GLOBAL MARKET HIGHLIGHTS
Some College Grads Wait Out Job Market 05-16-03 (Yahoo) Clay Auttonberry assumed earning a bachelor's degree in management and finance would land him a job. He just didn't think it would mean working at the same restaurant that employed him while he went to Delta State University. After testing the stagnant job market, Auttonberry decided to wait out the economic downturn as the manager of Crawdads, the eatery in Marigold, Miss., where he began as a waiter four years ago. 
Weak Dollar Means Pricey Europe Vacations 05-16-03 (Yahoo) Americans planning for European vacations should be braced to pay more. Ditto for people eyeing European cars. The reason: The dollar's value has hit a four-year low against the euro. The slide against the euro, and to a lesser extent against other foreign currencies, is likely to continue, analysts say. They believe the Bush administration has made a shift in its attitude toward the greenback. Including a tumble Monday, triggered by comments Treasury Secretary John Snow made on a Sunday interview program, the dollar is is now down by close to 30 percent over the past 12 months against the euro, the common currency of 12 European countries. The dollar has declined by a smaller, but still significant, 15 percent against a trade-weighted market basket of currencies. 
Getting a deflated feeling from the Fed 05-16-03 (timesunion.com) "If I say something which you understand fully, I probably made a mistake," Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan once said of his public augury. The Fed's statement that it was holding rates steady last week did not use the word "deflation," but this time its meaning seemed as plain as a $35 television. The central bank was declaring victory in the Thirty Years War against inflation and officially warning the populace about the blowback that sometimes accompanies the brutal suppression of an enemy. 
Bush economics: Selling the wrong product 05-16-03 (startribune.com) President Bush hit the hustings this week, visiting several states to rally support for the big tax cut he is trying to push through Congress. But with each stop, the logic of the president's sales pitch grew more divorced from the content of the actual tax bill, and it's no wonder that senators were deeply skeptical as they began debating the issue on Wednesday. During a stop in New Mexico on Monday, Bush said Congress should give the stalled economy a jump-start, adding, "We want to help people today." But Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn., points out that 95 percent of the Bush tax package wouldn't kick in until 2004 or later because it was designed as long-term tax relief. Even the White House admits that the economy will be growing robustly by then, with or without tax stimulus. 
U.S. Bankruptcies Rise to Record High 05-16-03 (Yahoo) Bankruptcies rose to 1.61 million from 1.5 million in the 12-month period ended March 2002, the Administrative Office for the U.S. Courts said in a release. The number of bankruptcies in the first quarter rose to 412,968, up 4.5 percent from the previous quarter, the court office said. 
Personal Bankruptcies Rise 7.4 Percent 05-16-03 (Yahoo) The upward trend had been expected to continue this year in the sluggish economy and as effects still linger from the consumer spending binge of the 1990s. "There is still a big slug of individuals with problem debt still working their way through the (bankruptcy court) system," said Samuel Gerdano, executive director of the American Bankruptcy Institute, a group of bankruptcy judges, lawyers and experts. 
Industrial Production, Capacity Use Declined Last Month 05-16-03 (Yahoo) Industrial production declined 0.5% last month, the Fed said. This followed a 0.5% drop in March, unrevised from the Fed's initial estimate. Capacity use also fell in April, dropping 0.4 percentage point to 74.4%, the Fed said. This was the lowest level since June 1983. March's capacity use was unrevised at 74.8%. 

 LATIN AMERICA
Give Argentinas new man a chance 05-16-03 (guardian.co.uk) Carlos Menem's indecision over Argentina's elections does little to help one of the world's economic non-success stories. Argentina was a rich country that became poor far too quickly for its population to bear. The nation's problems did not begin with the flamboyant Mr Menem, who took office in 1989 when inflation was spiralling to 4,000%. But he was the architect of reforms which postponed, but did not prevent, collapse. Argentina wore the garb of a liberalised, dollarised first-world economy, personified by the playboy lifestyle of its president. But this was not all that it seemed. Mr Menem had in reality fashioned an economic straightjacket, made of external debt which more than doubled during his decade in power. Argentina has been struggling to get out of it since Mr Menem left power in 1999. Two years later, Mr Menem was under house arrest in one of his luxury villas for his alleged role in an arms scandal and Argentina became the world's biggest bankrupt, squeezed by $100bn of debt. 
