News stories from Thursday August 19, 1971
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The AFL-CIO is hardening its opposition to the wage-price freeze. AFL-CIO president George Meany rejects the administration's claim to have the power to end strikes; Meany said that Nixon's policy gives money to big corporations at the expense of the American people. Meany has no faith in President Nixon's ability to manage the U.S. economy and he called on Congress to assert control over the economy. Treasury Secretary John Connally says that the new economic policy benefits both the consumer and labor; consumers will benefit from $5 billion in tax relief and repeal of the excise tax.
The Teamsters union pledged cooperation with the Nixon administration. Texas Governor Preston Smith challenged the wage freeze by ordering salary increases to be paid. Smith said that the question is whether President Nixon has the authority to overrule Texas laws. The Cost of Living Council barred retroactive raises in contracts negotiated during the freeze, ruled that landlords may not increase rents if the increase was not in effect before last Sunday, and froze military pay raises.
[CBS] - The Joint Economic Committee of Congress began hearings on the new economic policy. Economist Walter Heller said that President Nixon should be working on the economic program full-time. He stated that stimulus to big business and investors is misplaced; the consumer is the one who needs stimulus. [CBS]
- European money markets will reopen Monday; Japan's stock market continued to fall as rumors of the yen's revaluation persist. [CBS]
- Communist forces continued attacks on South Vietnamese bases near the DMZ. In Saigon, a 35 year old South Vietnamese disabled war veteran committed suicide by setting himself on fire in protest of President Nguyen Van Thieu's political maneuvers to keep Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky off the presidential ballot. Forty disabled veterans have pledged to burn themselves in protest of Thieu's actions; Vice President Ky visited the veterans' headquarters. Thieu's supporters admitted that the suicide represents a loss of face for Thieu. [CBS]
- Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black has delayed the school desegregation busing plan for Corpus Christi, Texas. [CBS]
- 11 black militants have been charged with murder after a police officer died of his wounds from a shootout in Jackson, Mississippi. [CBS]
- Descendants of Dr. Samuel Mudd, who set the leg of John Wilkes Booth following President Lincoln's assassination, asked President Nixon for a new trial; his descendants claim that Mudd should never have been tried for conspiracy. [CBS]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 880.77 (-5.40, -0.61%)
Arms Index is the ratio of volume per declining issue to volume per advancing issue; a figure below 1.0 is bullish. | |||||||||||||||
| Market Index Trends | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | DJIA | S&P | Volume* |
| August 18, 1971 | 886.17 | 98.60 | 20.68 |
| August 17, 1971 | 899.90 | 99.99 | 26.79 |
| August 16, 1971 | 888.95 | 98.76 | 31.72 |
| August 13, 1971 | 856.02 | 95.69 | 9.96 |
| August 12, 1971 | 859.01 | 96.00 | 15.91 |
| August 11, 1971 | 846.38 | 94.66 | 11.37 |
| August 10, 1971 | 839.59 | 93.54 | 9.46 |
| August 9, 1971 | 842.65 | 93.53 | 8.11 |
| August 6, 1971 | 850.61 | 94.25 | 9.49 |
| August 5, 1971 | 849.45 | 94.09 | 12.10 |