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From the Publisher
By ELIZABETH VALK LONG
Mar. 29, 1993
MIDWAY THROUGH SAM GWYNNE'S VARIED CAREER -- French teacher, international banker, prizewinning correspondent -- he and his wife Katie became temporary workers: royalties from Sam's 1986 book, Selling Money, had run out, and they , needed some income while looking for permanent employment. Gwynne worked briefly as a "production assistant" on a TV commercial (his job: raking and reraking sand on a beach to smooth it out after strollers had walked by) and as a secretary at Southern California Gas Co. Sam vividly remembers the unnerving insecurity that helped inspire this week's stories on temporary workers: "No health insurance, no pension plan, no protection against arbitrary termination."
Where Sam worked next turned out to be TIME. He joined the staff in 1988 as a correspondent in Los Angeles, became chief of the Detroit bureau and national economics correspondent based in Washington. With us, he found not only security but also renown: Gwynne and TIME correspondent Jonathan Beaty won three major awards last year for their exposes of how the Bank of Credit & Commerce International ran a one-stop shopping center for criminals, corrupt leaders and official intelligence agencies around the world. Random House will publish their jointly written book on B.C.C.I., The Outlaw Bank: A Wild Ride into the Secret Heart of B.C.C.I., later this month.

Early this year, Sam came to New York City as a senior editor. He is still getting used to a strange idea: as a correspondent he divided the world into us and them, and "now, suddenly, I'm 'them.' " His new post, he says, "requires a total attitude adjustment. One day you're a reporter in the field, the next day you're dispatching reporters. Your perspective flips 180 degrees."

Following Sam's direction on this week's stories, his collaborators discovered some things they shared, even beyond serious worries about what the temp trend is doing to American industry. Says associate editor Janice Castro, who wrote the main story: "The same qualities that made Sam a good reporter serve him as an editor. He is energetically curious -- a sleeves-rolled-up guy who loves to find out what people are thinking and why." Dan Goodgame, who succeeded Sam as our national economics correspondent, has a slightly different perspective: he calls Gwynne "the first Welshman I've met who can't sing" but who also can't stop trying. Our advice to Sam: keep your day job.

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