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Presents a `U.S. News' quarterly report on what the presidential candidates aren't saying in their campaigns. Profound gloom for America's economic future; The promises of Democrat Bill Clinton, Democrat Paul Tsongas, Nebraska Democrat Sen. Bob Kerrey, Democrat Jerry Brown, Iowa Democrat Sen. Tom Harkin, and GOP candidate Patrick Buchanan; The broad middle class is the prime target for these candidates to win votes; More.

Discusses the technology problem in the US, which is a desperate need to forge costly advances in everything from microelectronics to manufacturing. Looks at whether or not these firms need a technology policy--such broad government initiatives as tax cuts, trade counteroffensives and massive R&D funding--to foster high-tech competitiveness. Computer capability; Future shocks; Uncle Sam's role; Industrial inertia; More.

Discusses the sweeping change that looms over Japan as the Asian power confronts an aging society. The problems faced by roughly 11 percent of Japan's 124 million population who is now 65 or older; History of Japan's aging future; High life expectancy; The reason for Japan's lower level of services for the aged; Institutional paralysis; Economic angst.

Discusses how runaway medical costs threaten many companies' financial health. Outlines the health system's problems; Seven principles on the health care system; No foolproof measures; Information is power; Making a mandate work; Uncle Sam's role. INSET: 7 principles (health care); Insurer reforms (strengths and....

Reports on how the last, best hope for the free-falling Soviet economy is the free market. Why moving to capitalism is perilous; How the republics can build the sorts of economic institutions that took the US the first 150 years of its history todevelop; Looks at falling investment; Decaying industry; Shattered economy; Key features of the command economy; What needs to be done. INSET: Big job for the big four (those chosen in the four-person....

Considers a daunting US problem, and a national priority, that millions of workers in the bottom one-half of America's labor force for whom `upward mobility is becoming a vanishing idea.' Trends apparent for several years; Developments; Disagreement on improvement; Gains and losses; Rising income inequality; Productivity; Market forces. INSET: Dennis Fedrowisch; Lisa Thompson.;Philip Molter; Doris Minor....

Discusses the deficit in the fiscal 1991 budget and details the new spending straitjacket that last October's budget law contains, that could push the deficit to below $100 billion by 1995. Assumption that Washington abides by its new budget rules; Budget Enforcement Act: focus on real spending restraint, discretionary spending limited and protected, `pay-as-you-go' rules, expansion of entitlement programs barred; The recession's red ink; Twin deficits.

Announces the takeover of the Bank of New England by federal regulators, the demise marking the third largest and costliest bank failure in US history. New low-water mark in the recession; Bush administration sweeping new proposals for restructuring the industry due in late January; Problems of banks themselves; Treasury options: expanded powers, geographic diversification, revamping deposit insurance. INSET: Beleaguered banks; Losing the race.;Regaining momentum..

Presents the results of a WEFA Group prediction of the economic impact of three possible resolutions of the Gulf conflict: a short, successful war, a protracted and difficult war and a standoff. Wide disparity of economic outcomes; Oil jitters; Prolonged misery; Defense spending. INSET: The long war.;The short war; The stalemate.;Meanwhile, on....

Comments on the effects the real-estate crash is having on the nation's banks and its economy. A glut of office space, an overbuilt hotel industry faces a shakeout, many housing markets are flat; Concern that the crisis is feeding on itself; Sweeping changes lie ahead in bank lending practices and regulations. Discusses several developers who are currently having problems including John Portman, Atlanta, Donald Trump, New York, and Trammell Crow, Texas.

Discusses the American debate concerning new policies to cut dependence on foreign oil and reshaping its energy future. Drive to devise a comprehensive US energy policy for the first time in more than a decade; Renewed emphasis on conservation; Tackling transportation; Search for new oil reserves; Natural gas; Electric cars; Renewable resources. INSET: How to cut America's foreign-oil bill..

Argues that while the cold war is over, Japan is forging vast new markets and Europe is awash in Europhoria. The expansion of the 1980s will surge forward into the 1990s and the United States may well miss the boat. Share of the world economy now at 23 percent, certain to decline; Productivity push; Competition for capital; Battle of the blocs.

Discusses the upcoming conflict on Capital Hill between the congressional commission of Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-West Virginia) and the Bush administration over some type of basic medical care for most Americans and long-term care for the aged and disabled. Rehabilitation of a system in shambles; Collapsing private-health-insurance market; 31 million Americans without coverage; Menaced health-care providers; Create a new health-safety net.

