    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [January 15, 1998]
    [Pages 61-67]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the Wall Street Project Conference in New York City
    January 15, 1998

        Thank you very, very much, Reverend Jackson. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, Mr.
    Grasso and Mr. Jones
    and all the other sponsors of this event for this historic day. I thank
    Secretary Herman for her leadership and for
    coming up here with me today, along with our SBA Administrator, Aida
    Alvarez. I don't know if Ambassador
    Richardson is in the audience, but I'll take
    a chance, because if he's here and I don't mention him, I'll live with
    it from now on--[laughter]--and because he cares deeply about these
    issues. I also see Reverend Suzan Cook, a member of our Race Advisory Board, here. I have
    many other friends here, business people, the mayors, and others. I
    thank the members of the New York congressional delegation for coming,
    Congressmen Rangel, Maloney, Owens, Manton, and Representative-elect Meeks. And I thank Lieutenant Governor Ross and Comptroller McCall
    and Speaker Silver and any other State
    officials who might be here, and Mr. Green and
    Mr. Vallone and any other city officials
    who are here.
        Let me say that I've looked forward to this, but it occurs to me, on
    Martin Luther King's birthday, that the real danger we have here is that
    Reverend Jackson and I and all the others might be here preaching to the
    saved, that we all agree with what we're here to talk about. But there
    is still some merit in our being here in the hope that we can reach
    beyond those in this room in this very high place to those who are at
    work down below us today here in New York and throughout the country.
    Maybe we should have just let Santita sing
    to them. That would have persuaded them better than anything I could
    say.
        It is true, Mr. Avant, that I told Jesse
    that I knew this was a historic day, because you've been to the White
    House a half-dozen times and never worn a tie. [Laughter] So I know that
    we are onto something big here. [Laughter]
        Let me tell you--this is not part of my remarks, but I want to
    emphasize on Martin Luther King's birthday, since we're here talking
    about expanding opportunities of American enterprise to all our
    citizens, what I did this morning before I came up here. This day is
    always one of my very favorite days as President. This was the day this
    year that I awarded the Presidential Medals of Freedom. And let me give
    you some--I may not have every name down here, but I think this is
    interesting. If you just listen to the names, it will tell you something
    about your country.
        Arnie Aronson, an 86-year-old Jewish
    American who founded--cofounded the Leadership Conference on Civil
    Rights, worked all the way back with A. Philip Randolph in the forties
    on civil rights; James Farmer, 87 years old;
    Fred Korematsu, the Japanese-American who
    refused to go quietly into the internment camp in World War II and
    fought for years to have his conviction overturned--[inaudible]--Mario
    Obledo, former LULAC leader and one of the
    founders of the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund; Justin Dart, the man who probably is more responsible for the
    Americans with Disabilities Act than any other single American citizen;
    Mardy Murie, a 93-year-old
    conservationist who lives at the foot of the Grand Tetons in Wyoming,
    who has done so much to save the West; the distinguished American
    psychiatrist Robert Coles, who probably has had
    more influence through his academic writings to promote equal

    [[Page 62]]

