Economist , July 18 (posted Saturday, July 18, 1998) The cover editorial welcomes the resignation of Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto but frets that his departure will hurt the Japanese economy. Hashimoto deserved to go because he failed to reform the banking system or to stop Japan's financial descent, but it will take time to choose a new prime minister and even more time for the new leader to push through reforms. ... An article notes an unpublicized cost of the General Motors strike: It is delaying the launch of GM's new sport utility vehicle, the GMT800. The new SUV is expected to be wildly profitable, but a delayed launch will let GM's competitors get a head start. ... A story says companies now eschew insurance, favoring predictive models that help manage risk. Sometimes, a company can foresee insurance will be unnecessary: While an earthquake in California snapped many telephone poles, the phone company made back its losses as "worried families started calling relatives"--long distance. New York Times Magazine , July 19 (posted Thursday, July 16, 1998) The cover story profiles Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, whose excessive rationality is good news for America. (Full disclosure: Slate 's Jacob Weisberg wrote the piece.) Rubin obsessively uses probabilities to weigh and reweigh the risks and rewards of every decision. He judges decisions on their logic at the time, not their eventual outcome--the antithesis of Washington-think. His strategy on the Asian crisis has paid off, with no American crash in sight. ... A piece profiles Lachlan Murdoch, son of Rupert and heir to the News Corp throne. A young (26) and tattooed bachelor, Lachlan seems an unlikely media baron, but he manages to be simultaneously tough and charming. His taste, like his dad's, runs to the tabloid. Time and Newsweek , July 20 (posted Tuesday, July 14, 1998) Time 's cover package hypes online shopping, which is now efficient and safe on sites such as Amazon.com, CDnow, and E*TRADE. But online shopping hasn't made it yet: Amazon.com is worth $5 billion on the market but has lost $30 million since 1995 and isn't close to turning a profit. ... A Time story says transsexuals are gaining political clout. They are demanding (and getting) anti-discrimination laws at the state level. Now they wish gays and lesbians would stop excluding them from homosexual rights campaigns. Newsweek 's cover story examines the convergence of science and religion. Scientists were once ostracized for holding religious beliefs but can now worship without embarrassment. Religious people are finding evidence of God in recent scientific discoveries. (Outcomes determined by "chaos" and the randomness of radioactive decay are actually specific results chosen by God.) ... An article wonders what Hillary Clinton will do after she leaves the White House. Publishers say her book career is more promising than her husband's, and her lecture fees might approach $60,000 per speech. (She'll need the dough to cover her legal expenses--see The Nation , below.) ... A story reports on haggling over ownership of the Zapruder film of JFK's assassination. The government wants to buy it for $3 million. The Zapruder family is demanding $18 million, wanting no "blood money" but figuring it could fetch $70 million on the open market. The family says that Abraham Zapruder, after witnessing tragedy through his lens, "never looked through a camera again." U.S. News & World Report , July 20 (posted Tuesday, July 14, 1998) The cosmology cover story wonders if there are other universes. (Conclusion: maybe.) Through diagrams and interviews with physicists, the story describes how separate universes could break away from ours (a bit like a soap bubble dividing in two). One theory posits a "mother" universe--a forever unchanging world from which "daughter" universes can grow. ... A piece claims that corporate America now supports napping. Companies offer dark, quiet nap rooms, reasoning that midday naps help workers maintain focus. The New Yorker , July 20 (posted Tuesday, July 14, 1998) The issue overshadowed by news of Tina Brown's departure as editor. A long story reports on an evangelical American farmer and an Israeli rabbi who want to bring red cows to Israel. An obscure biblical passage states that a perfectly red cow must be sacrificed in order for the Messiah to return. (Red cows are plentiful in the United States but quite rare in the Middle East.) Both Jews and fundamentalist Christians support the shipment of cow embryos to Israel as a means of accelerating the apocalypse. ... An article by newly appointed editor David Remnick follows the story of two young Amish men caught selling cocaine. The Amish allow a period of freedom before baptism, during which young people drink, take drugs, and use machinery and electricity. The recent case has the Amish community fretting over how to stop the encroachment of outside society. Vanity Fair , August 1998 (posted Tuesday, July 14, 1998) Part 2 of a long article on the Reagans. The theme this time: Nancy as the power behind the scenes. Nancy shaped the Cabinet, pushing her husband toward moderate candidates over extremists, and she led the Reagans into Georgetown society. Ronald is portrayed (against type) as tough and competent: At one private summit meeting, he looked at Mikhail Gorbachev and said, "I just want to let you know, there's no way you're going to win." ... More hype for Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan . The opening scene is "an overture of pure cinema" and the climax an "almost unbearably thrilling firefight and demonstration of peak-form filmmaking." The Nation , July 27 (posted Tuesday, July 14, 1998) The cover story totes up the huge costs of Kenneth Starr's investigation for major players and innocent bystanders alike. Even witnesses only tangentially connected to the various Clinton scandals get called before juries again and again, racking up monstrous legal fees and losing days of work. The Clintons alone owe lawyers $3.5 million. The Park Service policeman who found Vincent Foster's body has incurred $200,000 in legal expenses. --Seth Stevenson