909-003b

Conversation No. 909-3

Date: May 2, 1973
Time: 8:44 am - 9:25 am
Location: Oval Office
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Conversation No. 909-3 (cont’d)

The President met with Spiro T. Agnew, George P. Shultz, Herbert G. Stein, Arthur F. Burns,
Roy L. Ash, John T. Dunlop, and Kenneth R. Cole, Jr.

Greetings

Quadriad
-Intellect
-Burns
-President’s conversation with David Rockefeller, May 1

Economic Stabilization Act

-President’s signing statement

-Stein’s memorandum


Meeting format

-Briefing on national economy

-Stein

-Recommendations

-Dunlop, Shultz


Inflation

-Gross national product [GNP]

-Forecasts

-Profits and output

-Food

-Effect of weather

-Wage increases

-Consumer Price Index

-Farm products

-Effects of weather

-Decline in prices

-Retail food prices
-Department of Agriculture [USDA] reports
-Wholesale prices
-Wholesale Price Index

-Timing of release

-Farming

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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)

Conversation No. 909-3 (cont’d)

-Field conditions

-Dryness

-Machinery

-Rain

-Cost of Living Council [COLC] meeting

-Donald A. Paarlberg’s remarks

-Corn crops

-Compared to wheat

-Wages

-Settlement

-Consumer Price Index

-Fiscal restraint

-Compared to monetary restraint

-Burns


Economic Stabilization Act
-May 3 decision
-Price control program
-Fiscal, monetary tightening
-Concern
-Prosperity

-18 months

-Phase III wage and price control program [Phase III]

-Pre-notification

-COLC

-30-day freeze

-Price increase compliance

-500 largest corporations

-1.5 percent price increase
-“Administrative device”
-Records retention by smaller companies
-Wage settlements

-Rubber industry

-General Electric

-Steel

-Meat packing industry

-Trucking industry

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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)

Conversation No. 909-3 (cont’d)

-Automobile industry

-September

-Pre-notification

-Compared to past practice

-Price increase

-Justification

-Wage settlements

-Meat packing industry

-Collective bargaining agreement

-Iowa Beef
-Strike
-Willie J. Usery
-Extensions
-Effect on Armour-Swift negotiations
-Strike
-Usery
-Unions’ restraint
-Relative wages
-Impact of stabilization program, 1971-1973
-Compared to 1967-1970
-Industrial relations
-Steel industry
-International trade

Budget deficits
-Receipts estimate

-Announcement

-Compared to outlays

-Savings

-Legislation

-Medicare payments

-Interest on national debt

-Congress

-President’s budget proposal

-Defense Department budget

Economic Stabilization Act
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)

Conversation No. 909-3 (cont’d)

-Phase III

-Effect on prices, psychology

-Cost of administration

-Wage-and-price freeze

-Temporary effects

-Consequence

-Price increase


Fixed capital investment
-Growth and stagnation
-Possible recession
-Variable investment tax credit

-Purpose

-Congress

-Perception of tax increase
-Wilbur D. Mills’s opposition
-Conversation with Shultz
-Democrats

Ways and Means Committee
-Hearing schedule and topics

-Shultz’s testimony

-Trade, taxes


Variable investment tax credit
-Stein’s interview
-Possible proposal
-Burns’s, Shultz’s testimony to Ways and Means Committee
-Politics compared with economics
-Possible impact
-Ways and Means Committee’s schedule
-Mills
-Burns’s consultation with Mills
-Timing of legislation
-Restraint and stimulus

-Burns’s consultation with Mills

-Confidential talks

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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. October-2012)

Conversation No. 909-3 (cont’d)

-Speculation

-[Unintelligible name]

-Capital investment
-Tax credit
-Investment boom
-President’s assessment

Forthcoming statement on Phase III
-Preparation
-President’s role, Stein’s role
-Mildred Stein [?]

President’s schedule
-Labor-Management Advisory Committee meeting
-Wage agreements
-Steel industry

-Rubber industry

-I. W. Abel and R. Heath Larry

-Frank E. Fitzsimmons

-Contract

-National Commission of Industrial Peace

-George Meany

-Absence

-Florida

-David L. Cole
-Attendance
-National Commission for Industrial Peace
-Joint chairman

-Industrial peace

-Abel and Larry

-Steel pact

-Schedule

-Department of the Treasury

-President’s arrival

-Duration

-Progress of group

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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. October-2012)

Conversation No. 909-3 (cont’d)

President’s conversation with Willy Brandt
-Great Britain
-Underemployment
-England compared with Japan, Germany
-Labor problem
-Union solidarity, strength
-Compared to US

Edward R. G. Heath

-Leadership

-Popularity

-People

-Unions


Great Britain

-US interests


Phase III

-Dunlop’s briefing


National economy
-Boom and inflation
-Compared to recession and inflation prior to August 15, 1971
-Goals of actions
-Employment figures

Trustworthiness

President’s schedule

-Possible Quadriad meeting


Agnew et al. left at 9:25 am.
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. October-2012)