Presents a detailed analysis of the Soviet economy with a focus on the key economic and social troubles faced by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Major trouble spots; Future forecast. INSET: Capitalism on the sly.;A family of three in 323 squarefeet....

Discusses issues the Presidential candidates are not talking about. Aging America; Medicare bailout; Transportation; Heavy traffic; Gap between rich and poor; Economic growth; Job opportunities.

Report on the election campaign of Carlos Salinas de Gortari, hand-picked successor to President Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado in Mexico. Issues; Politics of the election; Trade between the US and Mexico; Economic problems of Mexico; The strength of Carlos Salinas' party machine; Repercussions if election is found to be dishonest; Salinas' promises to the electorate. . See also (Time, 7/4/88, 2c, p37, 1p)

Employees across the US are worrying about their shrinking, complex and costly benefits. Why this is happening. Universal health coverage. What the future might hold.

In an historic shakeout, the stock market suffered record drops last week. The sell-off raised new fears about how long the bull market will last. What's behind the extraordinary slide. INSET: Five ways to protect your money..

Presents new evidence revealing who really got rich during the 1980s--and why. The bitter political debate over the growing gap between America's well-to-do and poor; Tax cuts; The trends; Big gains went to many living out their golden years; Where the big gains came for the very wealthy; Explanations for the boom; More. INSET: Why poor workers lost ground in the 1980s, by D. Hage..

Discusses how the ideas of Democratic presidential candidates Bill Clinton and Paul Tsongas aren't as different as they claim. Backgrounds on Clinton and Tsongas; Similar ideas about global economic issues; The areas in which the men do differ, including the issue of taxes; Explanation for the long slowdown in the growth of productivity; More. INSET: Untitled (the similarities and differences between Tsongas and....

Discusses how President George Bush and his aides will soon complete proposals to reform the nation's fractured health system. The diverse interests which will be affected by a single package of proposed legislation; Health spending nearing 14 percent of the gross national product; Details of Bush's health plan; The advantage Sen. Harris Wofford has over Bush; Covering the uninsured; Protecting the middle class; Containing costs; More. INSET: A primer on Bush's proposals..

Reports on the signs of an economy that has stalled, and the emergence of a double-dip recession. Results of a Federal Reserve report; Slowing of manufacturing; Weak retail sales; Decrease in bank lending; Such companies as Texaco, 3M, and IBM show a downturn in third quarter earnings; Easing the crunch.

Discusses how, with an election year looming, President George Bush is searching for ways to get the sick economy back on its feet again. The fledgling recovery has been limited to manufacturing; Other segments of the economy, including banking and real estate, remain in recession; No ready solution; What Bush has accomplished so far; Productivity push; The keys to the economy's long-term health. INSET: New deal on the budget?.

Reports that with bank failures at near-record levels, Washington is spending billions of dollars to close or bail out troubled financial institutions. The sweeping banking reform legislation now under consideration could transform the industry;Financial trouble for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's Bank Insurance Fund (BIF); The BIF bailout plan; Identifies the duties of the players, the lobbyists and the regulators. INSET: Banking reforms..

Suggests that the expenses of this war could hurt the US ability to develop more high-tech strategic systems. New generation of technical gadgetry awaiting funding; War costs without real numbers; No official Pentagon projections concerning cost; Allied contributions: Kuwait ($13.5 billion more), Germany ($170 million to Israel), no soldiers from Germany or Japan; Debate about tradeoffs; Grounding the B-1. INSET: Where the money is going..

Comments that while Day One sent stocks skyrocketing and oil prices plunging, the rapid-fire developments sabotaged most traders' carefully laid plans. The not-too rational stock market being controlled by a not-too rational man; Swift passing of the oil price cloud could pave the way for a milder and shorter recession than many economists expected; Financial firepower not at full strength; Consumer skittishness; Effects of a long term war.

Suggests that while drastic oil price hikes of the 70s and early 80s created huge cash hoards for top oil producers, this time around added revenues will be swallowed up by the staggering costs of the gulf crisis and foreign debts. Oil prices; Accounting for the windfall; Aid to front-line states injured by the crisis: Egypt, Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon; Ostracized Jordan; Spending the oil take on weapons. INSET: OPEC's new windfalls..

Describes the effects the economic downturn is having on the jobless rate, and states that many people who have lost their jobs are not actually unemployed. Taking second and third part-time jobs; Trading down for lower incomes and less benefits:new work at less pay--new-wave unemployment. Permanent cuts in the workforce; Flexibility of women and their jobs; Manufacturing output holding steady.

