European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 12, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 14 the stars and stripes Money matters saturday february 12,1994 today s 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 1.71 British Pound. 1.50 dutch Guilder 1.91 greek drachma 246.5239 note the rates above apply within the Host country. Figures Are  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 cies italian lira 1,695.50 turkish lira. 17,681.00 Spanish peseta 142.71 portuguese escudo. 176.78 austrian Schilling 12.324 saudi Royal 3.75 Bahrain Dinar 0.37675 kuwaiti Dinar 0.2972 norwegian Krone. 7.585 danish Krone. 6.852 British Pound .1.4615 Gorman Mark 1.7525 Swiss franc 1.4785 French franc 5.957 dutch Guilder. 1.9658 belgian franc 36.20 Canadian Dollar 1.3421 note figures Are expressed in dollars to the British Pound other currencies to tha Dollar Gold quote $381.10 an ounce Silver quote $5.28 an ounce new York Exchange new York up the 15 most Active stocks in Newyork Stock Exchange composite trading on thursday. Stoc Columbia hither general motors Wax technology Ford motor Chanson Pic Uniss corp Chrysler corp cml group in Merck & co inc Tel Fonos de my Glaxo  Pfizer in storage techno get corp. Sales 9,449,700 7,660,400 5.634,400 5.073,100 4,566,200 4,175,800 3,848.100 3,562,500 3,348.700 3,188.100 3,141,600 2,971.700 2,455,100 2,408.500 2,167,200 last 24 /4 66 21 to 1559v4 19vi 59v4 net chg. Up2 i of11v Otto off2vi off a up v4 of Flatt up1v4unch off ,1% offv4 Inchon vie off 2% off it american Exchange new York up the 10 most Active stocks in american Stock Exchange composite trading thursday. Stock. Sales list net chg. Energy service 874.500 3 11-16 off 1-16 Echo Bay mines 782,400 12v4 unch tax corp 556,300 36vi off it Elan corp pc 553,200 42 off 1 inter gel comm .477,700 4% off 11-16 Royal Oak mines. 424,400 4mi off 1-16 Hasbro inc 421,500 34 Vav up a Wilshire techno 408.100 9 /4 off h Cheyenne softer 368,200 38v Offutt Harvard Iii Tec 340,400 2tt off 34 Dow Jones new York up Dow Jones closing Range of averages on thursday High Low Clou Chang 30 industrials 3953.59 3882.96 3895.34 of 36.58 20 transport 1843.31 1807.56 1815.50 off 19.20 15 utilities 218.89 214.61 215.40 off 3.56 65 stocks 1432.19 1405 57 1410.70 off 15.09 House passes buyout plan to Cut Federal work Force Washington a Federal employees who voluntarily quit May be Eligi ble for a Lump sum payment of up to $25,000 under a House Bill aimed at accelerating the reduction of the work Force by a Quarter million people. The plan passed 391-17 on thursday stipulates that any Federal worker who has worked continuously for 12 months can receive Severance pay or $25,000, whichever is less. The Federal workforce restructuring act also would allow Agen cies to retrain workers for different jobs within the Agency. It is an adjunct to a Bill passed by the House last november that outlined the elimination of 252,000 Federal jobs by the end of fiscal year 1999, in line with plans Laid Down by vice president Al Gore in Disney to introduce Mace for a Deo films Burbank Calif. Up Walt Dis Ney co. Plans to move into made for video movies that bypass theatrical re lease with the animated cartoon the re turn of Jafar based on characters from its hit film Aladdin. The feature length video about an evil wizard will hit stores May 20 at a suggested retail Price of $22.99. His reinventing government address. Both Bills now await Senate action. Bipartisan support for the buyout in creased As it became evident that Attri Tion and involuntary dismissals called reductions in. Force would be insufficient to meet the goal of slicing the work Force to 1.88 million by the end of the Century. Democrat Eleanor Holmes Norton the District of Columbia s nonvoting Delegate to the House said Many Federal workers have held off retiring while they wait to see if the buyout plan will pass. Rep. Leslie l. Byrne d-va., said that buyouts Are clearly the most humane Way to  the general accounting office has studied reductions in Force at the de sense department and found that the practice usually implemented on a last hired first fired basis disproportionately affects minorities and women. To prevent workers from taking the buyout Money and then returning to the Federal payroll the lawmakers passed an amendment stating that any person who is rehired within five years of accepting a buyout would have to return the Money. The office of management and Bud get can waive that repayment require ment Only if the person possesses unique abilities and is the Only qualified person for the