September 18, 1991

For nearly a decade, bankers have trooped to Congress and pressed for repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which bars banks from underwriting securities. And over the same period, banks and Wall Street firms have devised clever ways to get around this barrier, so that it is often difficult to tell one from the other. Now, as Congress considers broad banking industry changes to reflect this new situation, the Glass-Steagall law that initially seemed vulnerable to repeal is beginning to display a remarkable staying power.

With the hard-line rhetoric blaring from the central Government these days, it may seem from abroad that China has abandoned liberalization in any form. But while the pace of economic change certainly has slowed significantly since the mid-1980's, in the last two years necessity has prompted leaders at all levels to take small but important steps toward a market system. "There is reform, but it's regionalized," said a Chinese business executive. "It's coming from the bottom up. It's the local governments that are implementing reform, and they'll do as much as they can get away with."

This city, capital of the secessionist Croatian republic, was under fierce attack by the Yugoslav Army and Air Force today, hours after federal military leaders signed another European Community-brokered cease-fire. Yugoslav Air Force planes could be heard streaking through the darkness, strafing the blacked-out city below, and the ground shook with the explosions of artillery shells fired into the city center from Yugoslav Army bases on the outskirts. Transport helicopters, presumably carrying federal troops, were seen flying over the city in what appeared to be a drive to knock out the local television transmitter.

Issuing the first full-year report card on his administration yesterday, Mayor David N. Dinkins painted a dark picture of New York City's growing social problems and service burdens, dominated by a welfare roll that is climbing to nearly 1 million people for the first time in 15 years. The Mayor's Management Report, an annual survey that has been issued since the fiscal crisis of the mid-1970's, found dirtier streets, more homeless families in temporary housing and more children in foster care, spiraling demand for social services for AIDS cases, a drop in the portion of the city's garbage that is recycled and a swelling jail population. No 'Cooking' of Indicators But that is not the worst of it. The report covered only the fiscal year that ended June 30 and does not reflect the latest round of service cuts in the $28.5 billion budget adopted in July. For example, those cuts are projected to leave half the city's 59 sanitation districts rated less than 50 percent clean, up from 12 districts now.

INTERNATIONAL The Fed fined Ghaith Pharaon $37 million for concealing B.C.C.I.'s acquisition of Independence Bank in 1985. Regulators also moved to freeze Pharaon's assets amid indications that he was selling off his U.S. holdings. [ Page A1. ] The new management of Independence Bank has filed a lawsuit contending that it was secretly acquired by B.C.C.I., using Pharaon as a front man. [ D4. ]