    opportunity for all children and the whole cause of citizen service than
    any other academic in America; Frances Hesselbein, who saved the Girl Scouts when they were on the brink
    of extinction by diversifying the Girl Scouts and unifying them; Al
    Shanker of New York--[applause]--
    posthumously.
        My wife said these were just ordinary American citizens, and I said,
    yes, ordinary American citizens like Brooke Astor and David Rockefeller--
    I gave them the Medal of Freedom today. [Laughter] And I did it for a
    very important point that brings us to Wall Street: They had other
    options. They didn't really have to go out and do good with their lives,
    but they did it anyway. Wilma Mankiller, the
    first woman to be chief of the Cherokee Nation; Elliot
    Richardson, who holds more--who's held
    more Cabinet positions than any other American citizen, a distinguished
    Republican who had a lot to do with saving our Constitution. And there
    were others, Admiral Zumwalt and a
    couple of others.
        But I just give these names to give you a feel for what America is
    really all about. All these incredibly different people from different
    walks of life who made our country what it is. And it's a better
    country. And when it was over today and everybody was filing out of the
    East Room at the White House, they were all thinking, ``Gosh, these
    people are all so different, but they shared something special in their
    citizenship, in their service, in their devotion to the ideals of this
    country. And because they all played their roles, we are a much greater,
    bigger, better country.'' That's really what we're here to talk about
    today.
        From the beginning, this country was set on a mission by the
    Founders, and I quote, ``to form a more perfect Union.'' It was a
    brilliant formulation of a national mission, because it recognized that
    our work would never be done and that there is no such thing as
    perfection, so that we would always have something new to do. And they
    wrote this Constitution for us that's full of good basic values,
    recognizing that it would always have to be applied to changing
    circumstances; and that if we kept the values and kept the mission in
    mind, that we were always supposed to be forming a more perfect Union,
    we might have a chance to do better than any other people had in human
    history. Over 220 years later, we're still here, the longest lasting big
    democracy in the history of humanity.
        A generation ago, one man's words, wisdom, and work had a lot to do
    with leading us toward a more perfect Union. Toward the end of his life,
    Martin Luther King embarked upon securing what he called the next
    frontier of freedom, economic freedom. He reminded us that when we limit
    economic opportunities for some Americans, we limit the possibilities of
    all Americans.
        We are here today because Wall Street has a critical role to play in
    fulfilling Dr. King's dream of opportunity for all Americans. Whether
    ensuring that companies on the Big Board draw on the talent and
    diversity of all of our people, or investing in communities long
    bypassed by capital but full of potential, businesses can and must help
    us to build the one America we all need for the 21st century. That's
    what I want to talk about today.
        I have been working hard for 5 years so that 3 years from now, when
    I'm gone and a new century is here, we will have an America where the
    American dream really is alive for everybody who is willing to work for
    it, where America is still the world's strongest force for peace and
    freedom and prosperity, where our people have been brought together,
    across all the lines that divide us, into one America. If we are going
    to do that, we must bring more Americans into the winner's circle. We
    must bring more Americans into the winner's circle.
        We know that this time is characterized by globalization and a
    revolution in science, technology, and information. We know that these
    things have changed profoundly the way we live and work, the way we
    relate to each other, the way we relate to the rest of the world. We
    know that, for good or ill, the scope and pace of change are greater
    than ever before. We know that, for good or ill, we are more
    interdependent than ever before.
        Martin Luther King said once that we are all caught in an
    inescapable web of mutuality, and he was preaching to the American
    people and reminding us that we had to reach across racial lines. Today,
    like it or not, around the world we are caught in an inescapable web of
    mutuality. We see it every day on Wall Street, for good or ill.
        We now have all kinds of new challenges because of globalization in
    the information and technology and science revolutions. These are just a
    few of them: How do we get the benefits of new markets and technologies
    to people and places that aren't part of our economic growth?

    [[Page 63]]

