RR-KEY TERMS + DATES 🇺🇸 Flashcards
What is big government?
-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
Monopolise:
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
‘Supply side theory’?
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
Constant 1987 dollars
Or in 1987 dollars
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
Real disposable
Personal income
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)
Real GNP
Adjusted gross national product to match inflation
Data series:
Types of statistical information
Per capita income
Gross domestic product (GDP) divided by the number of
people in the country
Gross domestic product
The value of all goods and services produced in a
country in a year
Marginal income tax
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
Deregulation
Removing federal restrictions from businesses: for example,
setting a minimum wage
Conglomerate
– 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
Savings and Loan
Institution (S&L)
This was the equivalent of a building society in the UK –
traditionally a conservative, financial institution that
mostly lent money for mortgages
Capping
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.
Foreclosure
The repossession of a home by the mortgage lender because the
borrower can no longer meet the payments
Tractorcade
A deliberately slow procession of tractors on urban streets; used
as a protest tool
Budget deficit
When a government’s spending exceeds its income
Keynesian economics
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
Food stamps
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.
Congressional
Mid-term elections
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
Bari-Ellen Roberts
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.
Reagan elected president
4th November 1980
Reagan sworn in as president
20th January 1981
Fuel prices deregulated and wage and price regulations
removed by Presidential executive orders
29th January 1981
