Analyzing the complex ups and downs of the U.S. economy can be tricky business, requiring an expert's eye for detail and a generalist's feel for broad trends. Senior Editor George Taber, who has headed TIME'S Economy & Business section since last fall, draws weekly on a variety of resources to assist him in this difficult task, not the least of which is his own experience in the field. A former American press spokesman for the Commission of the European Community in Brussels, Taber frequently covered business news as a TIME correspondent in Paris and went on to become TIME'S Washington-based economics correspondent from 1977 to 1979. Among the numerous cover stories he reported there, appropriately, was one about the nation's "topsy-turvy" economy.

Another valuable resource for Taber is the TIME Board of Economists, which holds quarterly meetings with the Economy & Business section. Established in 1969, the board consists of top economic experts whose freewheeling, on-the-record discussions provide, as Taber puts it, "a high-powered seminar by the country's leading business and academic economists, who perform a vital service by tipping us off to what the economic community is thinking about and pointing out future trends." (Current members: Otto Eckstein of Harvard University, Martin Feldstein of the National Bureau of Economic Research, Alan Greenspan of Townsend-Greenspan & Co., Walter Heller of the University of Minnesota, James McKie of the University of Texas and Joseph Pechman and Charles Schultze of the Brookings Institution.) Two of the board's distinguished alumni are currently high officials in the Reagan Administration: Murray Weidenbaum, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers (the fifth board member to serve in that position), and Beryl Sprinkel, Under Secretary of the Treasury.

Last week's meeting of the board was particularly useful to Taber and Charles Alexander, who wrote this week's cover story on how fares "Reaganomics." The economists' comments amplified key points to be dealt with in the story, which was checked by Reporter-Researcher Bernard Baumohl. The guest participant at the meeting was Alice Rivlin, director of the Congressional Budget Office, who a few days later gave her newsmaking testimony before the House Budget Committee.

Says Taber: "The Reagan Administration will clearly rise or fall along with its economic program, now under panicky and premature fire before it is fairly begun. Reagan could be leading the country toward a breakthrough in its economic history, but only if he can convince the public and the Congress to stick with him."

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