    How do we maximize the impact of markets and still preserve the social
    contract? How do we give everybody who is willing to work a chance to
    get a job, to get an education, to have access to health care, and own a
    home and save for retirement? How do we grow the economy and preserve
    the environment at a time when climate change looms as a big problem,
    but there are many other environmental problems as well? How do we at
    home balance the demands of work and family when more and more people
    are in the work force but raising children is still our most important
    job? How do we take advantage of all the diversity and opportunities for
    self-expression that are now out there in the world, and the pulling
    back of the cold war, to promote community instead of chaos? Is the
    future of the world an American school district with kids from 180
    different racial and ethnic groups, or is it the darkest days of Bosnia,
    Rwanda, Northern Ireland, the Middle East, and you name it? Is the
    future of the world the end of the nuclear threat and security for our
    children, or is it the rise of terrorists and organized criminals and
    narcotraffickers carrying around small chemical and biological weapons?
    Will we build community or chaos? These are some of the big questions we
    face.
        And here at home, if everything is changing, what happens to your
    Government? What's our role? I have tried to fashion a new approach--not
    an old style, top-down bureaucracy that says we can handle all this,
    because, you know, in the global economy that's not true. But I have
    never been much in sympathy with the newly resurgent belief that
    Government is the source of all of our problems.
        My view is that we need a Government that is committed to giving
    people the conditions and tools they need to meet their own challenges,
    to act as a partner and to act as a catalyst, consistent with what I
    think ought to be the guiding philosophy of every American, a simple
    one: opportunity for all, responsibility from all, a community of all
    our citizens.
        The truth is our Federal Government today is smaller and less
    bureaucratic than it used to be, but it's also a lot more active than it
    has been in the recent past. Beginning in 1993, we moved to establish
    the conditions for a growing economy with a plan rooted in the realities
    of the global economy and respecting the role of the financial markets.
        First, we restored fiscal discipline. When I took office in January
    of 1993, we were told that the deficit for this year was going to be
    $357 billion. Instead, it is close to zero, and next year--next month I
    will send to Congress the first balanced budget for the coming year that
    we've had in a generation. This is something that ought to unite
    Americans, progressives and conservatives alike. Conservatives ought to
    like it because it's not profligate. Progressives ought to like it
    because it means we don't have to keep spending tax money paying
    interest on the debt; we can do more to invest in our people and our
    future. And most important, we all ought to like it because in the world
    in which we live, countries with irresponsible economic policies are
    punished in the global marketplace. They don't generate jobs; they don't
    lower unemployment; and therefore, they don't have the tax revenues they
    need to solve their common problems.
        The second thing we've tried to do is to argue to the American
    people that America must lead in the global economy. A third of our
    economic growth has come from expanded exports, and that relates to the
    point we're making here today. We have to open markets, increase exports
    to make this new economy work for our people.
        One of the things--sometimes I get a little credit for being able to
    communicate, but one of the things that I have not been able to
    communicate very well to a lot of people is that we cannot grow at home
    unless we help others to grow abroad; that with 4 percent of the
    population and 20 percent of the income, we can't keep growing unless we
    can expand the frontiers of our activity. And therefore, we ought to
    want our neighbors to do well by trading more with us, because they help
    us to do well as they buy more of our products.
        An increasingly interconnected world financial system has helped to
    create this kind of strong economic system, the rising markets to which
    we have to export. But the international capital market is also a stern
    taskmaster, as we have seen in the last several weeks. When investor
    confidence flees, countries first have to put their own houses in order
    through serious and sustained economic reforms, just as we had to in
    1993 so that we were serious about getting our economic house in order
    to get interest rates down, investment up, and to create jobs.

    [[Page 64]]

