September 10, 1993

Germany's central bank, widely blamed for Europe's monetary chaos and deepening economic recession, went some way toward appeasing its many critics today by lowering its two influential interest rates by half a percentage point each. The Bundesbank cut its discount rate, which is the cheapest rate for loans to commercial banks, to 6.25 percent from 6.75 percent and it lowered its Lombard rate, the rate for lending emergency funds to banks, to 7.25 percent from 7.75 percent

Sol Wachtler, New York State's former Chief Judge, who had once hoped to be governor, was sentenced today to 15 months in Federal prison for threatening to kidnap the daughter of his former lover, Joy A. Silverman. In handing down a sentence that split the difference between a possible 12 to 18 months, Judge Anne E. Thompson of Federal District Court weighed competing arguments about how Mr. Wachtler should be treated. His lawyers argued that given his once-exalted position, Mr. Wachtler's public disgrace should move Judge Thompson toward leniency; United States Attorney Michael Chertoff said the advantages of education, wealth and station Mr. Wachtler once enjoyed, if anything, demanded a higher standard of behavior of him.

It was pouring buckets here today, so the Bank of Japan may cut its discount rate. Normally, the weather and monetary policy are not so closely linked, but this has not been a normal year. The coolest and wettest summer in 39 years has helped to reverse Japan's limp recovery from what was already a deep recession, forcing the new coalition Government of Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa to consider an array of urgent measures to get the faltering economy on track. Everything from interest rate reductions to tax cuts are being considered.

When Travelers sold $643 million in real estate to a partnership headed by George Soros two days ago, a little wave of excitement washed over the insurance industry. Travelers is not alone: The Equitable Companies sold $393 million of real estate in the first six months of this year, almost twice what the company sold in all 1992. The Prudential Insurance Company of America is getting ready to sell up to $700 million of real estate, company officials say.

It's been five days since the National Baptists rolled into town. And if you talk to those among the faithful they will probably tell you there's been enough good preaching to save a weak man's soul -- and enough traffic and rain to try a strong man's nerves. There has been plenty of balm for the spirit, from late-night sermons to early-morning services for the 50,000 delegates to the National Baptist Convention, USA Inc. at Madison Square Garden. But the Baptists also tell of wide-eyed walks through Times Square, harried cab rides through crowded streets and shopping trips from the Garment District to Bloomingdale's.

NEW YORK CITY ROHATYN RESIGNS Felix G. Rohatyn, the wily investment banker who helped engineer New York City's recovery from the brink of bankruptcy 18 years ago and regularly played Cassandra to free-spending public officials ever since, has submitted his resignation as chairman of the state board that oversees the city's finances. B3. SECOND GUESSING OVER ASBESTOS It was to have been a day of noise and confusion, as a million New York City children reported back to school after the summer break. Instead, it was a day for anger and second-guessing about whether the delay because of asbestos contamination was even necessary. B3.

In a mood of resignation and quiet satisfaction, top leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization continued their final deliberations tonight on texts of agreements with Israel. And senior P.L.O. officials appeared to have made breakthroughs in taming opposition to the accords by Muslim militants and the organization's leftist flank. A senior official asserted that the P.L.O. leadership in Tunis had succeeded in persuading Sheik Ahmad Yassin, the spiritual leader of the Palestinian Muslim militant Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, who is held by the Israelis, to issue a statement calling on his followers not to use violence to demonstrate their opposition to the deal.

Enemies to the death for three decades, Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization opened a new era in their blood-soaked history today by recognizing each other's legitimacy and the rights of both to represent their people's dreams. Yasir Arafat, the P.L.O. chairman, said in a letter to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin that his group recognized Israel's right "to exist in peace and security," renounced "the use of terrorism and other acts of violence," and was ready to discipline any of its loyalists who break this pledge.

In a battle that is expected to heighten the debate over the United States role in Somalia, American and Pakistani forces opened fire today on a crowd of Somali soldiers, women and children after United Nations peacekeeping troops came under attack. Two American Cobra attack helicopters and Pakistani tanks and armored personnel carriers fired cannons and rockets at the Somalis in Mogadishu, the Somali capital. United Nations officials said as many as 100 Somalis may have been killed in the fighting, and that some appeared to be women and children.

Attorney General Janet Reno today put off an announcement that the Clinton Administration had decided to close its civil rights investigation of the 1991 disturbances in Crown Heights after the Brooklyn District Attorney pleaded for more time to argue for a Federal prosecution. Ms. Reno had planned to announce this morning that the Justice Department had decided not to intervene and would not file a civil rights case against anyone involved in the slaying of a Hasidic scholar because the case would be exceedingly difficult to win, officials involved in the case said today.

After a stunning rally that took the yields on long-term Treasury securities to their lowest levels in 25 years, the bond market paused yesterday for a bout of selling that knocked the price of the 30-year bond down almost one and a half points and sent its yield up to 5.96 percent. But traders and analysts said this retreat was not yet a signal that the rally was over. Instead, it appeared to be just a chance for investors to catch their breath and lock in some profits. The selloff also sent short-term and intermediate rates higher.

THE poster started out in life in humble circumstances. Before the age of radio and television, it was an important medium for getting a message across to the broad public, especially on the streets of large cities. The mandate was clear and simple. "They were designed specifically to appeal to people," said Jack Rennert, a poster dealer in Manhattan and the author of more than 20 books on poster art. "They had to have a graphically interesting way of grabbing your attention, otherwise they couldn't sell that beer, or fill that concert hall." The values of simplicity and immediacy continue to attract poster collectors a century after the dynamic, colorful posters of Jules Cheret, the father of the poster, first appeared on the streets of Paris. They are a populist art form that somehow never learned to be snooty, even in the hands of masters like Pierre Bonnard, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Leonetto Cappiello, A. M. Cassandre or Alphonse Mucha.