European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 31, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes saturday october 31.1987 Anthony Lewis Reagan s financial ineptitude is no longer funny one intractable fad chills the financial markets of the world As they struggle to regain Confidence for nearly 15 More months barring the unexpected Lii United slates will Nave As its president a Man with no grasp of economic reality and no ability to Deal with it. Ronald Reagan s term runs until noon on Jan. 20, 1989, contemplating hat Prospect a world accustomed to looking to Washington Tor economic leadership wonders whether some Way can be found to gel around the vacuum in the White House the financial times of London published and read internationally wrote this week of the american gov Ern mint s duly to respond to the worldwide financial crisis. Its editorial spoke of inc undeniable fact that at a critical juncture nobody seems id be in charge in Washington. Then it said there is sadly a fundamental inability at the top to grasp Complex issues nol seen at a presidential level since Herbert Hoover historical comparisons with previously incapacitated chief executives like Wood Row Wilson May now seem  the paper went an to say out loud what a lot of people have been thinking that the american system of presidential leadership should be sidestepped now by having others act in Reagan s name. In other words we need a Regency. The favorite candidates to act for the president arc Howard h. Bakerjr. The while House chief of staff and James a. Baker the Secretary of the Treasury the financial times looked wistfully to them to carry the Ball the president has  others in the financial world agree. But just imagine what it must be like to be the two Bakers these Days. Imagine trying to create a meaning Ful financial policy while you work for a president who not Only fails to understand but actively resists reality. Last week As the markets reeled Reagan offered a new explanation every Day Al was just profit taking. It was Congress fault. The crisis appears to be  finally the two Bakers somehow persuaded him to accept amicable negotiations Wilh Congress. The next Day he was denouncing Congress again. Any time Reagan gets near a microphone there is no telling what he will say or How he will injure Confidence. That is because he truly believes the absurdities he utters that he is not responsible for the Dou bling of the National debt during his presidency for example. And while the Bakers try to Cope with the real men Ace of inc gyrating markets the Fantasises who urged Reagan on As he got the United states and everyone else into this fix Are pressing him to carry on with More of the same lower taxes higher defense spending and the rest. They have used Reagan for their ideological Agenda. They persuaded him that lower axes would produce higher government Revenue using an alchemist t for Mula called the latter curve. Of course there were not enough revenues. The deficits mounted Hie 1deologues wanted exactly that so they could argue for lower social spending. And they still do. The editors of inc Wall Street journal Are urging Reagan to veto any lax increase however trivial. If he were to do that the markets reaction would make oct. I91ooklikc8joyride. That is the kind of thing the two Bakers have to Deal with. And How do you silence a Man who believe sincerely in fantasies and who is still the president of the United states the a Cal 15 months Are going to be a painful test for our constitutional system of fixed presidential terms. In a parliamentary system a prime minister who had frittered away his country s assets would be moved aside when the crisis came Neville Chamberlain would be replaced by Winston Churchill. Reagan is in danger of losing his one great asset As president his Aura of self Confidence. He always admired Franklin Roosevelt for that almost theatrical Quality Bui there is no Roosevelt in the president who talks so fumbling by about the crash of 1987. For critics of Reagan there is no satisfaction As his emptiness is generally perceived. We arc All in his boat tip o Neill in hit Memoir tells of Reagan visiting his office after he was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 1981. O Neill pointed out his desk and said it had once been president Grover Cleveland a you know the presi Dent said "1 once played Graver Cleveland in the  no inc speaker said you re thinking of Grover Cleveland Alexander the  it is not funny anymore Chi von times George will Gorbachev May be the Best Leninist since Lenin perhaps the disappointment i for those who were disappointed about developments when Secre tary of stale Shultz was in Moscow had something to do with the fact that the Reagan administration is inc damage done to his handsome profile by the pro longed pressing of h is nose against the Glass. The soviet Union s subsequent decision to seek a Summit after All is pan of a pattern of maximizing its greatest asset Gorbachev s performance on the world stage. But the isl minute Hilch in Moscow also was part of the pattern. Al the Iceland Summit Gorbachev made a last min Ute attempt to link All Progress for those who consider it Progress on arms control 10 restraints on president Reagan s strategic defense initiative. That Summit had been preceded by the Danil olt debacle which had been preceded by the murder by soviet soldiers of maj. Nicholson. In response to the Daniloff outrage the administration put words in a linguistic cuisinart and produced a Puree of nonsense mis describing the deaf h was striking. Reagan s response to the murder of maj. Nicholson was to say thai it whetted his thirst for a Summit. A few weeks ago. Soviet soldiers again fired on . Soldiers Sumrol season is resuming. At Iceland and again the other Day in Moscow Gorbachev continued his attempts to crimp the and Vance of Soi. These attempts reflect a Subtle under standing of the sociology of a Large scientific Enterprise in a fret society. In a soviet style command Economy scientists like everyone else do what they Are told. But american scientists will be reluctant to devote years of Peak productivity to a Complex collaborative Enterprise when congressional support is problematic and eventual deployment is doubtful. When the soviet regime docs not play by our rules As in its recent double dealing Wilh Shutlz optimists say the regime has blundered implying it behaves badly by mistake. But remember the axiom Raymond Aron s that optimism is usually the product of an intellectual error. The great question of our Day is who what is Gorbachev a sober appraisal is offered by James Sherr. Lecturer in International relations at Oxford and author of soviet Power the continuing  Gorbachev he says May be the most accomplished Leninist since Lemn because he is totally flexible about Means a person totally unswerving about ends can be. Gorbachev is advised by former ambassador anal oly Dobrynin who for More than two decades lived a few blocks up Ifill Street front the while House. While Here Dobrynin acquired a Laste for Mcdonald s hamburgers and an understanding of two great changes in Western Public opinion. One h that nuclear weapons no longer assure people. The other is that Many pc Isle believe that the problem that brought nato into existence the postwar soviet threat has been solved by nato s Success in containing the soviet Union until it became reconciled to containment. Gorbachev is being merchandised As the expression of that reconcile ment. Whether you believe Gorbachev is a deliverance or a Challenge to the West depends. Sherr says on whether you believe he is transforming the soviet Union internally in ways that will moderate the dynamism of its external relations. Sherr is an unbeliever because the Primacy and nature of the communist party re Mains unchallenged. It has been said thai where it is a duly to worship the Sun it will be a crime to examine the Laws of heal. In the soviet Union where reverence for the party is the Cardinal Tenet of the civic religion every thing is now negotiable everything except the Prin Ciple that sustains the regime. The principle is that inc party retains a monopoly on insight. Sherr cites a soviet ideologists who says that the relationship of the military to the party is thai of Brick to a bricklayer. And there is no evidence of any change in the regime s Meta Agenda which is the use of Mut Lary Power As a tool of a policy of expanding soviet influence. Glat nose is the policy of changing almost everything so that everything can remain the same. That is the system must be made More efficient so it can get on with achieving its hegemonic goal. Sherr notes that we have Long experience with die soviet policy of trying to maintain Good relations with governments while undermining the political and so Cial systems thai sustain them. For Many years the undermining encompassed attempts at actual subversion and the promotion of unrest through communist parties Wilh mass memberships. Gorbachev represent the soviet conclusion that it is More co