European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 12, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 14 the stars and stripes Money matters wednesday october 12,1994 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 British Pound. 1.63 dutch Guilder. 1.69 German Mark a. 1.51 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 cies " austrian Schilling. 10.8805 Bahrain Dinar. 0.37675 belgian franc .31.797 British Pound. 1.5851 Canadian Dollar. 1.3424 danish Krone. 6.0485 dutch Guilder. 1.7298 French franc. 5.2815 German Mark. 1.545 greek drachma. 236.66 italian lira. 1,574.25 Kuwait Dinar. 0.2973 norwegian Krone. 6.7250 portuguese escudo. 157.79 saudi rial. 3.752 Spanish peseta. 128.02 Swiss franc. 1.2843 turkish lira. 34,400.00 note figures Are expressed in dollars to the British Pound other currencies to the Dollar Gold quote $389.45 an ounce Silver quote $5.55 an ounce sources merchants National Bank & Trust co. And the associated press american Exchange new York a sales closing Price and net change it the 10 most Active american Stock Exchange issues trading nationally on monday. Nimi volum Viacom vat 4,291,700 Lacomb 1.167.500xclltd. 649.400 cd cysts 401,100organog 248,400 Gaylor Tont 228,000usaicoh 215,300 spor  list chg. 1 16 16 38vi unch 14 unch 9% it 154 a .8v h 45/16 16 213,6004515/16 31/64 204,200. 6mi it 196,100 Dow Jones new York a Dow Jones closing Range of aver Ages on monday  High Low Clou chinos 30 industrials 3843.19 3789.36 3821.32 up 23.89 20 transport 1466.21 1441.76 1462.48 up 17.70 15 utilities 180.73 177.83 179.87 up 1.45 65 stocks 1278.28 1258.97 1272.41 up 10.56 gds Tinetta cuts some air fares by up to 30% Houston a Continental air lines said monday that it is offering Dis counts of up to 30 percent on some air fares for travel through feb. 10, the deepest discounts come on tick ets for flights monday through thurs Day but lesser discounts apply to flights during the Peak period of Friday through sunday. Discounted tickets available for Domestic and some International routes must be purchased by oct. 21. Traditionally major airlines have matched fare sales offered on competing routes. Houston based Continental said that the cheaper fares extend for travel beyond the upcoming Holiday season but that Peak travel dates around the holi Days Are not included in the discounts. Passengers must Purchase tickets for round trip travel 14 Days in Advance and within 24 hours of making a reservation. The tickets Are not refundable and must include a Friday or saturday night stay. Planned staff cuts to choke warn Washington a underwrite House orders the social Security administration is planning deep cuts units work Force but opponents say that plan will mean More Busy signals longer Waits and less attention to finding fraud. The Agency intends to pare its payroll by nearly 5000 employees Over the next five years according to documents obtained by the associated press. The deepest Clits Are to be made after the 1996 presidential election the documents show. Agency officials said they Are under or Ders to Cut the work Force As part of pres ident Clinton s drive to streamline government by eliminating 272,000 Federal jobs.  a .-,./ but congressional officials said the so Cial Security administration s plan undermines government because it won t have enough staff to find abuses and re cover the millions of dollars being paid to people on disability who have recovered or obtained their benefits fraudulently. According to the Agency s blueprint social Security would lose 7.3 percent of its workers from 65,231 to 60,472 Between now and 1999. Commissioner Shirley Chater said that the cuts would come from management and supervisory staff not the Field of fice employees who work with the Public and that automation and streamlining will allow the Agency to do More with less ".   initiatives will empower front line employees by providing them with the tools required to maintain and in Many cases improve sea s customer service despite continually growing work loads for the Agency she  Agency s plan to Speed up Deci Sions on claims for disability benefits the Centrepiece of its streamlining will take five years to implement. Court tests an the need for congressional approval could further delay  general accounting office mean while is sceptical about social Security automation Effort. The Gao the con Gressional watchdog Agency said in a new report that the improvements hold no guarantee that employees will be Able to process All future workloads and improve service to the Public. The Agency s last round of cuts occurred in the 1980s, with disastrous re sults. The work Force slipped from almost 80,000 workers to 62,703, Telephone lines to local offices were disconnected callers could not