No meeting of TIME's Board of Economists has surveyed so bleak an economic horizon as that confronting our experts last week. While the economists jetted to Manhattan from St. Louis, Chicago, Minneapolis and Washington, President Ford's budget and the grim economic message accompanying it were being released to Congress and the press. Ford's predictions of continuing high inflation, falling production and three years of at least 7% unemployment amply fulfilled Board members' December forecast of the worst slump since the 1940s. Not surprisingly, the Administration's economy and energy policies stirred a sharp and critical response from conservative as well as liberal Board members (see ECONOMY & BUSINESS).

The Board members' savvy has frequently been tapped by Congress and the President as well as by TIME. Tax Expert Joseph Pechman, who directs economic studies at the Brookings Institution, testified at the recent House Ways and Means Committee hearings on President Ford's tax-cut proposals. His recommendation: deepen the rebate by several billion dollars. Arthur Okun, also of Brookings, and University of Minnesota Economist Walter Heller have both served as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. Otto Eckstein, Harvard professor and head of Data Resources, Inc., a Cambridge, Mass., think tank, is a former member of the council, and its current chairman, Alan Greenspan, is on leave from TIME's Board. Murray Weidenbaum, who replaced Greenspan on our panel, was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Nixon Administration. Robert Nathan heads a private consulting firm in Washington; David Grove is chief economist at IBM; Robert Triffin, an expert in international monetary policy, is a Yale economics professor; and Beryl Sprinkel serves as top economist at Chicago's Harris Trust and Savings Bank.

The members' divergent backgrounds and views trigger lively exchanges. Says Senior Editor Marshall Loeb: "The crossfire of their opinions produces rare illuminations for journalists."

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