Did you know? 28May2012 edition

Business

·         Private property. The number of public companies in the U.S. has dropped 38% since 1997 and 48% in Britain.

·         Show me the money. Between 1980-2000 there was an average of 311 IPO’s/year but dropped to just 81 in 2011.

·         Bursting bubbles. The average life expectancy of public companies has gone from 65 years in the 1920’s to less than 10 in the 1990’s. 

Prisons (Locked Up Nation)

·         The U.S. represents 5% of the world’s population but 25% of its prisoners.

·         In 1980 the U.S.’s prison population was about 150 per 100,000 adults.  It has more than quadrupled since then.

·         In 2009, 1.66 million Americans were arrested on drug charges, and 80% of those arrests were for possession

·         In 2011, California spent $9.6 billion on prisons vs. only $5.7 billion on the UC system and state colleges.

·         Since 1980, California has built 1 college campus and 21 prisons. A college student costs the state $8,667 per year; a prisoner costs it $45,006 a year.

Politics

·         During Reagan’s eight years in office, defense spending doubled from $150Billion to $300Billion and consumed 30% of the total annual budget and equaled 6% of GDP.

·         In 1973 America imported 33% of the oil we consumed; by 2006 that number was up to 60%.

·         60% of Scott Walker’s campaign war chest of $25million came from out-of-state donors.

Who said it:

A.       “The loss of the Panama Canal would contribute to the encirclement of the U.S. by hostile naval forces, and thereby [threaten] our ability to survive.”

B.      “The generation-long growth in our dependence on foreign oil will be stopped dead in its tracks right now and then reversed …for I am tonight setting the further goal of cutting our dependence on foreign oil by one half by the end of the next decade.”

C.      “Exactly, If he president approves of something for national security…then the president’s decision is the one that enables those who carry it out without violating the law.”

D.      “He will never again be the Reagan that he was before he blew it.”  “He is not going to regain our trust and our faith easily.”

E.       “The president was expected to have the primary role of conducting the foreign policy of the United States.”   “Congressional actions to limit the president in this area therefore should be reviewed with a considerable degree of skepticism.  If they interfere with core presidential foreign policy functions, they should be struck down.  Moreover, the lesson of our constitutional history is that doubtful cases should be declared in favor of the president.”

F.       “The Constitution supposes, what the History of all governments demonstrates, that he Executive is the one branch of power most interested in war, and prone to it.  It has accordingly with studied care vested the question of war in the Legislature.”

G.     “Air strikes would frankly not affect the situation, unless -and this a huge unless- we are prepared to commit ground troops in a prolonged military operation in Yugoslavia.  And frankly, the polls show, by two to one margins, the American people even oppose air strikes…I will not place the lives of young Americans, men and women, at risk without having a plan that has every possibility of succeeding…”

Answers:

A: Ronald Reagan during 1976 campaign for GOP nomination

B: Jimmy Carter, in 1979 trying to establish a long term energy policy

C: Richard Nixon, justifying what would become GOP executive mantra: it ain’t illegal if the President does it

D: Newt Gingrich, after Reagan got busted in the Iran-Contra scandal

E: Dick Cheney, on why only the President should declare war

F: James Madison, on why Congress was granted the power to declare war

G: John McCain, arguing against military involvement in the Balkans.  Bo things have changed.

Special thanks to Rachel Maddow and Fareed Zakaria for doing the hardworking primary research.