July 15, 1991

The Economy Mutual Benefit Life Insurance has been a conservative and respected insurance company, and as New Jersey officials prepare to seize it today, industry experts predict that the takeover will weaken public confidence in the life-insurance business. [ Page A1. ]

The Show Went On, Quietly The theater was in gang country. The film was "Boyz N the Hood." All the violence was on the screen. Page A13. Help on Student Loans Victims of fraudulent trade schools, with no education and heavy debts, are finding help in court. Page A11.

Crusading to hold down costs, local governments across the New York metropolitan region are beginning to share everything from police forces to Latin teachers. In Rockland County, N.Y., the village of Nyack dissolved its 23-member police force this year and now pays to be patrolled by officers from nearby Orangetown and Clarkstown.

Under pressure from the United States, the Japanese Government has published new regulations prohibiting companies from fixing prices, driving competitors out of the market and blocking certain types of imports, in what could mark -- on paper at least -- a big change in the way Japan does business. The critical question is how strictly the rules will be enforced by Japan's Fair Trade Commission, which is not known for its political clout or its eagerness to enforce the country's antitrust laws. Nonetheless, the new rules are one of the biggest changes brought about yet in Japan by the broad trade talks with Washington that are known as the Structural Impediments Initiative.

Charitable organizations created by former President Jimmy Carter received $8 million in contributions from the failed Bank of Credit and Commerce International, and Andrew Young, the Carter Administration's representative at the United Nations, had a consulting arrangement with the bank while he was the Mayor of Atlanta. The $8 million in donations spanned several years and were given to Mr. Carter's Global 2000 Inc., which the former President organized to help improve health and agriculture in developing countries. The bank also donated $500,000 toward the construction of the multimillion-dollar Carter Center of Emory University in Atlanta, which includes the Jimmy Carter Library and operates health, agricultural and political mediation programs around the world. 'No Strings Attached' As investigators sift through the complex history of the bank, which was seized by regulators in seven countries earlier this month, there has been no suggestion that Mr. Carter performed any services for the institution. But the details of the charitable gifts and the arrangement with Mr. Young demonstrate the way in which the bank created ties with American public officials to help it do business.