March 29, 1991

MAYBE it requires an exhibition as chaotic as the one at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum to do justice to a collection as eclectic as the Cooper-Hewitt's. Nearly 1,000 objects, spread throughout the museum, make up "The Cooper-Hewitt Collections: A Design Resource." Somewhere among the silverware, model cars, wallpapers, appliances, books, jewelry, prints, chairs, bird cages, lamps and door locks may well be a kitchen sink. The show traces the history of the Cooper-Hewitt and its constantly changing approach to design from its inception downtown as the Cooper Union Museum nearly 100 years ago through its present manifestation as a branch of the Smithsonian Institution.

I.B.M. announced yesterday that it was taking a $2.3 billion charge, which will probably result in a large quarterly loss, to pay for the retirement benefits of current employees. The company also said it will shrink its worldwide work force by 14,000 employees this year. The International Business Machines Corporation became the first of the nation's leading corporations to comply with a new accounting rule that will require companies to set aside money annually for each employee's eventual retirement benefits, said Diana J. Scott, the project manager for the rule at the Financial Accounting Standards Board, a rule-setting body for the accounting profession. Many other big American companies are also likely to make large provisions, she said.

At 12 years old, the New York City girl is already an orphan, a rape victim and a mother. Now, two days after her newborn son was rescued from the maw of a trash compactor, she has become something more -- a symbol of the violence that stalks the young in some corners of this city. "She never had no chance," said a neighbor, who, like most others who were interviewed yesterday, spoke only on the condition of anonymity. "Most of us don't expect her to recover from this. She has gone through too much too young."

For the first time, A.T.& T. and NCR suggested that a negotiated deal between them appeared to be within reach. At a news conference after the NCR's Corporation's annual meeting here today, Charles E. Exley Jr., the company's chairman, said the companies were moving closer to an agreement and would soon continue negotiations. He added, "It is not going to happen over the Easter weekend if I have anything to say about it."

In the wreckage left behind by failed corporate buyouts and mergers, a young Wall Street firm is defining and dominating a niche as a one-stop shop for investors interested in the securities of troubled companies. R. D. Smith & Company, whose office near Wall Street fittingly overlooks the Trinity Church graveyard, is profiting from other people's misery by trading the stock and debt of troubled companies, both for itself and its customers. Its researchers, who zero in on companies now abandoned by Wall Street's giants, are credited with correctly sizing up the stock and debt issues of many bankrupt and near-bankrupt companies. Complaints From Clients While Smith draws raves for its savvy research, it has also received complaints from some of its investment partners and customers. The complaints spread over a range of instances, but the one central theme seems to be that Smith and its web of affiliates are out, first and foremost, for themselves.