1. Unit 9 A Nation among Nations –
1980 to today
Section 1: It’s Morning Again in
America: Ronald Reagan & the Neo-
Conservative Ascendance

2. Essential Questions
• How was Ronald Reagan able to win the
confidence of the American people? Did he
deliver on his promises?
• How do we explain the “culture wars” of the
1980s?

3. Reagan’s Clarity
• Strong Defense
• Cut taxes
• Cut Spending
• Balance the Budget

4. Economic Philosophy
OLD NEW
• Keynesian Economics • Chicago School
• “Demand Side” • “Supply Side”
Economics Economics
• New Deal • Reaganomics (The
Reagan Revolution)

5. Political Interpretation of Laffer Curve
Maximum
Revenue
No revenue
0% Tax Rates 100%

6. Effect of Reagan on US Political Culture
US
Left Pre-1981; Right
New Deal Reagan era
and Great
Society
era
Left-right defined as accepted level of government intervention
in the economy:
right = less intervention
left = more intervention

7. Realignment
New Deal Coalition Reagan Coalition
• Democratic South • Midwest small towns
• African-Americans • Wealthiest Americans
• Union members • Hawks on foreign policy
• Urban North • Blue Collar in North and
• Immigrant/newer ethnic Midwest (union and non-
groups union)
• Farmers • White Southerners
• Evangelicals
• Yuppies

8. The Iran Contra Scandal
Private US $
Foreign Gov’t $
Contras
Swiss bank
accounts;
controlled
$$$ by North
Hostages
Iran
weapons
weapons
US
Israel

9. “The Culture Wars”
• Abortion
• Immigration
• Affirmative Action
• Bilingual Education
• Multiculturalism
• Communism
• Homosexuality
• Taxation
• Church and State

10. Section 2
WALLS COME TUMBLING’ DOWN:
HYPERPOWER & GLOBALIZATION

11. Essential Questions
• Was America responsible for the fall of Soviet
and Eastern European communism?
• How did the end of the Cold War change
American foreign policy and economic policy?
Who were the winners, the losers?

13. Gorbachev
• With economic and political reforms
obviously needed, Soviet premier
Mikhail Gorbachev initiated
perestroika (the “restructuring” or
decentralizing of the economy) and
glasnost (an “opening” of the Soviet
society to public scrutiny)
• Gorbachev’s reforms proved difficult to
implement and unleashed hostility
from the old order it threatened, long
suppressed criticism, and ethnic and
nationalist separatism
• By the summer of 1990, Gorbachev’s
reforms had spent themselves

14. Collapse of the Soviet Empire
• Revolutions broke out
throughout eastern
Europe as people
overthrow communist
dictators in places like
Poland, Bulgaria, and
Romania and countries
such as Czechoslovakia
and Yugoslavia broke
apart
• The Berlin Wall came
down on November
9, 1989 and East and The 1989 Romanian Revolution was a
West Germany united in violent overthrow of the communist
1990 regime of Nicolae Ceauşescu

15. Collapse of the Soviet Empire
• Beginning in August 1991, Soviet
republics began declaring their
independence from the USSR
• Also in August, a group of
conspirators representing
dissatisfied elements of the
Communist Party, the KGB, and
the military attempted to seize
power while Gorbachev was on
vacation
• Boris Yelstin crushed the
coup, but himself replaced
Gorbachev
• By the end of 1991, the USSR had AP photo of Boris Yelstin atop
ceased to exist
an armored personnel carrier
encouraging resistance to the
coup

16. End of the Bipolar World
• The demise of the Soviet Union left the US as the
world’s sole superpower
• Without the danger of a superpower
confrontation, the US was now more free to use its
military power
• Additionally, new opportunities for cooperative
international efforts would become possible without
the bipolar competition
• This new dynamic would be tested when Iraq
invaded Kuwait in 1990

17. Section 3
9/11 AND THE “WAR ON TERRORISM”:
A COST/BENEFIT ANALYSIS

18. Essential Questions
• Why did the U.S. invade Iraq and Afghanistan?
• Has the “War on Terrorism” made Americans
more secure?

19. September 11th, 2001
• Attack on World Trade
Center
• Nearly 3,000 dead
• Islamic fundamentalists
attacked symbol of
economic and cultural
imperialism OR economic
freedom and opportunity…
• Bush became a “War
President”
• Osama Bin Ladin

21. Invasion of Iraq, 2003--???
• Bush administration tied 9/11 attacks, Bin
Laden and Al Qaeda to Iraq and Saddam
Hussein
– No ties, no links
• Global terrorist threat and “Axis of Evil”
• Remake the Middle East into pro-Western
democracies favorable to the US
• “Mission Accomplished”
• War dragged on…Where’s Bin Laden?
• Several trillion dollars

23. Section 4
TECHNOLOGICAL BREAKTHROUGHS &
FINANCIAL HIJINKS: AMERICA AND THE
GLOBAL ECONOMY FROM
DEREGULATION TO THE GREAT
RECESSION

24. Essential Questions
• How did the information technology
revolution change Americans’ lives?
• Why did the American economy come
dangerously close to falling into another
depression in late 2008?

25. The rapid advance of social networks
such as Facebook, Twitter, and others
has led to dramatic changes in
everyday life. These technologies have
also sparked intense debate over issues
of personal privacy, intellectual
property, and copyright provisions.
Originally developed by the
military, the Internet was later
used to connect scholars and
U.S. research universities.
Beginning in 1995, the Internet
became commercialized and
available for individual use.

26. Factors Contributing to the 2008
Financial Crisis
• FACTOR 1: Beginning in the mid-
1990s, government regulations began to erode
the conventional lending standards.
• FACTOR 2: The Fed’s manipulation of interest
rates during 2002-2006
• FACTOR 3: An SEC Rule change adopted in April
2004 led to highly leverage lending practices by
investment banks and their quick demise when
default rates increased.
• FACTOR 4: Doubling of the Debt/Income Ratio of
Households since the mid-1980s.

27. 20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
19
90
19
91
19
92
19
93
19
94
19
95
19
96
19
97
19
98
19
99
20
00
20
01
20
02
20
03
Outstanding Mortgages
20
04
20
05
20
06
Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae Share of
20
07
20
08

28. 10%
15%
20%
25%
0%
5%
19
90
19
91
19
92
19
93
19
94
19
95
19
96
19
97
19
98
19
99
20
00
20
01
20
02
20
03
(ARM) Outstanding
20
04
20
05
20
06
Adjustable Rate Mortgage Loans
20
07
20
08

29. Leverage Ratios (June 2008)
Freddie Mac 67.9
Fannie Mae 21.5
Brokers/hedge Funds 31.6
Savings institutions 9.4
Commercial banks 9.8
Credit unions 9.1
0 20 40 60 80

30. 100%
120%
140%
20%
40%
60%
80%
19
53
19
55
19
58
19
60
19
63
19
65
19
68
19
70
19
73
19
75
19
78
19
80
19
83
19
85
19
88
19
90
Personal Income
19
93
19
95
19
98
20
00
Household Debt to Disposable
20
03
20
05
20
08

31. 0%
1%
2%
3%
4%
5%
6%
19
98
19
98
19
99
19
99
20
00
20
00
20
01
20
01
20
02
Fixed
20
02
20
03
20
03
Adjustable
20
Mortgages
04
20
04
20
05
20
05
20
06
20
06
Foreclosure Rates On Subprime
20
07
20
07