4- Friday, May 15, 1987 — North Shore News Bob Hunter ® strictly personal ® FRANK OGDEN, the only guy I know in town who watches the Tokyo late-night news instead of the CBC, offers an unexpected piece of advice: buy your Japanese goodies now. It is not just Frank sayi.-2 this, either. A reporter I talked to who just got off the plane from Tokyo after an assignment went straight to a store in Vancouver and bought two Japanese television sets. With the yen rising in relation to the dollar, the price of Japa- nese products is going to rise too, probably by this summer with the curve wm steeper in the autum The "hike will affect all things Japanese, which is to say all things high-tech: cars, bikes, TVs, stereos, VCRs, computers, radios, My impulse, of course, is to rush out and buy that new big- ger-screen TV we’ve been think- ing we'd wait another year to get. Do it on the new credit card they’ve given us, with the lower yates, because we’ve been good boys and girls. Makes sense. If we hadn’t already bought another car this year, I’d think about that too. Much too soon to replace the VCR or computer, but the stereo? Hm. But I hesitate. Economic predictions are so fragile these days. I try to keep up. I keep files on the economies of B.C., Canada, the U.S., the world. As you can imagine, it is often a coin-toss in- Mark valuables FIVE VEHICLES were broken in- to in an underground parking lot in the 200-block of West 2nd Avenue, North Vancouver RCMP said the break-ins occurred May 7. The North Shore Rotary Club and the RCMP will be conducting a vehicle identification session as part of a Police Week display at Capilano Mall, The public is invited to have car valuables marked with an identify- ing number May 16 between 10 a.m. and Z p.m. ADVERTISING : CORRECTION | May Preview - Eaton's Selections /87 Page S4-ltem T — Magnificense Bone China — 5 piece place settling. Eaton Regular should be 133.00, not 423.00 Page 57 Items K,L.M Black Lotus — wine, flute & sherbet Reguiar price should read 4/32.00 Page 27 ftem A/BIBIIC/DID1 —- Corah Knit Sleepwear. The descrip- tion is incorrect — should read Cot- ton Knit Sleepwear. Page 33 —- Swimwear ttem A Ftoral Bandeau incorrectly described — should read Floral Tank Page 46 — Item R — ‘Silver Chef gas barbecue wagon. This item is in- correctly described — should read: 430 sq.in. total cooking area, in- cluding warming rack. Due to supplier delivery problems, the following item(s) will not be avaifable: Page 44 ttem E — folding camp cot, green cover as shown is not available. Inadveriently, the error listed above has appeared in our advertising. We sincerely regret any inconvenience or confusion to our customers. to which file a clipping should go, and much copying occurs. So a rough picture, gleaned from scanning the media, lodges itself in my mind about the over-all state of the world’s more-than-Byzantine financial apparatus. All I know for sure is that I can’t possibly know what is really going on. The only conselation is that probably no one else does either. Intuitively, of course, I have assumed for decades that the col- lapse of the world economy was just around the fiscal corner. J know that with their total debt approaching a trillion dollars, the poorest of the in- dustrializing nations are starting to play hardball with the banks. There is a banking crisis out there of astronomical propor- tions. It is poised like a wave, waiting to break. Hardly anyone could fail to have noticed the deep streak of pessimism running in the background during the recent futile meetings of finance ministers with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. It doesn’t help that investment gurus like William Tehan, who called the shot on such economic tide-changes as the shift from in- flation to deflation in the early "80s, are predicting ‘‘the greatest depression in history’? within a year or two, In some ways it reminds me of the way the threat of incineration thanks to an all-out nuclear war used to feel, back when it was far more probable than it appears to be taday. Everything seemed to point toward its inevitability until just a few years ago, yet events have taken unpredicted courses, and we sleep safer now, I believe, than at any time since the "50s. It is not that the nuclear threat has melted away, but as a crisis situation, it has shifted into a much lower gear. Not so many whistles blowing. Total megatonnage is down. That sort of thing. In terms of the impending fi- nancial collapse, 1 would like to remain an utter pessimist, like I’ve been for so long. And, in fact, I feel quite paranoid about all the doom and gloom predic- tions. But that's just par for the course for a basically paranoid personality. Could it be that the big crash might just keep melting away, like atomic Armageddon seems to have done for the moment? It’s a lovely thought. Let’s see what happens to the price of stuff from Japan. If TVs from Tokyo are twice the price they are now by next Christmas, we'll know one thing for sure: an enormous ripple-effect is coming. We are all going to be affected. As the Japanese economy goes, so goes ours to an extent that is far greater than most people real- ize. The world’s stock markets are all underpinned now by the flow of Japan’s enormous sav- ings into investments around the world. If the flow of Japanese savings falters because global profits col- lapse — as they are already star- ting to do in Japan — world stock markets would definitely be threatened. Is there any hope? Wait ard see | say. Don’t throw yourself off that ledge yet. Chilly down. Attention 1984-85 Honda Accord Owners SAVE $$$ on Factory Air-Conditioning. LIMITED STOCK OFFER VALID ONLY WHILE STOCK LASTS NOW $6 : Q° * ONLY INSTALLED *Provincial Tax Extra ALL WORK PERFORMED BY FACTORY TRAINED TECHNICIANS [Sor VANCOUVER : 984-0331 Who's helping Rick? NORTH VANCOUVER District wants to know what North Shore residents and groups are doing to support the Rick Hansen Man In Motion Tour. District officials say the municipality is compiling this in- * formation in order to tell Hansen during upcoming presentations. Groups in West Vancouver, North Vancouver City and North Vancouver District who have rais- ed money for the tour are asked to immediately contact the district hall’s clerk office at 987-7131. The North Shore News will publish the information collected. THE PROMENADE SHOPS OPEN MAY 15 Canada Place welcomes you back! On Friday, May 15 we once again open our doors to the world. Fabulous shopping at The Promenade Shops, dining at The Prow Restaurant, the dazzling spectacle of CN IMAX® and international food delights at the Gourmet Express. Stroll the promenade at Canada Place where the world awaits you .. .and re-live the magic. & MADE IN BRITISH COLUMBIA SHOPS Hi ERITAGE CANADA WAVES FARIDEL EXCLUSIVE IMPORTS Qui HARBOUR BOOKS PACIFIC SHIRT CO. UNIVERSAL SMOKE SHOP LO-COST RENTA-CAR OKUDA PEARLS MONTEGO MODELS THE PROMENADE SHOPS — TENANTS LE. SOCK SHOP FIRST IMAGE GREAT CANADIAN STAMP CQ. EEL-SKIN PLUS BERO GALLERY MAGIC WOK SAKURA SUSHI PURDY'S LIGHT 'N DELICIOUS PIZZA PASTA PIZAZZ THE AMERICAN FARE THE COWICHAN SWEATER SHOP =A TASTE OF CANADA z= aii ef faye ECORI CIN ERE