April 29, 1993

Christopher J. Steffen, the Eastman Kodak chief financial officer whose hiring was met with acclaim by investors in January, has quit the company in a policy dispute. The announcement of Mr. Steffen's resignation was made before the stock market opened yesterday and it led to a big selloff in Kodak's shares on the New York Stock Exchange. The company's stock dropped in price by 9.8 percent and lost more than $1.5 billion of its market value.

Despite some early setbacks and the worries expressed by some of President Clinton's top advisers, his economic plan, on which the ultimate success or failure of his Presidency could ride, has not been derailed by Congress. But the overall package, with its steep tax increases, deficit reduction and huge shifts in spending away from the military and toward social programs and public works projects, is not -- as the White House maintains day after day -- completely on track either.

Like a couple who have been living together for some time without making a serious commitment, modern Italian design and traditional handicrafts have finally decided to tie the knot. One might call it the shotgun wedding of the decade.

LIKE potholes, runny noses and forsythia in bloom, the Kips Bay Decorator Show House is an inexorable sign of spring. This year, attention is being paid to what Diantha L. Nype, a spokeswoman for the show house, called "the reality factor." And indeed, reality -- in the form of boxy rooms, off-kilter fireplaces and Rooms With No View -- has made a rare cameo appearance at Kips Bay.

The Economy Arthur Levitt Jr. was nominated as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission by the Clinton Administration. The selection of the publisher who formerly headed the American Stock Exchange came after long deliberations. [ Page D1. ] Real estate investment trusts are experiencing explosive growth, as investors seek to cash in on a potential recovery in real estate while other investment returns are lagging. [ D1. ]