The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, March 28, 1983, Image 7

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    Monday, March 28,1983/The Battalion/Page 7
itrong U.S. dollar
ailed ’disruptive’
United Press International
JEW YORK — The U.S. dol
ls the refuge currency of the
Id, but most experts believe
high value and the recent
ttility in exchange rates have
ome a disruptive influence
world economies.
The dollar should not be
wed to shoot off into outer
ce each time there is a new
homic, financial or political
icksomewhere in the world,”
l Scott Pardee, executive vice
sident at Discount Corp. of
w York.
There are two reasons cited
experts for the dollar’s
ngth on foreign exchange
rkets where multi-million
lar trades determine a cur-
icy’svalue—uncertainty over
rest rates and political and
inomic unrest abroad.
u>to by CaihySo, I “The U.S. has become the
lancial refuge of the world,”
djames Sinclair, who heads a
>r the Sp«i Iding firm bearing his name,
he state iHist compare our situation to
Conroe, fywhere in the world, includ-
Europe.
We’re politically and econo-
:
mically sound, we have a strong
defense and our Treasury has
benefitted from foreign money
pouring in from troubled coun
tries,” he said.
Interest rates also play a ma
jor role in foreign exchange
operations.
“Interest rates have a con
tinuous influence on exchange
rates and on market expecta
tions,” Pardee told the Forex
Club meeting in the Nether
lands last week. “Unfortunately,
both interest rates and exchange
rates have been exceedingly
volatile.”
The bouncing of rates in part
reflects Federal Reserve Board
policy since late 1979 and con
tinuing uncertainty over their
future intentions.
Gary Schlossberg, foreign ex
change economist at Wells Far
go Bank of San Francisco, said
despite substantially lower rates
there is some uncertainty about
the outlook and the feeling that
at least for the near-term they
might back up a bit.
Pardee, who was manager of
foreign exchange operations at
the Federal Reserve Bank of
New York before joining Dis
count Corp., said the dollar’s re
cent volatility against major
trading currencies has been ex
ceedingly disruptive.
“The exchange rate is an im
portant variable around which
many economic decisions are
made: production, employ
ment, income, prices at home
and abroad,” Pardee said. If ex
change rates are not in equilib
rium, serious distortions can
occur.
“It’s almost unpatriotic to say
that the dollar is overvalued, but
its continued strength has
caused our market share of
world trade to shrink,” Schloss
berg said. “This is not only erod
ing profits of our manufactur
ers, but costing U.S. jobs as
well.”
Pardee said many factors in
fluence exchange markets, but
the volatility is due in large part
to the non-intervention policy of
the U.S. Treasury since 1981,
which he believes has reduced
cooperation among major cen
tral banks.
EPA report changes argued
United Press International
EL PASO — Former acting
Environmental Protection
Agency Director John Hernan
dez said his records indicate
changes in a controversial pollu
tion report were made nearly
three weeks before he joined the
agency May 20, 1981, a news
paper reported Saturday.
The report named Dow Che
mical Co. of Midland, Mich., as
the primary source of dioxin in
two Michigan rivers and one
lake. The report was at the heart
of the controversy which led to
Hernandez’ resignation Friday
at the request of President
Reagan.
In a copyright story in Satur
day’s El Paso Times, Hernandez
said his own records showed
changes in the draft report from
the Chicago regional EPA office
to Washington were made at the
agency’s headquarters on May 1,
1981.
Hernandez, who took over as
acting director March 7 after
Anne Burford’s resignation as
chief of the agency, said the
changes also were made before
Dow officials saw the report.
“Somebody’s got to put that
into perspective,” he said. “Vir
tually all of those changes were
done before Dow ever saw it, or I
ever saw it.” He said he had been
unaware of the report’s exist
ence until a Canadian newspap
er published it June 18, 1981.
The former New Mexico
State Ur.lversity engineering
dean said he had tried to quit the
EPA off and on since Burford
resigned, but President Reagan
originally asked him to stay on
until a new administrator could
be named.
ax may end
e tas price dip
s mother, B
louston, who
sited her dau(i
:1 officials hi
lir of
itering the
said the two
is.
United Press International
—Gasoline can be bought for
s than $l-a-gallon in many
tes, a survey showed Satur-
n . ^ bitt a steady drop in prices
.| ip ' (fi J 1 likely be cut short April 1
en the new 5 cent tax increase
gins.
1 Saturday tk
iiinie, and
■ preparing!*
The tax increase was enacted
Congress late last year as part
Reagan’s jobs-creating prog-
n funding improvements in
lor Strickfandi ids, bridges and mass transit
items.
George Pastor, executive di-
tor of Northern Ohio Pet-
Retailers Association,
d the federal tax will be pas-
on to customers by dealers
nssthe nation because they’re
it practically at cost or at a
mg to sene
meals, andfij
depending'
it," Lorenz
ettv traumatic
thes mavjusM
for a davorw snow.
“They’re
■aid Hofstai
tightening their
Its so tight they’re selling at
irad Ilofstadw 7 dose to cost now,” he said
also would h ^ey were to absorb that 5
i nts they d go out ot business.
,elo,„iellw. )w J n|d fc 100000 dea|ers
rossthe nation absorb the $5.5
lion in taxes that’s going to
se?”
Self-service regular gasoline
n now be purchased for 89
cents-a-gallon in Houston and
89.9 cents in Arizona and in the
low-to mid-80s in California.
Other states where gasoline can
be found for less than $ 1 include
Georgia, Massachusetts, Michi
gan, Minnesota, Mississippi,
Montana, New York, Oklaho
ma, Rhode Island, South Caroli
na, West Virginia and
Wyoming.
One Arco station in San Fran
cisco was selling regular gasoline
at 96 cents-a-gallon. The owner
said he was making only about a
2 cent-per-gallon profit but had
a big business.
In addition to paying the new
nickel-a-gallon federal tax, West
Virginia motorists will pay
another 4.7 cents to 4.9 cents-a-
gallon state tax.
A Chicago Motor Club
spokesman said dealers will deal
with the tax increase in different
ways.
“They are not required to
pass the tax along. Some dealers
may increase prices by 5-cents.
Some may not raise prices at all.
Some may fall in between (raise
the pump price from 1 cent to 5
cents),” he said.
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entertainment.