Job. The congressional budget office has estimated that the buyouts will Cost the government $2.1 billion in the current Fis Cal year. Pm earnings shift from reverse to High gear in rough two year Detroit a general motors corp. Earned $2.5 billion in 1993, joining the other big three in a dramatic recovery. -. " ". Pm Ford motor co. And Chrysler corp. Posted a combined net loss of $7.5 billion in 1991 and appeared to be falling permanently Behina japanese competitors. Now the japanese Are reeling at Home and surrendering More of the . Market to Domestic automakers. The explanation goes deeper than improvements in the . Economy and a cyclical upturn in Auto sales. The big three underwent painful re structuring in recent years. They shrank payrolls shut factories and ushered Indore efficient business practices. Last year each of the big three made at least $2.4 billion in operating profits which Don t include extraordinary charges or gains. Analysts were surprised at How quickly the changes affected the Bottom line. Going Back to the first Quarter of 1991, i Don t think anybody among the analyst Community would have expected that Large an improvement said David Garrity of Mcdonald & co. In 1991, the big three were addicted to a production scheme that built Mil Lions of cars for Short term use by daily rental companies. The automakers bought the cars Back every three to four months replaced them with new cars and auctioned the lightly used models to dealers at Low prices. Already tepid demand for new cars during the recession was chilled by the arrival of the almost new models with sticker prices thousands of dollars under new models of the same year. In 1992, the year that new chief executives took charge at Chrysler and pm the Reliance on so called program cars began to Wane. Pm alone Cut one Assem Auto earnings from 1990 to 1992 the country s biggest automakers lost Money but rebounded in 1993. Here Are big three earnings on operations Only which exclude extraordinary accounting adjustments and other one time changes. $4 general motors in billions Chrysler 90 91 92 93 90 91 92 93 90 91 92 93 Bly Plant s Worth of annual production from its rental Fleet sales in the 1993 Model year. By last fall when 1994 models appeared in showrooms individual buyers were returning in big numbers. Pm sold 6.6 percent More cars in North America in 1993 than 1992, and several truck mod Els were in Short Supply. It s pretty Clear we could have sold More last year and we could be Selling More now pm chief financial officer Rick Wagoner said thursday. But it s difficult to Speed up production because factory tools dedicated to specific products can t be changed quickly. More production would also require a work Rule changes that would have to be negotiated with unions. Pm earned $2.5 billion in 1993, or $2.13 a share. That s compared with a net loss of $23.5 billion or $38.28 per share in 1992 because of a one time accounting charge for future Retiree health benefits. Fourth Quarter income was $1.2 Bil lion compared with a loss of $652 million during the same period in 1992. Wagoner said pm needs a Strong Auto Market in 1994 and 1995 to Complete the recovery. We obviously Hope we can make it through to 1997 or 1998 before the mar Ket turns Down he said. We sure need some  at to division to Cut at least 14,000 jobs new York a stiff Competition in Long distance Telephone service will exact a heavy toll on me work Force of America s leading telecommunications company. American Telephone & Telegraph co. Announced thursday that Over the next two years it would eliminate 14,000 to 15,000 jobs including 8,000 management positions from its Long distance division. At to said the move would save $900 million annually. The company blamed the latest cuts on Competition from lower Cost rivals Sci communications corp. And sprint corp. It s reacting to stiff Competition and preparing for the Day when it May have even ," said Richard Toole an analyst at Merrill Lynch & co. At to employs 309,000 people Down from 373,000 just after the court ordered breakup of its National monopoly in Early 1984. It trimmed More than 40,000 Job sin both 1985 and 1986. The company said it will close Long Dis Tance sales and service operations in Providence . Charleston . Bloomington Minn. Cheyenne Wyo. Itasca 111. Pleasanton Calif. And Silver Spring my. No management workers will get two years pay for Severance and managers could receive up to 42 weeks salary. At to said it will provide assistance including Job counselling and retraining to help people find new jobs within the company or elsewhere