Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 285 › Conversation 285-004

Nixon & Safire on Economic policy and Price controls

Wednesday, October 6, 1971 · 9:23 PM–9:31 PM ET · Old Executive Office Building · 6 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Safire, William L.Conversation285-004 on Tape 285 (tape position 00:04:23–00:11:28)StartWednesday, October 6, 1971 at 9:23 PMEndWednesday, October 6, 1971 at 9:31 PMRecording deviceOld Executive Office BuildingSourceNixon Library record for 285-004 ↗

AI Summary

President Nixon and speechwriter William Safire discuss the framing of economic policy regarding corporate profits and price controls to avoid business alarm. Nixon emphasizes the need for language that frames cost savings as a benefit passed to the consumer while explicitly rejecting the implementation of an excess profits tax. He instructs Safire to coordinate with administration officials George Shultz and John Connally to revise the messaging and remove references to mandatory controls that might threaten business confidence.

Audio

Download MP3 · 14.2 MB

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript is incomplete. The transcription skipped stretches of speech — roughly 4 minutes of this recording (about 67% of it) is represented by only a few words. Listen to the audio rather than relying on the text below; a corrected transcript is queued.

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

Download transcript (.txt) · JSON data

· Click a timestamp to play from that point; the page address then links to that moment (e.g. #t=125).
Bill, what, uh, I think of the business and the profits and so forth, but it concerns me.
Is there a way to read through our changes and start a relationship with the fall business and the fall profits, even though we refer to them as the fall profits?
Page six, page seven, page seven.
I read that the way you could do it is in one way or another to say,
The better way is to make sure that the business passes along a fair share of its cost savings to the consumer.
You see, that's a very general thing.
I don't want to put that in that way.
It is to say that we're a business.
We're a business.
As a result of a, of a, of a,
Wages are of a free company.
It's a result of wage restraint.
It's an exorbitant process.
That vector will pass along a fair share of its cost to the consumer.
See what I mean?
And then we go into all this later, and it looks like we're going to look at prophets of all days, and just along the price range, and we're going to write some cases that might generate acceptance of any prophecy.
And just to provide that we're aware, we're aware of the result of...
You say that make certain the business does the long and fair share of its cost savings to the consumer and its public broad.
I mean, I'm just afraid it's kind of given up.
Instead of a hundred lines, it's a billion lines.
One thing is... Is that new?
No, but that isn't quite...
I mean, you're not even talking about the next two years.
cost savings and so forth.
And how you're going to do it makes you look like you're going to have an excess profits tax, if you want to say that.
For business to pass along.
Well, I think you better, on that point, just have March type up to there, see?
And then, in the morning, you check with Conway and Schultz and see what you can do.
I just don't want something here that's going to chill the hell out of a business, you know, at this point.
I mean, we're not going to do it on a lot.
We're just going to do it on pure cognitive, pretty much cognitive.
We're not going to have that.
Yeah, that's right.
I know, but if you, I just don't want the Price Commission to look into the profits of all business and say this is too high, this is too low, and so on.
that'll get shocked in a lot of business.
You just gotta say, you know, practices are all generated by profit.
That's not good.
You could say, in such cases, you could say, in such cases, business should pass along a fair share of its cost savings to the consumer.
That's what you're doing.
It's not fair.
We won't let that happen.
In such cases, it should pass along a fair share of its cost savings to the consumer.
Got it?
In such cases, business should...
should pass along a fair share of its cost savings to the consumer.
We have lived too long with the psychology of some crash reduction psychology.
This is not only the public interest, but it makes good utility business sense.
It's also about windfall profits.
It's not about any other kind of profits.
That's right.
You said it.
You said it.
I don't like it at all, but if you put that much in, there's no more.
I guess everybody wanted to dance, you know.
It's, uh...
It commonly would have struck out completely.
Well, we... Well, this place has done quite a bit, you see.
We've reduced it, you know.
It's a little off, but...
It's really... Yeah.
Yeah.
Now, incidentally, on the mandatory controls, I want you to check that thing in the morning with Tommy.
Knock that out if you don't mind that.
I kind of like it myself.
Take that out.
i just don't think we need to demand it all right

NARA Description

On October 6, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and William L. Safire met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 9:23 pm to 9:31 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 285-004 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 285-004

       Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, NARA Online Public Access Catalog Identifier: 597542

Date: October 6, 1971
Time: 9:23 pm - 9:31 pm
Location: Executive Office Building

The President talked with William L. Safire.

[See Conversation No. 10-109]

Also recorded on October 7, 1971

  • 284-022 8:40 PM · 16 min — President Richard M. Nixon, William L. Safire, and Nellie L. Yates met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 8:40 pm and 11:59 pm.
  • 010-105 8:54 PM · 1 min — President Richard M. Nixon, White House operator, and Nellie L. Yates talked on the telephone from 8:54 pm to 8:55 pm.
  • 285-002 8:55 PM · 4 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 8:55 pm and 9:18 pm.
  • 010-106 9:18 PM · 7 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 9:18 pm.
  • 010-107 9:18 PM · 14 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Marjorie P. Acker talked on the telephone from 9:18 pm to 9:19 pm.
  • 285-003 9:18 PM · 13 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and Marjorie P. Acker met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 9:18 pm to 9:19 pm.
  • 010-108 9:23 PM · 11 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at 9:23 pm.
  • 010-109 9:23 PM · 8 min — President Richard M. Nixon and William L. Safire talked on the telephone from 9:23 pm to 9:31 pm.

All 106 conversations from October 7, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 285-004, October 7, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/285-004 (accessed September 20, 2026).