European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 7, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 24 the stars and stripes Money matters tuesday june 7,1994 today a rates following Are fixed rates at which Community banking and credit Union facilities will sell foreign currencies to . Personnel for personal use British Pound .1.54 dutch Guilder. 1.82 German mark1.63 greek drachma .239.1758 Noto the rates above apply Wilheln 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 currencies austrian Schilling. 11.7665 Bahrain Dinar. 0,37675 belgian franc. 34.43 British Pound. 1.5055 Canadian Dollar. 1.3773 danish Krone 6.5537 dutch Guilder. 1.8725 French franc.5.708 German Mark 1.6715 italian lira1,622.25 Kuwait Dinar. 0.2975 norwegian Krone 7.25 portuguese escudo.173.83 saudi rial. 3.7498 Spanish peseta 137.62 Swiss franc 1.4185 turkish lira 32,000.00 note figures Are expressed in dollars to the British Pound other currencies to the Dollar Gold quote $380,25 an ounce Silver quote $5.29 an ounce. Editors note we apologize Tor an editing error that resulted in yesterday a a conversion table can Yang last fridays rates instead of those Tor monday. Sources merchants National Bank amp Trust co., the associated press. United press International pager business buzzing in Japan Tokyo up a pager service companies in Japan Are steering Clear of the lingering recession with the Market for leased units growing 20 percent at the end of May from a year earlier companies said monday pager service companies say they now rent out 8.3 million units and its not just High fliers and yuppies using them schoolgirls Are among the new customers the Kyodo news service reported. A High school girls now Call pagers one of the a three sacred treasures together with lipstick and name cards Quot an official at Tokyo Tele message inc. Told Kyodo. The Industry is confident that there is plenty of room for even More growth. Pager service companies will begin next March to both sell and lease units. Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Coro started pager leasing in Japan in 1968 while the company was still a government monopoly and it has controlled the Domestic Market.  Trade soars after Naftal takes effect new York apr in the three months after the North american free Trade agreement took effect .-Mexico Trade reached record Levels and the Trade surplus with Mexico was Cut almost in half the new York times reported monday. The United states imported much More from Mexico than it exported to its Southern neighbor in the first Quarter after Naftal took effect Jan. 1, the times said. That disparity Cut americans quarterly Trade surplus with Mexico by 45,1 percent to $560 million. American exports to Mexico Rose 15.7 percent in the january March Quarter of this year compared with the first three months of 1993, the Commerce department reported. That amounted to a record $11.85 billion after seasonal  from Mexico Over the same period Rose by 22.5 percent to a record $11.29 billion. Passage of Naftal heightened ill will Between organized labor and business and government leaders. Labor opposed the pact because it feared that the agreement would eat away at american jobs. But business and government leaders maintained it would create jobs by making Mexico a Market for american goods. While both sides said trying to draw Long term conclusions from the Early Trade figures would be premature Mickey Kantor the american Trade representative said Naftal was creating jobs. A the balance of Trade is not As important As the Content of Trade and the increase in exports a a Kantor told the times. Quot that a what raises our Standard of  but labor leaders said american jobs could be lost if Naftal continues to increase mexican exports More than imports. A the Story is that it Hasni to done More Quot to boost american exports said Arthur Gundersheim International affairs director at the amalgamated clothing and textile workers Union. N for White House Washington apr president Clinton said sunday that he has a candid relationship with Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan but disputed a books characterization that the fed chief essentially was a a a ghostwriter of the Clinton economic plan. In an interview with Abc news Clinton denied any suggestion that Greenspan s advice swayed the president to shift policy from the populist fiscal stimulus rhetoric of his Campaign toward More deficit reduction. A but it is True that i be had probably a More candid relationship with or. Greenspan than previous presidents Quot Clinton said. A a that a because 1 believed very strongly that unless we got interest rates Down last year we  Spur this Economy. �?o1 think in general our economic plan our process for developing the plan was a Good one. The decisions we made were right. I think that there is no better populism than producing 3.36 million jobs in 16 months. I think we be done a pretty Good Job. And i talked with or. Green Span extensively without asking him to Promise me what he was going to do because i wanted to get a feel for How the fed looked at this. A what