On February 1, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, George P. Shultz, and Stephen B. Bull met in the President's office in the Old Executive Office Building from 6:07 pm to 6:41 pm. The Old Executive Office Building taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 409-002 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 Do not cite this transcript as authoritative.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.
8 o'clock tonight.
8 o'clock tonight.
8 o'clock tonight.
8 o'clock tonight.
8 o'clock tonight.
8 o'clock tonight.
8 o'clock tonight.
8 o'clock tonight.
But go ahead and tell me what it is.
It's our consensus view that the situation here is very different from what I saw.
And that we know of the trace picture has been here.
So, uh, we feel, however I'm going to show up, okay, we're here.
I don't know if that's what you just said, but our money for our account is two degrees.
We said we could do that last summer, and now we can do that this fall.
We have to do that.
So what I thought is...
And then, uh, when the European market started, uh, uh, we, because of our price, we said,
I should say about $200,000 worth of sweat, right?
But then, as a trader, I think Germans probably would commit to have a lot of big ties like that.
Yes, that does not go through.
But we would say that represents
They put a genuine effort on their part.
But the business is intervening massively.
They've been wanting to do $1 billion.
So I really don't think the basic structure is driven.
Now, just so you don't misunderstand that, we don't lose $130,000 or anything of that kind.
We've borrowed the money, and we intervene with it.
But it's only possible if we lose.
If there is a change in the change rate, then we have to bear the burden of the loss from the fact that the dollar was devalued.
If that ever happens, that's the risk that you take.
So it could cost us more than that.
So we have to bear the burden of the outside.
So we've got to get the idea of the risk of the outside.
We're fighting those on the best possible way.
And we feel that if this doesn't work, it might be that we should be ready with some strong move to ask our students.
There are various packages that we can talk about that would have dramatized the seriousness of the problem.
uh, have, uh, enabled us to call very forcefully to put in front of the rest of the monetary system.
We don't, at the same time, think that we should, uh, not press no button, but that would be great.
That would make a very clear statement at another rate.
I think it's more appropriate, um,
That has put forward in that group.
We also quite clearly have given close up pictures.
We had to think long and hard about other calculations.
In part, as I was saying, we did that one.
It didn't seem to work at all that well.
So think of something else.
What if something else really brings out the fact
that you don't have nearly the tools to work with that other people in the country have.
In a way, it's a certain sense that we are not going to screw that up.
But they have equipped themselves with, that we are not going to screw that up.
Just like downtown, we're not going to screw that up.
And I think that it's a good, strong, great thing that
What I was going to suggest is that many times drugs are in a situation to destabilize, not by what you do, but by what you're thinking of doing.
I would think that you would suggest that any other trade bill or
or some of the thinking out there with regard to what you have in mind.
I think that's the best thing.
Just go out and see what you're going to do.
See, you've got a situation where we have a problem with going to California.
People are certainly there if you want to get rid of them.
What I'm simply suggesting is that even before it's formalized, unless you think it's a parody, run it by a mill, all those people in advance, and so forth, I knew that you would say, have a meeting with me.
Or we could have a meeting, basically, to formalize it a bit more at the cabinet level.
Just to get the cabinet in on it.
Not just Quadri, but the cabinet.
You know, Brennan ought to hear this sort of thing, and Dan ought to hear it, and so forth.
And then, but they have their mind to the bench, and we're going to do their mind to...
And you're working well with those two now, aren't you?
They're getting along.
You have a good working relationship.
You know, the stock market, the stock market's reaction is
George Meyer probably, without any, whatever, the stock market ought to keep going up.
Now, it should.
There's no war in the model.
No, the war isn't helping.
It isn't the, so they say the market goes up because books don't have them, or the market goes up or down because they're worried about it, not worried about it, not worried about the cost of peanuts, but I think what it is is that the market simply goes up and down, and they look to the future,
They say they're worried because phase three doesn't have enough heat in it.
But good God, there's just been enough water.
Everybody knows that.
