October 2, 2005

Vegas is becoming more and more a Broadway town while Broadway is becoming more and more a gamble.

Assessment of true state of New York City real estate market presents complex set of questions; article examines factors including role of speculation, link between interest rates and real estate prices, relationship between rising incomes and rising housing prices and predictions that biggest building boom in years may portend housing glut; photos; graphs show Manhattan apartment prices and mortage rates(M)

NEARLY a year ago, Johnny Damon stood in front of the very same locker and issued an observation that seemed downright naïve. ''Unless I'm mistaken, we've won four straight before,'' Damon said, calmly and, as it turned out, prophetically. The Sox actually won eight straight games, which is why the huge 2004 World Championship banner is hanging at the old green ballpark.

IN 1927, Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover engineered such a spectacular government response to the Great Mississippi River Flood that he propelled himself to the presidency a year later on a platform of compassionate competence. His failure to face the disaster of the Great Depression with comparable finesse led to 20 years in the presidential wilderness for his Republican Party. Democrats can only dream that Republicans might suffer a similar epochal setback, based on President Bush's bad few months, sagging leadership scores and fitful first response to Hurricane Katrina. The latest polls actually show his approval rating bouncing back. But Mr. Bush, who was first elected as a compassionate conservative, whose presidency found purpose in his response to the Sept. 11 attacks and who won re-election on his strength as a wartime leader, has suffered all the same, on terms he himself set.

MASERATI could be forgiven for any inferiority complex it may have. In recent decades, the once-illustrious Italian automaker has passed from owner to owner as its cars lost their allure. When Maserati ended up in the Fiat empire, which includes the semiautonomous Ferrari operation, there at last seemed to be a plan to revive the company. Under Fiat, managerial control of Maserati passed to Ferrari, its onetime rival, in 1997. Future Maseratis were to be sporting, elegant grand-touring cars -- and perhaps even S.U.V.'s -- as opposed to the pure sports cars of Ferrari.