On October 7, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building at an unknown time between 6:10 pm and 7:11 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 286-011 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 Do not cite this transcript as authoritative.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.
Seven weeks ago, I announced a new economic policy to stop the rise in prices.
Good evening.
Seven weeks ago, I announced a new economic policy to stop the rise in prices, to create new jobs, and protect the American dollar.
Tonight, I want to report to you about that new policy, how it has been working, and describe how that policy will be continued.
On the international front, I am glad to report substantial progress in our campaign to create a new monetary stability and bring a new fairness to world trade.
Just as this nation welcomes foreign competition, we have a right to expect that our trading partners abroad will welcome American competition.
The world has come to understand that America believes in free trade as long as it's fair trade.
This will mean more sales of American goods abroad, more jobs for American workers in the home.
Further in the job front, the House of Representatives yesterday passed a tax program based on my recommendation that will create an additional half million new jobs coming in.
I call upon the Senate, which has begun hearings in this bill today, to act as promptly as the House so that we can move forward with our goal of full-time employment.
A full employment piece now.
Secretary of Treasury Secretary Connolly and I will be meeting in the morning
with the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Russell Long of Louisiana, to further discuss the stroke.
On the inflation front, I can report to you tonight that the wage price freeze has been remarkably successful.
As you heard in your evening newscast, the figures bear this out.
Wholesale prices in September posed the biggest decline in five years, and the price of industrial commodities has declined for the first time in seven years.
The primary credit for the success of this first step in the fight against rising prices belongs to you, the American people.
It is you who have shown a willingness to cooperate in the campaign.
It is you who have answered the call of the public interest ahead of the special interests.
You have made possible this strong beginning in our all-out effort to hold down the cost of money.
Thousands of letters reported to the White House since I made my announcement on August 15.
Listen to what people all across America, from all walks of life, have to say about this program.
From a schoolteacher in New Jersey, I am a widow who raised two sons on my teacher's salary.
I will lose about $300 because of the grief.
Yet I have some serving people who must all support your efforts to bring me $100, a wage of $1,000.
As one who is expecting an increase in income this December, let me say that I will gladly go without if that will curtail inflation.
From the life of a government employee in Compton, Texas, we are willing as a family to forego raises in order to see stability in crisis.
Let us all hope that Americans will once again realize that we must be willing to sacrifice for a long-range goal and once again have pride in our country.
And then from a man in Clement Falls, Oregon, your administration's recent freeze on wages and prices means that I will not receive the 4% raise that was written into my contract this year.
Nevertheless, I support your efforts to halt inflation, including the wage freeze.
The fight against inflation is everybody's fight.
I want all of you to know that thousands of others who have read similar letters are deeply grateful I have for your support in this program.
It is good to know that most Americans will put the country's interest above their personal interest in fighting the battle against inflation.
Now let us look at the future.
Because of our strong beginning, because of the determination Americans have shown to pull together during the freeze, I am confident that our further action in stopping inflation will succeed as well.
In planning ahead, I have consulted over the past seven weeks with scores of representatives of labor and business, and farmers and consumers.
State and local governments.
They have been virtually unanimous in their belief that the battle against inflation must be fought here and now.
They are together in their determination to win this battle.
Consequently, I am announcing tonight that when the 90-day freeze is over on November 13, we shall continue our program of wage and price restraint.
We began this battle against inflation for the purpose of winning it.
We're going to stay in it until we do it.
I am appointing a price commission to open up prices.
It will be made up of persons outside of government, all public members, not beholden to any special interest group.
The price commission will develop yardsticks, will be empowered to restrain price when it increases to the necessary amount, and to prevent windfall profits.
Its goal will be to continue to drive down the rate of inflation.
This goal, however, can only be achieved with the active cooperation of working men and businessmen, farmers, and sewers, members of the Congress and of our state and local government.
That means all of us.
I am appointing also a pay board to stop the inflationary wage and salary increases, the kind of increases that do not really benefit the working man.
For example, in the past six years, workers have received big wage increases.
But as every wife of a worker will tell you, these increases have practically all been eaten up by a rise in the cost of living.
