Slate's Bizbox
other magazines: Summaries of what's in Time, Newsweek, etc.

By David Plotz
Posted Sunday, June 1, 1997, at 3:30 AM ET
Economist

Economist, May 31

(posted Saturday, May 31)

The cover editorial and article confront the problem of "the disappearing taxpayer." Tax revenues will fall worldwide because companies can move to avoid levies, and because electronic commerce is virtually impossible to tax. The remedy: Raise taxes on consumption and property, which are easy to track, while cutting corporate and income taxes. An 18-page survey pegged to the EEC's 40th anniversary claims that the European Union is suffering from a "mid-life crisis." Citizens have lost confidence in it. Instead of pressing forward as planned with currency union, the organization should take a respite until popular trust returns. An alarming article warns that antibiotic-resistant bacteria have arrived. Unfortunately, drug companies are not developing new antibiotics to fight the drug-resistant bugs, so they may spread unchecked.

New Republic

New Republic, June 16

(posted Friday, May 30)

The six-story cover package, "Africa Is Dying," is as gloomy as its headline. Among the lowlights: An article contends that the much-touted new African leaders (Uganda's Yoweri Museveni, Rwanda's Paul Kagame, Congo's Laurent Kabila) are as tyrannical as their predecessors. A long review of a book about Nigeria's decline concludes that that west African nation, like the rest of the continent, has nothing to offer the modern world: Its labor is unnecessary, its commodities are expensive, and its government is monstrous. Henry Louis Gates Jr. describes returning to Africa 25 years after his first visit: He is stunned by the squalor. Also, a piece on the Paula Jones decision warns that the continuing Clinton investigations are undermining the integrity of the executive branch.

New York Times Magazine

New York Times Magazine, June 1

(posted Friday, May 30)

The cover story is a week in the life of five Muscovites--a real-estate mogul, a Playboy Playmate, a baker, a pianist, and a pensioner. The point: Moscow is the most exciting city in the world, "brasher than New York, faster than Tokyo." Typical scenes: The baker is visited by his mob "protection"; the mogul spends $2,000 for lunch; the pensioner scavenges bottles to make ends meet. "Kenneth Starr, Trapped" finds the Whitewater prosecutor engaged in an impossible task: Unable to indict the president or the first lady, he'll find it difficult to close the investigation. The case demonstrates the shortfalls of the independent-counsel statute. Also, a writer complains that all computers look the same, and that all are ugly: He proposes six alternative designs, including the "Trellis" and the "Odeon."

Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report

Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report, June 2

(posted Wednesday, May 28)

Computer doomsaying from both magazines. Newsweek's cover story, "The Day the World Crashes," predicts disaster on Jan. 1, 2000, when computer clocks will fail to recognize the year 2000. Programmers are furiously debugging old software, so we're likely to avoid catastrophic shutdowns of electrical grids, banks, air-traffic computers, medical equipment, and the like. Even so, the "Millennium Bug" may cause 5 percent (!) of all U.S. business to go under and cost the U.S. economy $600 billion. In U.S. News, a long book excerpt warns that Internet security is dangerously lax. It recounts the misdeeds of "Phantomd," a teen-age "cracker" who infiltrated computers at nuclear-weapons labs, military bases, banks, dams, and major corporations before he was caught. U.S. News berates computer users for picking obvious, easily cracked passwords and chastises system administrators for ignoring basic security precautions.

U.S. News' cover story, "Road Rage," raises alarms about aggressive driving--incidents are up 51 percent since 1990. The causes: worse traffic; pugnacious immigrant drivers; and sport-utility vehicles, which make drivers feel impervious. (Newsweek's short article about aggressive driving is also titled "Road Rage.")

Newsweek's article on Lt. Kelly Flinn does not excuse the Air Force pilot, but emphasizes that her superior officers treated her clumsily, and that her lover Michael Zigo was "a cad." A piece commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Marshall Plan notes that while it was a noble idea, it also had a political purpose: to prevent Soviet domination of Europe.

