Bizwatch

Sunday, Sep. 14, 2003 By CHARLES P. WALLACE

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A Cure for What Ails Germany?
Like characters in the TV drama ER, Germany's emergency-room doctors have a pretty tough life: work a day shift, spend the night in the hospital as the doctor "on call," and then work another day shift. Thanks to a complaint from a doctor in the city of Kiel, their life may now get easier.

INDICATORS
Shock And Audit
Insurers in the U.S. filed a $300 billion lawsuit against al-Qaeda and its backers, seeking damages for claims relating to the Sept. 11 attacks. The firms, who have paid out $4 billion to date, also cited Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia for facilitating the disaster.

Give And Take
The E.U. said it would allow France to grant Alstom a short-term loan as part of a rescue package for the troubled engineering firm, but threatened legal action if the state takes part in a public offering for Alstom later this month.

Fair Trade Coffee
Full marks to Starbucks after a traditional private school in Britain contracted them to provide its pupils with the firm's java.

The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg last week ruled that doctors' rest time in hospitals must be counted as work time, for which European law sets a maximum of 48 hours per week. Frank Ulrich Montgomery, head of the union of hospital doctors, said the ruling means another 15,000 doctors must be found to staff the hospitals. Good news for doctors, but the tab may come to €1 billion. "If the hospital's running costs increase, eventually insurance will have to pay additional costs," Montgomery said. Since most Germans are insured through the state, the government could end up footing the bill. Ulla Schmidt, Minister of Health and Social Security, said the extra costs had been anticipated earlier this year. Even so, it could send an already sick economy into trauma.

Bankers Called To Account
How much money should a bank keep in the bank? Sounds like a simple question, yet officials from major central banks have spent the past five years toiling in Basel to devise a new set of capital requirements that will force financial institutions to be far more diligent in the way they allocate capital to cover risk. Under the new rules, different types of loans will have different capital requirements. Theoretically, this could enable some banks to lower mortgage rates, but might also raise the cost of loans to small companies. The plans are coming under fierce criticism. Most seriously, the U.S. says it will only require its 10 biggest banks to follow the new rules. Last week buzz spread that the end-2006 deadline for implementing the rules may be pushed back. That prospect worries European banks already changing over, which could cost up to $200 million per bank. Expect a showdown at next month's Basel reunion of central bank heads. — By Peter Gumbel

One Down, So Many To Go
Ben Glisan, former treasurer of Enron, became the first executive to be imprisoned over the accounting scandal at the bankrupt energy firm. Glisan was sentenced to five years in a U.S. prison after pleading guilty to securities and wire fraud.

The Bottom Line
	Those who find themselves in an offside position should accept a free kick against them.
		WIM DUISENBERG, outgoing president of the European Central Bank, threatening to fine euro-zone countries that break the deficit limit