The pay board will be made up from countries of labor management and power.
Both the price commission and the pay board will seek voluntary cooperation from business and labor, but they will be backed by the authority of law so that their decisions will stand.
Their staff will be small.
Stabilization must be made to work not by an army of bureaucrats, but by an all-volunteer army of patriotic citizens in every one of them.
The Costa Living Council, which is head of the Secretary of the Treasury, will have the power to back up the paper and repeat praise to me with government sanctions where necessary.
Councilor Rumpa, I at the day name Councilor Rumpa, Rumpa, to the Costa Living Council, and he will vote full-time
as director of operations, as director of operations for the council.
Secretary Connolly, the chairman of the council, will be on television tomorrow at 12 o'clock noon to answer technical questions, to answer questions on the program.
Our experience over the past seven weeks proves conclusive.
The vast majority of Americans cooperate wholeheartedly with the system of voluntary restraint.
But if there are any who try to take advantage of the patriotic core of the writing of their fellow Americans, I can assure you that the government must be and will be prepared to act against them.
I can assure you that the government must be, and will be, prepared to act against it.
For that reason, I have today, in a meeting with the bipartisan leaders of the Congress, asked that the Congress extend for one year the Economic Stabilization Act, which gives the President the power he needs to act to stop inflation.
Holding the line against inflation means holding all of them on.
Thus, gladly, I am appointing a government committee on interest and dividends to apply yards to both these earnings.
Headed by Dr. .
Dr. Arthur Burns, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve.
The nation needs interest rates as low as they can be to meet the credit requirements of American families and equitable services to stimulate non-inflationary economic expansion.
I am confident this can be accomplished on a voluntary basis.
As a safeguard, however, I will ask the Congress to stand by particular controls over interest rates and dividends.
Let me turn now to the subject of profits.
Many of my good friends have advised me that the only politically popular position today is to be against all profits, is to be against frauds.
Those recognize an unassailable fact in economic life.
All Americans will benefit from more profits.
More profits deal with expansion that generates more jobs.
More profits means more investment that will make our goods more competitive.
And more profits means there will be more tax revenues to pay for the programs that help people in need.
That's why higher profits in the American economy would be good for every person in America.
Windfall profits, however, are quite out of the map.
When waves and other costs are held down, even though prices are also held down, certain senses could arise in some cases that might generate exorbitant profits.
In the few cases where this happens, rather than tax such excess profits, the Price Commission's policy will be that business should pass along a fair share of its cost savings to the consumer by cutting prices.
We live too long in this country with an inflation cycle.
Everybody has assumed the only direction for prices to go is up.
The time has come for some price reductions, I hope.
Let's see some prices go down.
This is not only the public interest.
It makes good competitive business sense.
and these actions to stop the rise in cost of living.
This is what we will do and what we will not do.
We will prevent some adjustments in prices and wages and embarrass finance, but we will not permit inflation to flare up again.
We will concentrate on those major forces of the economy that are the primary cause of inflation, but we will not hesitate to take action against any part of the economy that fails to comply.
We will continue to price wage restraints until inflationary pressures are brought under control.
But we will not make controls a permanent feature of American life.
When controls are no longer needed, we will get rid of them.
We will rely primarily on the good faith and voluntary cooperation of the American people to make this program work.
But we will not let any selfish interest escape the fair enforcement of the law.
I call for all of you tonight to look at this program not as Democrats, Republicans, workers and businessmen, farmers and consumers, but as Americans.
Let us recommend, let us recognize this profound truth.
What is best for all of us is best for each one of us.
We cannot afford a business to do with the latitude anywhere because fighting inflation is everybody's business.
Let us look for a moment to
I said that 1972 will be a very good year for the American economy.
Let me broaden that statement tonight.
The coming year can be more than a very good year for the American economy.
It can be a great year for America and the world.
It can be a year, the first time in 15 years, in which we can have our goal of prosperity in a time of peace.
It can be a year in which great progress can be made toward our goal of full employment without the inflation that robs working people of the full value of the dollars they earn.
It can be a year in which the American competitive spirit is reborn.
