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Market Chic * Meritocratic Mating * Refinancing the Redskins 43's 42 percent * Sitting Around Soda Fountains.

THE OWNERS OF THE WASHINGton Redskins appear to be exploring the frontiers of capitalism in a way that does not seem sporting. They are refinancing $500 million in club debt with a $700-million loan. Why should I object? After all, they are probably seeking lower interest rates, just like thousands of other Americans. True, but it's the explanation of the increase from $500 to $700 million that I find a bit dicey. "The difference between the old debt package," we discover in the ninth paragraph of a story about the transaction in The Washington Times, "will go to [Dan] Snyder and his investors--father Gerald, sister Michelle, and [U.S. News & World Report publisher] Fred Drasner--as personal Loans." Ppersonal loans for the owners! Wouldn't it be better for fans if the $200 million was used to lower the painfully high ticket prices they pay to see the Redskins?

THE FIRST BUSH ADMINISTRAtion was controlling the White House press corps' agenda, deciding what issues were to be emphasized each day and relegating to the back burner all other matters, however important they might have been. So wrote James Bennet, now of The New York Times, in our November 1991 issue. The article caused enough embarrassment in the media that it almost immediately ceased to be true, and remained untrue during the last year of Bush I and the entire Clinton presidency. But its validity resumed under Bush II and gained strength from the surge of patriotism in the media after 9/11. This spring, however, stories of corporate malfeasance began to threaten the White House's control. You can imagine Karl Rove's worry when stories began to focus on participation by the president and vice president in questionable business practices. So they have given us Iraq, which has proved to be gloriously successful in pushing everything else off the front pages, including pressing domestic problems that desperately need the nation's attention. As we go to press, some Democrats seem to be catching on to what's happening, but it remains to be seen whether or when the press and the public will wake up.

WE THOUGHT WE HAD FOUND the last of the great expense-accounters with the Petrus gang featured here last month, but just after we went to press, we learned about Michael Murphy, a lawyer in Coral Gables, Fla. He is accused of spending $111,000 on prostitutes and, according to The Washington Post, billing them to a client as "routine litigation expenses."

"A CIGARETTE IN THE HANDS OF a Hollywood star onscreen is a gun aimed at a 12- or 14-year-old," writes Joe Eszterhas, a prominent screenwriter who started smoking at 12 because he "wanted so very much to be cool" and whose recent throat cancer cost him much of his larynx. When smoking is written into or made a part of a scene by a writer or director, it is justified on the ground of "creative freedom" and "artistic expression," writes Eszterhas, who then nails the real reason on the head: "laziness." I've made this point before, but Eszterhas makes it better, and he speaks with the authority of an insider and former sinner. "The truth is, there are 1,000 better and more original ways to reveal a character's personality."

HAVE YOU NOTICED THAT THE word "capitalism" is now back in vogue? It had nearly vanished when the "market" was chic. It appears that people like to use "capitalism" when they're attacking the system and "markets" when they're advocating or defending it.

IN THE COURSE OF DOING research on a book about events that took place in 1940, I have been delving into newspapers of the era. Not surprisingly, I found a good many examples for the How Times Have Changed Department. One example is that, back then, you could buy a new car--Ford, Chevrolet, or Plymouth--for less than $700. But my favorite is an International News Service article that quotes a physical education expert, Dr. Jay Nash, on "why young people today are such a bunch of softies." Said Nash, "Instead of obtaining stimulation from work, the young people of today are to be found sitting around soda fountains devouring ice cream sodas."

IS THERE A "HOUSING BUBBLE"? Have escalating real estate prices created a danger akin to the stock market bubble that burst last year? I am definitely no expert, but I do recognize one troubling sign: refinancing homeowners are pressing appraisers for high estimates of their homes' value, so that, like the Redskins owners, they can increase the amount of their loans. "Appraisers from around the country say homeowners are increasingly urging them to jack up the estimated prices of their homes," reports Sheila Muto of The Wall Street Journal. Those of us who remember the 1980s know that inflated appraisals were a significant factor in the savings and loan scandal. When real estate prices declined, the inflated appraisals were exposed. Borrowers who had to sell at lower prices could not repay their loans. The S&Ls that had made the loans either went under or were bailed out by the taxpayers.

THE DEFECTS IN THE BUSH EDUcation bill are beginning to show. As Alexander Russo made clear in our September issue and The New York Times recently confirmed, the right the bill was supposed to confer on parents to transfer their children from failing schools has turned out to be illusory. There just isn't enough room in the good schools for those who want to transfer.

Another difficulty with the bill, this one pointed out by The Washington Post, is that the definition of a failing school is left to the states. The Post found one school in Arkansas where only 10 percent of the students were proficient in English, but which the state still managed to avoid classifying as "failing."

MARK KNOWLER OF CBS RADIO is the media's unofficial keeper of presidential statistics. His findings were recently reported by The Washington Post's Dana Milbank. Two of them might be of particular interest to you. W. has spent 250 days--42 percent of his presidency--at Camp David, Kennebunkport, or his Texas ranch. He has held only six solo press conferences during the first 19 months of his presidency. His handlers must quail at the prospect of having the quality of his mind exposed to the world. Recall how frequently confident presidents like FDR and JFK met with the press--FDR did it twice a week.

EVEN IF YOUR INDIGNATION threshold is high, your blood may heat up when you learn that Merrill Lynch will probably be able to deduct from its taxable income the $100 million it paid to settle the New York at-torney general's charge that it hyped stocks it knew were losers in order to please big corporate clients. The key to getting the tax deduction, explains The Wall Street Journal's John D. McKinnon, is having the agreement defined not as a fine, but as a civil settlement, as Merrill Lynch succeeded in doing. "It's a subsidy for corporate wrongdoing," says a prominent tax attorney.

ONE OF THE MORE UNFORTUnate aspects of the Cold War was the tendency of American foreign policy makers to ally us with any dictator who shared our distaste for the Commies. Now it appears that we are falling into the same pattern in the war against terrorism. Pakistan is a notable example. Now comes Indonesia. Three years ago we cut our ties with that county's armed forces after they had slaughtered hundreds of people in East Timor. Now, reports Karen De Young of The Washington Post, "The administration is renewing the military training despite scant evidence that the Indonesian army has substantively investigated and punished the human rights abuses that led to the cutoff."

SOME OF YOU will recall that in 1969, the nation was shocked to learn that 155 individuals and couples with incomes of $200,000 or more paid no tax. As a result, Congress passed the alternative minimum tax that was supposed to eliminate this problem. But now The New lark Times' David Cay Johnston reports that in 1999--the last year for which figures are available--2,250 individuals and couples paid no federal income tax, even though they had incomes in excess of $200,000. The alternative minimum tax shouldn't be abolished, as Bush proposed to do, but it dearly needs fixing. Too many people who should be covered are escaping. And too many people are covered who shouldn't be. For example, the tax can apply to a single parent making only $28,000, while most of those making more than $600,000 avoid it.