Informal Exchange With Reporters
Stock
Market Decline
Q.
Mr. President, are we headed for another great crash?
Q.
What about the stock market?
Q.
Are we headed for another great crash?
Q.
Stock market.
The President. Oh, the stock market.
Well, I only have one thing to say: I think everyone is a little puzzled, and I
don't know what meaning it might have because all the business indices are up.
There is nothing wrong with the economy, though.
Q.
Panic.
The President. What?
Q.
Panic, how -- --
The President. Maybe some people
seeing a chance to grab a profit, I don't know. But I do know this: More people
are working than ever before in history. Our productivity is up. So is our
manufacturing product up. There is no runaway inflation, as there has been in
the past. So, as I say, I don't think anyone should panic because all the
economic indicators are solid.
Q.
Sir, about the Gulf -- some people seem to think that
the
The President. Well, since so many of
you keep calling it an oil derrick of some kind or platform, no. It was a
command and control tower with radar and the ability to track shipping through
the Gulf. And, so, we thought that it was an appropriate and proportionate
response to their missile attack on a freighter, which wounded some of our
people.
Q.
What do you think the market's going to do tomorrow? What about tomorrow?
Q.
What's the message to Khomeini?
Q.
Are we now in a war with
The President. No, we're not going to
have a war with
Stock
Market Decline
Q.
What about the market? Tomorrow will it go down again?
The President. I don't know. You tell
me.
Q.
Is the market your fault?
Q.
Is it your fault? she says.
The President. Is it my fault? For
what, taking cookies to my wife?
Q.
Reaganomics.
The President. I just told you. Good
Lord, we reduced the deficit over last year by $70 billion. And all the other
things I've told you about the economy are as solid as I told you. So, no, I
have no more knowledge of why it took place than you have.
Q.
What's the message to Khomeini?
Q.
Well, what would you tell the small investors?
The President. What?
Q.
What would you tell the little old lady who lost money today?
Q.
The little old ladies who lost their shirts.
The President. I don't know of anyone.
Are you talking about a specific case?
Q.
I lost mine.
Q.
Me.
Q.
This one.
The President. Wait a minute! How
about how many people must have sold out in order to get a profit because they
bought it back before it was ever this high?
I've
got to go to the hospital.
Q.
Give our best to Mrs. Reagan.
The President. Thank you, Andrea
[Andrea Mitchell, NBC News]. That, I will do. She'll be coming home soon.
Q.
What's your message to Khomeini?
Q.
Invest in our stock market.
The President. If I really gave it to
you, you wouldn't be able to print it.
Note: The exchange began
at