What was going on when I was born?

A picture caption in Metropolitan Report on Nov. 10 with an article about coastal erosion in New York incorrectly described a building protected by sandbags on Fire Island. It is part of the incinerator for the town of Saltaire.

Martha R. Seger, the newest member of the Federal Reserve Board, suggested today that the central bank could move further to relax monetary policy and push down interest rates without undue risk of worsening inflation. Replying to critics who, she said, have complained that the Fed has been ''too tight'' since midyear, Miss Seger said that policy had indeed been aimed toward money and credit growth consistent with ''lasting'' stability of prices.

President Reagan announced today that Paul H. Nitze would serve as the adviser of Secretary of State George P. Shultz for next month's arms talks with Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko of the Soviet Union. The decision opens the way for Mr. Nitze, a 77-year old specialist on national security affairs, to become the negotiator if Mr. Gromyko agrees to a proposal for a permanent ''umbrella'' forum for arms control issues, a State Department official said. Mr. Nitze, who was the negotiator in the suspended Geneva talks on medium-range missiles in Europe, is to help work out a negotiable set of proposals on banning space weapons, reducing strategic arms, and limiting medium-range missiles, all of which are to be discussed with Mr. Gromyko. Impasse in Interagency Group The United States has been trying to develop a unified negotiating position within a Senior Arms Control Group, an interagency committee headed by Robert C. McFarlane, the White House national security adviser.

The Economy President Reagan proposed $34 billion in program reductions to his Cabinet, including a one-year 5 percent decrease in Federal salaries, and then instructed the Cabinet officers to look for further cuts. (Page A1.) Many popular programs were identified for ''reforms, cuts and terminations,'' including the Small Business Administration and the Export-Import Bank, officials said. (A1.) House Speaker O'Neill offered the prospect of bipartisan cooperation on the budget and taxes, provided President Reagan takes the political risk of initiating controversial policy changes. (B20.) Bank regulators and the tax simplification plan appear to be at odds. The Treasury proposals would reduce tax deductions that banks are allowed to take for additions to loan-loss reserves. But regulators want banks to increase reserves for bad loans. (D1.)

Thousands of men, women and children continued to flood the hospitals of this stricken city today two days after gas leaked from an American-owned insecticide plant, reportedly killing more than 1,000 people. They were stretched out on cots in overcrowded wards and in the corridors. Infants and children lay side by side, crying as they struggled to breathe, Others of the stricken were living under tents set up by relief organizations and the army, fed by citizens groups and attended by a throng of doctors, nurses and medical students. They coughed and vomited. Many just sat or lay on the ground, their eyes closed in pain from the effects of the gas. Some were temporarily blind; others complained of dizziness. Almost all had running eyes and found breathing hard.

The Treasury's tax simplification plan appears to conflict with a goal of Federal bank regulators - bigger bank reserves for bad loans. The Treasury plan, if enacted by Congress, would reduce deductions from taxable income that banks are allowed to take for additions to their loan-loss reserves. It would do that by eliminating a provision of existing law that lets the banks deduct additions to their bad-loan reserves regardless of their actual loan-loss experience. The Treasury proposal would let banks, and other financial institutions, deduct bad-debt losses ''only as they occur.''

A move to have the European Currency Unit replace the dollar in many international transactions is expected to gain impetus from decisions taken this week by European heads of government at their summit meeting here. Although plans for enlarging the European Economic Community to take in Spain and Portugal dominated the two days of talks, European leaders found time to endorse a number of proposals by the trade bloc's executive commission that are intended to encourage greater use of the ECU (pronounced EH-cue) by European central banks. For the first time, the central banks of countries that are not Common Market members are to be allowed to hold ECU's and use them instead of dollars for settling trade debts with the community. Technical Steps Proposed The commission's proposals also include a number of more technical steps meant to make the currency units more attractive for European central banks to hold and use.

The budget proposal that President Reagan presented to his Cabinet today identifies many popular programs for ''reforms, cuts and terminations'' intended to save $24 billion in the next fiscal year. Administration officials said they also hoped to save $8 billion in the military budget, which is still under review. Virtually all loans and other financial assistance provided by the Small Business Administration would be eliminated under the proposal, according to an official who attended the Cabinet meeting. The agency was created in 1953 to assist operators of small businesses and has many supporters in Congress.

''It seems to us an extraordinarily incongruous thing that we have a sport in which two people are literally paid to get into a ring and try to beat one another to death, or at least beat them into a state of senselessness, which will then leave them permanently brain-damaged.'' - Dr. Joseph R. Boyle, president of the American Medical Association. (B31:4.)

Interest rates on new home loans dropped for a fourth consecutive month in November, hitting their lowest level since last spring, the Government reported today. Commitments for fixed-rate, long- term mortgages averaged 14.16 percent in early November, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board said.

Several weeks ago Jeffrey Libman switched on his answering machine and left town. ''I knew what would happen when the ad ran,'' he said. ''I didn't want people calling in the middle of the night.'' When he came home a few days later, there were nearly 70 messages waiting for him, as many as could fit on the answering machine's tape. Some of the callers were plaintive - ''Please get back to me as soon as possible'' - while others were demanding: ''I want to come over right away!'' All of them wanted to rent his studio apartment on the Upper West Side.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is in the midst of the largest insider trading investigation ever conducted by the agency, ''both in terms of the number of securities traded and the amount of possibly illegal profits involved,'' the agency has disclosed in a court filing. The investigation centers on a Swiss brokerage firm, Ellis A.G., and on ''many individuals'' residing in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn who traded in the same United States securities as Ellis before takeover announcements, between November 1981 and the first half of this year, the S.E.C. said. The investigation came to light in the press last July, but the S.E.C. did not confirm the reports at the time. Previous accounts in the press have said that as much as $40 million in profits may be involved in the S.E.C. investigation.