What is the final conclusion about the investigation？

d our experience has always been favorable. I would recommend that we sign an agreement based on our discussions and agree a date for our next meeting.

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eer by reforming our job training system and strengthening our universities and colleges. And we will make it easier for students to afford a college education by increasing the size of scholarships.

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before the beginning? What was God doing before He made the world? Was He preparing Hell for people who asked such questions? The problem of whether or not the universe had a beginning was a great concern to the German philosopher, Immanuel Kant. He felt there were logical contradictions, or Antinomies, either way. If the universe had a beginning, why did it wait an infinite time before it began? He called that file thesis. On the other hand, if the universe had existed forever, why did it take an infinite time to reach the present stage? He called that the antithesis. Both the thesis, and the antithesis, depended on Kant's assumption, along with almost everyone else, that time was Absolute. That is to say, it went from the infinite past, to the infinite future, independently of any universe that might or might not exist in this background.

that successful presidents have all skillfully exploited the dominant medium of their times. The Founders were eloquent writers in the age of pamphleteering. Franklin D. Roosevelt restored hope in 1933 by mastering radio. And John F. Kennedy was the first president elected because of his understanding of television.

Will 2008 bring the first Internet president? Last time, Howard Dean and later John Kerry showed that the whole idea of "early money" is now obsolete in presidential politics. The Internet lets candidates who catch fire raise millions in small donations practically overnight. That's why all the talk of Hillary Clinton's "war chest" making her the front runner for 2008 is the most hackneyed punditry around. Money from wealthy donors remains the essential ingredient in most state and local campaigns, but "free media" shapes the outcome of presidential races, and the Internet is the freest media of all.

No one knows exactly where technology is taking politics, but we're beginning to see some clues. For starters, the longtime stranglehold of media consultants may be over. In 2004, Errol Morris, the director of "The Thin Blue Line" and "The Fog of War," on his own initiative made several brilliant anti-Bush ads (they featured lifelong Republicans explaining why they were voting for Kerry). Not only did Kerry not air the ads, he told me recently he never even knew they existed. In 2008, any presidential candidate with half a brain will let a thousand ad ideas bloom (or stream) online and televise only those that are popular downloads. Deferring to "the wisdom of crowds" will be cheaper and more effective.

Open-source politics has its hazards, starting with the fact that most people over 35 will need some help with the concept. But just as Linux lets tech-savvy users avoid Microsoft and design their own operating systems, so "netroots" political organizers may succeed in redesigning our current nominating system. But there probably won't be much that's organized about it. By definition, the Internet strips big shots of their control of the process, which is a good thing. Politics is at its most invigorating when it's cacophonous and chaotic.

To begin busting up the dumb system we have for selecting presidents, a bipartisan group will open shop this week at Unity08. com. This Internet-based third party is spearheaded by three veterans of the antique 1976 campaign: Democrats Hamilton Jordan and Gerald Rafshoon helped get Jimmy Carter elected; Republican Doug Bailey did media for Gerald Ford before launching the political TIP SHEET Hotline. They are joined by the independent former governor of Maine, Angus King, and a collection of idealistic young people who are also tired of a nominating process that pulls the major party candidates to the extremes. Their hope: to get even a fraction of the 50 million who voted for the next American Idol to nominate a third-party candidate for president online and use this new army to get him or her on the ballot in all 50 states. The idea is to go viral—or die. "The worst thing that could happen would be for a bunch of old white guys like us to run this," Jordan says.

The Unity08 plan is for an online third-party convention in mid-2008, following the early primaries. Any registered voter could be a delegate; their identities would be confirmed by cross referencing with voter registration rolls (which would also prevent people from casting more than one ballot). That would likely include a much larger number than the few thousand primary voters who all but nominate the major party candidates in Iowa and New Hampshire. This virtual process will vote on a centrist platform. and nominate a bipartisan ticket. The idea is that even if the third- party nominee didn't win, he would wield serious power in the '08 election, which will likely be close.

curities abroad is known as the foreign exchange market．The actual purchase and sale of foreign exchange generally is accomplished through the international departments of large commercial banks．

