May partly reflect concern Over higher business taxes in president Clinton a proposed economic program. Until the shape of a final package is dear companies May be holding ground. And rather than hire new employees manufacturers appear to be keeping workers on the Job longer. The workweek for factory employees Rose to 41.5 hours in february and factory overtime was the highest in the 36 years the government has tracked it. Nationally the unemployment rate dipped to 7.0 percent from 7.1 percent in january and a Post recession Peak of 7.7 percent last june the department said. Treasury to apply Tough tests to halt discrimination by Banks by John ii. Cushman or. The new York times a Washington the Treasury departments Bank examiners will soon adopt tougher procedures to keep National Banks from discriminating on the basis of race when they approve Home mortgages Stephen r. Steinbrink the acting comptroller of the currency said Friday that examiners would soon begin comparing groups of residential loan files at Banks they regulate to see whether non White applicants for Home mortgages had been denied Loans at a higher rate than White applicants who were comparably financially qualified. In the past when Bank examiners tested for discrimination they examined individual loan documents to see if there appeared to be valid reasons for denying a loan. But they did not compare groups of Loans by race to see if there were Broad patterns of discrimination. The Federal Home mortgage discrimination act requires Banks to record each applicant s race so that patterns of discrimination can be detected and enforcement measures can be monitored. The new approach which will be tried As an Experiment before being made permanent is a response to recent studies by the Federal Reserve Bank showing Sharp differences nationwide in the rate of approvals for White and non White customers who apply for Home mortgages. Tie Central Bank a studies suggested that the disparities were a result of discrimination. A it May not have been conscious a Steinbrink said in a presentation last week to a conference of Federal Bank regulators. A it May not have been intentional. But whether it was intentional or not it is  he said the comptrollers office needed to change its examination procedures which had failed to detect the discrimination. The comptrollers office regulates nationally chartered banking companies which hold about two thirds of the banking Industry a assets. The Federal and state agencies that regulate the rest of the nations Banks and savings and Loans which Issue the bulk of the nations mortgages Are also expected to change their examination methods. Ousted panic returning to run . Drug company Costa Mesa Calif. A Milan panic the yugoslav prime minister who was ousted by hard line serbs after trying to end the killing in the Balkans is heading Home to run the pharmaceutical company he founded. Panic 63, planned to Stop in Geneva and possibly new York said David Calef a spokesman for in pharmaceuticals. It Wasny to Clear when he would arrive in California. Panic a serbian immigrant who founded in 33 years ago left the company in july when the yugoslav parliament elected him prime minister. A . Citizen. Panic was chosen in part because he was a popular entrepreneur with political connections in the United states. He lost a december election for serbian president to socialist Slobodan Milosevic amid allegations of vote rigging and election fraud. He clashed frequently with Milosevic and Days after the presidential election the yugoslav parliament voted no Confidence in his government. He remained prime minister until february. Panic will return to in As chairman and chief executive of the Parent company and each of its subsidiaries. Adam Jerney who took Oyer when panic left will relinquish those titles but remain president of the company a largest subsidiary