GETTING BY ON $100,000 A YEAR

With the first and perkiest financial reconnaissance of the late decade, Tobias just about nails the Selfish Seventies. This collection of magazine pieces on the users and use of mazuma is a remarkably lifelike instant snapshot, vividly recalling some cosmic and some sappy pecuniary events. From the battle over the making of the film about King Kong Redux and the resurgence of chain letters to the Franklin Mint's game and the logic of investing in stocks now, nobody has explained money matters better since Stephen Leacock first entered a bank around the turn of the century. Down the road with Yablans and Lefrak, over the bumps with Merrill Lynch and Citibank, Tobias has a nice breezy reporter's touch. And he's especially call, cogent, and pointed in explaining the Big Trouble we're in now and where our unreformed profligacy may take us. Tax lawyers ought to be able to tell you as simply as Tobias does that ""you can no longer make money after tax by losing it before tax."" Brokerage firms, he points out, are mostly providing ""adult entertainment rather than any genuine way to beat the financial odds."" Tobias--affectionately remembered for The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need--has come up with some sound adult entertainment of his own.