The demand for foreign exchange can be either transaction or speculative based. The transactions demand for foreign exchange comes from those who wish to make payment to a foreign country for the purchase of a good，a service，or a security purchased from a resident of，or a company located in a foreign country．A resident of the United States wishing to make a remittance to a relative in the United Kingdom would also affect the demand for sterling. The same would be true if the resident of one country wished to make a contribution to a charity located in another country．Speculative demand for a currency is generated by the confidence speculators have in that currency vis-à-vis other world currencies．This demand could be based on political and/ or economic factors，as demonstrated during the 1970s．For example，when the mark was strong and the sterling weak，speculators would sell sterling to buy marks．

The supply of foreign exchange is provided by those who are willing to sell a currency they hold．This may include those who will receive payments in a foreign currency for the export of goods and services，the sale of securities to foreign residents，or the receipt of foreign exchange resulting from gifts or contributions made by foreign countries．International speculators arc also sources of supply when they feel the currency they hold is weak relative to other world currencies．

h appeal, a fine example of combining the traditional culture with the world's fads and fashions.

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for you, consider this: The economy is already growing so rapidly that it is putting pressure on available labor, production capacity, and distribution channels. Recent price declines, including the drop in gasoline prices, mean that the headline inflation numbers will look better in coming months. But cheaper energy bills free up cash that can be spent on other items. A pickup in demand, especially by consumers, will only add to the fight market conditions that tend to foster broadly higher prices.

For now, costlier energy and the potential pass-through of higher fuel bills to other prices remain a key focus of inflation worries. However, energy prices would be much less of a concern for inflation in general if the economy were not so fundamentally robust. Indeed, the biggest danger in the inflation outlook for 2006 is not necessarily the direction of oil prices. It's the economy's persistent tendency to exceed its speed limit.

Even with the past spikes in energy prices as well as the summer's hurricanes, demand continues to grow so fast that the available productive resources can barely keep up. For the past 2.5 years, the economy has expanded at an annual rate of 4%, with growth in any one quarter never less than 3.3%. That trend far exceeds the economy's growth limit, generally accepted to be about 3.25%. Whatever slack was created by the recession in 2001, it's now either nearly or completely gone.

It is the broad upward pressures on inflation that will be the primary focus of the Federal Reserve and its presumptive new chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, who won near-unanimous support in a Nov. 16 vote of the Senate Banking Committee after his confirmation hearings the day before. Identifying the intensity of those forces and communicating the Fed's policy goals to the markets will be the next chairman's most critical tasks in the coming year.

So far the price indexes show few signs that prices outside of energy are heating up. Consumer prices in October rose 0.2% from September, as did the core index, which excludes energy and food. At the wholesale level, energy pushed producer prices up 0.7% in October, while the core index fell 0.3% , although that fall resulted from a quirky drop in car prices, a reflection more of government statistical methods than sticker prices. Nevertheless, the continued buildup in demand suggests core inflation is more likely to rise than slow in coming months.

How resilient is demand? Just consider how little an impact Hurricane Katrina and the related spike in energy prices had on consumer spending. If anything, the more dramatic shift in demand has come from the boom-bust pattern associated with the timing of the auto industry's "employee discount pricing" plans.

According to the Commerce Dept. , October retail sales slipped 0.1% from September. But excluding the slump in the month's car buying after the pricing program ended, retail receipts jumped a strong 0.9%. That gain would have been higher but for the dip in gasoline prices, which dragged down receipts at gas stations. Commerce also said retail buying in both August and September were a bit higher than its earlier estimates.

Further gains may be on the way, thanks to cheaper energy. Average gas prices are down 25% from their post-Katrina high, to $2.30 per gallon Nov. 14. And based on the current trend in wholesale prices, pump prices could approach $ 2 by yearend. Using commerce data, a 25% drop in gas prices over three months adds some $80 billion, at an annual rate, to household purchasing power, which can go to other things. Any further declines in gas prices mean even more money to spend.

Little wonder then that some retailers are expressing a bit more confidence about yearend shopping. For example, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. expects its November same-store sales to be 3% to

acts on the global economy.