929-017b

Conversation No. 929-17

Date: May 29, 1973
Time: 4:03 pm - 5:10 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with Alexander M. Haig, Jr.

White House staff

-Haig’s conversation with William P. Rogers

-Rogers’s continuance in office
-Henry A. Kissinger
-Timing of departure
-Announcement
-Meeting

An unknown man entered at an unknown time after 4:03 pm.

President’s schedule [?]

The unknown man left at an unknown time before 4:09 pm.

White House staff

-Haig’s conversation with Rogers

-Rogers’s continuance in office

-Watergate

-Haig’s role
-President’s views
-Successor
 -41-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2011)

Conversation No. 929-17 (cont’d)

-John B. Connally
-Secretary of State
-Restoration of foreign policy
-Kissinger

-Personal animosity

-Timing of departure

-Rogers’s relations with Kissinger

-Rogers’s continuance in office

-Watergate

-Animosity

-President’s views

-Objectivity

-Possible ambassadorship
-Rogers’s ego
-Anger
-Rogers’s relations with Kissinger
-Effect on President
-Undermining authority
-Friction

President’s schedule
-Meeting with economists
-Herbert G. Stein’s statement

Haig’s schedule
-Meeting with economists
-Follow up on activities
-Cooperation on tasks
-Dinner

President’s schedule
-Meeting with Democratic Congressional leaders
-Dinner with Haig

White House staff
-Haig’s conversation with Rogers
-Rogers’s continuance in office
 -42-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. July-2011)

Conversation No. 929-17 (cont’d)

-Timing
-Successor
-Kissinger
-Rogers’s ego
-[David] Kenneth Rush
-Problems
-Rogers

-Ego

-Kissinger


George P. Shultz, Herbert G. Stein, Roy L. Ash, Arthur F. Burns, Kenneth R. Cole, Jr., John T.
Dunlop and John B. Connally entered at 4:09 pm.

Greetings

National economy

-President’s meeting with Cole, May 28

-Stein’s memorandum

-Economic indicators for June 2
-Unemployment
-Whole sale price index
-Planned equipment expenditure
-Retail sales figures
-Evidence of decline
-Planned equipment expenditure
-Manufacturing sector
-Unemployment

-Increase

-Action

-Previous decisions by administration

-Decline in April economic indicators

-Rates
-Whole sale prices
-Consumer Price Index [CPI]
-Durable good
-Retail sales
-Status
 -43-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2011)

Conversation No. 929-17 (cont’d)

-Cooling
-Pace
-Sustainability
-President’s actions
-First quarter

-Reports

-Business capital investment
-Goods
-Figures
-Industrialists
-Leadership
-Psychology of investors
-Spending decline
-Consumer sentiment
-Inventory investment
-Inventory to sales ratio
-Decline
-Rate
-Sustainability
-Federal Reserve actions
-Speech
-Appeal to businesses
-Mandatory regulations
-Banks
-Domestic
-Foreign
-Trade
-Recession
-Control
-Boom
-Inflation
-Popular concern
-Survey
-Prosperity
-Inflation
-Stock market
-Interest rates
 -44-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2011)

Conversation No. 929-17 (cont’d)

-Congressional relations

-Federal Reserve actions

-Power

-Restraint

-Possible restraint
-Boom rate
-Inflation
-Wage and price controls
-Timing of election
-Taxes
-Compulsory savings plan
-Exemptions

-Low income

-Businesses

-Individuals

-Upper income bracket
-Ties
-Individuals
-Income
-Corporations
-Profits
-Bursting power
-Interest

-US Treasury

-Reversibility

-Experts
-Tax Bill

-Credibility

-Wilbur D. Mills’s role in Congress

-Reduction

-Popularity

-“Close rule”

-Tax package

-Rates

-Range

-Businesses

-Politics

 -45-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2011)

Conversation No. 929-17 (cont’d)

-President’s discretional authority
-Congressional reaction
-Veto power
-Reorganization
-Modification of rates
-Partnership role
-Mood
-Business tax
-Henry S. Reuss
-Business investment
-Tax credits
-US competitiveness
-Manufacturing

-Level

-Rate of change

-Sustainability

-Congress

-Tax credit

-Successes
-Economists’ views
-Compulsory savings
-Economic stabilization reserve
-Business
-Business profits
-Possible recession
-Labor negotiations
-Possible taxes
-Gasoline

-Burns’ view

-Administration’s posture

-Leadership

-Burns

-Excise tax on gasoline
-Burns’s view
-Economists
-Possible increase
-Political, psychological effects
 -46-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2011)

Conversation No. 929-17 (cont’d)

