Brown and White Vol. 97 no. 9

              by gokul jaykrishna brown and white news writer the japanese equity market is the single largest stock market in the world the value of the japanese market has risen from 42 billion in 1970 to 3,840 billion in 1988 according to university of chicago finance professor kenneth french who spoke at lehigh on the japanese stock market french added in 1988 the japanese stock market was 55 percent larger than the market in the united states which is the second largest market in the world today with the help of a graph french demonstrated the dec line in japan's div idend-price d-p ratio japan's d-p ratio has fal len from 3.9 in 1970 to 0.6 in 1988 while the same for the u.s has remained around three this simply means that the japanese are reinvesting more as a percentage of the price than americans are french explained french said the price-earn ing ratio p-e is the most important indicator of the equity markets the p-e ratio shows the dollar amount investors will pay for one dol 54 in 1988 the comparable ratio for the standard of american stocks has gone from 19 in 1970 to 13 in 1988 the average p-e ratio for all other nations except japan was 11.8 in 1988 the radical disparity bet ween the p-e ratios in japan and the other nations is a recent phenomenon in the 19705 japan's p-e ratios were below p-e's in the u.s however between 1973 and 1985 japanese p-e's were approximately twice those of the u.s the rapid increase in see japanese page 9 maybe i japanese i managers | think long term i the u.s managers | think short term i that's why they are | so much smarter than we are kenneth french professor of finance lar of current earnings french said japan's p-e ratio rose from 9 in 1970 to the brown and white lehigh university friday october 13 1989 vol 97 no 9 students question city police actions see council page 7 including the freedom of speech pro tection against unreasonable search and seizures and the right to be considered innocent until proven guil ty councilman michael loupos said that underage drinking not police harassment is the main problem with student and police relations loupos said stricter university drinking restrictions have moved lehigh stu dents off campus to drink we cannot tolerate drinking under 21 years of age loupos said that's breaking the law loupos said students fail to show respect for the law you're part of this community and we want the four years thatyou're going to be here to be happy years on the other hand i think you have an obligation also he said students should realize when they are breaking the law he added other students stressed that thay were not objecting to underage drink ing laws but rather the police depart ment's method of enforcement of these laws by robyn suriano brown and white news editor approximately 50 lehigh students voiced their views on police harass ment at the bethlehem city council meeting oct 3 the students said they attended the meeting to inform the councilmen of a growing antagonism that has been developing between students and city policemen in the past month students addressed council members at the end of the meeting the problem has turned out to be a discrimination against a minority not a racial minority not an ethnic minor ity but a student minority michael toffel 90 said toffel a member of delta tau delta fraternity said the students were attending the council meeting as a result of many incidents toffel stress ed that harassment has occurred in situations other than the widely publicized confrontation between bethlehem police officer craig stefko and brown and white editor nick chini 90 toffel said the police have violated three of the students basic rights b&w photo by melissa peller lehigh students wait to voice their opinions at the city council meeting price system steps are being taken to make the rubble convertable we cannot have a market price before we create a market and we cannot create a market until we overhaul the price system the new economic scheme necessit ates an improvement in the area of agriculture trofimenko said the granting of long-term leases would give greater incentives everything we do every aspect of life is through see russia page 3 soviets need economic reforms haul the concept of the whole econo my currently big investments in the russian economy are not possible and will not be until the soviet economy is more closely related to the western economic situation with this trof imenko said new avenues of produc tion will open he said this goal requires the unpopular measure of changing the by kim phillips brown and white news writer two years ago it was much easier to carry out price reform said profess or henry trofimenko commenting on the soviet economy we've lost time and now when it is required it seems politically impossible trofimenko a senior specialist on american relations spoke on oct 4 to approximately 20 faculty members and students on perestroika and our relations with the soviet union trof imenko conducts research for the institute of u.s.a and canada in moscow a think-tank under the ussr academy of sciences according to trofimenko a new economic system must be installed to achieve some measure of perestroika or reconstruction instead of invest ing money the government must over japanese stock increases in value inside news lu volunteers plan new projects to aid bethlehem residents page 9 arts & leisure club 31 official reflects on the unpopularity of lehigh's year-old non alcoholic pub page 1 5 sports ecc tennis tournament begins tomorrow page 22