[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book I)]
[April 4, 1994]
[Pages 570-571]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Exchange With Reporters in Cleveland
April 4, 1994

Stock Market

    Q. Mr. President, does this roller coaster stock market have you 
worried, sir?
    The President. No. I mean, people have been predicting for months 
that there would be some sort of correction in the stock market, that it 
got too high, too quick. And I think when the

[[Page 571]]

Federal Reserve decided to raise the interest rates a little bit short-
term, that happened. When people take their money out of the stock 
market, if they put their money in Government securities, that would 
raise interest rates, long-term interest rates in those securities. On 
the other hand, there's no inflation in the economy. We had 458,000 new 
jobs last month. That's the most in over 6 years. So that could have 
something to do, too, with a little increase in the interest rates.
    Fundamentally, I still would just point people to the fact that 
we're creating jobs at a very rapid pace and without inflation, which 
means there's good growth. And I think the most important thing is 
that--we listened to the experts. The experts are telling us that 
there's some institutional investors and when they move around, that 
could aggravate trends both up and down in the stock market. But 
fundamentally it's a solid stock market and a very solid economy. And I 
think that's what should guide people in their long-term investment 
decisions. We have a solid economy, growth on the horizon. And none of 
us should do anything which would derail that. We should keep steadily 
moving forward.
    Q. But can the market talk the economy into a slowdown?
    The President. Well, I don't think so. No one expects that we can 
continue to grow at 7 percent a year. That's what we had in the last 
quarter of last year. That was the most we had in a decade. And you 
can't sustain that. But I think we can sustain very good and steady 
growth, and that's my goal. My goal is to have a steadily growing 
economy, where we're creating jobs and we're doing it in a way that 
doesn't run the risk of a big spurt and then going back into a deep 
recession. So that's why I'm hoping that no one will overreact to this. 
After all, if we have no inflation and we have job growth, those are the 
two most important things to ordinary Americans: no inflation and job 
growth.
    So we'll get through this if everybody will just remain calm and let 
the market work itself out.
    Q. Is this a situation where good news is bad news?
    The President. No--well, it's a situation where good news can maybe 
reinforce some of the things which are going already. If you have real 
good news, you know you're going to have interest rates go up a little 
bit because the economy's very robust. But these other things are 
happening. I think we'll work through it, and I think it'll be just 
fine. We're just going to have to ride through it a little bit. But I 
think it's going to be fine.

NCAA Basketball Championship

    Q. Are you worried about tonight's game?
    The President. Of course. [Laughter] Of course. I mean, it'll be a 
great game. And you have to respect the fact that Duke has been there 3 
of the last 4 years--extraordinary talent, more seasoned, more 
experience in the players, a fabulous coach, good program, playing at 
home with lots of folks from Carolina. It's a----
    Q. You're low-balling--sounds like you're low-balling here. 
[Laughter]
    The President. You guys taught me I had to do that. [Laughter] I 
learned it, it's one of the many lessons I've learned from you.
    Q. [Inaudible]--that's a political hedge.
    The President. No, it's a real hedge. I expect a very, very vigorous 
and an extremely close game.
    Q. You're going to have to switch ties. [Laughter]

Note: The exchange began at 5:57 p.m. at the Sheraton City Centre. A 
tape was not available for verification of the content of this exchange.