Time

Time, June 2

(posted Wednesday, May 28)

The cover package depicts Kelly Flinn's case as an irreconcilable "conflict between two codes of conduct," military and romantic. Flinn was wrong to have committed adultery and lied, but she deserves sympathy, says Time. Flinn says she still believes in the Air Force. A book excerpt chronicles the military's history of mistreating female soldiers. Female recruits have been routinely raped, humiliated, and harassed, but they rarely complain, because the military punishes few male offenders. An article contrasts dueling Hong Kong leaders Tung Chee-Hwa and Martin Lee. The conservative Tung agrees with China that Hong Kong needs order; Lee believes it needs freedom. Both are stubborn. A piece on ABC entertainment chief Jamie Tarses warns that the network's slumping ratings may cost the glamorous Tarses her job.

The New Yorker

The New Yorker, June 2

(posted Wednesday, May 28)

Two pieces by dead writers. "A Visit to Camelot," by the late literary critic Diana Trilling, describes a 1962 White House dinner for Nobel Prize winners. James Baldwin, Robert Frost, John Dos Passos, and other literary lions attended. Jack and Jackie glittered. Trilling's husband, Lionel, talked to Jackie about D.H. Lawrence and Vassar. The New Yorker also publishes a long-lost short story by Nathanael West. Also, an article explores Mexico's immensely complicated Salinas family scandals. Raul Salinas, brother of former Mexican president Carlos, has been accused of murder. But the soothsayer who "discovered" the skeleton of the murdered man at Raul's estate actually planted the bones. And the current Mexican president, Ernesto Zedillo, may have orchestrated Raul's indictment in order to save his failing government. (The whole story is much more Byzantine than this.)

Weekly Standard

Weekly Standard, June 2

(posted Wednesday, May 28)

An article scoffs at "stress": It's a bogus disease that white-collar workers use as an excuse to skip work. The "stress management" industry is a "racket." The cover story, "Professor Narcissus," criticizes academics for first-person scholarship. Instead of pursuing traditional objectivity, professors now incorporate their own experiences into their work. It's yet another sign that the academy has gone soft, grumps the author. The Danish mother who left her baby unattended in New York prompts an indictment of Denmark. It is not the child paradise the media has portrayed it to be: Child pornography is rampant, and adolescent suicide is epidemic.

The Nation

The Nation, June 9

(posted Wednesday, May 28)

The left-wing magazine challenges its own. The cover story condemns left-wing opposition to biology. Many social scientists, notably anthropologists, foolishly claim that humans are shaped only by culture, not by genes. These "secular creationists" wrongly ignore scientific evidence. An article warns that a Middle East war may be imminent. Israel is increasingly belligerent, while Arab states no longer trust the United States as a mediator. The Rev. Jesse Jackson Jr. writes a column imploring Bill Clinton to champion civil rights and affirmative action.

Esquire

Esquire, June 1997

(posted Friday, May 23)

Historian Paul Johnson contends that Clinton is the "most disreputable president ever." The profusion of scandals--from Whitewater to Paula Jones to FBI files to campaign finance--proves that he lacks any moral fiber. A writer stakes out the Cornish, N.H., home of J.D. Salinger ("the last private person in America") and meditates on the writer-hermit's career. Salinger drives by, but doesn't speak. A profile of MCA chief Edgar Bronfman Jr. suggests that he's too nice for Hollywood. His purchase of MCA was financially disastrous: The DuPont Corp. shares that he sold to buy the entertainment conglomerate have since gained $9 billion in value.

Atlantic Monthly

Atlantic Monthly, June 1997

(posted Tuesday, May 20)

Traditional public-health measures such as widespread testing and notification of the infected would slow the spread of AIDS, argues the cover essay. Gay and AIDS activists have resisted such measures as stigmatizing. An article debunks environmentalists' belief that we consume too much: Raw materials, energy, and food are more plentiful than ever. But we should worry that our materialism is making us lose our reverence for nature. A short piece says there is a "child famine" in the Great Plains: North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming are not producing enough children to sustain their small towns.

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David Plotz is Slate's deputy editor. He is the author of The Genius Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank. You can e-mail him at .
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