Business 11711 Advantage CD Time To Play Ball With Europe What does the advent of the European Monetary Union mean to the Israeli in the street or office? 11-MONTH ADVANTAGE CD Earn higher interest with D&N's Advantage CD when THOMAS O'DWYER Special to The Jewsih News you open and maintain a D&N checking account with an $100 minimum opening balance. 11-Month A Certificate of Deposit requires a deposit of $5,000 or more. Annual Percentage Yield as of 5/22/98. Substantial penalty for early withdrawal. Personal accounts only. Call or visit D&NBank today! 1-800-236-9252 112N 8 BANK Auburn Hills • Brighton • Canton • Clawson • Fowlerville Hartland • Howell • Pinckney • Romeo • South Lyon St. Clair Shores • Troy MEMBER FDIC Internet http://www.dn.portup.com © 1998 DIN Bank LENDER High Speed Corporate and Dial-Up Internet Access Southwesternptario's Largest Internet Provider is now - in Michigan! Finally,'an Internet Provider that can reliably handle all of your Internet & communications needs. From dial-up to corporate dedicated T1 access, no one can service you like MNSi. Network engineering and customer service excellence are the foundation of our success. For solid reliability, our fully fiber optic network consists of dual redundant high capacity connections direct to the SprintLink and internetMCl backbones. For lightning-fast Internet service without the Flash .. . Let MNSI be your direct link to the world of Global Business! 6/12 1998 130 itillatertainmeot Call The Sales Department (248) 354-7123 Ext. 209 - Advertise in our new Entertainment Section! NSi DETROIT =WIRE NEWS N visitor from another planet could be forgiven for think- ing the United States must be our next-door neighbor and that Europe must be far, far away across the Atlantic, a place of which we know little and care less. Recently, three historic economic events took place that will change such delusions for ever. First, the gov- ernment unveiled its liberalization of foreign currency dealings — albeit in a watered-down version. Second, the Deutsche Morgan Grenfell bank issued the first ever shekel-linked bonds on the European mar- ket, and was followed min- utes later by a Merrill Lynch issue of Euro-shekel-bonds. The third measure, of huge international importance, was the European Union's deci- sion that the monetary union is going right ahead for 11 states, including France, Germany and Italy. Israel's financial liberaliza- tion was announced for the 50th anniversary, the European decision came just after. Were the two events mere coincidence? Some Israel commentators said yes, how could Israelis plan so far ahead — but that is to take well-deserved credit away from the Bank of Israel. So what exactly does the coming of the European monetary union mean — and what does it mean to the Israeli in the street or office? The idea of uniting all the currencies of the European Union states into a single currency was fixed by the 1991 Treaty of Maastricht and given a date — 1999. A year later, growing opposition in some states triggered a wave of cur- rency speculation and forced Britain and Italy out of the exchange rate mechanism — the trading bands that were supposed to converge towards a Thomas O'Dwyer is a writer for the Jerusalem Post Foreign Service. common currency rate. Israel for years totally ignored the coming of the European monetary union — but then so did everyone else, including the United States and even most European businesses. Only last year did the truth begin to dawn — this European Union, which U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms said "couldn't orga- nize its way out of a wet paper bag," really does have an act together — there is going to be a real coin called the euro. In 2002, euro notes go into European pockets and all former tradi- tional currencies will disappear. The four outside the euro zone, Britain, Denmark, Sweden and Greece, are expected to join by then. So what will change? The euro won't mean much for the man on the street. It will make life simpler when you're on vacation, investment portfolios will change at the expense of dollar-based assets — some rejigging is needed there. Israelis invest mostly in Israel. In future, they will have to diversify. For the next economic level — small businesses, entrepreneurs, domestic traders — analysts see little direct effect from Europe either. But at the national level — banking, importing and exporting, high finance — the changes, and the shocks for the unprepared, are going to be revolu- tionary. The EU is a global superpower; the euro will give it global economic and political authority. It is a market big- ger than the U.S., and it has 21 per- cent of world trade. So with all this looking to a born- again Europe, whatever happened to the New Middle East and all the hype K7:\