Word: 1990s
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...current numbers are, they are actually not historic lows. In the 1971-75 survey, just 4.4% of the entire sample group was considered low risk; that percentage climbed to 5.7% in the next survey before peaking in the third one. The trend was reversed this time around. "Until the 1990s, we were headed in a positive direction," says Ford. "But then it took a turn...
Americans famously overspent during the 1990s and early '00s. It's a familiar story: we mortgaged oversized homes to buy colossal TVs. But you may have heard less about another commodity we binged on: justice. Americans indulged in an enormous criminal-justice spending spree during the past 25 years, locking up more and more offenders (particularly for drug-related crimes) for longer and longer sentences. Total spending on incarceration rose from $39 per U.S. resident in 1982 to $210 per resident in 2006, according to the most recent figures from the Justice Department. We now spend $62 billion a year...
...most of Cheney's time as Vice President, the claim held up pretty well in both contexts. Over O'Neill's objections - he'd be gone soon anyway - the Bush Administration and Congress abandoned a bipartisan commitment to fiscal prudence that had held sway since the early 1990s and went back to running chronic deficits. The result was a growing economy and a second term for George W. Bush. (See George W. Bush's biggest economic mistakes...
...most plausible explanation for this happy outcome is that Japan was willing to recycle into Treasuries the dollars it earned selling us cars, TVs and stereos. That demand for U.S. debt kept interest rates low. By the early 1990s, though, the national debt - the accumulated product of those years of deficits - approached 50% of GDP, and bond investors abroad and at home seemed to shy away from Treasuries, driving interest rates up. Also, billionaire Ross Perot spent a good part of his fortune making deficits into a political issue. In response, Washington focused for a few years on getting...
...Afghanistan GAINS IN THE DRUG WAR Could Afghanistan's opium boom be over? According to a U.N. report, poppy cultivation has crashed over the past year, with prices down a third since last summer to their lowest level since the late 1990s. Farmers planted 22% fewer acres in 2009, but U.N. officials say Afghan poppies are now higher-yielding: overall production dipped only 10%, prompting the report to call the NATO campaign to eradicate opium crops a "failure." Afghanistan produces the raw opium for more than 90% of the world's heroin...