May 5, 1968

Ed Charles, who fortified his springtime diet with spinach and black-eyed peas because he was a 35-year-old third baseman out of a job, found plenty of work to do at Shea Stadium yesterday afternoon.

For the United States, a trade deficit has been about as rare -- and unpleasant -- as a blizzard in June. American exports has been generated by the stimulus of foreign investment in equipment and accompanying economic growth. Taken with other world conditions such as the lag in exports to developing countries, the curb on investments for short-term results may be backfiring sooner than expected in its effects on exports.

Some of the biggest and smartest investment money has gone recently into mutual funds -- but not for very long.