Economic Summit

They can investigate the keno contract till the cows come home, but they will never learn why the suckers play it.Somalia is a testing ground. If the Marines can disarm the thugs, Bill is sending them into American cities next.Just when everyone was congratulating himself that there is no Arkansas Mafia, Bill appointed a kindergarten playmate to run the White House.The purpose of the economic summit is to lead the cheers for the Clinton economic package the content of which is yet to be thought up.

In Harford County Executive to attend economic summit in Washington BEL AIR - Harford County Executive James M. Harkins will travel to Washington tomorrow to attend President Bush's two-day economic summit, which starts today. "It's not very often that you get a call from the White House asking you to come to something," Harkins said yesterday. He said he would be doing more listening than talking, but if given the chance to express his thoughts on one of the topics, "Preparing Americans for Tomorrow's Jobs," he would not be shy about contributing his "two cents."

Washington -- President Bush and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl debated the issue yesterday of how to help the Soviet economy but came to no resolution.At a 90-minute White House session, the two leaders also sidestepped the question of whether Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev should be invited to intend the July economic summit of industrialized nations."President Gorbachev is going to play a role" at the economic summit to be held in London in July whether he is "actually bodily present or not," Mr. Kohl predicted.

ANOTHER PRESIDENT BUSH. Another mushrooming budget deficit. Another clamor from Democrats for an economic summit that would provide bipartisan cover for a deal to raise taxes -- or least forgo tax cuts that have not yet taken effect. At the former summer White House in Maine, fallout from the latest estimates of the widening gap between federal income and outgo must be invoking terrible memories of the 1990 economic summit. The resulting bargain took the first crucial step toward reversing three decades of red ink. But it cost George H.W. Bush his presidency.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush, saying he is convinced that Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev remains committed to economic reform, hinted strongly yesterday that he is now inclined to favor some form of Western economic aid to the Soviet Union.If the Soviets come forward with an economic plan that "makes sense, we'll encourage it," Mr. Bush told reporters. "If we have some reservations about it, we owe Mr. Gorbachev, who is a friend, that 'Hey look, this has some difficulty.' "Later, he said, "Gorbachev, I am still convinced, is working the reform path, working the perestroika path, and I'm not going to pull the rug out from under him. On the other hand, we have limitations on what we can do. And when we do something, we want it to be meaningful."

Munich, Germany. -- Of all the losers at the economic summit in Munich this week, Japan and Ukraine are the worst off.Almost everybody is a loser, of course. The leaders of the seven industrialized democracies, Britain's John Major excepted, have never been so unpopular at home. They run listless economies, yet they are too weak to conclude their six-year-long negotiations and make the final concessions on tariffs and non-tariff barriers that could stimulate global trade and growth.The third world, too, is getting short shrift as the West focuses on the more dramatic misery of the ex-Soviet Union.

THURMONT -- President Clinton ended a grueling nine-day effort at Camp David last night, failing to broker an historic, permanent peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. Hours later, however, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat announced that they would stay at the mountain retreat and continue talks. "We all thought it was over, and then we discovered that nobody wanted to give up," a weary Clinton said at 12:45 a.m. today. The president then prepared to leave quickly for a weekend economic summit in Japan.

MUNICH, Germany -- Martin Khor has found that there is little place for a Malaysian journalist when the West's top leaders get TC together for their annual summit.Unlike his Western counterparts, Mr. Khor cannot watch the seven heads of state hobnob over breakfast or read their plans for the world economy. Although the summit will affect his home country's economy, he and other journalists from poor countries are excluded because the summit organizers give the coveted press passes for the leaders' meetings only to Westerners.

WASHINGTON -- If George Bush were running for president of Russia, the economic summit meeting at Munich might be counted as a political plus. After all, Boris Yeltsin went back to Moscow with promises of $24 billion in economic assistance.But President Bush came away empty-handed, to the surprise of no one. Indeed, it may turn out that the Group of Seven meeting was not just irrelevant politically but perhaps a flat-out loser.There was, of course, no way President Bush could have avoided attending the economic summit.