Looking Ahead

Since 1923, the Kiplinger Washington Letter has published, along with its own financial predictions, news briefs and opinions. Items culled here from seven decades of the business weekly provide a unique peripheral sense of recent history--what the U.S.S.R. may do, whither inflation--often forecast with astonishing perspicacity. Certain judgements stand out: ``stock market too high'' (1928); ``the purpose behind the new socialistic policies is not to embrace socialism, but rather to save capitalism'' (1933); the governments of the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. are ``not talking'' about the health dangers of atomic weaponry (1959). Among the bloopers: ``Watergate trial won't turn up anything new'' (1973). Yet to be realized: the Dow Jones Industrial stock average (now 3600) could reach ``6000 by A.D. 2000'' (1989). (Nov.)