“If interest rates in Europe rise in 1999, then the euro could prove stronger than many expect, especially against the pound,”The survey found only 9 per cent of UK managers thought sterling would be the strongest currency over a year’s view, down from 30 per cent last month.Buying and selling patterns of UK fund managers support the view that the economy is slowing down. The latest Merrill Lynch/ Gallup survey also found UK managers were optimistic about the euro, with 45 per cent expecting it to be the strongest major currency on a year’s view.
Trevor Greetham, global strategist at Merrill Lynch said the “messy political compromise” over the presidency of the European Central Bank had made it more fashionable to say the euro would be a weak currency. An AT&T marriage with the new Bell Atlantic would be the most dramatic of possible combinations.. UK FUND managers believe interest rates have peaked and the economy is slowing, and anticipate a further weakening of sterling, according to a survey published yesterday. Observers predict AT&T will be forced to find an alliance with another of the remaining Baby Bells. arguing that the Telecom Act was not intended to put Humpty Dumpty back together again,” said Scott Wright, an analyst with Fahnestock & Co in New York.Pressure will now intensify on the other phone companies to find new partners of their own, including the new AT&T which until now has remain aloof from the marrying frenzy. Reflecting a cautious reaction on Wall Street, shares in SBC fell $2.626 in morning trading.Ameritech, the principal phone company for the Midwest, rose $3.25 to $47.125.The deal may also give pause to champions of telecom deregulation on Capitol Hill in Washington, who surely never foresaw that the rampant consolidation of the last several months, which has also included the combination of Nynex and Bell Atlantic on the East Coast, would turn out to be the principle result.”I don’t think there is any question there will be a firestorm from regulators, consumer groups, long-distance carriers …

For these reasons, most analysts did not expect the deal to go through smoothly and certainly not in the 12- month window set by Mr Whitacre yesterday. Earlier this year it also swallowed Connecticut-based Southern New England Telecommunications for $4.4bn.With yesterday’s announcement, SBC will stand accused of trying to reverse the break-up of the old bell system to establish a new domestic monopoly. After existing since 1984 as Southwestern Bell, covering states like Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri, it expanded its base exponentially last year with the $16.5bn purchase of Pacific Telesis, gaining California and Nevada. Such criticism was fended off, however, by Ed Whitacre, the SBC Chairman.”The Bell system had national monopoly,” he insisted. “This merger talks about 12 states, not 50.”However, the new company, to be called SBC, would serve customers in the top 50 US telephone markets. The size of the deal is such that it even eclipses the $37bn that WorldCom is proposing to pay for MCI Communications, which at one time was destined to fall into British Telecom’s hands until that transaction fell to pieces.More broadly, the price being offered by SBC means this should measure up as the second largest merger ever between corporations after the $73bn proposed marriage between Citicorp and Travelers Corp that was unveiled just last month.SBC has established itself as a predator with a voracious appetite. The deal, which is certain to provoke intense scrutiny from regulators in Washington, marks the next phase in the transformation of SBC from one of the seven Baby Bells created after the 1984 break-up of the old AT&T to a domestic telephone powerhouse stretching from Detroit to Los Angeles and Houston.
It will also send seismic ripples through the entire industry.

IN ALL aspects bar one, Bebe Rebozo’s life was a straightforward tale of poor boy made good. He was born in 1912 the ninth and youngest child of an immigrant Cuban cigar-maker. He worked his way up the business ladder; from petrol-station clerk to petrol-station owner, and then prominent Florida banker, and pillar of the local community, who served as chairman of the Key Biscayne Chamber of Commerce, and in 1976 as commodore of the Key Biscayne Yacht Club By American standards, pretty routine stuff. He leaves a daughter, Sally, an illustrator and painter, and a son, Jeremy, a potter.Rupert William Newland, potter and teacher: born Masterton, New Zealand 5 February 1919; Lecturer, Institute of Education, London University, part-time 1949-60, 1986-92, full-time 1962-86; Tutor, Central School of Arts and Crafts 1949-60; married 1950 Margaret Hine (died 1987; one son, one daughter); died High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire 30 April 1998..

In 1996 he had a splendid retrospective exhibition organised by Aberystwyth Arts Centre which gave him much pleasure.Newland remained a dashing figure to the end, fond of a rolled cigarette and a glass of red wine He was a keen gardener and a superb cook. He embodied that optimistic post-war spirit which perceived the practice of all the arts as a peaceful civilised reparation for the miseries and trauma of war. This sort of spirit was in the clay, it was in the paint, in the teaching of painting, in the teaching of craft. Kids were going to paint if they wanted to, pot if they wanted to, weave, book-bind. .After retirement from full-time work at the institute in 1982 he continued to run the Bedford Way Gallery in the foyer of the Institute of Education. This was very much his creation and was used to mount a series of stimulating exhibitions looking at craft, art and design in the context of education The area has now been turned into a bookshop.