Nixon White House Tapes › Tape 596 › Conversation 596-018

Nixon & Mitchell on Stock Market and Inflation

Tuesday, October 19, 1971 · 1:26 PM–1:37 PM ET · Oval Office · 7 min

ParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President); Mitchell, John N.Conversation596-018 on Tape 596 (tape position 03:11:52–03:18:22)StartTuesday, October 19, 1971 at 1:26 PMEndTuesday, October 19, 1971 at 1:37 PMRecording deviceOval OfficeSourceNixon Library record for 596-018 ↗

AI Summary

President Richard Nixon and Attorney General John Mitchell discuss the recent volatility in the stock market and the public perception of the administration's economic policies, specifically regarding monetary tightening and inflation. The two men dismiss concerns over market fluctuations, noting that housing starts remain strong and that the current economic indicators should eventually lead to a market recovery. Additionally, they discuss personnel matters and potential political appointments, briefly touching upon the qualifications of candidates for judicial or administrative positions.

Audio

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Position in tape: 03:11:52 – 03:18:22

part B, 1:09:34

596a.mp3
596b.mp3

NARA Description

On October 19, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and John N. Mitchell met in the Oval Office of the White House from 1:26 pm to 1:37 pm. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 596-018 of the White House Tapes.

Nixon Library Finding Aid

Conversation No. 596-18

Date: October 19, 1971
Time: 1:26 pm - 1:37 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President talked with John N. Mitchell

[See Conversation No. 11-133]

Transcript (AI-generated)

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Names and numbers are often wrong; speakers are not identified. Do not cite it as authoritative — verify against the audio and the finding aid.

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housing start year this year will clearly be two million on a on an annual basis and that's a hell of a strong housing right good market's floundering again today and i i called up the market let's see at noon it was down eight points i called two of my friends both of them said well they're now wild rumors about tight money which i
Interesting.
I saw that little blurb last night and asked about it in this morning's meeting.
And that's just the kind of little item that sends Wall Street into a tizzy.
But if the argument burns, it's going to tighten up the money that it has.
Well, there's an article that he has tightened it up since August 15th.
But he's now more concerned with inflation than expansion.
And it just turns out...
I wouldn't be concerned about the market.
I just think that's one of those things that, I mean, we've got to remember that the market, one of those dance floors when we had to go up, it had a well of reflection and it's just one of those things.
It just hasn't done it.
It had the burns and all these people in there yelling around about where we're going.
I mean,
The place where the market helped was the day after October 16th.
Yeah.
When?
Yeah.
When growing here, the tile dust helped us.
Psychologically, a hell of a lot of different sorts go down.
870, 868, so it's still that high.
And it'll one day take off.
But it's only going to take it off, actually.
We're good numbers.
We've got to be good numbers.
Well, we've got to be good numbers.
But they're not as good as they want our old people to be.
These loads are a pretty low volume.
Yesterday, it was, what, 10 million or something?
This city was a very low volume.
Today, it's 6 million shares, which is nothing.
I'd like to speak to you on the phone.
I would like to.
Ed Rumpstoke is trying to reach you on the phone.
Will you try to take a rough look?
Hello?
Yes.
No problem.
Absolutely.
For a certain purpose and so there, you know what I mean?
It's for life, you know what I mean?
You can forget your family and have a lot of other things.
Right.
Nice beaches.
Good.
Not a lot there at all.
Too bad.
Yeah.
Watch the engines.
I don't know what she has to read.
I'll answer it.
We've got one there.
We can.
Oh, I don't know why.
Oh, it's so good.
I just must, I just think the fact that he raised such a thing indicates that we ought to, ought to press him.
I mean, I just think.
Now, now, we've just, he's, two years of handling this work on, plenty of a lot.
This time they're going to give us a terribly prestigious appointment for pressing that.
I frankly think you ought to press him on the job.
Won't you do that?
And I'm following up with Sarah.
I'd be glad to.
But I really feel that the point is that I think that right now the coordination, that's the point that we need.
I heard the length of time it works out.
And also, this is something that the history ought to take.
Well, what I had to come here to do on the phone.
Now if we don't, we could get a hover.
Okay, now this thing, the mulligan thing,
You know, we thought of him originally as a top-down, so he's mediocre.
He's not mediocre.
So he's the dean of a law school.
And so that's a hell of a thing, John.
Everybody else says a dean's a big thing, right?
But he was a dean before he was a good Catholic law school.
And I said, well, that isn't such a good thing.
We're not doing it for that reason because he's already on the court, on a certain court.
Would it be out of the way at all to not let me in?

Also recorded on October 19, 1971

  • 011-133 1:26 PM · 10 min — President Richard M. Nixon and John N. Mitchell talked on the telephone from 1:26 pm to 1:37 pm.
  • 011-134 1:37 PM · 5 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 1:37 pm and 1:39 pm.
  • 596-019 1:37 PM · 30 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and H. R. ("Bob") Haldeman met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 1:37 pm and 1:39 pm.
  • 596-020 1:37 PM · 23 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator met in the Oval Office of the White House at an unknown time between 1:37 pm and 1:39 pm.
  • 011-135 1:39 PM · 6 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Donald H. Rumsfeld talked on the telephone from 1:39 pm to 1:44 pm.
  • 596-021 1:39 PM · 6 min — President Richard M. Nixon and Donald H. Rumsfeld met in the Oval Office of the White House from 1:39 pm to 1:44 pm.
  • 011-136 1:44 PM · 17 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 1:44 pm and 3:00 pm.
  • 011-137 1:44 PM · 12 sec — President Richard M. Nixon and the White House operator talked on the telephone at an unknown time between 1:44 pm and 3:00 pm.

All 95 conversations from October 19, 1971 →

Cite this conversation

Conversation 596-018, October 19, 1971. White House Tapes, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives. Audio and AI transcript via Easy Nixon, https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/596-018 (accessed November 12, 2026).