March 15, 2001

Stock market collapse puts pressure on Federal Reserve for quicker and bigger interest rate cuts just at a time when Fed is trying to wean investors and traders away from their belief that it will rescue them from losses; Fed's reluctance even to appear as if it is responding to falling stock prices could leave investors disappointed; problem is partly Fed's own doing because it has brought relatively quick end to recent market plunges; graph (M)

Broad market indexes are sagging in current bear market, but many individual stocks and some entire industries still prosper; among the winners are mutual funds dedicated to short selling, professional money managers with conservative styles, average employees working in old-economy industries, and hedge funds, which are designed to survive volatile markets; photo (M)

Ex-Convicts in Work Force The prison population soared in the '90s. Now, thousands of former convicts are streaming out, with many of them becoming the untouchables of the work force. PAGE A16 Generator Sites Criticized The Pataki administration has acknowledged that the electric generators it wants to install around New York City would go into poor, heavily minority communities. PAGE B1

French court ruling in fall of 2000 to restrict Nazi memorabilia offered for sale on Yahoo may be harbinger of World Wide Web where some information is not accessible globally; software may make it possible to deny access to some sites based on viewer's location; current French law prohibits any displays of Nazi insignia; photos (M)

Groundswell of dissatisfaction among 2,000 African-Americans covered by discrimination lawsuit against Coca-Cola Co threatens to destabilize or even derail the $192 million settlement; they have until March 19 to accept or reject settlement, and if 200 or more of them opt out of agreement, Coke has option of declaring settlement invalid; source of plaintiffs' frustration is that under settlement, those covered in lawsuit must approve accord and sign away their rights to sue Coke in future before they find out how much money they will receive (M)