        When severe instability sets in and threatens to spread, there is a
    vital role also, I believe, for international support to restore
    confidence, to provide breathing room. When countries are willing to
    help themselves, I think the United States ought to be a good neighbor
    and do its part to support that kind of endeavor.
        Now, why should struggling Americans, Americans that are out here in
    New York City working hard to make ends meet, want their Government to
    support efforts to restore growth in distant lands? I'll say again,
    because we have 4 percent of the population and 20 percent of the
    income, we've got to have those folks as customers if we're going to
    keep growing our income and if we ever hope to extend opportunity to
    people in places within our borders that have not yet participated in
    the economic recovery. In other words, there is this web of mutuality,
    and it actually pays dividends to be a good neighbor. That's why we've
    taken a leadership role in addressing the current turbulence in Asia and
    in strengthening the institutions of the international financial system.
        But the third point I want to make, and the third part of our
    economic strategy, is that we have done as much as we could, but we have
    to do more to invest in our own people, to give them the tools they need
    to succeed, and to widen the circle of opportunity. We've put in place
    the most significant investments in education in a generation: 200,000
    more children in Head Start; tens of thousands of volunteers in our
    schools teaching our elementary kids to read well, so that they don't go
    through school not being able to learn; hooking up classrooms and
    libraries to the Internet; lifting academic standards; opening the doors
    of college to everybody who will work for it, with the HOPE scholarship
    and other initiatives. We've extended health care to 5 million more
    kids, helped young people to buy their first homes, done more to enable
    small business people and employees to save for their own pensions.
        All that is working. That's why we've got over 13 million new jobs,
    the lowest unemployment rate in 24 years. For the first time in the
    history of this country, over 64 percent of the adults are working. For
    the first time in the history of this country, over two-thirds of the
    American people are in their own homes.
        But it is not enough. You and I know there are still people and
    places in this city and in this country that have simply not been
    touched by all this whirlwind of economic activity. And it is holding
    America back.
        Every time the Federal Reserve Board meets, there is all this
    breathless anticipation: Will they have to raise interest rates, because
    the unemployment rate is the lowest in 24 years? How can we put off
    inflation and continue to grow? Well, the answer is twofold. One is,
    technology and open markets are good depressants against the traditional
    forces of inflation. But the other is, if you're moving into an area
    that hasn't enjoyed growth, you can have growth without inflation
    because you're writing on a clean slate. And if it's good argument for
    America to sell more and invest more around the world, it's good
    argument for America to sell more and invest more down the street.
        If it is true--a number of members of the New York delegation have
    been very good in trying to help me pass the Caribbean Basin Initiative,
    because we want to be good neighbors. There are a lot of people from the
    Caribbean here in New York City. And one of the unintended consequences
    of our trade agreement with Canada and Mexico is that Mexico seemed to
    get a comparative benefit over the Caribbean countries, which we never
    intended to happen.
        I keep telling people--they say, ``Oh, we can't afford to do this in
    the Caribbean.'' We're going to invest in the Caribbean one way or the
    other. We'll either pass the Caribbean Basin Initiative and we'll help
    to trade with them and help to grow their economy, or we'll invest in
    them indirectly. Americans will buy drugs from the South American
    narcotraffickers, and then the narcotraffickers will take our money and
    they will put it in the Caribbean so they will have a place to stop on
    their way to America. [Laughter] We will do this one way or the other. I
    don't know about you, but I prefer the direct way. I think the old-
    fashioned way is better. [Laughter]
        You know, I talked to a guy the other day from Central America--we
    were talking about one of the countries down there, and he said, ``It's
    unbelievable, the narcotrafficker is down there building schools in
    nation X''--I don't want to embarrass them. I said, ``They're not
    building those schools, we are.'' [Laughter] America consumes almost
    half the world's drugs. We give those guys the money; they make the
    investment; they get the credit. No politician would ever do that--
    [laughter]--elect your opponent by giving him the money, and let him

    [[Page 65]]

