Nation: Trying to Build Confidence

Monday, Jan. 30, 1978

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(10 of 10)
he actually wanted to see the dollar drop farther. Despite his reversal, they still view Blumenthal as the man who talked the dollar down, and they have not forgiven him.

Whether Blumenthal can change the skepticism about him is crucial. The Carter program simply will not work without business confidence—and Blumenthal helped mightily to design it that way. He has gained greatly in self-assurance, and knowledge of the arts of Washington infighting, and sold the President on what for a Democratic Administration is a very conservative program. Having won over his new colleagues in Government, he must now gain the support of his old acquaintances in the boardrooms—and paradoxically that seems much the harder task.

^{* Gross national product in current dollars reached a $2 trillion annual rate last Tuesday. Jan. 17. according to the Commerce Department; Manhattan's Morgan Guaranty Trust Co. figures, with tongue-in-cheek precision, that the rate will be reached this Friday at 2:36 p.m., "give or take a few minutes." After taking most of two centuries to achieve a $1 trillion G.N.P., the U.S. added the second trillion in a little more than seven years. Alas, the milestone is a monument more to inflation than to growth: Morgan Guaranty calculates that about two-thirds of the second trillion came from higher prices rather than increased output.}