Bush Probes Recession With Business Leaders

President Bush met today with leaders of some of the nation’s largest corporations and banks as part of a series of private sessions to help him gauge whether the economy is in a recession.

The President is trying to decide what steps he might be able to take to help soften the impact of the current slowdown, a White House official said.

The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that today’s meeting follows a meeting on Wednesday between Bush and bank regulators and Administration economic officials. Bush may also meet on Friday with another group, the official said.

The White House refused to release a list of those meeting with Bush, saying the sessions were private. “It’s an opportunity for the President to hear them (the business leaders). These are listening sessions,” the official said.

The sessions are an outgrowth of a meeting Bush had over the weekend at Camp David, Md., with Treasury Secretary Nicholas F. Brady, chief White House economist Michael Boskin, Budget Director Richard G. Darman and Vice President Dan Quayle.

Bush, at a news conference last Thursday, said he was “concerned about an economic slowdown in the economy.”

“I want to be sure that, to the degree a President can do something to soften the blow or to stimulate economic growth, that he tries to do it,” Bush said at the time.