A Letter From the Publisher

By Richard B. Thomas

This week's cover story on the stock market and its gyrations was not a task for a numberphobe or the technologically faint of heart. "After nuclear proliferation, this is the most complicated cover I've ever tackled," says Associate Editor George Russell, who wrote the story. Following a stint as TIME's Buenos Aires bureau chief from 1979 to 1981, Russell returned to write in the World section for five years, then switched last March to Economy & Business. "Wars and coups are very decisive -- stories tend to write themselves when people are killing each other," he observes. "It is tougher to write about seemingly ordinary topics like the stock market that are much more extraordinary than people might think. The stock market is at the center of the most sophisticated financial system in the world. Trying to simplify this chaos and make it comprehensible was not easy."

Among Russell's biggest challenges: understanding not only how state-of-the- art computers and other technological marvels contribute to market volatility, but also how they work. He received able assistance in New York City from Senior Correspondent Frederick Ungeheuer, who served as Russell's eyes and ears, visiting trading rooms and exchange floors as brokers wheeled and dealed. "I am from the precomputer generation, and it has been a steep learning curve," says Ungeheuer, 54, who has been writing about the market since the early 1960s. "In just over two decades, there has been change much like the one from horse-and-carriage days to jet travel." Senior Reporter- Researcher Bernie Baumohl, who also assisted with the story, compares the historic upheaval to the Industrial Revolution. Says he: "The question is Will we -- bankers, brokerage firms and, ultimately, small investors -- be able to adjust?"

So far, nobody has the answer. The most that can be said is that people are hustling to keep up with the pace of change around them. Says Senior Editor Charles Alexander, who heads TIME's Economy & Business section and oversaw the cover project: "The public finds what happens on Wall Street more and more bewildering. While we cannot take away the bewilderment, we can give our readers a better sense of what is going on, why, and whether they should be worried." Alexander, for his part, assiduously avoids speculating about the future of the stock market. "The question I am most frequently asked by colleagues, friends and relatives is 'Where is the market going?' My answer is 'Beats me.' "