Contributors

JOSHUA COOPER RAMO, editor of TIME's World section, takes you inside the most powerful economic triangle in Washington in this week's cover story on the Committee to Save the World, a.k.a. Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and Deputy Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. As volatility has upset foreign markets and economic models, the three men have forged a unique partnership to prevent the turmoil from engulfing the globe. "They are motivated by the prospect of confronting entirely unprecedented economic challenges," says Ramo. Reporting this tale proved a challenge too. Ramo followed Summers to Russia this summer as that country's economy unraveled. Greenspan stayed put, but until TIME's exclusive, he's been understandably reluctant to be interviewed, given the power his words exert on the markets.

MICHAEL O'NEILL and DIANA WALKER, two veteran photographers, together captured the telling pictures of Greenspan, Rubin and Summers that appear in this week's issue. O'Neill had only 25 minutes to shoot the cover image of the three, who had never before posed together. One of America's premier portraitists, O'Neill composes artistic yet journalistic images that convey a message quickly and clearly, as a cover must. Walker, a TIME photographer since 1979, has captured six White House News Photographer awards for pictures of the First Family. Her ability to gain a subject's trust allows her to capture truly unguarded moments that offer insight into a person's character.

ERIC POOLEY is not unfamiliar with the whirlwind of politics. As one of the magazine's senior political writers, he covered the White House in 1996, has reported on elections around the country and co-wrote our 1998 Man of the Year cover story on Ken Starr. But five weeks ago, he stepped into a firestorm when he became acting Nation editor as the impeachment of the President moved into the Senate. "It certainly hasn't been difficult coming up with story ideas," he says. "But events move so quickly that the story on Friday is vastly different from what we envisioned the previous Wednesday." Though his weekends are mostly shot, Pooley says his job is "enormous fun because you have great reporters at your disposal in Washington, New York City and all the other bureaus. As a kid, I played war games where you deployed forces on multiple fronts. Being Nation editor is a bit like that."

GINIA BELLAFANTE joined TIME in 1992 and since then has turned out the People page, served as our television critic and written last year's much discussed cover story on feminism. This week she returns to the TV beat to examine the phenomenon of hit television shows aimed primarily at female viewers. "These shows, whether or not they are smart or sophisticated, at least represent an effort to appeal to the rather large number of women who do not look as though they have been put together by a stylist," says Bellafante. The programs include the new hit series Providence, which has caught on despite mixed reviews and one of the worst time slots in prime-time television, and a trio of original programs on the Lifetime channel. Bellafante, who also edits our Short Takes section, says viewers should expect future programs to capitalize on this trend.

ED GABEL admits to the occasional bout of stage fright. "Sometimes I have to make myself forget how many people will see my art, or I get distracted," says Gabel, who joined TIME a year ago after working for a newspaper in New Jersey. "It's an adjustment coming from a daily paper with a regional audience to a magazine with a global one." But last week Gabel, who designs three-dimensional illustrations for TIME, faced a different challenge. At midweek, he was called upon to create a special foldout graphic on Internet companies, even as cyberdeals and rumors of cyberdeals were in the air, requiring constant revisions in the way the illustration was conceived. "I was forced to condense five days' worth of work into two," he says. Er, you mean asked, Ed, not forced, right? "Well...I pretty much stayed at my desk from Thursday morning until Friday night." But as you'll see, the results (page 46) show no hint of fatigue.