VOLCKER SAYS U.S. TRADE DEFICIT IS MAJOR CHALLENGE
  Federal Reserve Board
  Chairman Paul Volcker said the U.S. Trade deficit is a
  challenge for the U.S. Equal to the Soviet Union launching of
  Sputnik.
      "The international challenge implicit in our huge trade
  deficit has become the 1980s equivalent to the launch of
  Sputnik by the Russians in the 1950s, when we suddenly feared
  we were to be left in the wake of Soviet technological
  achievement," he said in an address to Florida educators.
       He said the trade problem underscored the need to reform
  the U.S. Educational system to improve economic performance.
      The Commerce Department reported last week that the
  nation's trade gap, calculated on a balance-of-payments basis,
  swelled to a record 38.37 billion dlrs in the fourth quarter,
  bringing the 1986 deficit to a record 147.71 billion dlrs.
      Volcker called on educators to stress the development of
  basic reading, writing and mathematics skills and urged them to
  help students adapt to the fast-changing economic climate.
      Volcker said the challenge was greatest in the education of
  low-income minority groups such as blacks and Hispanics.