Bill Clinton: “Now, I didn't comment on it when it dropped a lot. [Laughter] And I don't think I should now. Let me say, there is a lot…”

“Now, I didn't comment on it when it dropped a lot. [Laughter] And I don't think I should now. Let me say, there is a lot of speculation about that, as you know. The London Economist ran a whole series on it, I think either this last edition or the one before that. We have a very productive economy with high growth and low interest rates. Also, the fact that there is a downturn in many Asian economies I think has created some investment capital that normally might have gone somewhere else that may be coming back into our country. And that would tend to drive the stock market up. I think that what's important here is for all informed people--the stock market analysts, the people on Wall Street, Mr. Greenspan, whom I think has done quite a fine job over the last 5 years in managing his part of our economy--all of us need to just sort of talk about what the fundamentals are, what the facts are, and if there are any reasons for caution, then they ought to put them out there. But I think that to date you would have to say that most of what has happened has been spurred by the hard work and the productivity of American workers and American businesses and other developments around the world over which we Americans had no control. But I'm encouraged by the underlying fundamentals, and what I hope will happen is that we can avoid any kind of big swings in the market one way or the other by just steady, slow--maybe not so slow but, at least, steady growth. And I think if we all just get all the facts out there to the investors, it's likely to come out all right.”