To Our Readers

By ELIZABETH VALK LONG President

Back in 1969, when time first gathered a cross section of leading economic thinkers to debate U.S. economic conditions, they all agreed on one point: the Federal Reserve Board was raising interest rates so aggressively that it might just kill the economic recovery. Twenty-five years have passed; global economic conditions have gone through dramatic transformations; American companies have had to reinvent their marketing strategies. Yet last week, when TIME's Board of Economists sat down with our editors to present their forecasts for the coming months, one issue was uppermost in their minds: the Federal Reserve Board, they said, may kill the present recovery if it does not stop raising interest rates so aggressively. Said senior writer George Church, who wrote this week's cover story on the American economic comeback: "It's kind of reassuring to see that some things never change."

The idea of gathering top economists for regular discussions with TIME's editors was the brainstorm of then business editor Marshall Loeb, who later served as managing editor of TIME's sister publications MONEY and FORTUNE. Now editor-at-large of FORTUNE, Loeb recalls, "We wanted to develop a sort of early-warning system, a way of keeping our readers informed about changes occurring in the economy, changes that would affect their jobs, their incomes and their futures." Board members, who have always been chosen to represent a range of philosophies, also frequently assist TIME reporters working on breaking stories. Over the years, numerous key policymakers have served, including five chairmen of the Council of Economic Advisers. Distinguished alumni include Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Fed, and Alice Rivlin, director of President Clinton's Office of Management and Budget.

Since the early '80s, the meetings have been organized by assistant editor Bernard Baumohl, who drafts the agenda for each session in consultation with the economists. "I guess my editors thought that someone with a master's in international economics would know how to talk to these guys," says Baumohl. Bernie also knows better than anyone how to interpret the idiosyncrasies of the group. Why, for example, did Greenspan sometimes discourse from a prone position on the floor? (Answer: bad back.) Says business editor Priscilla Painton: "The board helps us not only to anticipate economic developments but also to dig below the surface and examine the forces motivating the companies and industries we write about."