We've indicated previously that we will.
I was prepared to answer in that way in case they'd ask me if I was going to answer.
I would like to have some action next week.
I'm sorry I had to have the IRS investigate.
I'm going to carry next week.
We will develop the system.
But I think it's this.
Rather than wait until we get it all, what you've got to do, you've got to think you've done it pretty well.
I mean, look around and say, this is what we have in mind about the end up.
The very fact that a statement is made that we're going to move in a certain direction and that we're preparing legislation to submit to the Congress in this direction, that could have a very statutory effect on people if the parties worry about such things.
And if the monetary, the national monetary people worry about it, that's fine.
It could have a very statutory effect on them.
That's the very fact that we said we were going to do it.
And then we do it two months later.
I think a lot of this types in, but I get back to this the whole point.
I also remember Friedman's famous column in those weeks when it was the German problem.
And everybody said they interrupted the dollar crisis.
And he had a column called the mark crisis.
Well now, it doesn't make any sense.
I don't know what the...
So we've got this six billion dollar imbalance in trade.
We're a triple dollar economy.
What in the hell difference does it make, George?
We can slow that down.
What difference does it make?
It creates a lot of problems for us, although as long as we're not convertible, they basically can't bring us up.
And that's why we're saying, thank God we're not convertible, right?
And yet with the Germans, we are convertible in a sense that they've stuck with us.
Is that what it is?
They've stuck with us.
That's so weird.
You're not convertible, but we are trying to defend that race.
To defend the dollar.
What about the French?
The French, you know, we don't defend the dollar.
Is he sweet?
No, the French haven't been hit quite so hard.
But basically, they'll ask for this too.
But we feel we can do it, but only in moderation.
And if it doesn't work, let her go.
I was going to say, Schmidt said that in most circumstances, we're going to go to the bar and do it.
It's going to happen.
A better thing we'll do is we will close our borders next week.
By that, we'll have a set of regulations that we'll put out.
That will affect a lot of our transactions, both in both countries and in Germany.
And then we'll get back to the professions that we've developed as a whole in the last five years.
You see, I suppose, though, aren't we suggesting that exactly the game we're going to start playing?
We're going to give, we're going to take the powers to have controls, to stop, basically, controls, stop flooding and all that sort of thing.
And controls, these are controls.
I mean, the flood, I suppose, is going to do us good.
We think that they, if we have any crisis, that we can do something that's good.
But we can take the pain of the killing, get rid of the killing, get rid of the problems, get rid of the problems, get rid of the real.
Way back in 1968, we intended to do it.
And we also want to say, no, we want the world to know that we stand ready to sell some of our gold.
That's part of the crisis.
Now, Arthur would have checked it out.
No, Arthur, Arthur, that's not it.
And we're amazing today.
And, in fact, he told me the other day, he said, you know, I'm going to go back to America and I'm going to go back to America.
After my latest meeting with Eric, I have to say that he saw a lot of things directly, and I think that he's going to have to go to work on that.
But anyway, he's welcome to do those things.
What I would like to do, Mr. President, is I would like to do that.
I would like you to move on.
And then I would like for you to
I think it would be very good to have it here in Aspiring.
I think the very fact that we're moving on and having such a very good factory, there's a lot of facts about moving around.
That's my point.
But let me say one of your controls is, here's a time when I think you can get in and follow Dale at times.
Unless you think there's somebody else.
I don't want to go to the wrong corner and call any of these people down here.
But if you could get Dale in and just say, look, your background and my experience, we know you're moving around.
We're going to be hearing about it here.
So we're thinking that this is a result of the growing out of it.
Your talks with the president, others, but then the debt and so forth.
And also, in our policy, of course, cannot be said to reverse it.
We have long talks with primates about this and so forth and so on.
And it'll make one hell of a story that will
go, it'll get in the area where it needs to get next to the guard in Washington.
What do you think of that?
I think that's a good idea.
The idea that you're not going to be moving around, or it would have a, and I would let it go, but I didn't know you were going to...