Discusses the release of Mikhail Gorbachev's plan for salvaging the moribund economy, a blueprint that amounted to a rejection of much of the 500 Days plan. Compromise package of reforms designed to blend elements of the 500 Days plan with Sovietgovernment proposals to rescue the sinking economy. Demands of Soviet radicals; Skyrocketing unemployment; Growing rifts between Moscow and the republics; Current distribution problems.

Discusses the politicians' clever excuses for doing nothing and how the aversion to big deficit cuts could actually create a far worse political and economic disaster. Keynes, Saddam Hussein, ad valorem taxes, and fiscal follies at Andrews Air Force Base; Federal Reserve Board; Gas jitters.

Examines the economic effects of Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait and assesses future problems. Serious weaknesses in the United States economic policy; Dependence on imported oil; Possible effects on the fiscal 1991 budget; Price changes in oil; Possible measures. INSET: Good deals at the gas pump?, by K. Sheets.;Sluggish growth or....

Discusses some of the problems Congress is likely to have with America's senior citizens as it wrestles with the federal budget deficit. Thirty-three million senior citizens who vote in November; Measures affecting broad segments of the elderly;AARP; National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. INSET: How higher taxes stack up..

Describes the problems the Resolution Trust Corporation faces as it tries to sell or close 141 ailing savings and loan institutions before June 30. Public pressure mounting for identifiable scapegoats; Decaying loans and overvalued real estate; Cleanup strategies will cost a lot of money.

Discusses today's trend to retire at age 65 or younger versus the growing conviction that the nation's graying citizens want to keep their noses to the grindstone. Some fraction clearly want to stay on the job; Part-time work or `partial' retirement; Disincentives.

Examines George Bush's fervent commitment to a capital-gains-tax cut which appears to be heading for a fight on Capitol Hill again this budget year. Disagreement over the effect of the reduction on the economy; Massive roll of the dice. INSET: How they will fight over whose capital gains..

Discusses how a proposal by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan to slash payroll taxes for 132 million workers has reopened old wounds. Moynihan's plan would end the building of surpluses in Social Security's trust funds, and call a halt to government's looting of those reserves to help finance other spending. The fight could change the face of US fiscal policy for years to come; Scare tactics; Big IOU's. INSET: How the Moynihan plan would change Social Security..

Studies growing fears of a retirement crisis among Baby Boomers. Four key factors considered; Savings; Social Security; Pensions; Health care.

Examines the growing controversy over the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act, created to protect the elderly from the costs of serious illnesses. Confusion over the benefits; Costs of the program; Gap between the wealthy elderly and those with low- and middle-incomes; Lessons to be learned. INSET: The senior boom; The wealth boom.;Why the catastrophic-care....

Discusses possible plans to construct a vast new computerized network to pay prescription-drug bills under medicare. New claims system; Bidding war; Privacy issue. INSET: Catastrophic care's impending surgery.;Medicare's planned....

Discusses the status of the US economy. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan claims the economy has achieved a soft landing. Considers what this means now and for the future. INSET: Remembrances of recessions past..

Report on the complex legislation being formed to bail out the nation's terminal savings and loans. House version; Senate version; Costs of the scandal; Uncertainties.

Report on Dallas activists, the AIDS ARMS Network (an association of agencies caring for people with AIDS) who show how to cope with AIDS amid scarce resources and tense political battles. Programs; Networks; Care givers.

Reports that Japan, South Korea, Brazil, and India are likely to be cited as `trade-liberalization priorities.' If named as such, US Trade Representative (USTR) Carla Hills must begin negotiating with each to dismantle tariffs, taxes, or other obstacles deemed to be either blocking US imports or limiting expansion of services such as banking or accounting. Super 301.

Report that amid pressures to cut the budget deficit and prolong economic growth, the $200 billion social Security program will come under tough scrutiny in the year ahead. Complex relationship between Social Security reserves and the rest of thebudget; Annual outlays; Differing economic and political opinions; Elderly; Reforms.

Discusses James Addison Baker III, 58, who within hours of managing Bush's presidential campaign to victory, became the nominee for Secretary of State. Political career, Friendship with President-elect George Bush; Role in a Bush Administration. INSET: Riffling the Baker file..

Consideration of the very thing the candidates won't discuss, but for which Washington is preparing--the inevitable tax hike; Candidates dodging the building up of a mandate; How the candidates are handling the issue; Six tax options elaborated with the revenue that each could be expected to raise and the prospects for passage of that tax option.

Economic problems of hospitals. Future health care is going to depend on how public policy responds to need. Changes already in operation. Future structures seen as an integrated network of health care. How networks could work, and where. Shifts in sites of care as well as organizations.