[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 2 (Monday, January 17, 2000)]
[Pages 72-75]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Interview With Ron Insana of CNBC's ``Business Center'' in New York City

January 13, 2000

    Mr. Insana. As you know, the Wall Street Diversity Project has been 
underway for a number of years now, and President Clinton is here at the 
New York Stock Exchange to talk about diversity on Wall Street, among a 
number of other topics.
    Mr. President, it's good to see you again. Thanks for coming back to 
the program.
    The President. Thank you, glad to be back.

New Markets Initiative

    Mr. Insana. Are you getting a sense that there is some progress 
being made on the diversity issue down here in the lower corridors of 
Manhattan?
    The President. Oh, I think so. We had the annual meeting of the Wall 
Street Project here with Reverend Jackson and Sandy Weill and Dick 
Grasso and a lot of other people. There is, I think, a general sense 
that the economy is opening up more and more to all America and a 
specific sense of urgency that one of the ways to keep this expansion 
going without inflation is to involve people and places that have been 
left behind. So I'm quite hopeful.
    Mr. Insana. Now, last time we met, in fact, in July--that was one of 
your initiatives, the new markets initiative, that focused on 
underprivileged people in rural and other parts of the country. And 
today you talked about tax incentives, also, for the working poor. How 
likely is it that a Congress in an election year will let you make any 
progress on that issue?

[[Page 73]]

    The President. Well, I think it's quite likely, actually. I have 
worked very hard to make this a bipartisan or a nonpartisan issue. I 
don't think economic opportunity ought to be the sole province of the 
Democratic Party; I think it ought to be the birthright of every 
American. And I've worked very hard to involve the Speaker of the House, 
particularly, who is from Illinois. And he came to our meeting in 
Chicago, and I've had several good conversations with him. And I expect 
that we will have legislation coming out of the House to give 
significant tax incentives to people who will invest in poor places in 
America that haven't been part of this recovery.
    What I want to do is basically give the same sort of incentives, at 
least, if not more so, that we give to people to invest in poor 
communities in Latin America or Africa or Asia. And I'm going to offer a 
more aggressive program this year even than I did last year in the State 
of the Union. And I think it will be well-received.

National Economy

    Mr. Insana. Let me ask you a question about the broad economy right 
now. We've got some information today showing that retail sales were 
strong, inflation starting to creep up a little bit, and bond market 
interest rates have gone up a lot in the last 15-16 months to nearly 
6.75 percent. Do you get the same whiff of inflation that the financial 
markets seem to be getting at the moment?
    The President. I think the evidence is mixed. There still have been 
remarkable increases in productivity. And I think the fact that we're 
still--we actually paid off some of our debt in advance in the last day 
or so, for the first time in the history of the country. So the 
Government is continuing to try to get out of the debt market, make it 
more liquid. Wages still aren't going up at any unreasonable amount. 
Productivity driven by technology is going up a lot, and we're still 
trying to keep our markets very open.
    So I think that the larger forces are still operating against the 
resumption of inflation. It's almost inevitable that you're going to 
have--well, like we had last year, where oil goes up, or you have a 
bottleneck in this product or that service because of the growth of the 
economy. But so far I feel pretty good about where we are on inflation.
    Mr. Insana. When we spoke in July, I asked you a question about 
whether or not you were worried if there was a bubble in the stock 
market. At the time, the Nasdaq was at about 2800, and you said 
thoughtful people should think about this question and at least review 
how they should invest in that environment. It's gone from 2800 to 4100 
on the Nasdaq, a 46 percent gain in that period. What should thoughtful 
people do now?
    The President. Well, I think one of the things that we have seen, 
since you and I talked last, are some very encouraging new studies about 
the nature of productivity, indicating that people who do this sort of 
thing are actually beginning to measure, and feel comfortable measuring, 
much bigger increases in productivity driven by technology and 
information spreads than they had previously thought.
    To me, the main thing for us to do is to keep our markets open, keep 
paying the debt off, try to have a competitive environment, and continue 
to invest in new technologies and the human capacity of our people. And 
we'll just see how long it will go. In a few weeks, this will be the 
longest expansion in history, including that which embraced World War 
II, where we were completely mobilized for a war and had legal controls 
on inflation.
    So there's never been anything like this before. The truth is, no 
one knows for sure what's going to happen. I will say again, I think 
having good fundamentals, and then continuing to invest in the people 
and places left behind--because that's a noninflationary way to go, 
where you create new markets, as well as new businesses, new employees--
that, I think, is what we should do. And then we'll see what happens. 
But I'm quite hopeful.

Microsoft

    Mr. Insana. One of the architects of that technological revolution, 
Bill Gates, today stepped back from his day-to-day responsibilities at 
Microsoft, elevated Steve Ballmer to the CEO position. What do you think 
about Mr. Gates switching his emphasis in his career?

