European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 29, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes thursday october 29, 1987 columns David Broder Hopes for welfare Reform dead for this year Daniel Patrick mov Milan. Who is either the Best social scientist in the Senate or the Best sen Ator who is also an Active scholar has just published a paperback edition of his 1985 Godkin lectures at har Vard. Family and an epilogue reviews the current slate of debate on the linked subjects of Chil Dren poverty and government policy Twenty years after his study for the Johnson administration of the forces undermining family stability in the Black Community ignited a huge controversy Moy Nihan cites evidence showing that the pattern of illegitimacy and divorce has become epidemic in the general american society. More than one fifth of the nation s children arc in single Parent families. Half the children now being born will live in such families at some time before they arc in. The shaky earnings and anaemic Public assist Ance for these families mean that for the first time in american history poverty is afflicting children More than elderly persons. These and other Points made by the new York Democrat have struck a responsive chord in a nation which had taken a Holiday from social policy concerns while it was recovering from the severe inflation of the 1970s. President Reagan ordered up a study of family states from Massachusetts to California devel oped successful Pilot programs for helping single Moth ers move off welfare into productive employment. And for a time in appeared there might be. Bipartisan agreement on National family policy or welfare re form or welfare prevention strategy. As this session of Congress winds Down Preo Ccu Andrew Glass pied by unresolved budget Lav foreign policy and supreme court Battles it is apparent that those Hopes will not be realize in 1987 whether sufficient political Energy can be mustered in the presidential Campaign ear of 9s8 is problematic. A welfare Reform Hill crafted in inc Louse Way and Mcjims committee has stalled because of Concan Over us com and the Threal of a veto. More modest Senate legislation drafted by Moynihan is criticized by the while House because it would mate inc Basic Aid to families with dependent children stipends available everywhere to two Parent families without jobs thus in he while House s distorted View increasing the welfare but the Outlook is not entirely Bleak. As Isabel Sawhill of the Urban Institute a Washington think tank Points out in n new report. The welfare system is but one possible Means of alleviating poverty m the United Stales. Inc last and not the first line of defense in the fight against poverty in the epilogue to the new paperback Moynihan writes that arguably. The most important Ami Pov erty legislation since he economic Opportunity act of so4" was a provision in last year s tax Reform Bill. It doubled the personal exemption for each family Mem Ber to $2,000, raised the Standard deduction and indexed them to future inflation. The effect of these changes was to Slop lading families of inc working poor Buck into poverty. Through an arcane feature called the earned income lax credit in even makes in possible for inc govern men i 10 Send a Check of Jisoo or so to help n single Parent with one child and an income of $ 10,000 a year. Moynihan Points of that Icse measures which took off inc la Rolls the 6 million to 7 million per sons we were then taxing into poverty were remark ably enough inc least controversial parts of the whole Tat Hill. To underline Hal Point rep. Jack Kemp. . Perhaps the most constr Valic of the i9hk Republican presidential con lenders was praising the same tax Law provisions for inc same reasons in speeches i heard him give Las week. Kemp offered inc useful idea Hal the exemption be doubled again for each child a family adopts As an incentive to reducing the Large number of children now living in institutions or Foster Homes. In the present climate neither democrats nor re publicans arc comfortable talking openly about in come but they arc increasingly ready to acknowledge the painful reality of poverty in Ameri can life. The massive voter Survey the callup organization released two weeks ago under the auspices of the times Mirror company suggested that social Justice May be the dominant Issue of the 1988 Campaign. Presidential candidates from Bob Dole to Jesse Jack son Are talking about their own families experiences in the welfare system and their struggles with poverty. If the 100th Congress docs not come to grips with inc problems Moynihan outlines in family and nation a new president and Congress May be ready to move in 1989. Computer trading world markets drive stocks Oak times enshrine myths and dismiss history. Witness the democratic politicians who arc calling for new taxes As a Way of ensuring that Wall Street avoids More Black mondays. 1 wonder if these Guys Ever heard of William Jennings Bryan Bryan believed economic ills could be cured through the free coinage of Silver. In 1896. He told inc democrats you shall not crucify Mankind upon a Cross of s trial pro inflation speech won him the party s Nomi nation at age 36. The Only thing a populist like Bryan had in common with his High taxing democratic descendants is the notion Hal political agendas drive economic forces. In my years As a Wall Street reporter 1 came to know lots of traders. The pros did t care whether markets Rose or fell they made Money so Long As they moved. What they wanted was action. Then and now. Wall Street is an auction mar Ket whose sole function is to match buyers with Sellers. Pros inevitably sell when they believe they Ean make More Money by buying something else Bonds or Gold perhaps. And yet whenever we asked them ally prices were falling they would talk about How. Congress had taunted Eisenhower or How Kennedy was unfair to business. 1 came to regard that As their Little joke on us. Tom Foley the House democratic majority Leader thinks it also works inc other Way around. Foley says when politicians want to act. Ii a assert that Wall Street has sent a signal and thai unless we move it will punish us anew. One problem with this trite formula is thai Wall Street no longer exists. Instead there s a unitary world Market Hal runs 24 hours a Day hooked together by satellite. . Stocks Trade in London Tokyo investors can easily buy anything Wall Street has to offer no Cine government can control the process. Moreover computers run programs that trigger swings in the markets initiating huge buy and sell orders. While uncalled program trading is com plex. Las vegas regulars would Mccu Gnu it As the Cut. That s nut Toj Ihm the Ira a was t real or Hal Small investors did t get mauled. Must la Little Guys i.1" because inc gel m after the Bull Market is front Page Newi nil Ihnn Miu the ii umling in after the pros get out. I How Mem of Trune Mitrus about panic Selling sue mid Hie Nobel Riz for physics goes othe Minoi of Gritty. Go sick that there was panic buying under Way As Well after All. None of those 600 million Odd shares vanished. They changed hands at loner prices thereby treating yet another set of potential winners and losers when prices Rose again. Itig delimits in Good times pfc a bad idea if Only hey just the japanese will not non forever buying the trim sury s paper so ame Gumns can run their govern ment be Ond their Meam to pm. But deficits Aren t the reason the Markeis crashed after nearly 60 months of economic Gnu with whal happened was this Alan Greenspan the new hand Ai the fed. Worried that in Lituin uni hulling free again. So he tightened the Mii Nej suppl. The Hanks pushed up interest Rales. Insiders saw thai Mone funds and Bonds were once Mure a Jond Deal so Thev dumped their Vivki my a thin Over bought Market. The fed then lowered rates. Cheaper Money and equity bargains promptly brought institutions in on the buy Side Squeve my late arriving Short Sellers. The lesson is that computer trading and worldwide a irk cts will inevitably cause More such wild swings in value trapping fresh innocents a the whirlwind. Were ban running nub Tio might rail at the jumbo computer trader i Pri i in upon the brow of Luxor this Crown of Thi in " while it would nuke perfect sense most t l Ito Cri p of demo cratic contenders would t n. Was talking about
