Economic Problems

SO MANY QUESTIONS remain about President Boris N. Yeltsin's poor health -- and who is in control in the Kremlin -- that his convincing re-election yesterday evokes relief but not much enthusiasm. At a time when Russia desperately needs a forceful and forward-looking leader, it clearly will not have either. Even as the Yeltsin second term begins, the Kremlin is embroiled in intrigues over power and succession.This is a sad and troubling situation, which endangers the fledgling democratic reforms undertaken during the five years since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In formally announcing the end of this baseball season, somebody named Bud Selig, who represents the franchise owners, went on TV and used the phrase "terrible economic problem" to describe their plight.I have nothing but compassion for those who have a "terrible economic problem." And while I'm not a businessman, I know a little bit about "economic problems." Not necessarily "terrible," but somewhat uncomfortable.During my childhood, there were times when we could barely pay the rent on our Armitage Avenue flat and couldn't afford our own telephone.

WHEN the economy began to grow at a modestly improved 3.9 percent rate in the third quarter, there was a chorus of comment that further stimulus in the form of public works spending or other public outlay was no longer needed; many economists advised President-elect Clinton to let nature take its course and pursue deficit reduction.However, at his press conference last Tuesday, Mr. Clinton sensibly declared that in his view the economic slump is far from over. He stronglyhinted that budget balance will be postponed in favor of an economic recovery program.

The best way to predict how President Bush or Gov. Bil Clinton would shape America's long-term economic future is to look at their different interpretations of what happened to the economy in the 1980s.It's in their role as historians, rather than economists, that the sharp differences between the two men are seen most clearly -- differences often obscured by the "chicken in every pot" rhetoric that typically marks political campaigns.Mr. Bush, if only because he was Ronald Reagan's vice president for eight years, sees the economic course that Mr. Reagan charted as a fundamentally wise one that banished the plagues of high inflation, high interest rates and meddlesome government of the 1970s and unleashed the greatest peacetime economic expansion in U.S. history.

WASHINGTON -- There is a central underlying problem with the economy at the moment: too many workers chasing too few jobs.The economy is expanding too weakly to absorb the new entrants to the labor force, 700,000 in the past two months alone. And employers are relying on overtime rather than hiring to meet what anemic consumer demand there is. Job creation actually went into reverse in June for the first time in five months, pushing the unemployment rate to 7.8 percent, its highest level in eight years.

Economists may be forecasting a turnaround for the sagging economy, but that hasn't stopped county residents from worrying.The economy tops the list of their concerns, according to a survey conducted byAnne Arundel Community College. For the second time in four months, residents have cited economic problems as their main worry.Yet residents' responses also indicated that they are somewhat optimistic about their future."I found that most interesting," saidElizabeth Kessel, director of the college's Center for the Study of Local Issues.

NEW YORK -- With the recession and a presidential campaign placing an extraordinary emphasis on economic policy, Wall Street Week, a Maryland Public Television production, will feature tonight two of the nation's most prominent economic gurus, Nobel laureates Milton Friedman and Paul Samuelson.Don't expect either to deliver a rousing new blueprint to quickly reinvigorate the nation, however.Indeed, while candidates and Congress are spewing forth one proposal after another stuffed with tax cuts and special incentives, these two men, heavyweight presidential advisers for the past three decades (as well as academically revered economic theoreticians)

WASHINGTON -- At a time when Washington is rushing to enact a package of election-year tax relief, most Americans say they would rather use the post-Cold War "peace dividend" to boost domestic spending or reduce the deficit than to finance tax cuts, according to a new Los Angeles Times poll.While Americans remain largely pessimistic about the economy, the nationwide poll found little evidence of a mounting grass-roots tax revolt that might pressure Congress to rush through the kind of anti-recession tax cuts advocated by President Bush and key Democrats.

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke easily outdistanced Samuel A. Culotta to win a second term in office and lead a Democratic sweep in a lethargic municipal election.Only 27.4 percent of the city's registered voters cast their ballots yesterday, the poorest General Election showing in many years. In 1987, turnout was 34 percent and in 1983 it was 37 percent.Barbara E. Jackson, administrator for the Board of Supervisors of Elections, said today that in her 24 years of watching people vote in Baltimore, the turnout was the lowest.

After Dyan Brasington announced the county's ambitious proposed economic development plan last week, she had her work cut out for her."The first thing I'm going to do is take a look at my present budgetand reduce it," said Brasington, the county's economic development administrator. County Executive Charles I. Ecker has asked her to makemore than $20,000 in cuts in preparation for yet another manifestation of "Ecker-nomics," as Brasington calls it.The prospect of further cuts is worrisome to county business leaders who believe the economic development program had been neglected under the administration of former county executive M. Elizabeth Bobo.