A Bear of Bearish News

Above all, he can be stubborn. A long-running argument has been brewing in the Feldstein household over whether to get a television set for the family vacation home near Brattleboro, Vt. His daughters Margaret, 13, and Janet, 11, say yes, but father tunes them out on the ground that the tube would intrude on their time together. "I side with Marty," says Wife Kathleen. "The girls obviously don't like it."

Top White House aides have not had much more luck with Martin Feldstein than have his daughters. Administration officials have been bluntly trying to get him to cool down the warnings he has been issuing about the dangers of high deficits for the past six months, but with little success.

Feldstein says he believes he should tell the President what he thinks rather than just "fall in line when the political types say march this way or that."

Feldstein sees his job as "the economic adviser to the President, the economic voice of the Cabinet, the person who also brings a technical economic viewpoint to Executive Branch discussions and, occasionally, the representative of the consumer, or the general good, or the unrepresented constituency--everybody." The worst way to do his task, he argues, is to tell people what they already believe. Says he: "There's no value added in that."

The President's chief economic adviser came to Washing ton from a world that praised and rewarded him for his brilliance. The son of a New York City attorney, Feldstein, 44, received a bachelor's from Harvard and graduate degrees from Oxford, all in economics, and at 29 became one of the youngest full professors in Harvard's history. In 1977 he won the John Bates Clark medal from the American Economic Association, which is given every two years to the most distinguished economist age 40 or under. That same year he was named president of the National Bureau of Economic Research, the accepted a business-cycle judge that declares when recessions begin and end. A believer in the free m market who feels that Government intervention in the economy hurts more than helps, Feldstein earned a reputation in his profession as a scholar who did meticulous research.

He became most famous for studies on the effects Social Security has had on the level of savings.

When Feldstein left aca deme for Washington in the summer of 1982, he entered a foreign world. It was one that did not understand him and one that he sometimes does not seem to understand.

Since Feldstein announced from the beginning that he was planning to return to Harvard for the 1984 fall semester, his critics within the Administration have been charging that he is more interested in winning applause from the denizens of the Harvard faculty lounge than in helping the President. Others are even more cutting. Says a top Reagan aide: "I used to think Feldstein was just interested in getting his consulting fees up, but now I think it's worse than that. I think he's trying to maximize the number of corporate boards he can get on." Some foes charge that the professor just did not understand how Washington works. Says one Treasury aide: "I can't begin to fathom what motivates the man. He could be completely naive, or totally and cleverly self-serving, or completely concerned with his intellectual integrity. It could be a little of each."

Feldstein's refusal to play by Washington's usual rules has repeatedly landed him in trouble. He got off to a shaky start during his confirmation hearings with a gratuitous reference to "supplyside extremists," though the supply-side theory is a favorite of the Administration's. Feldstein has never figured out how to win the confidence of the President or top White House aides. The reason, says a key Administration policymaker: "Marty's not interested in figuring out what the President wants to do and then getting on that side of the issue. He's interested in the long-term health of the economy."

His return to Harvard in September should be a welcome relief after Washington's grueling pace. Feldstein usually gets up at 6:15 and drives his 1976 Volvo from the family's rented town house in Georgetown to his office in the Old Executive Office Building. He is rarely on the cocktail-party circuit. Says his wife Kathleen: "We only go to places where we can really talk to people."

Feldstein prefers to work late at the office or in his book-lined study at home. Sometimes he can be seen at 2 a.m. walking the family dog, a beagle named Daniel Webster, through the streets of Georgetown. To friends he can appear onedimensional. Says one: "His interests run to economics, economics and economics." His one hobby is photography. Among his prized possessions are videotapes of an eight-week round-the-world trip the family made in 1982. Recalls his wife: "It practically killed us to lug that equipment to the Great Wall of China, but we got some terrific film."

Feldstein closely follows the academic progress of his daughters. Says a friend:

"He's shockingly knowledgeable about what his daughters are doing in school. It's trivial but obviously important to him. "He took up cross-country m I skiing and horseback riding to spend more time with them.

Feldstein enjoys the limelight. Three weeks ago, he and his wife were in a Richmond art gallery when a man sidled up to him and said, "Give 'em hell." Feldstein beamed. He is receiving about 70 letters a week, most of them favorable. Keep it up." wrote a Seattle woman. "Thank you for calling 'em as you see 'em." wrote a man from Marietta, Ga. With supporters from coast to coast, maybe he will even find a few backat the Harvard faculty lounge.