 Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States. Please be seated. Good afternoon and welcome to the White House, although I understand others have already welcomed you here. I am delighted to welcome the executives who are not only keeping our economy vibrant, but providing role models for millions of Americans' daughters. Your young women will grow up in this country now in a world where, in large part, because of your efforts, every profession will be just as open to them as it is to their brothers. And for all the giant steps you've helped our country to take, you have my heartfelt thanks. As a matter of fact, I can't resist telling a little story. I've told it many times, but then when you get to be 39, you do tell the same stories over and over again. I know because I've been 39 and 34 times now. It was an accident. A man lying there in the street, a crowd gathering, and a man elbowed his way through the crowd. There was a woman ministering the man, and he shoved her aside, and he said, let me at him. I've had first aid training. She meekly stepped back, and he went to work. At one point in his administrations, she tapped him on the shoulder, and she said, when you come to that part about calling the doctor, I'm right here. Well, with your support, I think that we're making some long overdue corrections, and I hope lasting changes in the economic policies of this nation. Four years ago, we were looking at the first back-to-back years of inflation, double-digit inflation, I should say, since World War I. And the prime interest rate was climbing fast, and in December 1980, it reached the highest level since the Civil War. In four years, taxes roughly doubled, average monthly mortgage payments more than doubled, and the real after-tax income of the average American actually began to decline. By the time our administration took office, growth in our gross national product had ground to a virtual halt. Our nation faced its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Working with Republicans and concerned Democrats in the Congress, our administration set in place what we thought was a bold new economic program. We cut taxes, we reduced the growth of government spending, we pruned needless regulations, and enacted an historic reform called tax indexing, which will take effect this January and from then on the government will never again be able to profit at the people's expense by way of inflation. All of our efforts were based on a key insight that is not huge aggregates like demand and consumption that bring our economy to life, but individual women and men. And none of it would have surprised Thomas Jefferson or Abe Lincoln. Believe me, to some of the economists and politicians who make their living in this town, it came as quite a shock. They got their second shock when it worked. 21 months ago we saw the beginning of a sustained and inflation-free recovery. And then several months ago we moved out of the recovery stage and into a powerful economic expansion. As a matter of fact, it was kind of interesting. I was still calling it a recovery and I began to get letters from some of the same economists that said it wouldn't work, telling me it was now an expansion and I should stop using the word recovery. Well, today inflation has plummeted to just 4% for the last 12 months. The prime interest rates fallen by almost nine points. Productivity is up, consumer spending is up, housing starts are up, and take-home pay is up. And this economic expansion is unique in history for the number of thrilling new opportunities that it's giving to American women. More women have jobs than ever before in our nation's history and we concede that the jobs women hold are getting better and better. Last year women filled almost three-quarters of all the new jobs in managerial, professional, and technical fields. And the number of women-owned businesses is growing three times faster than the number of those owned by men. The best news of all, during the past 20 months, 6 million Americans or more have found jobs. Indeed, each month that we've created, on an average, for each month, more jobs in a single month than all the common market countries combined created over the last 10 years. Europe's calling what we're having here the American miracle. Well, it is a miracle. It's a miracle of hard work and energy and imagination in the part of women and men and women like you. Together we are creating a new world. A world where our basic industries will go from strength to strength and dazzling new industries will employ millions. It can be a world of greater prosperity than humankind has ever known. Above all, it can be a world of opportunity. A new American society where every woman and man will be able to climb just as high as their own ability and their determination and dreams will take them. We still have a great deal of hard work to do before we make America the opportunity society that we want it to be. But in just the past four years, I think we've made great strides. And I know that as women who've experienced firsthand the creative power of free enterprise, you will agree with me when I say, as I said the other day, we ain't seen nothing yet. So thank you and God bless.