April 18, 1994

The bond market's recent plunge in the face of continued low inflation, has seemed something of a mystery: How did so many Wall Street money managers and large investors change their view on bonds so quickly? A talk with Henry Kaufman, one of Wall Street's best-known economists and head of his own money management firm since 1988, offers some clues to the turnaround in sentiment. Mr. Kaufman, whose training includes stints as a Federal Reserve economist and later as chief economist at Salomon Brothers, now manages $700 million, including some of his own money. As money managers go, he is small, and his thinking is not necessarily representative. But after 35 years of taking the bond markets' pulse, he is one of the most experienced market watchers.

Senator George J. Mitchell, with White House help, offered Democratic senators three cheaper modifications of President Clinton's health care legislation this weekend as he sought to get them to start making choices. Each of the Mitchell variations, like Mr. Clinton's proposal, seeks to guarantee all Americans health insurance that can never be canceled and to require employers to pay some of the cost of their workers' insurance.

After spending 11 years and $8 billion searching for ways to keep the Government running after a sustained nuclear attack on Washington, the Pentagon will shelve its project as an antique of the cold war, military officials familiar with the program say. The Doomsday Project, as it was known, sought to create an unbreakable chain of command for military and civilian leaders that would withstand a six-month nuclear war, which was regarded as a plausible length for a controlled conflict.

What had seemed a stately recovery in the auto market turned into a boom this year, and some dealers' lots are emptying even as auto makers are piling on the overtime to raise production. Particularly for buyers of four-wheel-drive wagons and other light trucks, the wait for vehicles with the options they want can stretch beyond three months.

Early every morning an armored car pulls up to a storefront in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. And for the next nine and a half hours, faces of all kinds pass in front of the four panes of bulletproof glass at Roebling Check Cashing -- black, Hispanic, Hasidic, male, but mostly female, with children placed on countertops. "The whole neighborhood," William Siegel, the owner, said proudly.