I think there is a reasonable chance of selling labor for this, but I'm not going to answer that question.
If we can do the following in our way, we'd have a suggestion from the systems business that's going on right now, which is that we make real things that are, you know, just put in, you know, humanity built, and drive the labor.
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It can be made visible, and it becomes extremely expensive when you do that.
And I think, if that is done, we will find ourselves in a powerful position there.
Here's a guy I've worked with, because he's been declared an important leader, and he is stated as a government party member and so on.
Across the street is a guy I've worked with, because of the change in the event program.
We were both at the same problem.
I saw many different reasons why someone was unemployed.
Laker, I think, would be very interested in seeing a move by the conversation.
And here, they were never back in line to say, we were ready to extend it, but we were ready to move to a federal standard, put that at the federal level.
It's a very controversial thing.
And you've got the doors left subject to requirements by the way that means that many people would go a long time with that.
If they wouldn't buy it, they wouldn't buy it.
So we didn't go for it.
And we've got a very strong attachment to the American power in the Senate.
But here is what should happen.
If the states didn't do it, would they do it here?
Then the federal government would have to take action.
I don't know if this is going to serve a good deal for that.
Put it in there for that.
But I didn't want to let the Republicans go to hell.
I mean, if we don't, or anybody else, we said to them, look, we'll go this time to train them.
And we will also look forward to other gas stations, but we'll simultaneously give them a special support on a budget compensation that we'll take from them.
And
Our venture built in the last good time with some additional things that cover terminations for sure.
I said, well, we're here.
This is his job.
I'm going to plant those down and then work with that.
It's kind of just both.
but what potential rights we have are going to become vested in them.
That's one of the catastrophes that's been happening for some time.
It's something that, in general, we wanted to do anyway.
We had a good potential sale last year, but I think we put these two things there.
And a trade deal shows you're going to be more expanded trade and so forth.
We're also going to be thinking about our workers.
that if I come around and I would like to try that type of thing, I would like to see if you would buy it.
I think you would buy it very well.
I certainly would like to buy it.
Thank you, Laura.
Sure.
I'm all for it.
Yes, sir.
What time did you come in there?
I see.
Thank you.
We'll tell you about it.
We'll tell you about it.
We'll tell you about it.
Not on that lever, on that thing there.
We're going to be in that position quite often.
On this island flight, it's not the same.
We're going to be on one side and the other side.
We're going to be on the other side.
There's a great issue, kind of a state's rights type issue on this deal.
There is a deal that the federal government should not be setting standards for the state benefit model.
Of course, the way they have that stated in your description of the benefit, the benefit is denied.
The benefit standard ain't the state.
to the average witness in that state, so that what happens in Mississippi is not only affected by what happens in New York, but a proportionate advantage is put in.
If I remember the race theology, there was something like the benefit level maximum should be such that at least two-thirds of the workers are eligible for the
I personally, I think it's long overdue.
I know our insurance is in favor of it.
We have general administration support.
I don't know whether people may have a second thought, but I have a feeling that we can bring it on break.
I've been asking people to put their things through a little bit, and I'm sure we've had some guys from the agriculture set up a place where they can have their own field, and we've had a brief discussion with them.
study with some confidence that active farm prices would be no higher than what they would be in the industry.
And at the same time, farming was a strong environment because I had recently touched the prices and I saw a hell of a lot more product.
So we were kind of in a pretty good parlay on that.
We've had two meetings with this legislative advisory group, which is very high-powered, and they have been the most constructive meetings I think they've ever held, and I'm afraid the law will say that all day, and they haven't agreed yet, but they, and this is our agreement, we have 100 days.
I've been voted on as a treasurer.
How soon will they be ready?
I'll be ready.
I'll be ready.
I'll be in California.
I'll do it.
There.
Uh, well, you let them know that it's done.
I wanted this and that I requested the chance to meet them when they want to meet them again, if you would.
And tell them to hurry and tell them.
And, uh,
The labor people are, I think the election helped a lot.
