The economic environment

Question 1

What was the percentage drop in the energy supplied to the general public in the US by coal from 1900 to 1930?

Answer 1

90% to 60%

Question 2

How many passenger cars were there between 1917 and 1929?

Answer 2

5 million to 23 million

Question 3

How much did Henry Ford pay his workers per day?

Answer 3

$5

Question 4

Who introduced the idea of ‘scientific management’?

Answer 4

Frederick W Taylor

Question 5

By how much did consumer debt rise between 1920 and 1929?

Answer 5

$3.3 billion to $7.6 billion

Question 6

Before 1920 people borrowed, on average, 5% of their income. To what percentage did this rise to during 1929?

Answer 6

10%

Question 7

In 1917 and 1929 how many homes were wired for electricity?

Answer 7

7.9 million to 24.6 million

Question 8

How many shares were traded on the 24 October (Black Thursday) 1929?

Answer 8

12.9 million

Question 9

How many shares were traded on October 29 (Black Tuesday) 1929?

Answer 9

16.4 million

Question 10

How much was lost due to the drop in share prices on Black Tuesday (October 29 1919)?

Answer 10

$40 billion

Question 11

By 1933, what percentage of the banks which were in operation before the Wall Street Crash bankrupt?

Answer 11

33.3%

Question 12

In what year did Hoover introduce the Federal Home Loan Bank Act that was setup to help people with their mortgages?

Answer 12

1932

Question 13

When was the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act introduced?

Answer 13

1930

Question 14

How much was given to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) in January 1932?

Answer 14

$300 million (later expanded to help farmers as well as relief projects)

Question 15

When did Hoover setup the Committee for Unemployment relief and the President’s Emergency Committee for Employment?

Answer 15

1930

Question 16

When was the Wagner-Steagall Act that setup the Federal Housing Administration to oversee slum clearance?

Answer 16

1937

Question 17

What did the Second Agricultural Adjustment Act do?

Answer 17

Provide subsidies to farmers to produce less

Question 18

What was percentage unemployment in the US in 1917, 1926, 1932 and 1941?

Answer 18

1917= 4.6%; 1926= 1.8%; 1932= 23.6%; 1941=9.9%

Question 19

What was government spending between 1930 and 1941?

Answer 19

3.3 billion to 8.7 billion

Question 20

What was the rise in the worth of goods produced between 1945 and 1950?

Answer 20

$213 billion to $284 billion

Question 21

What was the increase in profits made by the toy manufacturers between 1959 and 1961?

Answer 21

$1.6 billion to $2.1 billion

Question 22

How many live births were there between 1940 and 1955?

Answer 22

2.6 million to 4.1 million

Question 23

What did the 1949 National Housing Act do?

Answer 23

Slum clearance and provide 810,000 housing units

Question 24

When was the Office of Price Administration shut down?

Answer 24

1946

Question 25

By how much did prices rise after the Office of Price Administration shut down?

Answer 25

25% in two weeks

Question 26

Which two organisations were setup as a result of the 1946 Employment Act?

Answer 26

Council of Economic Advisors and the Joint Economic Committee of the House of Representatives

Question 27

In which decade was the ‘baby boom’?

Answer 27

1950s

Question 28

How many miles of interstate highways were built after the 1956 Highways Act?

Answer 28

41,000

Question 29

Where was the largest Levittown?

Answer 29

Long Island with 17,000 homes and 82,000 residents (the company discriminated against Black Americans)

Question 30

How much could a home in a Levittown be bought for?

Answer 30

$7,000

Question 31

By 1958, how many transistor radios were there in the US?

Answer 31

45 million

Question 32

How much was in circulation in 1952 and 1960?

Answer 32

$169.7 billion and $215.8 billion

Question 33

When was the Bretton Woods Agreement that made the dollar the currency to be backed by a gold reserve?

Answer 33

1944

Question 34

What was the increase in money in circulation in the years 1961 and 1968?

Answer 34

$16.9 billion and $36.7 billion

Question 35

What was the average wage increase from 1943 to 1969?

Answer 35

$5,000 (from $2,000 in 1943 to approximately $7,000 in 1969)

Question 36

The percentage of unemployed in the USA between 1942 and 1969 never went above which upper limit in these years?

Answer 36

8%

Question 37

What was government spending in 1969?

Answer 37

$190 billion

Question 38

What was government spending in 1962?

Answer 38

$100 billion

Question 39

What were some wages linked to to ensure that their wages kept in line with inflation?

Answer 39

Consumer Price Index (CPI)

Question 40

What the USA’s percentage of the world’s exported manufactured goods in the years 1953, 1963 and 1973?

Answer 40

29% to 17% to 13%

Question 41

When was the Arab-Israeli War?

Answer 41

1973

Question 42

Between which months in 1979 were there fuel shortages?

Answer 42

May to July

Question 43

What were the levels of unemployment between 1978 and 1979?

Answer 43

5.8% to 7.1%

Question 44

What did the Tax reform Act of 1969 enable?

Answer 44

Increased payments of social welfare and raised the lowest tax barrier (exempting 9 million poorer families)

Question 45

When was Nixon’s Economic Stabilisation act?

Answer 45

1970 (it gave Nixon the power to act on wages, prices, rents and interest rates)

Question 46

When did Nixon introduce his first price freeze?

Answer 46

1971

Question 47

When was Nixon’s Emergency Employment Act that created ‘community service’ employment for two years?

Answer 47

1971

Question 48

What two provisions were made in the 1972 Social Security Act?

Answer 48

Increase payments by 20% and link payments to the CPI

Question 49

When did the Fed put restraints on the increase in money supply?

Answer 49

1979

Question 50

When did President Carter announce anti-inflation measures of: balancing the budget, reduce defence spending, voluntary wage and price controls and reduction in social welfare programmes?

Answer 50

March 1980