[[Page 74]]

    The President. Well, I think it's a very interesting move by him. 
Ballmer is obviously a very able man, and Gates is a genius with 
technology. So it will be interesting to see what happens.
    I'd like to say, since you asked the question, a word of 
appreciation to Bill and Melinda Gates for the commitments they've made 
through their foundation to help minority young people go on to college 
and the massive commitment they've made to make vaccines more available 
to poor people throughout the world. I think the fact that he is doing 
these kinds of things with the wealth he's accumulated is a very good 
thing to do. So I wish him well, and I want to encourage him to do more 
of that.
    Mr. Insana. Mr. Ballmer had a statement in his first day as CEO and 
suggested that it would be reckless and irresponsible of the U.S. 
Government to break up Microsoft. How would you respond to that?
    The President. Well, my response would be, first of all, that the 
decision would have to be made by a court and that, because it is a 
legal proceeding, I had nothing to do with what the Antitrust Division 
did, and I certainly can't have anything to do with what the judge does.
    So my response is, whatever I think, I shouldn't say it, one way or 
the other, because I'm not involved in it, and I shouldn't attempt to 
impact either the market or what's going on here. I think the record has 
been made; the judge's opinion is there, and they have to argue about 
the remedy, which is anybody knows in antitrust cases completely 
different from finding whether someone violated the laws or not. And 
they'll go through it all, and I hope they'll do what's best for the 
American economy and the American consumers in the short run and over 
the long run.

Gore Campaign and National Economy

    Mr. Insana. Going back to the economy for a minute. Vice President 
Gore has been out doing his campaigning, but he has not necessarily 
delivered a full-scale platform on the economy yet. Do you think he 
should? And if he did, what do you think should be included in that 
platform?
    The President. Well, I think he--first of all, he did give a pretty 
comprehensive speech in New Hampshire a couple of weeks ago, which I 
thought was quite good, committing himself to continuing to pay the debt 
down, which I think is very important, and to increasing our investments 
in education and in science and technology. And he has committed himself 
to continue to expand the frontiers of trade.
    I have said before, and I'll say again, I think it is a mistake that 
there are elements in both parties of the Congress that seem to be 
afraid of continuing to expand trade. I do believe we should try to put 
a more human face on the global economy. I think that core labor 
standards, being against child labor, trying to have basic environmental 
standards, all that is very important. But the expansion of trade is 
very important for a country like ours, with 4 percent of the world's 
people and 21 percent of its income, and the longest growth in history--
you can't keep that going unless you find more customers. And he 
believes in that.
    So he's for continued paying off the debt, continued investment in 
people, science and technology, and continued expansion of trade, and 
doing it in a way that tries to bring all people into the stream of 
economic opportunity. I think it's a good economic program, and I 
support it.

Post-Presidential Plans

    Mr. Insana. Final question to you. Down here on Wall Street, there 
have been a couple published reports that suggested that you have an 
interest in coming to work here, once you finish your term as President, 
and going to Lazard Freres for what is not an inconsiderable amount of 
money. Any truth to those stories?
    The President. It's a total fabrication. I must say that it was an 
immense surprise to my wife and daughter that anybody would ever offer 
me that kind of money to do anything. [Laughter] So, no, I don't think 
it's really appropriate for me at this time to be discussing that.
    What I want to do is to work until the last hour of the last day I'm 
President, to get as much done for the country as I can, to leave 
America in the best shape I can, and

[[Page 75]]

then to have--for the rest of my life, try to be a good and useful 
citizen. And I'll have plenty of time to figure out what I should do to 
make a living at a later time.
    It was a flattering rumor. Many of the other rumors have been 
flattering. But they're all, as far as I know, completely unfounded.

Hillary Clinton on ``Late Show With David Letterman''

    Mr. Insana. We saw Mrs. Clinton on Letterman last night. You didn't 
happen to bring a Top 10 list with you this evening, did you?
    The President. No, but I thought she was fabulous. I must say, I was 
sort of--I was amazed. I used to think I was the funny one in our 
family. And I was very proud of her. I thought she was wonderful.
    Mr. Insana. Mr. President, good to see you. Thanks for joining us 
tonight.
    The President. Thank you.

Note: The interview began at 6:55 p.m. in a broadcast booth at the New 
York Stock Exchange. In his remarks, the President referred to civil 
rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson; Sanford I. Weill, chief executive 
officer, Citigroup; Richard Grasso, chairman and chief executive 
officer, New York Stock Exchange; Steve Ballmer, chief executive 
officer, and Bill Gates, chief software architect, Microsoft Corp.; and 
Mr. Gates' wife, Melinda. A tape was not available for verification of 
the content of these remarks.