They found they could get along with us.
That was the election of
We were playing a bunch of technical events before, and then I went to the U.S. Oh, I'll call up your husband.
He said that was a good day.
Oh, yeah.
He had to leave.
He had to go to the U.S.
He had to go to the U.S.
He had to go to the U.S.
Connolly raised the point with me of the tinkers.
And he talked to me about the fact that, if you look at the oil situation, it's a very interesting analysis that we, of course, we're the market.
We are the market.
And he said, if you've got the market and the tinkers,
You're in a bad position, but if you've got the market, somebody else has got the standard of production.
You're in a bad position.
He believes we've got to have an American painter to make it sense.
And if so, that is one place where we just have to, we ought to go.
I mean, we might as well make some points with some of our own people.
I wish you would think about that and talk to Connolly and
I don't think that comedy is just thought in truth, but it appealed to me that he may have a very good point there, and it happens to fit into our political needs.
I think it's very strong in the West.
In many ways.
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We have a lot of work to do.
that we need to really rethink the stress that they've got in the middle of our program.
Totally.
And he said that you've gone full circle.
You know, the report that you wrote that we sank because the independent people and the rest of the, you know, I remember those, I don't know, the Gulf and all the rest of them, I don't know what the rest of them, they sank.
But I said, John, do you remember that?
Everybody was saying yes, including a lot of your Texas colleagues.
And I said, yeah, I think we should do that.
He said, I should do it.
I said, we should do it.
And he said, yes, we can do it.
And he said, push that.
And he said, get it anchored with you.
And he said, it's really important.
Open it up.
Get all the oil you can.
Bring it.
Well, I don't know what they're doing.
Well, I don't know what they're doing.
I don't know what they're doing.
I don't know what they're doing.
for access to the U.S. market.
And after doing that, they're not well out there under which our company is now under.
Right now, we have this great, sophisticated way to make access to our market.
Now, we can buy ourselves, but we just haven't.
Because basically, we haven't done...
We deal with a number of companies, and they all realize that they will have a leverage here, you know, a number of them.
The biggest American company is I.
And he says, the others deal with the Japanese, deal with the government, and the great deal is with the government.
But he said, we ought to deal, and I think this is the same thing.
We ought to just kind of deal with the shop at the end.
courage to take it all, or something like that.
But I like the idea, and I think the, I think the, uh, you draw it off, that's the whole point of it.
The whole thing, uh, the record of how we did that, we finally realized the word was for not for nothing, for anything.
We made Bill Simon the chairman of the, uh, board.
I was a good man, a very good man, a good man.
They all told me he was a very calm man.
He had no energy.
He always picked up something additional.
And understands it very well.
He understands it.
He's a very good man.
So he's been working on that a lot.
And he's been growing himself in that way.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then he brought to...
Which side of the...
I don't know, it's going to start with the animals, which is what we have.
We're just going to have to roll with it.
We've got to get some of our Westerners and Senators to quit thinking small, big jobs they can't produce.
They've got to realize they can't produce the oil that the United States can.
Natural gas prices have always been in the rise, and we actually need some of those here to do.
It's going to change for the economy.
We're going to have an awful lot of that today.
energy production.
And we're going to find that we can produce a lot more in this country.
We've had these kind of prices, and we've been able to do so.
So I think that there's going to be a lot of surprises that happen on this area.
But not only do we have to invest a lot in our oil, which is a gigantic run, running from our past standards, $25 an hour fee.
Okay, let's see what I'm going to say.
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more for dinner, more or less, than they can share with the bank.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
But you never know here that I would like to come with anything, but I thought it might be more important.
Anyway, we've had a good time here, which is good.
So I'll have to get home.
How far do you have to drive to?
Oh, yeah, we live about 10 miles away.
We live in Georgetown.
No, I live over in Ireland.
I'm just kidding.
There we go.
Alright, very nice.
Yeah, it's a very prejudiced place.
Well, we're heavily impressed over there.
Thank you.