Argentinas Kirchner taking helm by default 05-16-03 (miami.com) Néstor Kirchner, a little-known provincial governor, became Argentina's president-elect by default Wednesday when former President Carlos Menem alleged foul play and withdrew from a runoff election. After two days of uncertainty over rumors that he would quit the race, Menem announced from his northern home province of La Rioja that he had been forced to withdraw because President Eduardo Duhalde had ''maneuvered'' to organize a ''totally rigged election,'' and had launched ''a systematic defamation campaign'' against him. 
Argentina leader faces stiff test 05-16-03 (BBC) Provincial governor Nestor Kirchner is preparing to take office in Argentina after his flamboyant rival, Carlos Menem, quit the presidential race. Mr Kirchner is set to be proclaimed president on 25 May. The 53-year-old politician has sought to dispel fears that he would be a weak leader, vowing to do everything in his power to bring change to the country. 
Menem pulls plug on bid for Argentine presidency 05-16-03 (globeandmail.com) A little-known state governor from remote Patagonia became Argentina's president-elect by default yesterday after former president Carlos Menem, trailing badly in voter support, withdrew from Sunday's planned runoff election. Nestor Kirchner, 53, will inherit a country immersed in its worst-ever economic crisis, in default on $141-billion (U.S.) in foreign debt and split by rising social tension and vigorous street protests. 
Argentina waits for Menems blow 05-16-03 (guardian.co.uk) Argentina emerged from a dizzying political roller-coaster ride yesterday when the former president Carlos Menem finally confirmed that he was pulling out of the presidential run off on Sunday. He leaves the presidency to Nestor Kirchner, a fellow Peronist who lost narrowly to Mr Menem in the first electoral round last month. "I won in the first round, and now I'm leaving," Mr Menem said from his native province of La Rioja. With his resigna tion, Sunday's election will be scrapped, and his rival will assume office on May 25. "Menem has shown his last face, the face of a coward," an exultant Mr Kirchner told supporters in central Buenos Aires, the capital. He blamed Mr Menem and the big business that supported his free-market economic policies during the 1990s for Argentina's recent economic collapse. 
Menem Abandons Race For Argentine Presidency 05-16-03 (Washington Post) After days of intense speculation and a countrywide media frenzy, Carlos Menem, the flamboyant former president of Argentina, withdrew today from the presidential runoff election scheduled for Sunday. Menem's decision clears the way for Nestor Kirchner, governor of the oil-rich Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, to assume the presidency on May 25. 
Kirchner positioned to become Argentinas president 05-16-03 (cbc.ca) Now that Carlos Menem, Argentina's 72-year-old former president, has dropped out of the upcoming presidential election, his only opponent, Nestor Kirchner, will win by default. Menem, who was seeking a third term in office, and Kirchner, 53, the governor of southern Santa Cruz province, were to compete in a runoff vote on Sunday, a vote polls showed Menem would lose badly. Kirchner takes on the leadership of Argentina as the country faces the deepest economic crisis in its history. 

 OIL PRICES
Lebanon lobbies UN over oil-for-food contracts 05-16-03 (dailystar.com.lb) Lebanese industrialists are lobbying the United Nations to pay for some $450 million pending contracts won under Iraq’s “oil-for-food” program prior to the US-led war against Iraq, a senior industrialist said on Tuesday. Lebanon is pushing the New York-based office of the Iraq Program to execute these contracts before the oil-for-food mandate is suspended, once the UN Security Council lifts the sanctions on Iraq to make way for autonomous rule. “It is going to be difficult to implement all of these contracts right away,” said Ahmed Kabbara, head of the export department at the Lebanese Industrialists Association. “But the important thing is that Lebanon is not being treated any differently from any other country that has pending contracts under the oil-for-food program.” 
No Iraq bounce in US retail sales 05-15-03 (BBC) US retail sales slipped lower last month, in a fresh sign that the end of the war in Iraq did not trigger the hoped-for economic rebound. The US Commerce Department said sales for April fell by 0.1% compared with the previous month, falling far short of the surprise 2.3% increase recorded in March. Retail sales are regarded as a key indicator of overall economic health in the US, where consumer spending accounts for two thirds of all economic activity. 
Iraq Basra Refinery to Be Up in Two Weeks 05-15-03 (Yahoo) British soldiers in charge of overseeing the repair of the aging refinery said capacity would be boosted to 140,000 barrels per day, although this was subject to a key oil pipeline between Basra and Baghdad reopening by May 25 as planned. They added that if the link did not reopen on schedule, the refinery output increase would be postponed.