RR-KEY TERMS + DATES 🇺🇸

Question 1

What is big government?

Answer 1

-Reagan used this term to mean too much federal
interference on all levels: in state and local government, in
business and in people’s lives. He promised a policy of New
Federalism to reduce interference

Question 2

Monopolise:

Answer 2

When a business has a monopoly of something, it is the only
business dealing in that thing. This tends to mean that the
business can set its prices higher and put more demands on its suppliers, because there is no other business to buy from the
suppliers or to sell to the consumers

Question 3

‘Supply side theory’?

Answer 3

Emerging in the late 1970s, theorists argued that the
economy wasn’t driven by consumer demand but by
keeping up production and encouraging saving and
investment. They believed restraints on production
(government regulation, high taxes and strong unions)
should be removed. They argued that the better-off
would benefit and the benefits would ‘trickle down’ to
even the very poorest

Question 4

Constant 1987 dollars

Or in 1987 dollars

Answer 4

When the wage from a different year (eg 1982) is
adjusted by the amount of inflation or otherwise to
produce a wage that can be directly compared with a
1987 wage

Question 5

Real disposable

Personal income

Answer 5

Disposable income is the amount of money people have left
over to spend or save after tax. Real disposable income is
where disposable income is linked to the movement of
prices (eg. If prices have increased but disposable income
has remained the same, people will be worse off)

Question 6

Real GNP

Answer 6

Adjusted gross national product to match inflation

Question 7

Data series:

Answer 7

Types of statistical information

Question 8

Per capita income

Answer 8

Gross domestic product (GDP) divided by the number of

people in the country

Question 9

Gross domestic product

Answer 9

The value of all goods and services produced in a

country in a year

Question 10

Marginal income tax

Answer 10

US income tax is organised into brackets (margins), with
the amount of tax rising as you move from one bracket
to a higher one. The higher tax is only paid on the
income in the higher tax bracket

Question 11

Deregulation

Answer 11

Removing federal restrictions from businesses: for example,

setting a minimum wage

Question 12

Conglomerate

Answer 12

– An organisation that controls several businesses of different
types. General Electric was set up in 1892, selling electrical
light appliances and parts. In the 1980s, it expanded into the
medical equipment, water, oil and gas industries by buying
up businesses in those fields

Question 13

Savings and Loan

Institution (S&L)

Answer 13

This was the equivalent of a building society in the UK –
traditionally a conservative, financial institution that
mostly lent money for mortgages

Question 14

Capping

Answer 14

This is setting a limit on payments. In this case, it is on the amount
that can be paid out by the government in benefits. Sometimes
payments to a government can also be capped.

Question 15

Foreclosure

Answer 15

The repossession of a home by the mortgage lender because the
borrower can no longer meet the payments

Question 16

Tractorcade

Answer 16

A deliberately slow procession of tractors on urban streets; used
as a protest tool

Question 17

Budget deficit

Answer 17

When a government’s spending exceeds its income

Question 18

Keynesian economics

Answer 18

Keynes was a British economist who claimed that
governments should be prepared to overspend, if
necessary, to put nations on the road to economic
recovery

Question 19

Food stamps

Answer 19

First used during the Great Depression, they were made
permanent by the Food Stamp Act (1964). Poor people present
stamps provided by the government for food.

Question 20

Congressional

Mid-term elections

Answer 20

Congressional elections are held every two years: thus,
elections are held along with the president’s election
and in the middle of the president’s term

Question 21

Bari-Ellen Roberts

Answer 21

A high-achieving black American woman. She was working
in the pensions department of Chase Manhattan bank
when she was head-hunted by Texaco in 1993. Despite the fact that the company had deliberately asked her to join, Roberts felt she wasn’t being allowed to rise in the company. Also, her suggestion that the company might hire more non-whites was met with the accusation that she was trying to fill the place with Black Panthers. The last straw was when a white man less experienced than Roberts was promoted to be her boss – and she was told she would have to train him. In March 1994, Roberts and five other co-workers took Texaco to court for discrimination, on behalf of all the workers at Texaco. Their lawyers showed that black Americans were paid less for doing the same jobs and were confined to the less senior jobs in the company. The case dragged on. Then, in 1996, the New York Times was sent an audio tape of the three Texaco executives discussing the case in crude and racist terms. Civil rights leaders threatened a nationwide boycott of Texaco petrol stations. With its stock market value falling, Texaco agreed to a $176 million pay-out and improved hiring and promotion practices. Roberts became almost as big a heroine as Rosa Parks and went on to run her own company.

Question 22

Reagan elected president

Answer 22

4th November 1980

Question 23

Reagan sworn in as president

Answer 23

20th January 1981

Question 24

Fuel prices deregulated and wage and price regulations

removed by Presidential executive orders

Answer 24

29th January 1981

Question 25

Assassination attempt on Reagan; he is wounded in the

chest

Answer 25

30th March 1981

Question 26

First reported AIDS case in USA

Answer 26

5th June 1981

Question 27

PATCO air traffic controller’s strike

Answer 27

3rd August 1981

Question 28

Economic Recovery Tax Act (ERTA) passed

Answer 28

13th August 1981

Question 29

Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (ORA) passed

Answer 29

13th August 1981

Question 30

Reagan appoints Sandra Day O’Connor as the first female

Supreme Court judge

Answer 30

September 1981

Question 31

Savings and Loan institutions deregulated

Answer 31

15th October 1982

Question 32

Reagan wins a second term as president, aged 73

Answer 32

6th November 1984

Question 33

Protests by garment workers over foreign imports

Answer 33

1985

Question 34

Tax Reform Act passed

Answer 34

2nd October 1986

Question 35

Extent of Savings and Loan crisis clear; government bailout

Answer 35

1987

Question 36

Republican candidate George HW Bush elected president

Answer 36

8th November 1988

Question 37

Reagan gives his farewell speech to the nation

Answer 37

11th January 1989

Question 38

Bush breaks his ‘no new taxes’ promise

Answer 38

26th June 1990

Question 39

Democratic candidate Bill Clinton elected president

Answer 39

3rd November 1992