October 13, 1992

A new study of productivity in different countries -- the most authoritative comparison to date -- shows that the United States commands a significant lead over Europe and Japan in output per worker. In 1990, a full-time American worker produced $49,600 of goods and services a year. In dollars of equivalent purchasing power, a German worker produced $44,200, a Japanese worker $38,200 and a British worker only $37,100, according to the study by the McKinsey Global Institute, a Washington offshoot of the McKinsey consulting firm, together with three of the nation's top productivity experts, including the Nobel Laureate Robert Solow. Competition Is Cited America's secret productivity weapon, the report concluded, is not bigger companies, more robots or even brainier managers. Instead, it is Washington's relative reluctance to protect companies from the rigors of competition, domestic or foreign.

Southern Africa's most brutal bush war, a 16-year ordeal of indiscriminate murder and cruelty, has been declared formally over. But to the survivors, the barefoot and ragged peasants here in the heart of drought-stricken rebel territory, it seems to make little difference. With no radios and with leaders who chose not to tell them, most of the Mozambican families waiting for Red Cross food in Chihedeia, a gray and dusty outpost where even the towering trees have withered, did not know that a peace treaty had been signed.

Instead of giving President Bush the forward motion he needed so badly for his campaign, the first of the three Presidential debates became a showcase for his political problems. The debate made especially clear what a crushing burden the economy has become for this President who courts country singers to display his common touch, but seems unable to make voters trust his instincts on bread-and-butter issues.

Proposals to limit the terms of United States senators and representatives will be on the ballot in 14 states next month, and most of the measures are considered likely to pass. Never before has the same issue been decided simultaneously by voters in so many states, including the behemoth California, which reflects the sour mood of the electorate and the general clamor for change.

THE atomic explosion that leveled Hiroshima 47 years ago is turning out to be far more subtle and mysterious than scientists ever suspected, raising important new questions about radiation and its health effects. New evidence suggests that an important ingredient of the bomb's radiation was more prevalent than generally believed, and that finding has touched off a rush of disbelief, rethinking and new studies. If proved true, it might mean that a given dose of radiation is less dangerous than currently believed, forcing an alteration of international standards meant to avert human harm.