[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 2 (Monday, January 17, 2000)]
[Pages 75-76]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Wall Street Project Conference Reception in New York City

January 13, 2000

    Well, first let me thank Reverend Jackson. And, Jackie, thank you. 
And, Dick Grasso, thank you for having all of us here tonight. This is 
the first time I have ever spoken from this microphone. You know, as 
President, I'm superstitious, and we've had such a good stock market. I 
don't ever comment on it--except I like the way it finished today. 
[Laughter]
    I wanted to say just a couple of things very briefly. First of all, 
I want to thank Dick Grasso for his leadership in the Wall Street 
Project. A lot of people don't know that the stock market was organized 
over 200 years ago so that there would be a mechanism through which 
bonds could be issued to finance America's debts in the war for our 
independence. So, in the beginning, this stock market had not just a 
profit motive but a public interest purpose. This man has infused the 
stock market, not only with its greatest success in history but with a 
public interest purpose, to include all Americans in our prosperity. And 
we thank him.
    Most of you were with us today in the afternoon, and I won't make 
you sit through my speech again--or stand through my speech again. Even 
though I'd kind of like to, because this is the first crowd in a long 
time when I've been guaranteed a standing ovation. [Laughter]
    I just want to make two points. One, I want to thank Jesse Jackson 
for being there on this issue for a long time, saying we would never be 
the country we ought to be until we really had economic opportunity for 
all--that's what the Wall Street Project is all about--and that it would 
be good business, as well as good morality.
    The second point I want to make, that I made today and I leave with 
all of you is, this is the only time in my lifetime we have had a 
booming economy, improvements in all of our social fabric, the absence 
of crisis at home and domestic threats, and the absence of threats to 
our security around the world as big as those we faced in the cold war. 
None of this has ever happened before. The big question before us is, 
what are we going to do with this magic moment? Are we going to take the 
long look into the future and do the big things that America needs, or 
are we going to indulge ourselves in shortsighted, frittering away of 
our present wealth and serenity at home, and stability around the world?
    I'm just telling you, we will never be the country we ought to be 
until every person, including the people and places that have been left 
behind in this remarkable recovery, has a chance to live the American 
dream. We will never be as safe a country, as whole a country, the one 
America we ought to be, until everybody has a chance.
    That's what the Wall Street Project is all about. That's what my new 
markets initiative

[[Page 76]]

is all about. And I want to implore you to use this millennial year of 
2000 to ask all of our fellow Americans to think about those who could 
be a part of what we celebrate and thank God for every day, but aren't 
yet. If we make them a part of it, we'll really give a gift to our 
children and to the 21st century.
    Thank you, and God bless you all. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 7:48 p.m. at the Bell Podium at the New 
York Stock Exchange. In his remarks he referred to civil rights leader 
Rev. Jesse Jackson and his wife, Jacqueline; and Richard Grasso, 
chairman and chief executive officer, New York Stock Exchange.