Tuesday, Septembers, 1989
The Battalion
Page 7
Predictions for economy
do not include recession
WASHINGTON (AP) — Peering into the future and
predicting where the $5 trillion U.S. economy is headed
has never been an easy job, but it has gotten a lot
tougher lately.
Chagrined economists have watched in horror as the
government last month made revision after revision in
data on past performance that they use for coming up
with their prognostications.
The net result was that the U.S. economy was not
nearly as weak during the spring as first believed. Con
sumers spent at double the pace first reported, employ
ment growth was much stronger and tne overall econ
omy, rather than limping along at an anemic annual
growth rate of 1.7 percent from April through June, ac
tually grew at a healthy 2.7 percent rate.
As a consequence of all tne revisions, the gloom-and-
doom forecasts of a month ago that a recession was im
minent have been tossed out the window. Replacing
them is the new upbeat assessment that the economy
will continue cruising ahead at a healthy clip for the rest
of the year.
While there are plenty of red faces accompanving the
sudden turn-about in forecasts, a lot more is at stake
than the reputations of high-paid analysts employed by
major banks and investment houses.
Government officials from the White House to the
Federal Reserve depend on accurate economic data in
setting economic policy. Wrong statistics can produce
policies that throw tens of thousands of people out of
work needlessly or kick the economy into an infla
tionary spiral.
Many private economists say the problem lies in ma
jor budget cutbacks in the statistic gathering agencies
during the Reagan years.
“The problem with the statistics has gotten worse be
cause they don’t have enough money to do a proper
job,” Michael Evans, who heads a Washington economic
consulting firm said. “Some day, policy mistakes based
on bad statistics will end up sending tne country into a
recession.”
Some economists believe the country may face a re
surgence of inflation six months down the road because
of decisions that the Federal Reserve made in June and
July based on the bad statistics.
Cooperation eases debt woes,
says Japanese prime minister
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Solving
developing nations’ foreign debt
E mblem requires close collaboration
etween debtors and creditors, Ja
pan’s Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu
said Monday.
“The problem of the accumulated
foreign debt cannot be solved if close
collaboration between the parties in
volved — that is, the debtor and
creditor countries — is not
achieved,” Kaifu said in a written
statement released when his plane
landed at the Mexico City airport.
Kaifu’s visit is the first to Mexico
by a Japanese head of state since
Mexico City bus wreck
kills at least 5, injures 25
MEXICO CITY (AP) — A com
muter bus careened off a road into a
canyon near Mexico City on Mon
day, killing at least five people and
injuring at least 25 others, the gov
ernment news agency Notimex said.
Excessive speed and overloading
were blamed for the early morning
accident, the agency said.
Among the injured, who were
taken to a nearby hospital by ambu
lance and helicopter, was bus driver
Noe Hilario, a Red Cross spokesman
told the agency.
The bus rolled over a 150-foot
cliff on the highway between Mexico
City and the suburb of Naucalpan in
the adjoining state of Mexico.
1980.
“My country and the region to
which Mexico belongs can take ad
vantage of this occasion to reaffirm
their mutual political will to continue
contributing to the peace, stability
and development of all countries of
the world,” Kaifu said.
He was to meet with President
Carlos Salinas de Gortari later Mon
day.
During his two-day visit, Kaifu is
expected to announce the January
release of the first half of a $2 billion
loan Japan has pledged to Mexico
under the Brady Plan for debt relief
in developing countries.
The prime minister is also ex
pected to formalize Japan’s offer of
$>1.2 billion in aid for pollution con
trol in Mexico City.
Some of the money will be used
for electric trains to lessen traffic
congestion and cut smog, said Mario
Moya Palencia, Mexico’s ambassador
to Japan.
Racial tension fills NY C mayor race
NEW YORK (AP) — The slaying of a black teen-ager
by a gang of whites has brought racial tensions to the
surface in New York’s mayoral campaign, dividing the
two leading Democrats — one black, one w'hite.
