From The Publisher: Jan. 13, 1992

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Like many of our readers, a fair sample of TIME employees spent New Year's Day watching the back-to-back bowl games. We could do so confident in the knowledge that senior writer John Greenwald was hunched over his desk, writing this week's cover story on the economic gloom pervading America. Since 1981, ( John has brought diligence, common sense and level-headed analysis to TIME's coverage of a very turbulent economic period. Last week, though, he was struck that Americans feel the pain of this recession so keenly. "This one is different," he says. "The causes lie deeper. We haven't been investing in the future. Many people wonder if it is too late."

Greenwald grew up in the sunny 1950s economy of Los Angeles, priding himself on his skills as a bodysurfer. When it came time for college, he enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, planning to become a professor. By the time he completed his bachelor's degree in English, his growing interest in public affairs had spawned a new ambition to become a journalist. After taking a master's in journalism from Berkeley, Greenwald added a degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. As a reporter and later business editor for the Minneapolis Star, Greenwald focused on economics. Says he: "For many Americans, the 1973 oil shock brought home for the first time the fact that the U.S. economy was vulnerable to conditions in distant parts of the world."

Keeping track of the changes that are transforming the American economy isn't easy. John's colleagues sometimes wonder how he manages to do it without generating mountains of paper. His plan for this week's cover story was outlined in a dozen or so brief phrases on a single sheet. He admits he will break discipline for important matters, like taking time off last Wednesday to tune in Berkeley's 37-13 stomping of Clemson in the Citrus Bowl. But he is reassuring: "I wasn't distracted for long, since they had the game won in the first quarter."