October 28, 1992

Since re-entering the Presidential race at the beginning of the month, Ross Perot has embarked on what is likely to prove to be, week by week, the most expensive political advertising campaign in the history of the country. In the first two weeks of this month, Mr. Perot spent $24 million on commercials. According to campaign disclosures received Monday by the Federal Election Commission, he spent almost $10.8 million over the next 10days. On Monday night alone, he spent almost $1 million for an hourlong paid program on ABC.

With flowers in hand, Donald Davis, a 54-year-old Orange County truck driver, went to the airport last month to meet his fiancee. It was the first time he had set eyes on Natalya Sadchikova, a 42-year-old woman he had seen in a catalogue of prospective mail-order brides from the former Soviet Union -- the dreamy, downtrodden Natasha whose poetic letters had charmed him during their two-year correspondence. They shook hands and he brought her home, along with her 3-year-old daughter, Alina.

Olympia & York Developments Ltd., the world's largest property manager, filed a bankruptcy reorganization plan in Toronto yesterday that would turn the parent company over to creditors but leave control of the United States operations in the Reichmann family's hands. Under the best of circumstances, however, the Reichmann brothers of Toronto, Olympia's owners, would be presiding over a heavily indebted, much reduced American empire. Their United States properties are concentrated in New York City, where they are the largest commercial landlords.

The bond market rallied yesterday with prices for the 30-year bond rising by more than half a point -- precisely the opposite of what might have been expected, given the day's economic news. The performance led some analysts to conclude that the market might have found a bottom for the time being, although the uncertainty surrounding the Presidential election makes that bet risky.

The economy grew at a surprisingly brisk pace of 2.7 percent in the July-September period, the Commerce Department reported today. This was the sixth consecutive quarterly advance in gross domestic product, the most comprehensive measure of economic activity within American borders. The dollar value of the output surpassed the pre-recession peak registered in the 1990 second quarter.