we wanted to do is get the deficit Down get interest rates Down Cut spending but increase investment in Edu Alan Greenspan. Quot candid relationship Quot with president cation and training and new technologies and we have done  the second of a four part series of excerpts from the Book by Bob Woodward appear in mondays Washington Post where the author is assistant managing editor. The Book the Agenda inside the Clinton White of ouse goes on Sale this month. Quot Woodward writes that Greenspan was privately advising the White House and Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen on his economics views leading up to the final formulation of the Clinton budget plan. A the chairman of the Federal Reserve was in some ways a ghostwriter of the Clinton plan a Woodward concludes. He says Greenspan came away from a dec. 3, 1992, meeting with Clinton in Little Rock ark., convinced that the president elects a reputation As a policy Junkie was richly deserved. He  need a chief of staff. He would be his own. The president elect was not just engaged he was totally engrossed a after a meeting that stretched on for 2vi hours. Woodward writes Greenspan concluded that Clinton a was an intellectual pragmatist. He did no to like to use the phrase because he considered it slightly pejorative but it captured Clinton a  later Woodward writes that a Clinton Felt that Greenspan was not a typical Republican banker who would try to have it both ways. He did not plead to bring Down the deficit but protest against raising taxes on the wealthy. After the meeting Clinton told vice president Al Gore a we can do  europeans fear benefits will erode Brussels Belgium apr hard economic times Are forcing Western Europe to trim welfare programs that have pampered its citizens for decades and the elderly fear their pensions will be next. A your generation is angry and frightened a said Georges de Bunny 76, a retired belgian labor Leader who Heads the 8 million member european federation of retired and elderly persons. With their populations growing older and living longer countries Are changing the rules to keep their pension funds from running out of Money France is increasing the number of years of work needed to qualify for a full pension. Germany is deducting More from wages. Belgium wants retired people who Are Well off to give up part of their government pensions. A fall governments Are cutting Back somewhat a said Jorgen Mortensen senior research fellow at the Center for european policy studies in Brussels. Several factors have contributed to the financial crunch europeans Are working fewer years As Well As living longer and the birth rate is declining which Means fewer workers to pay for More pensioners. A a it a a major Challenge facing governments How to financially support older adults a said Lesley Hart head of the senior studies Institute at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow Scotland. A the pressure is clearly there to save on the older population a said Eamon a Clemey coordinator of the european unions year of older people in 1993, nearly 70 million of the 346 million people in the european Union Are older than 60. By 2020, such people will make up More than one fourth of the population of the 12 countries in the Union. A the grading of the population can be seen in every european country quite clearly and the trend will continue into the 21st Century a Hart said. Moreover workers Are retiring earlier going onto the pension Rolls in their late 50s. Companies sometimes use Early retirement to open up jobs for younger people who Are unemployed. There now Are about five workers for every pensioner but if current trends continue five workers will have two retirees to support in 2040. A in the Long perspective Europe has a very severe problem of labor Supply a Mortensen said. A pensions Are the biggest item in the eur a cushy welfare system averaging 10 percent of the unions total $6.2 trillion Gross Domestic product and Are the main source of income for most retirees. In Belgium pension payments totalled $23.5 billion last year slightly More than half of the welfare budget. Belgian workers pay 7.5 percent of their wages toward retirement and employers contribute 8.86 percent. American workers and employers pay 6.2 percent each toward social Security on salaries up to $60,600 a year. The High Cost of pensions and other welfare programs is an important element in Europe a concern about losing out competitively to the United states and Japan. Social benefits add to the expense of labor discourage employers from hiring new workers and make european goods More expensive. Governments Are trimming the programs because of i Sun acors ant because of the current recession which has sent unemployment and welfare costs soaring. A most countries have either taken action to limit pension spending or at least Are considering such action said an eur report called older people in Europe social and economic policies. A u our retirement plan is seriously threatened Simone veil the French health minister said last year. F not drastic measures the retirement fund will