-Effect on concern with inflation

-Prices

-Travel

-Waste contracts

-Cost of Living Index

-Georges J. R. Pompidou’s action prior to his election

-Inflation

-Criticism

-Lowered excise tax

-Political grounds compared to economic grounds
-Possible increase

-Supply

-Effects

-Politics

-Energy supply

-Arabs

-Use of funds

-Research and development fund

-Effects

-Income taxes

-Research and development fund

-Signal to oil producers

-Arabs
-Patriotic issue
-Economic issue
-Reduction of consumption
-Control mechanism
-Patriotism
-Cash flow
-Signal to oil producers
-Politics
-Popular reaction
-Concern for inflation
-Taxes
-Excise tax
-Hard sell
-Taxes
 -47-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2011)

Conversation No. 929-17 (cont’d)

-Businesses
-Tax package
-Image
-Businesses
-Individuals
-Negotiations
-Business profits
-Wage and price controls
-Compulsory savings
-Politics
-Gas tax
-Possible steel price increase
-Cost of Living Council [COLC] hearings
-Prenotification forms
-Profit
-Visibility
-Companies
-Executive compensation
-Increases
-Labor management
-Prenotification
-Possible extension
-Lumber prices
-Supply measures
-Agriculture Department
-Scrap steel
-Supply measures
-Prices
-Capital inflation
-Oil refinery construction

-Manpower

-Resources

-Boom
-Causes
-Business controls
-Wilbur Mills
-Objects
 -48-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2011)

Conversation No. 929-17 (cont’d)

-Stock market
-Wall Street
-Public confidence
-Overhead and volume
-Commission rates
-Fixed

-Sustainability

-Possible failures

-Timing

-Tax Bill

-Price of brokerage stocks

-Market value

-Cash

-US public opinion

-Status
-Employment, savings and spending
-Capital investment
-Rate
-Competitiveness

-Plants

-Equipment

-Client investments

-Germany

-Australia

-Sweden

-Switzerland

-Obsolescence

-Physical plants

-Industry

-Rate

-Business profits
-Corporations
-Compared with previous years
-Possible effect on wages
-Inflation rate
-Economic studies
-Possible decline
 -49-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2011)

Conversation No. 929-17 (cont’d)

-Compared with Europe
-Problem

-Politics

-Psychology

-Possible wage and price freeze

-Burns’s view

-Stock market
-Effect of interest rate
-Popular view of inflation
-Anti-inflation policy
-Interest rates
-Prime rate
-Stability
-Long-term rates

-Credibility of administration’s effort

-Excise tax on gasoline

-Justifying possible increase
-Energy crisis and dependence on Arab oil
-Popular opinion

-Washington, DC

-Tactics

-Possible Phase III actions
-United States Steel [?]
-Executive salaries
-Business investment tax credit
-Agriculture
-Subsidies
-Taxes
-Energy
-Tax package
-President’s possible statement regarding Congress
-Trade bill
-President’s previous meeting with congressmen
-Pompidou
-Relationship of politics to economics
-Stein’s view
-President’s view
 -50-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2011)

Conversation No. 929-17 (cont’d)

-Policy, August 1971
-Economic rationale
-Gold
-Tax
-Imports
-Status
-President’s view
-Performance
-Inflation rate
-Consumer confidence
-Boom
-Reliability
-Index
-Survey
-Inflation rate
-Interest rates
-Wall Street
-Inflation rate
-Relationship of politics to economics
-Consumer confidence
-Political side
-Connally
-Press
-Popular view of controls
-Congress
-Role of administration
-Main street
-Insecurity
-Value of controls
-Status quo
-US leaders
-Free enterprise
-Controls
-Requirements for possible actions
-Stein’s memorandum
-Action
-Program
 -51-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. July-2011)

Conversation No. 929-17 (cont’d)

-Size
-Quadriad’s schedule
-Testimony
-Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD]
meeting

-Paris

-Possible wage and price freeze
-President’s view
-Psychological impact
-Acceptability of actions
-Tax package
-Dunlop
-Excise tax on gasoline
-Possible increase
-Energy

-Investment tax credit

-Compulsory savings

-Tax Bill
-Congressional action
-Veto
-Popular view
-Politics
-Stock market
-Quadriad’s schedule
-OECD meeting
-Paris
-Forthcoming meeting with President
-Timing
-Forthcoming memorandum to President
-Agenda

-Investment tax credit

-Compulsory savings

-Excise tax on gasoline

-Fiscal matters

-Dunlop

-Possible action by administration
-Sale
 -52-


NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM


Tape Subject Log

(rev. July-2011)

Conversation No. 929-17 (cont’d)

-Economic package
-Psychological reasons
-Earl L. Butz’s view on food prices
-Housewives
-Possible Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] regulation on sales of
stock holdings
-Mutual funds

-Banks

-Corporations

-Economic package

President’s schedule

-Joe D. Waggonner, Jr.

-Southern Democratic congressmen

-Republicans

-Support for President

-Iceland trip and meeting with Pompidou


Burns’s forthcoming trip

Haig et al. left at 5:10 pm.