Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 003-002
Date: Tuesday, May 11, 1971 at 4:52 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Connally, John B.; Shultz, George P.
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/003-002

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Yes, sir.
[0:02] George, Schultz just got a little piece of economic news I thought you'd like to hear about.
[0:08] Here he is.
[0:08] Great.
[0:12] Hello?
[0:13] Yes, sir.
[0:13] John, I just got the revised GNP figures that'll be released Friday.
[0:19] And the first quarter, instead of being up 28.5, is up 30.8.
[0:23] Got them.
[0:24] So we did get up above the 30 billion mark.
[0:27] Up to 30, yeah.
[0:29] And that's really, it's a 7.1% real increase instead of 6.5%.
[0:34] 7.1.
[0:35] That's not the highest quarter-to-quarter increase ever, but it's in percentage terms, constant dollars, but it's damn near it.
[0:43] Got it.
[0:43] There were a few quarters back in the middle 60s.
[0:46] Hmm.
[0:46] So that really shows that our thinking hasn't been too far off.
[0:51] That is great.
[0:53] Gee, that's wonderful.
[0:54] I'm amazed.
[0:55] I thought you might get up to 29.5, maybe possibly 30, but 30.8, that's up over two percentage points.
[1:03] Yeah.
[1:04] Well, I mean up over $2 billion.
[1:07] Yeah.
[1:07] 2.3 billion.
[1:08] 2.3 billion.
[1:10] And the good thing about it in terms of our...
[1:13] Annual estimate is anything that goes in the first quarter, of course, will count four times, so to speak, in the averaging.
[1:21] So it's much better to get the rise in the first quarter than the last.
[1:25] Gee, that's wonderful.
[1:26] That's just great.
[1:29] I couldn't be happier, George.
[1:31] Thank you, sir.
[1:32] That's Friday announcement.
[1:34] Friday is the announcement day.