    give it to the electorate. I mean, we're laughing--this is serious
    business.
        If every one of those arguments you can think of works beyond our
    borders, it works within our borders. If it works down the road, across
    the water, it works down the street. The unemployment rate in New York
    City is about 4 percent higher than the national average. The
    unemployment rate in the Nation's Capital is about 3 percent higher than
    the national average. And there are vast opportunities out there.
        We just had a study published last week which said there are 365,000
    jobs in computer-related areas that are going begging in America today
    and that it is a threat to our future economic growth. So you want to
    keep growing the economy and make this the longest peacetime expansion
    in history by a good long ways, keep reaching out to the rest of the
    world and do more to invest in America. Do more to trade with America.
    Do more to train America.
        As far as I can tell, there are no other easy alternatives. And this
    is not only economic good sense, it's morally right. And that's why
    we're all here. That's the message we have to get out.
        What's our role in that? What should the Government do specifically
    to close the opportunity gap? Well, first of all, I think it requires us
    to have, again I say, the right philosophy of Government. My view is
    that the principal role of Government is to provide the conditions and
    the tools to empower people to solve their own problems, and then to
    work as a partner with State and local governments, the private sector,
    and community groups, and a catalyst to take ideas that work someplace
    and make sure they work every place. That's what I think we ought to be
    doing.
        There is not enough Government money in America to put everybody to
    work in New York City, much less in every city and every rural area that
    has been left behind. We have to create the conditions, the environment
    that will enable us to be good partners. And that's what we have tried
    to do. Pretty soon we'll have 125 empowerment zones and enterprise
    communities around America that basically say, if local communities--
    government, business, and community leaders--will pull together with a
    plan for revitalization, we will provide flexible funding and tax cuts
    to help make the plan work.
        Has it worked everywhere? No. Has it worked some places? You bet it
    has. There are neighborhoods all over this country now that are much
    stronger because of those empowerment zones. In Detroit alone, the
    empowerment zone along with the stunning commitment of the automobile
    industry and the leadership of the mayor have helped to cut the
    unemployment rate in half in a city which some people thought once could
    not be saved.
        We have created a network of what we call community development
    financial institutions--the CDFI's, in the jargon of the folks that deal
    with them. These are small community banks that can make loans in places
    and to people that ordinary commercial banks normally won't touch. So
    far, these banks have an extremely high repayment rate. And I might say,
    this is one case where we took something we were doing around the world
    and said, if it's good enough for American aid programs to finance these
    things around the world, why shouldn't we be doing this at home?
        We've worked to dramatically strengthen the Community Reinvestment
    Act. The Community Reinvestment Act was passed in 1977, over 20 years
    ago. Eighty-five percent of the financial commitments made under the
    Community Reinvestment Act have been made in the last 5 years of our
    administration. I'm very proud of that. That's $270 billion for our
    hardest pressed communities.
        We're helping cities to clean up and redevelop their brownfields,
    environmentally contaminated, otherwise attractive business sites. We've
    more than doubled the number of Small Business Administration loans to
    minority- and women-owned businesses. We've tried to reinvent the
    Housing and Urban Development Department so that it stands for
    empowerment and opportunity. We're finding innovative ways to build more
    affordable housing. When families move into homes they call their own,
    they can transform communities.
        I had a wonderful time in the Bronx the other day. Some of you
    remember the pictures that were in the newspaper. I went to that place
    that President Reagan said looked like London during the Blitz. And it
    looks like a neighborhood we'd all be proud to live in today. The local
    people did that. They had empowerment support from others, partnerships;
    that's what we need everywhere in America.
        But we have to do more, and so do you. In 1999 these are some of the
    things--but not all, I've got to save a little bit for the State

    [[Page 66]]

