European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 08, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Paga 18 the stars and stripes Money matters monday. November 8,1933 today s rates following Are fixed rates a which Community banking and credit Union facilities will sell for eign currencies to . Personnel for personal use German Mark. 1.68 British Pound 1.52dutch Guilder 1.85 greek drachma. 235.3231 not the rates afoot Spity Wtown the hos country. Figures a expressed in dollars to Tow. British Pound otties currencies to the Dollar following arc Interbank rate that fluctuate and should be regarded As the approximate value of the . Dollar to foreign Curren cies italian lira 1,641.75 turkish lira 13,139.90spanish peseta .135.95 portuguese escudo. 174.20austrian Schilling 11.9425 saudi Royal. 3.75 Bahrain Dinar 0.37681 kuwaiti Dinar .0.2987norwegian Krone 7.372 danish Krone 8.772british Pound 1.4795 German Mark 148987 Swiss franc1.5037french Frane 5.907 dutch Guilder 1.9042belgian franc 36.30 Canadian Dollar 1.2915 Noto figures Are pressed in dollars to the. British Pound other currencies to the Dollar cold quote $374.40 an ounce Silver quote $4.42 an ounce to and assailed for attitudes on retardation Washington a Sega the video game company May kill its latest to commercial after getting complaint from experts on mental retardation who say it disparages the  and aimed at Sega archrival Nin Tendo depicts people of limited Intelli gence playing Nintendo s hand held game boy video system with an announcer s voice intoning some people arc Content to be entertained by simple one color electronics. Somehow these people have just never heard of Gam gear a Sega game system. Abc declined to accept the and but by Fox and mtg All aired it in recent weeks. Nintendo complained and the National association of superintendents of Public residential facilities for the men tally retarded fired off a letter to Sega prompting the company to reconsider whether it still will run the commercial. I am writing to express our outrage association president Ronald Boley wrote Sega s president and  offi cer Thomas Kalinsky on wednesday. The actors Are portraying clearly men tally handicapped individuals and the and proceeds to make fun of them even to the Point of depicting the male eating what the and purports to be pig s lips Boley  s lawyers the firm of Mudge Rose Guthric Alexander & Ferdon had supplied the association with a videotape of the  the advertisement is not withdrawn we will give it wide circulation to our Mem Bers who Are All cos of state facilities for the mentally disabled Boley  said thursday that to resolve this matter we will resubmit the Commer Cial to Independent consumer research to test specifically for the possibility that con Sumers think we Are making fun of or Are demeaning mentally handicapped  we certainly have no intention of eng aging in any advertising that would do this Kalinske wrote Boley. Suitor Viacom raises in struggle for Paramount by the new York times in a move that preempted a bid from its rival Viacom inc. Sweetened its take Over offer saturday for Paramount communications inc. Viacom Paramount s handpicked merger partner increased its bid by 6 percent to $10 billion. The new offer amounts to $85 a share up from $80. The timing of the move seemed aimed at derailing a higher offer from the rival bidder ivc network inc. Ivc has enlisted Bel South corp. As an investor in its hostile takeover bid. Paramount s properties include film arid television studios the new York kicks basketball team the new Yor rangers hockey team and Book publisher Simon & schuster. Ivc executives seemed stunned at the latest development. Before saturday both Viacom and ivc had comparable$9.5 billion offers on the table that included about $40.80 per share in Cash and the balance in Stock. The Cash portion in each Case was $4.8billion. A new offer by ivc the television Home shopping Channel had been in the works its Board and that of Bel South had me Friday to authorize plans for Bel South s $1.5 billion capital infusion into ivc s bid but no final agreement was signed. A Chad planned to announce its new offer Sun Day or today according to two executives Inthey Mccamp. Several investment experts described Viacom s move As savvy. Whatever Price ivc and Bel South were thinking about on Friday is now out of Date said one expert in mergers and acquisitions. No they have to rethink How much to  the move by Viacom s chairman Sumner m. Redstone Means that the bid Ding could escalate said one executive inthe ivc Camp because it suggests that Sumner is willing to do what it takes to get the  sweeping changes a sweeper left and scrubber both computerized robots Cleanthe floor at Japan railways Tokyo station in an Experiment the sweeper is guided by ultrasonic wives and sensors and the scrubber has an optical fiber guidance  Waw pm a  wow a a we wimpy � of a Ivor eau vwmv4ii Siuw. Kuulei Buve t3ftdu High consumer credit prompts doubts about strength of economic rebound by Rick Gladstone the data showed . The "th,.iv rr.-,-r,n. ,. A 4ap business writer new York if you re wondering How people Are earning the Money to buy the cars and Homes that seem to be fueling the Economy s growth lately the answer is they re not. They re borrowing  mystery Over the True strength of the economic recovery was solved at least partly last week when the Federal re serve reported the biggest one month leap in consumer borrowing in nearly six years for  is important because it signals that the Economy s stamina in t from a vast in crease in High paying new jobs and rising incomes but has a limited source of  Pace of borrowing cannot last. There s something very much wrong with this picture said Robert Brusca chief economist at the new York office of Nikko securities co. International. The consumer credit figures release Friday capped a week of surprisingly Strong data about the Economy that rattled the Stock and Bond markets by Arous ing fears of resurrected inflation. The rising productivity first expansion of manufacturing in five months the biggest gain in Home sales i seven years and surging sales of new vehicles. But a number of economists focus Don the  addition to the uncertainty of How Long Consumers will spend Money they Don t have questions arose on their spending  american retailers for example re ported mixed sales results for october month that historically has indicated How they will fare during the Christmas Selling season. Discounters did the Best while pricier merchants did a , there s spending going on but Consumers Are very Cost conscious very pragmatic about what they re buying said David Bostian an economist at her zog Heine Geduld a Wall Street invest ment firm. They re going to the Pace warehouse clubs the  the Sharp increase in october Auto Mobile sales stemmed at least partly from necessity. Many Consumers have been de laying the Purchase of replacement vehicles for years. Their cars Are falling apart and the need new ones said Sandra Shaber a con Sumer economist at the wefa group forecasting concern in Bala Cynwyd a. Moreover automakers have devise Many Clever ways for Consumers to get be Hind the wheel of a vehicle they cannot otherwise afford such As Low interest Loans and extended leases with no Money , others said they saw signs of significant Long lasting strength in the  the the labor department said the october unemployment rate edged unto 6.8 percent for example that was at least partly because More people were again looking for work after having Given up their search months before. It also re ported companies created nearly 180,000 jobs last month and More employees we reworking overtime. It does t sound like much but it s bet Ter than a lot of press reports which focus on the layoffs and the downsizing and the negatives said Richard Berner chief economist at Mellon Bank in  reported Are the positives. There is hiring going