From the Publisher

By Robert L. Miller

Greed is good. Or at least that's what wheeler-dealer Gordon Gekko told a stockholders' meeting in the movie Wall Street. Stephen Koepp, the editor of our Business section, is not so categorical. This week's cover stories on the biggest takeover battle in U.S. history gave him a chance to explore an important question: Is the lust for bigger and bigger deals harming the U.S. economy? Says he: "A healthy appetite for profits is what makes capitalism work. But at these levels, is it just a power game, in which money is a means of keeping score and the deals themselves are sometimes pointless and destructive?"

Koepp has applied his inquisitive mind to the news since he graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and took a job as a reporter at the Waukesha (Wis.) Freeman (circ. 23,000). In 1980 he wrote an award-winning series that revealed how a small-town mayor was determined to spend $6 million of taxpayers' money to dredge a local lake, in part so his friends could use it for water-skiing. Koepp moved to TIME in 1981, and in five years as a writer he probed such topics as the declining quality of American service, national gridlock, foreign investment in the U.S., Ralph Lauren's fashion empire and Disney's Magic Kingdom. Last month Koepp took charge of TIME's Business section.

An exclusive interview with chief executive officer of RJR Nabisco, Ross Johnson, accompanies the main story. Senior correspondent Frederick Ungeheuer and his wife were about to sit down to Thanksgiving dinner with 20 friends in Roxbury, Conn., when he received word that Johnson, who has refused all public comment since launching his takeover bid in mid-October, was ready to talk. Ungeheuer left immediately for Jupiter, Fla., where Johnson was spending a holiday away from the fray, for a one-hour talk about the megadeal. Ungeheuer has met other big dealmakers in his 25 years of covering business for TIME, but he was struck by Johnson's persuasive charm. "Despite questions about the amount of money that Johnson stands to make if his bid succeeds," says Ungeheuer, "I could understand how he has been able to convince his backers that his proposal makes perfect sense."