The Aug. 23 death of 16-year-old Yusuf Hawkins
ended months in which the issue of race was rarely
raised.
“This touches the exposed nerve of the city,” said
Richard Wade, a graduate professor of urban history at
City College. “It politicizes the racial question. All other
issues suddenly are less important.”
Hawkins’ shooting in the mainly white Bensonhurst
section of Brooklyn recalled the 1986 killing of a black
man chased to his death by whites in the city’s Howard
Beach section.
Both cases sparked outrage.
But this killing came just three weeks before the Sept.
12 primary in which Mayor Edward I. Koch, whose crit
ics call him racially insensitive, faces Manhattan Bo
rough President David Dinkins, who would be the city’s
first black mayor.
“The Koch voters and the Dinkins voters have very
different perceptions of where the city is and where it is
going. This will tend to magnify those differences,” said
Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute
for Public Opinion.
Koch already has drawn fire under the spotlight:
While he decried the killing, he also criticized black pro
test marches held in Bensonhurst, saying they raised
tensions.
“It’s just as wrong to march into Bensonhurst as it
would be to march into Harlem after that young
woman in the jogging case,” Koch said. He was refer
ring to the rape of a white jogger by a gang of blacks in
April.
PS/2 Rules
"Take No Survivors" Basketball Tournament
Registration will open
September 5 th and dose
September 19th at the
Micro Computer Center
from 9:00a.m. - 6:00p.m.
Look for registration
tables at Sbisa Dining
Hall the 12th - 14th.
Registration fee - $15
per team.
Register for prizes to
be given away at the
IBM FAIR
September 25th-26th
MSC Room 212
From 9:00a.m. - 430p.m.
3 ON 3 TOURNAMENT 22&23
OF SEPTEMBER
M icroComputerCenter
Computer Sales and Supplies
Located on the main floor of the Memorial Student Center
Monday thru Friday 7:45a.m. - 6:00p.m.
(409) 845-4081
For business
14B $60.00
17B $82.50
19B...$132.00
FREE
Backpack
when you buy an
HP calculator!
For science &
engineering
22 S $45.00
27S $82.50
28S $176.25
32S $52.50
42S $90.00
335/3 /
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UNIVERSITY
BOOKSTORE
N«fcthg*ti! Culpepper Village
Shomtag Center Plaza Shopping Center
Call Battalion
Classified 845-2611
They’re Here!
Student Government Applications
COSGA
Parents Weekend
Traditions Council
Muster
HSPR2
Freshman Programs
Public Relations
Project Visibility
Big Event
Applications due September 8
at 5 p.m General Info. Meeting
sTudent 221 Pavilion ?! pt 6
8:30-9:30 p.m.
701 Rudder Theater
GOVERNMENT cMcqnfil
TEXAS A&M UNIVEKStTY vJKJxJl
JOIN THE BEST PARTY ON CAMPUS!
Texas A&M College Republicans
First Meeting:
CR Tues. Sept. 5 8:30 p.m.
701 Rudder Tower
College
Republicans
m
New Members Welcome!
Fall Meeting Schedule
Sept.
19
8:30 P.M
510 Rudder Tower
Oct.
3
8:30 P.M
302 Rudder Tower
10
8:30 P.M.
601 Rudder
17
8:30 P.M
302 Rudder Tower
31
8:30 P.M
302 Rudder Tower
Nov.
14
8:30 P.M.
510 Rudder Tower
28
8:30 P.M.
510 Rudder Tower
FOR MORE INFO CONTACT:
Scott Kibbe
847-4087
Rob Giesecke
774-1193
Texas ASM
Flying Club
^Teaching tfie ‘Best to ‘jCtj tfte Best
Interested people are urged to attend our meeting
Tuesday, September 5 at the Airport Clubhouse
For information
Call President Bodie Kirby 822-3788
7:00 pan.
For more information contact Frank Munoz at 845-4081