Commission On Money and Credit - President John F. Kennedy's Remarks

President John F. Kennedy's Remarks

President John F. Kennedy made the following remarks upon receiving the report of The Commission on Money and Credit, in a speech on June 19, 1961, from the Oval Office of the White House, Washington, D.C.:

I am pleased to receive this report from the Commission on Money and Credit. I have been well aware of the wide-ranging work that the Commission has had under way during the past three years. As you know, three members of my administration have come from among your distinguished membership.

I congratulate the Commission on the effort it has spent in devising ways and means to improve our private and public system of money and credit, and thus to strengthen the Nation's economic health. I should also like to express my appreciation to the Committee for Economic Development for originating this project, and to the Ford Foundation and the Merrill Foundation for financing it. The Commission on Money and Credit has presented a program of monetary and fiscal reforms that could make an important contribution to the health and strength of our economy. The Commission, drawn mainly on business and banking, but also of labor and the professions, has submerged the special interests of its members in a laudable effort in the public interest. Their report, which points the way to improve coordination of financial and economic policy, deserves the attention of every American. I commend particularly those who have the responsibility for the maintenance of conditions of high employment and rapid growth in the American economy. It dramatizes how private citizens, regardless of their committed points of view, can, and sometimes do, dedicate themselves to work in the public interest. It demonstrates also the constructive role that private philanthropic institutions play in providing financial support for such activities. This private, voluntary study cannot fail to stimulate and inform the national discussion of those grave economic problems that this Nation faces from day to day. As a consensus of people in many walks of life, this report should bring others to study and discuss the problems of national coordination of the governmental and private institutions, which together guide our complex money and credit system.

I hope that people everywhere in the Nation, as well as those who represent them in Congress, will read this report for the information, analysis, and recommendations it contains, whether or not they agree with its numerous and provocative proposals.