"The country was in pretty bad shape. If you will recollect, as I have on occasion, we were at the depths of a recession, the worst recession in 40 years in this country. We had many serious problems. The rate of inflation was still too high. Unemployment in our own great State of Michigan had plummeted. The automobile industry was in serious condition. There was great despair in many parts of the country, and Michigan was more heavily hit than most States. But it's nice to be here with all of you this year, where I keep reading about how things have changed in Michigan. The automobile industry is having one of its top years, either third or fourth in the history of the industry, with every week or every reporting time the production schedules of the automobile industry going up, with a resurgence of public confidence. So, it's a much better atmosphere in which I am your guest tonight than it was a year ago."