get through on the Agency s toll free line and the ill and injured began waiting months for their first disability checks. Today according to congressional Tes Timony Many applicants for disability benefits must wait a year for a final Deci Sion on their cases and some have died or gone on welfare. Callers to the Agency still get frequent Busy signals or no answer at All and few cases Are checked for fraud. \ -. A a rep. Andy Jacobs ind., said he does not believe social Security can trim its staff again and still answer its phones fight fraud Speed up decisions for disability benefits and impose new rules on drug addicts and alcoholics y Jacobs chairman of the House Wayland Means subcommittee on social Secu Rity said it is Penn Wise and Pound Stu pid to treat  s administrative budget like the rest of government. Service is going to deteriorate said Warren Fretwell executive vice president of the american federation of govern ment employees local 3342, which rep resents Field office workers in upstate and Central new York. Ver i a of russian Ruble sky dives Moscow a the russian Ruble fell through the floor tuesday dropping nearly 850 Points against the Dollar in the worst one Day plunge since trading began in 1992, a free fall of the Ruble could endanger Russia s free Market reforms scare off foreign investors further squeeze those who rely on imported goods and increase the risks of a recession. But at the sometime a devalued Ruble makes russian exports More competitive and makes it easier for the Central Bank to pay govern ment debts by converting its dollars. The Ruble closed at 3926 to the Dollar Down 27.4 percent from monday s 3,081 on the Moscow Interbank currency Exchange Russia s largest Exchange. This is disastrous unprecedented said Yevgeny sir Rio a trader at the russian commercial Bank. Russia s Central Bank which has spent billions of dollars to prop up the Ruble this year began stepping Back from the Market last month and unleashed panic Selling by traders frantic to get rid of their rubles. The Central Bank jumped Back into the Market in the final minutes of tuesday s trading spending $80 Mil lion and preventing the Ruble from sliding past 4,000, said the Bank s chairman Vik Tor Gerash Chenko the Central Bank s inability or unwillingness to continue propping up the Ruble has shaken Confidence in the rus Sian currency. Many traders have been seeking dollars As a hedge against inflation now running at 7.7 percent a  Bank officials have said they Are merely allowing the Market to adjust to a surge in the Money Supply Over the summer. They have predicted that the do a a rabies in september 1992, a Iirene when the in they ars Sie value of the russian currency has and the Dollar now costs 3,926 rubles. Pressure on the Ruble won t last. On Moscow s streets tuesday Man currency Exchange Booths had stopped Selling dollars which were in Short sup ply. Tuesday s panicked Selling was interrupted at least once by what authorities called technical  on monday the Ruble lost 6.4 percent of its value its largest drop since a government crisis prompted a panic last Jan uary. It was also the first time the Ruble had fallen past the 3,000 Mark. It took the Ruble More than a year Tofall from 1,000 to 2,000 against the Dollar from May 1993 to july 1994, but just three months to sink to 3,000. The inter fax news Agency called the latest rout of the Ruble Black  you can t Call it anything but panic the itar Tass news Agency said morr1stown, . A at corp. Announced the development of new computer software monday that i says will make it easier for cellular phone companies to detect bandits. At to spokesman Rich Larris said the new software issues an Alert when a com Puter detects unusual Telephone Call Pat terns so users can see if their phone has been stolen or its secret serial number has been applied to another phone. Another option helps cellular service helps get a line on phone fraud a raft a. _ _ _ providers Block Calls to and from certain Telephone numbers at the customer s re quest Larris said. The technology also Al lows customers to restrict the Telephone calling area and eliminate so called roaming service he said. If All of a sudden phone Calls fro Lexas Start showing up on your phone when they never have before the system i be alerted Larris said. And this will be treated As something unusual if it s never happened  he said a similar procedure is used by credit card companies when they detect an unusual number of purchases made on someone s card. Cellular companies have been seizing on such technologies to reduce an Esti mated $1 million in daily fraud costs. Cel Lular service providers typically do not charge customers for fraudulent Calls. At to says the new service will be available starting in january