On May 11, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon, John B. Connally, and George P. Shultz talked on the telephone from 4:52 pm to 4:53 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 003-002 of the White House Tapes.
Transcript (AI-Generated)This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.
Yes, sir.
George, Schultz just got a little piece of economic news I thought you'd like to hear about.
Here he is.
Great.
Hello?
Yes, sir.
John, I just got the revised GNP figures that'll be released Friday.
And the first quarter, instead of being up 28.5, is up 30.8.
Got them.
So we did get up above the 30 billion mark.
Up to 30, yeah.
And that's really, it's a 7.1% real increase instead of 6.5%.
7.1.
That's not the highest quarter-to-quarter increase ever, but it's in percentage terms, constant dollars, but it's damn near it.
Got it.
There were a few quarters back in the middle 60s.
Hmm.
So that really shows that our thinking hasn't been too far off.
That is great.
Gee, that's wonderful.
I'm amazed.
I thought you might get up to 29.5, maybe possibly 30, but 30.8, that's up over two percentage points.
Yeah.
Well, I mean up over $2 billion.
Yeah.
2.3 billion.
2.3 billion.
And the good thing about it in terms of our...
Annual estimate is anything that goes in the first quarter, of course, will count four times, so to speak, in the averaging.
So it's much better to get the rise in the first quarter than the last.
Gee, that's wonderful.
That's just great.
I couldn't be happier, George.
Thank you, sir.
That's Friday announcement.
Friday is the announcement day.