Economic Issues

WASHINGTON -- The death of Kim Il Sung has the United States and its allies groping in near-darkness in a game with enormous stakes.How it plays out will have huge consequences for the Clinton presidency, the gradual shrinkage of U.S. military might, the spread of nuclear arms worldwide, prosperity throughout Asia and perhaps the survival of millions of South Koreans.When he died, reportedly of a heart attack, North Korea's dictator had begun a crucial diplomatic exchange with the United States and South Korea while shrewdly maintaining the option of building up a nuclear weapons capability.

Crime now rivals the economy in the eyes of Americans as the single most important problem facing the country, but they are divided over whether Republicans or Democrats are best able to do something about it, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.The sharp rise in concern about crime helps assure that it will be a front-line issue in this election year. But there is also a widespread sense that the country is powerless to deal with it, with most Americans saying they do not expect violence to decline significantly in the next few years.

With less than a month to go before the scheduled showdown House vote on the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement, the Clinton administration is learning that it will have to pay heed to its Republican supporters as well as to wavering Democrats. About time. Free trade is identified with the GOP at this moment in history, but so is opposition to higher federal taxes and fees.Last week, in another legislative fumble, the White House offered and then quickly backed away from a proposal to double federal levies on all international airline passengers, trucks and rail cars coming into this country.

SILVER SPRING -- Patrick J. Smith, the Montgomery County lawyer who ran Paul E. Tsongas' victorious Maryland Democratic presidential primary race in 1992, last night officially kicked off his campaign for state attorney general."

County and town officials will meet today and tomorrow to talk about attracting industry to Carroll and about whether the county offers adequate services for its residents.The county commissioners and mayors from Carroll's eight towns will meet at Carroll Community College for their third such gathering in three years.About 80 people have signed up to attend the all-day meetings.Today's sessions will focus on economic development.County officials say they want to close the gap between the residential tax base, which has more than doubled in the past eight years, and the commercial/industrial tax base, which has grown about 50 percent in that period.

TOKYO -- Late in the 1800s, as Japan emerged from centuries of self-imposed isolation, the Meiji Era's finest craftsmen paid homage to France's pride, the Versailles Palace, by replicating parts of it in the center of Tokyo.For three days beginning Wednesday, in that same gilded 19th-century monument to Japan's opening to the outside world, the Akasaka Palace, Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa will preside at one of the great annual spectacles of the late 20th century -- a summit of leaders of the Group of Seven industrial powers.

The Greater Baltimore Committee, saying it would undergo a "course correction," has decided to shift its focus toward the everyday problems of business and economic development.The change of direction comes as the business group is poised to launch a search for a new president and just months afterbeing criticized for ignoring the needs of small- and mid-sized businesses. The discontent culminated in the creation of the Baltimore Chamber of Commerce in January.The GBC said it would strengthen its service to members and expand its focus beyond long-range economic goals and concentrate more on more immediate problems in the Baltimore area.

WASHINGTON -- In a post-election debut that could have passed for a one-man variety hour, former presidential contender H. Ross Perot burst back on the TV screen yesterday to launch a membership drive for his volunteer organization and begin nipping at the heels of the incoming administration."

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- If the nation needed a cold shower of economic reality, it got it yesterday. If it wanted to know who and what was to blame for its problems, it was told. And if it was looking for solutions, it was offered plenty.At President-elect Bill Clinton's economic conference, the "greatest nation on earth" was given shock therapy on its economic shortcomings even as it was reassured that it still had the potential to be great again.Rarely has a nation seen such a public bout of economic self-examination on national TV and radio.

The Concord Coalition, a group intended to stimulate discussion of economic issues -- particularly the deficit -- which are not being discussed fully in the election campaign, announced its formation last week. The coalition's leaders are former Sen. Paul E. Tsongas, a Massachusetts Democrat; Sen. Warren B. Rudman, a New Hampshire Republican who is not seeking re-election; and Peter G. Peterson, secretary of commerce in the Nixon administration. Here are excerpts from their statement announcing the new organization:Today, we are announcing the formation of The Concord Coalition: Citizens for the America's Future.