So as we open up new markets for our goods development and new careers and new jobs for our workers.
It can be a year in which we and our international trading partners build upon the most significant initiative in monetary affairs in 25 years, a year in which we replace the crisis-prone system of the past with a new system attuned for the future.
It can be a year in which historic events will take place on the international scene, events that could affect the peace of the world in the next generation and even in the next century.
We often hear people say, these are troubled times.
I say these are great and exciting times.
We are at the threshold of a great new year, and a year of movement and challenge and change.
We have an unparalleled opportunity to create a better world for ourselves and for our children.
Let us dedicate ourselves tonight to make the most of that opportunity, to join in a great common effort to stop inflation and to create a new prosperity, a new world
City, city, seven weeks ago I announced a new economic policy to stop the rise in prices and create new jobs.
City, seven weeks ago I announced a new economic policy to stop the rise in prices and create new jobs to protect the American dollar.
Seven weeks ago I announced a new economic policy to stop the rise in prices and create new jobs to protect the American dollar.
Tonight I want to report to you about how that new policy has been working and describe how that policy will be continued.
On the international front, I'm glad to report substantial progress in our campaign to create a new monetary stability and bring new fairness to world trade.
This nation's wealth is foreign competition.
We have a right to expect that our trading partners abroad will rob American competition.
It is a healthy development that the world has come to understand that America believes in free trade as long as it is fair.
This will mean more sales of American goods abroad, more jobs, and more work to come.
Work and a job, huh?
House of Representatives, that's what that's going to mean.
I call upon the Senate, on hearing's back, not to respond to the report on the rule of law.
Inflation front of it, report to you tonight, the way the price frees has been remarkably successful.
As you probably heard in your evening newscasts, as you heard in your evening newscasts, the figures bear this up.
Wholesale prices in September broke with the biggest decline in five years.
The price of industrial commodities declined for the first time in seven years.
Prior to credit, this goes to the United States.
You, as you call for the public to explain, you'll make possible a strong opinion on all our issues.
Thousands of letters, of course.
Listen to what people all across America, from all walks of life, have to say about the program.
Here's a letter from a school teacher in New Jersey.
I'm a widow raising two sons and my teacher's sovereign, and I lose about $300 because of the freeze.
Yet I sincerely feel that we must all support your efforts to bring the economy into balance.
From away in America, and land-packed beyond, as one who is expecting an increase in income this December, let me say I will be glad when you let others get that look or tail of inflation.
From the life of a government employee in Tampa, Texas, we are willing as a family to forego raises in order to see stability in crisis.
All of America will once again realize that we must be willing to sacrifice for a long-range goal and once again have pride in it.
From a man in Klamath Falls, Oregon, your administration's recent freeze on wages and prices means that I will not receive the 4% raise that was written in my contract this year.
Nevertheless, I support your efforts to halt inflation, including the wage freeze.
The fight against inflation is everybody's fun.
I want to thank all the thousands of other people who have done for me like this since I announced the program on August 15th.
I'd like to know how much it has meant to me to hear that most Americans will go to their country centers.
And do we do them?
We'll actually do the shopping.
We'll tell you that these increases have practically all been eaten up by a rise in the cost of money.
All volunteer arms and patriotic citizens and everyone at home.
Okay, sir, everybody's ready to go.
We're going to power it back up the way.
I have named Councilor Rumpelstiltskin, Councilor Donald Rumpelstiltskin, to be a member of the council.
Councilor Rumpelstiltskin, to be a member of the Council.
He serves as a member of the Council and he will direct, he will...
who will spend full time as Director of Operations for the Council.
Secretary Connolly, the Chairman of the Council, will be on call tomorrow.
I implore him to answer questions regarding the program.
In a meeting with the bipartisan legislative leaders today, I have asked the Congress to extend the one year.
We are at the threshold of a great new era.
An age of movement and challenge and change.
We have an unparalleled opportunity to create a better world for ourselves and for our children.
Let us dedicate ourselves and the mind to make the most of it all.
To join in a great common effort to stop inflation and to create a new prosperity in a world of change.