    of the Union--[laughter]--some of the things that we intend to do. The
    balanced budget in 1999 will contain the most significant new community
    development and economic empowerment initiatives in years. It will
    expand the number of empowerment zones. It will increase funding for the
    community development financial institutions by 50 percent. It will
    expand eligibility for the low-income housing credit to create between
    150,000 and 180,000 new rental units. It will help families with good
    histories of paying their rent to move into homes of their own.
        I've asked Secretary Cuomo to do more
    with the private sector to also increase access to capital, create jobs,
    and fuel entrepreneurs, and I'll have more to say about that in the days
    ahead. But New York can be proud of him. He's doing a good job.
        I also want to say that Secretary Herman and Secretary Daley and I
    have worked on a special project, which I hope will work, and I hope
    some of you will help us make work. When I read that we had 365,000
    computer-related jobs going begging in America, that some people said
    this is threatening our growth, when I read another article in our local
    paper back in Washington--New York is probably the only city I can come
    to and say Washington has a local paper--[laughter]--but anyway I read
    an article which said that there was a dramatic employment shortage--not
    unemployment problem, employment shortage--in all the suburban counties
    surrounding Washington and that we had something like 25,000 computer-
    related jobs going begging in the Washington, DC, area. And I look at an
    8 percent unemployment rate in our city; in some neighborhoods it's much
    higher. I asked Secretary Herman and
    Secretary Daley to come up with a program--
    we've never done this before--they've set aside millions of dollars to
    train people only to do these kinds of jobs and to try to focus them in
    the areas where they can be hired.
        So I would like to ask you to look around New York. How many jobs
    are going begging here today? Can people be trained for them? Even if
    people in the inner cities don't have enough education to do them, are
    there people in lower level jobs now who could be trained for those,
    opening up those jobs for the people in the inner city? Shouldn't there
    be a plan to do that here? And shouldn't there be a plan everywhere? And
    if so, call Secretary Herman, and we'll
    participate.
        A lot of you have done a lot, or you wouldn't be here today. But we
    have got to do more. We have got to do more. One study estimates that
    inner-city residents control $85 billion in purchasing power. That's
    more than the entire retail market in Mexico. Thirty percent of their
    demand for retail goods goes unmet. Shall I say that again? Thirty
    percent of their demand for retail goods goes unmet. We need more
    investment in these areas of high unemployment. Even in areas of high
    unemployment, most people are working. And a lot of people are working
    hard and being good citizens and paying their taxes and obeying the law,
    against odds that some of us could not stand up to. So I think we need
    to think about that.
        We need more businesses to form partnerships with neighborhood
    schools. Major Owens and I were talking on
    the way up here. If you want all of our kids to have a good education,
    then those of us who believe in the public schools have to be for high
    standards, for flexibility, for accountability, and for involvement by
    people that can help to save these kids. And you need to be involved in
    it.
        We need businesses committed to make sure welfare reform succeeds.
    We've reduced welfare rolls by 3.8 million, but the easy work has been
    done. The people that are left on the welfare rolls are people, by and
    large, who came from very difficult backgrounds; many of them came from
    abusive home backgrounds; many of them don't have a lot of education. We
    have training funds; we have child care funds. The mechanisms are in
    place, but somebody's got to believe in them and give them a chance.
        We need you to help us in all these ways. We have to bring the world
    of the gleaming office tower and the dark shadow together, because the
    people who live in both places are all Americans and because we need
    each other. We need each other. We've got to develop the skills and
    potential of our people. We have to dramatically increase capital
    investment. We have to continue to build public-private partnerships. We
    have to open the doors of the executive suites, the sales floors, and
    the factories to talented people of all backgrounds. If we want our best
    people sitting in the boardrooms, our savviest clerks minding the
    stores, our hardest workers on the assembly lines, we've got to somehow
    have the talents of all of our people.

    [[Page 67]]

        And we know from study after study after study that there are smart
    people, there are people who can organize, there are people who can
    lead, there are people who can innovate, there are people who can create
    in areas in America where there is no economic activity. Very often they
    wind up showing their leadership in less constructive ways. But they
    need to have an alternative. You can lead in creating that alternative.
        We're going to do everything we can to put more on the table, to be
    a better partner, to give you more options, to support the city, to
    support the State, to support the private sector, to support these
    community groups. But you know as well as I do, just as no government
    can follow irresponsible policies and stand up against the winds of the
    global marketplace, no government alone can bring opportunity to the
    people and the places that have been left behind. We'll do our part, but
    you have to do yours.
        I thank Reverend Jackson for his insight,
    that he has said for years and years and years you are missing a market
    here. This is America's opportunity to close the opportunity gap. Let's
    seize it.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 3 p.m. in the Windows on the World
    restaurant at the World Trade Center. In his remarks, he referred to
    civil rights leader Jesse Jackson and his daughter Santita; Richard
    Grasso, chairman and chief executive officer, New York Stock Exchange;
    Tom Jones, vice chair, The Travelers Group, Inc.; U.N. Ambassador Bill
    Richardson; New York State Assemblyman Gregory Meeks; Lt. Gov. Betsy
    McCaughey Ross of New York; H. Carl McCall, State comptroller; Sheldon
    Silver, State assembly speaker; Mark Green, New York City public
    advocate; Peter F. Vallone, New York City council speaker; and Clarence
    Avant, chairman, Motown Records. The President also referred to the
    League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).