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American Morning

Administration Avoids Specific Comments About Economy

Aired September 21, 2001 - 10:44   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: John, there's another great sports story to share with our audience this morning. It has to do with the New York Mets; they will be playing their first game at home since this terrible tragedy here. And apparently the coaching staff and the players are going to actually donate all of their salaries for tonight, which amounts to $450,000, to the widows and children of city police officers and firefighters and emergency service workers. I think that's a great thing for them to do.

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: There is no doubt, Paula...

ZAHN: Even if you're a Yankee fan, you think that's a pretty darn good thing to do.

KING: Well, I'm a Red Sox fan, and so we have old grudges against the Mets as well.

But certainly it is yet another example of the remarkable spirit in the country right now; there's no doubt about it. In our business we are to be objective, of course, and monitor events. But if you look around the country and if you look around this town -- a very partisan place, to be polite, -- a remarkable spirit across the country right now. The country rallying around the president, the Congress rallying around the president.

The true test still ahead; we should make that clear. But right now a remarkable sense of unity and purpose flowing out of this terrible tragedy.

ZAHN: And I don't know whether you can see from your screen there, John, but the market is back into positive territory now. The Dow up 34 points, the Nasdaq -- well, the Nasdaq is still down 25 points.

Any more reaction there from the White House or any other part of the administration to this very volatile market this morning?

KING: The White House saying this is not unexpected, that the markets had a very rocky first week back after this crisis. Publicly the administration in good times and bad, even in the worst of times like this, tries not to say anything specific about the markets because when a president speaks about the markets he can cause them to go up or down rather dramatically. Behind the scenes, though, a great deal of work. You saw the Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on Capitol Hill the other day; administration officials making phone calls to key leaders around the world, urging them to intervene say, if the dollar declines. Urging major brokerage firms and banking firms on Wall Street not the let the markets plummet too much if they can.

A lot goes on behind the scenes. And publicly the president thinks the most important thing he can do right now is try to assure the markets and consumers, the engine of the U.S. economy, that Washington will act if necessary -- and everyone here believes it will be necessary. Likely to see action in the next two weeks on a new package of government spending to stimulate the economy and another round of tax cuts as well, especially a capital gains tax cut. That is one thing Wall Street looks for, because it encourages investment.

ZAHN: All right, thanks John.

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