Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 014-025
Date: Wednesday, November 10, 1971 at 7:54 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); White House operator; Colson, Charles W.; Eisenhower, Julie Nixon
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/014-025

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Yeah.
[0:02] Yes, sir, Mr. President.
[0:03] Well, what's the evening report?
[0:05] Well, we, uh, looks like our little campaign, your campaign, or your pressure on Arthur Burns worked.
[0:11] Oh, I noticed, yeah.
[0:12] Dropped the discount rate today, which, uh, should be, uh, God, that should do something for these business folks.
[0:20] Market dropped off again.
[0:22] How much this time?
[0:23] Eleven points.
[0:25] What did it drop yesterday?
[0:27] Yesterday was about even, I think, uh,
[0:30] It's been steady for a couple of days.
[0:34] It dropped 11 points today.
[0:36] How many shares?
[0:37] 13 million.
[0:38] Yesterday was a very light day, and of course 13 million is a light day nowadays.
[0:44] What did they say the trouble was today?
[0:46] Uncertainty about phase two or something like that?
[0:51] No, I haven't been able to get a reading today, Mr. President.
[0:53] The business fellows really are their culprit in this whole deal, completely.
[0:59] And we're not going to worry about them.
[1:01] No, because I think the consumer, well, maybe, but the business guys have got to start investing.
[1:08] They create jobs.
[1:09] Absolutely.
[1:10] Well, this drop in the discount rate could be very significant.
[1:13] I was told by Dan Hofgren, who's been working on this for me, organizing some pressure on Burns, that this was a very, very bullish thing.
[1:25] Everybody reacted to this very excitedly today because it's kind of a signal to them that the price is going to be back.
[1:28] It was after the market closed.
[1:30] Oh, yes.
[1:31] Yeah.
[1:31] It was after the market closed.
[1:36] I was trying to see if I don't...
[1:38] I know it was after the market closed.
[1:39] I don't have the wire on it, but I'm sure it was.
[1:41] It was for a clock.
[1:42] Right.
[1:42] But that's a very good sign.
[1:43] On the market thing, there's a goddamn... Well, it's interesting that all of the smart people, all of the people on Wall Street whose judgment I respect from time to time,
[1:56] have told me that it was going to go through this kind of a ringer.
[2:12] I didn't believe them.
[2:13] I suppose they didn't want to believe.
[2:14] It would go through this kind of a ringer in the first couple of weeks of November.
[2:18] And then about November 15th, they figured a big, starting up a big steady boop.
[2:22] A lot of people getting liquid for that.
[2:22] So you never know until it could be the manipulation of the smart money guys.
[2:24] They know how to run the market.
[2:25] Oh, the big guys know how to get it down.
[2:26] to where they want it when they start their buying.
[2:47] And they figure that there's a sustained growth coming next year, which every damn economist said.
[2:49] They seem to say it, except for our friend, Newsweek's Elliott.
[2:51] I don't think he's taken it very seriously.
[2:52] But all the respected ones, including our Democratic friends,
[2:54] who praised the decision of the people.
[2:57] Did he?
[2:58] Yes, sir.
[2:58] And said that this was, he issued a very good statement yesterday.
[3:03] You know, and view of that, what the Christ is the matter with the market?
[3:09] What is the matter with it?
[3:11] Can't figure this out.
[3:13] No, unless it's what they call this, which, as I say, the president of Eastmanville is a sharp, tough,
[3:19] an Irishman who worked his way up the hard way, a guy I know well, he said, don't, this was two weeks, three weeks ago, he said, don't worry about it.
[3:28] It's going to go through this process.
[3:29] The prices have been too high.
[3:31] It's going to adjust back.
[3:32] You know, the market reflects inflation and anticipates inflation.
[3:36] Well, then they know that maybe they're reflecting the fact that inflation is down.
[3:41] Well, exactly.
[3:41] And you're not going to have the inflationary growth in the market if you have a real growth.
[3:46] The Maybar thing is still standing up.
[3:47] We're working hard at it, Mr. President.
[3:50] The regulations that we had drafted, Labor, of course, likes them, and we'll keep Labor in mind, but we're having a little trouble now with the business and the public side, as we did before.
[4:08] I just was talking to Rumsfeld.
[4:09] What do you think of the regulations?
[4:10] He's completely for it.
[4:11] Schultz, Rumsfeld, and I met this morning.
[4:11] All right.
[4:12] If you're for them, then sell them.
[4:14] That's what he's trying to do.
[4:16] But not as a defeat.
[4:23] You know, we can't make it appear as if it caved into labor.
[4:32] That'd be rough.
[4:33] No, it doesn't.
[4:33] They're very cleverly written.
[4:34] Some of us put our old corporate law hats back on it.
[4:35] They're written in such a way that what it appears is you're just trying to achieve equity.
[4:37] So it's not a cave-in at all.
[4:38] The only thing is they'll be hassling in there tomorrow.
[4:42] We just need to keep our...
[4:43] Well, I think the Kennedy thing is what has me fascinated at the moment.
[4:55] The way in which he's trying to, in every way obvious, step to the front.
[5:00] By the way, Fitzsimmons told me that, interesting, he was in my office, I guess Monday night, after hours we were talking, and he said, by the way, he said,
[5:12] He was commenting on Teddy, and he thought that Teddy was moving very fast.
[5:28] He said, by the way, you fellows don't know half the story of Ted Kennedy.
[5:30] And I said, really?
[5:30] And he said, oh, I have more on him than you fellows ever dreamt of him, really.
[5:32] And I said, well, how do we get it?
[5:33] And he said, well, just give me an investigator.
[5:34] I said, I'll give you everything we got.
[5:37] He said, I keep trying to tell you that I'm for your man.
[5:40] And he said, I'll give you the works.
[5:41] He said, it's going to be on a trip to Las Vegas.
[5:42] We've got a guy pursuing it.
[5:53] You know, I never thought of that, but obviously they would watch it.
[5:59] They would get that man.
[5:59] Oh, God.
[6:00] They've kept, they've really kept book on it.
[6:00] They've got to put the investigator out.
[6:01] I have, they're going to be meeting one day next week with people that Fitz was lining up with.
[6:03] Yeah.
[6:04] Or out of the country.
[8:46] Of course, if you follow the Sinling Affair, it doesn't matter whether the economy is healthy.
[8:54] It doesn't matter a damn.
[8:56] He said, I can prove to you that it doesn't.
[9:00] He went through all of his charities.
[9:00] He's got fantastic charities.
[9:01] He said, it's just whether they think that the president is trying to do something.
[9:07] He said, if they do, and right now they do, there's a little wait and see in there.
[9:12] If they think they do, if they think he is, that's what they care about.
[9:16] And so from that standpoint, we're not as concerned as to how it does as we are how your pastor does.
[9:28] It's okay.
[9:30] But we'll get through tomorrow, and if we hold that one together, I think it's a good road ahead for us.
[9:40] Thank you, sir.